Taiwan ROCks 2011 - Day 1

All I can say is, "Wow!" This was the shortest trip I've ever taken, but the quality of it was simply amazing. There were about 24 families from all around of the country. I've followed many of their blog journeys as they waited for their child and have become online friends with several of them, so to be able to meet these wonderful moms and dads and their beautiful children in real life was a dream come true.

We left Hawaii Thursday night. This was Lexie's first airplane ride since Taiwan so we did not know what to expect. She was very excited and did not sleep very much on the plane. It was a 6 hour flight to Denver. For some reason, she refused to lie on the seat and wanted to stay seated which made it uncomfortable for her to sleep. We were worried because we had another 2 hour flight after that.

We landed in Denver, ate some breakfast and let Lexie run around until we had to board. It was a teeny tiny plane. We had to sit in the plane for almost an hour as we waited for the co-pilot to come from another flight and for the pilot to get the okay to take-off. There was a baby crying during the whole flight and Lexie said, "Mommy, make baby stop crying." When I told her that I wasn't going to do that, she said, "I go make baby stop." Once the plane started moving, Lexie fell asleep the rest of the way.

We landed safely in Dallas and Jules picked us up from the airport. We became friends through our blogs and she has become such a dear friend to me so I was thrilled when we could finally meet in person. We hung out at her house until our room was ready to check in.

Dallas was hot - 106 degrees when we arrived. We stayed at the Great Wolf Lodge. Things are definitely bigger in Texas!

After meeting a few families, we went to our room to rest a little.

We could see the outdoor pool from our room. Lexie was excited when she saw the water.

Lexie played in the lobby with some of her new friends as we waited for our ride to the pizza party.

Storytime at the lodge.

We had a great time eating pizza and chatting with families. The kids thought jumping on the chairs was the coolest thing ever!

Lexie loved all of the little girls and she can usually be quite shy, but she was just in awe of Hannah and wanted to hold her hand.

It was very surreal to see all of these children together. I felt as if I knew many of them because I see pictures of them on their blogs. To see these children in person and having Lexie laughing and running around with them was one of those moments that you have to pinch yourself because you can't believe it's really happening.

Lexie was exhausted from the 5 hour time difference and the excitement of meeting so many new friends. She fell asleep on the carpet while watching tv. She slept for about 3 hours and woke up at midnight. We had a snack and she went back to sleep at 2:00am. Lexie had major sleep issues during the weekend, but luckily it didn't affect her mood.

More fun to come!