Hai's Home!!

Man, six weeks is a long time to be without your baby! But six weeks is up and Hai is finally home!! I had the opportunity to go to St. Louis and spend some daddy daughter time with Hai before she came home, and we had the greatest time! Here's a brief recap of the trip! We had some killer games of Marco Polo in the pool, which was on the 18th floor of the hotel and had a great view of the Arch. We stuffed ourselves with good food and Hai taught me how to make lanyards, that she'd learned to make in her summer camp.

Here's Hai, in front of the Arch! I had to lay down on the sidewalk to fit the Arch in the picture. It's taller than Mt. Rushmore!

BFF! (Best Friends Forever)

We rode to the top of the Arch in this pod-like thing. We rode up with an Asian couple so I got to practice my Chinese! It was like a tram ride, Hai was nervous at first but she toughed it out for her dad and I'm pretty sure she's glad she did it!

View from the top! That's the Mississippi River framed in by the shadow of the Arch. Downtown St. Louis was behind us, but the sun was glaring so we couldn't get a good picture of it. Hai walked down the steps to the river and touched the water, so she can say she's touched the Mississippi!

Isn't she pretty? The Mississippi in the background. The ferry's weren't running because of all the flooding. We could see washed up mud and sand on the streets where the river had flooded.

This is the City Museum. Hai had a blast her climbing all over everything! If you look real close, by the light, you can see Hai's head poking out!

This is the outside portion of the museum. Way cool! That's Hai up in the top crawling down toward the airplane!

All in all we had a great time! I sure enjoyed having that time with her, seeing some of the places she's been to, and learning, a little, what life in St. Louis is like for her. She was ready to come home though. We had a pretty long layover in Denver made longer by Hai's anxiousness to see Jesse and Taryn, but we finally pulled in the driveway at 12:30 a.m. to a big Welcome Home sign on the garage door. The reunion the next morning was awesome! Hai and Taryn are having to get re-acquainted again. A lot can happen in six weeks. Haillie hadn't seen Taryn walk yet!

Anyway, it's nice to be a "whole" family again! Now we can get back to normal life.

Sure love you Hai!