Children's Day

We went to the Children's Day festival today to see 400 carp-shaped streamers strung across a river in town. Children's Day is a boy's festival here in Japan and the carp-shaped streamers symoblize boys' courage and strength. So all around town families with boys will hang these streamers up outside their homes. Bryce enjoyed seeing all the streamers and he just kept pointing and saying "Wow". The weather is beautiful here so we're trying to get out and get down by the water as much as possible.

Camping Trip/Petting Zoo

We had a good time on our first camping trip with Bryce. I think he thought it was pretty cool that he got to play outside all day. We kept him busy with playing on the playground, playing at the beach, kicking the ball around camp, and then we topped it all off with a game of put-put. The following day we went to a petting zoo. He was a little freaked out by some of the birds since they were as tall as he was but, he enjoyed feeding the ducks. It was a great way to spend our first Family Day.

Enjoying cookies at the cabin..
Running on the beach...
Looking out at the water...
Hangin' out with dad...
Kicking the ball around...
Ta-da!

Golf lessons with dad...

Sitting in front of the cabin...

Walking through the tunnel of fish...

Feeding the ducks...

Our first Family Day, April 16, 2008

Today is a very special day for the Morrison Family as we are celebrating our first Family Day. One year ago today we stood before a judge in Uralsk and asked him to grant us permission to adopt Bryce Danil. After we were asked many questions by the judge and prosecutor and Wayne gave a wonderful speech on how much we had come to love Bryce and how much we wanted him in our lives, the judge declared us the parents of Bryce Danil Morrison. We are thankful everyday to have him in our lives.

We are celebrating our first family day by heading north to spend the night camping at a beach resort on island and then going to the petting zoo tomorrow. But first, we started the day off by Bryce opening his first Family Day gifts. So, his gift this year is his Kazakhstan t-shirt and a DVD with pictures from our first year together... (make sure to have your speakers on)

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Jumping is such hard work...

If you are interested...

Our adoption agency, World Partner's Adoption, sends a group of volunteers to Kazakhstan every year to build playgrounds at the orphanages. The playgrounds that they purchase are the Little Tikes commercial playgrounds that can be found at any school or public park and are built to last for years. Each year they send out a request for donations to help with this worthwhile cause. I just thought I would post this message in case anyone is interested. If you would like to learn more about the project (and see pictures from previous years) or if you would like to donate, please go to our agency's website at: http://www.worldpartnersadoption.org/playground.html

Thank you!

"One hundred years from now it will not matter what my bank account was, the sort of house I lived in, or the kind of car I drove....but the world may be different because I was important in the life of a CHILD."
~anonymous~

Bowling

We took Bryce bowling for the first time this weekend. He did really well. We started out by letting him practice rolling the ball on the carpet...

watch others bowl...

then he put the ball on the ramp all by himself...

and pushed it down the lane...