Pictures

Happy New Year 2010

(This will have to be our Santa picture for 2009)

Happy New Year!!! We are in Sanya China relaxing. People call this place the Hawaii of china. It is beautiful. We are letting the boys decide on our daily adventures. So far we have been to the beach and the pool. The beach is beautiful but we become the attraction. Today we were building sandcastles and I cannot tell you how many pictures we had taken of us. Matthew hates to get his picture taken and declines when asked. Isaac is Isaac and hams it up for the pictures.

We love the pool because it is out of the way and we can be there the whole day without others knowing. It is great. Then in the evening we have been walking to town and finding bites to eat. It has been a relaxing time.

There is a large population of Russians here so we could have gone to several New year’s party that were in Russian. We opted for our hotel room.

First we headed to a pizza place and then the hotel was having a party. We listened from our room, to BAD karaoke and lots of fireworks. It was a hoot. They rang in the New Year at 9:45 and then every 15 minutes for fireworks. We actually slept through the New Year which was amazing. Doug said that when he went out for his run this morning at 6:45 the bars were just finishing up. UGH. When I went out it was quieter than normal and many people were cleaning up the mess from the night before. We head home to Dalian on the 4^th and are looking forward to not living out of a suitcase. We wish everyone a great 2010!!!!

Hong Kong/ Sanya

Hong Kong has been an amazing adventure. Walking around the streets of Hong Kong reminds me of my adventure in New York with Jeff and my Mom. The buildings here are decorated for Christmas. So when night comes the city lights up. We are loving looking at all the Christmas decorations. Matthew and Isaac are great travelers. There has been no complaining. We spend one afternoon going to the Space Museum and the Art museum. Then today we spent 3 hours in the science museum. We were going to go to the history museum but we were so tired. Matthew caught a cold so he is running on low energy. We found some cold medicine and that has wiped him out.
Doug and I love to try little hole in the wall places to eat. So we found a great Chinese restaurant that did not cost much at all. It was great. The Chinese food here is SO different from the Chinese food in Dalian. We have had our share of burgers and French fries too. Isaac has been in heaven. We figure that once we leave Hong Kong we will not be able to enjoy those treats.
There is also a deli right by the hotel that we have found to be delicious. Matthew tried a typical Hong Kong breakfast this morning (or at least that is how it was advertised) It consisted of noodles in a chicken broth with a fried egg and slice of ham on top. It was yummy. Matthew thinks we need to make this meal for breakfast when we get back to Dalian. We thank God everyday for our amazing travelers.
The boys came home from our museum adventure and rested as I went and walked around (yes, I am just like my mom, can’t sit still) I wandered here and there. It was great to just window shop. When I got back Isaac was playing and he quickly told me to be quiet because Matthew and Daddy were sleeping.

Matthew has a nasty cold so we are hanging low for a few days. We made it to Sanya and are having an adventure. We will post more later this week.

-Dad in Sanya there are hundreds of people walking around with your Hawaiian shirts on. Doug is thinking of getting one (pictures to come)
-Isaac lost another tooth on Christmas. He was so excited.. Yes the tooth fairy found him. Hong Kong dollar and Chinese Yuan.
-Matthew is doing better still has a cough.

Christmas

We made it to Hong Kong. The train was great and it was nice and warm in HK. We got a taxi to the resort and the boys still had no clue. When we got to the gate that welcomed us they just looked at us. Doug was telling them that sometime presents can’t be wrapped and he was reminding them of what day it was. So we wished them a Merry Christmas and they both were so excited. Then the fun began.

We check in our luggage and headed to the park. It is amazing how similar it is to Disneyland, CA. It is a lot smaller but we had a great time running around and seeing everything. The boys were talking about how they wish Uncle Kerry was here to go with them. Oh and Uncle Kerry I maxed out the laser in Buzz. LEVEL 7!! Matthew wanted me to tell you that. We have (up to this point) been on Buzz Light year six times. We are going to the park again today. We need to get our picture taken with Mickey for the annual Santa picture.

We had a great Christmas morning talking to our families. Then we headed off to the park. There were more people there then yesterday but we made a day of it. In the middle of the day we headed back to the hotel and swam at the pool. That was a nice treat. We have not been swimming since we left the US.

We got our picture taken with Mickey and some of the other characters. We are planning on using that as our yearly Santa picture. We have been taking advantage of having American food. It was been a nice treat.

We head to another hotel today to see more of Hong Kong for a few days and then we are off to Sanya to hang out on the beach.

Now the challenge is what do we do next year for Christmas? Can we top this one??

PICTURES TO COME>... connection is too slow :)

In flight meal

We made it to Guangzhou!!! On the plane we were lucky to have either fish and rice OR beef noodles. Remember it was 9:00 when we were offered these choices. We all laughed and opted for the beef and noodles. There were many mystery items in our little lunch box. One bag said dried fruit melody (it was peanuts). We did well and are now hanging out at the airport. Our hope is to get up early and make our way to Hong Kong. It should be an adventure. The boys are still clueless ;)

Oh Isaac cracked us up.. We were talking about China and he said Mom we are not in China anymore we are in Guangzhou. We tried hard not to laugh. Look around son.. where do you think we are???

More to come...

Christmas Program

We were invited to a Chinese Christmas pageant on Saturday night, so several families from our church group decided to go to the pageant. It was in downtown so it took about an hour and half to get there. The kids from church were asked to sing two songs doing the program. Matthew and Isaac said they would so off we went. Once we arrived we were escorted to the front of the church where they were saving seats for the Americans. It was funny to watch all the cameras as we walked in. We just laughed.

Many Chinese were wishing us a Merry Christmas. It was great. It was nice to see so many Chinese families celebrating Christmas. Once we were seated the man who invited us came over to tell us it would be about 2-2.5 hours long. We all just looked at each other. No one in our group knew how long it would be. We had not eaten since lunch so we were in for it. Well the program started and many groups preformed. It was a hoot to see the flashing red, blue, yellow lights on the performers. Then there were red and green strobe lights too. Not only the flashing lights but then the bubble machines turned on. It was so fun to watch the performers try to sing with bubbles floating around them. The little kids closed their eyes so the bubbles would not get in their eyes. Some of the kids were trying to pop the bubbles. We just smiled. Acts and acts came onto the stage. Then it was the American Christian Families turn. So our kids (about 12 of them) headed on to the stage. We all hoped the bubble machine and lights would stop but no such luck. Did I mention that the Chinese like their music LOUD. So when our group got up there they started handing the kids microphones. Isaac ended up with a microphone and I panicked. I am not sure he even knew all the words to the songs. He sang like a champ. The crowd cheered as the kids sang. It was so funny. Afterwards we were all starving so we headed out to Brooklyn’s (a pizza restaurant) and pigged out.
It was an experience that I will NEVER forget.

We are getting ready to head out for our Christmas Surprise. We are heading to Hong Kong Disneyland to surprise the kids for Christmas. We will be in Hong Kong for 5 days and then we head to Sanya where we will spend 6 days on the beach. We are looking forward to the adventure. We will try to post when we are gone. Know we are thinking of you and wishing you all a very Merry Christmas.

Teeth

I have pulled out more teeth in China then I have in my life. Matthew has lost 4 since being in China and last night Isaac lost his first tooth. He was so excited. Doug said that I should be a dentist since I am pulling out all of these teeth. The boys do not like it when their teeth are too wiggly so I have to work on them. :) Good thing the tooth fairy found us in China. Matthew got a quarter and a shiny Chinese yuan. Isaac is still sleeping so we will wait and see what he got.

I will post pictures later today.

Love you all

Birthday Boy (s)

So here are a few pictures from Matthew's party. The boys are having a kids party tomorrow. Matthew wanted Panda cupcakes and Isaac wanted Elmo cupcakes. Check out the great work DOUG did!!! Amazing Daddy.


Panda cupcakes for Matthew

Matthew wanted Hockey Pucks for his Family party :)





Oh presents




The Amazing Daddy

Birthday ages

All pretty for the Holiday Concert

Best Elmo Cupcakes in China

December

I am sure that the states are a hustle and bustle with Christmas activities and sales going on. Here in china it is a bit strange. Some places have Merry Christmas signs, lighted trees and other interesting decorations up but nothing like the states. Our house is decorated with Christmas cheer. We found a small tree (artificial) at Metro and the boys have made decorations for the tree. It is a hoot. Last weekend we were shopping at the market and a little booth outside the grocery store had a lighted Christmas tree. I went in to see how much the lights cost and she told me 10 RMB. I said great I would like a string. She looked and looked and could not find another string in her store so she started to take them off the tree outside the store. Doug walked up to see me buying the lights right off the tree. He laughed so hard. Oh the memories of how we decorated for the holidays. The boys received some ornaments in our many care packages. They are treasuring them. Thank you so much for all the goodies.
We have a few presents under the tree and I THINK the boys know what is in them. Hmmm how did that happen?? Little peekers??? Now I know why we never put presents under the tree until the night before.

This week the boys are in a holiday concert. Matthew is leading his class during one song where he gives all the hand motions and they follow him. He is so cute.  Isaac is so excited he is playing the hand drums during one of the Kindergarten songs. I will take pictures.

Matthew turns 7 today. Wow where does the time go. He was so excited this morning. He asked to have Grandma Marilyn’s meatballs for dinner and he wanted Hockey Pucks for dessert. Wow now that is a challenge. (Try finding marshmallow cream in China). The boys on Friday are each having two friends over to have a “kid’s party”. Isaac wanted Elmo cupcakes and Matthew Panda cupcakes. I might show you pictures. Let’s see how they turn out.

Another HUGE accomplishment is that Matthew learned to tie his shoes. YIPPEEEEEE. He was so dang excited it was cute. Now we will work with Isaac on this task.




The field at school has been done and now a group of adults have been playing soccer on the weekends. Doug has been enjoying playing. I hope to play this weekend.

We have an adventure planned for the holidays. The boys don’t know where we are going. I will write more about that later. Know that we are thinking of you all over this holiday season. Thank you for your love and support. It means the world to us.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to you!!!
It is a bit strange to think it is Thanksgiving already. It is not talked about much and we have to work the whole week. Oh yeah, we are in China. I have parent teacher conferences on Thursday and Friday we have a staff development day. We will be thinking of all of you.

Tonight we had the first of our Thanksgiving meals. The families from school and campus village had a potluck. It was fun to try new food and see more people. It has been cold so we all stay in the house these days. Thursday night the teachers are being treated to a Thanksgiving Feast and then on Sunday the staff is having a potluck meal. Sounds like the year we tried to make everyone happy and had thanksgiving at 3 houses in one day. OH that was fun

Doug is recovering from a cold. Last week he had this cold and he had no voice. We whispered a lot. He said he found his students doing the same. Now his voice is back and he found out today that he has an ear infection. We are thankful for the Medical Clinic here on campus.

This week has been fun learning new things. When you can’t get stuff here you take things into your own hands. I made my own ricotta cheese, sour cream, and ice cream. What’s next?? Stay tuned.

Matthew and Isaac performed during community time last Friday. The first graders performed a skit on Nutrition. It was so cute. Isaac’s class signed the ABC’s. They also have learned some new jokes so watch out. They have been sharing them with everyone on Skype. We are thankful for SKYPE.
We will post pictures soon.

We miss and love you all. Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

Bitter SWEET

Hey this package was open. Hmmm Jenna?? Tonya??? MOMMY (heheh)



Getting packages around here is a VERY special event. I like to bother the guard about packages. I am always teasing him about is there one for me. He just laughs at me. Well today we got TWO packages. One from Grandma Eggs and Grandpa John and from the Withers. Wow what a treat.

Grandma Egg's (my mom) package had jello coming out of it. Yes the guard was worried at first and then I had to explain that it was flavored sugar. I am sure he is still wondering what it was. Thank you grandma for ALL the amazing things. We love you!!!

Then we got one from the Wither's Family. Chocolate Chips, M & M's , prius car (WAY COOL), BBQ sauce our favorite, Legos and so much more. Did I say I even got Fiber One bars. YUMMY. The boys were so excited they could hardly stand it. I say bitter sweet because we were so excited but then we were so sad. We miss you all very much.

Thank you for thinking of us and making our WEEK!!!

Move-a-Thon

Pumpkins in China

Halloween Night

Exciting day for our school, we had our first move-a-thon to celebrate the opening of our new track. The track is beautiful. We were able to see most of the process. It was fun to see the cement being poured and then the artificial grass being put down. We are so excited to be able to have a place to play soccer and baseball. So today was the Move-a-Thon, student went and got pledges and off we went. The money raised will go towards a backpack project for local Chinese students. Well the weather here is a bit chilly. It was 30 F for most of the day. That was NOT including the wind chill. That wind is nasty cold. So we all bundled up and off we went. The boys went around for an hour in the morning and then another hour in the afternoon. We moved inside to walk the halls due to how cold it was. Some of the students walked outside the whole time. I was happy to go and supervise the kids inside. Isaac walked around 29 times and Matthew 26 times. They were so excited. I am glad I only pledged a flat rate. We are all a bit tired from the event so it is movie night in the Smith household.

We found that a local restaurant/store will sell us their pizza dough. We were so happy to make our own pizza. The pizza here in china is a bit strange. Sometimes it has strange things on it like or it has so much cheese that your arteries start to harden just by looking at it. I learned how to make Italian sausage and we found some pepperoni. We were all so happy.

Last week Doug was working on report cards and then ended that fun with Parent Conferences. They went really well and he had 39 out of 41 students and parents show. This week I am working on report cards and when you’re celebrating Thanksgiving I will be having parent- teacher conferences. Strange but true, the crazy thing for me is that I am use to doing 22 report cards and comments and now I am doing about 90 of them. My goal is to finish them this weekend (I better they are due on Tuesday).
We are also planning our next adventure of Christmas break… stay tuned for that adventure.

I will post pictures of the track this week :)

Halloween Surprises

Halloween is a huge event here at Campus Village and at school. We started the celebration at 1:30 and it ended at 8:00 p.m. WOW

We all dressed up. It was a lot of fun. Doug shocked everyone. I have know him for 14 years and I have never seen him with out a beard... until yesterday. He made an amazing Einstein.

Matthew was a skeleton and Isaac was a vampire. They had so much fun going to all the homes. There was a big party with tons of games at Campus Village. The kids got to eat "spooky" food for dinner. The Cafe did a great job with that.

I was a crazy scientist and I helped out in the classrooms for the afternoon. That was a special treat.

We are going to carve pumpkins tonight with our friends. Try finding pumpkins in China. There is a farmer who lives close to school and he grows them for the school. I am sure the Chinese people think we are really crazy.

A taste of HOME

Oh how nice it was to get our 24 boxes. :) Now we have warm clothes and new shoes. Well I did not pack new shoes for myself. Oh well June will come soon right ;)

The boys were outside when the shipment came and Matthew saw the truck. Two fists in the air screaming "Our Shipment" He was so excited. He helped us load the boxes into the condos. It was overwhelming. Then a half hour later Isaac heard the news and came into the house. He ran to his room and started unpacking. All I could here was happy sounds and he was talking to everything. Then the sad part. He asked me where cookie monster was. Well cookie monster did not make the cut and is back in Stanwood. OH MY!!! Alligator tears and all. I told him I would talk to Boppa and Grandma and see if they could go and find him.

Doug and I laughed at some of the things we packed and wondered what we were thinking for not packing other things. I had to remind myself that when we packed our stuff we were thinking what would make the boys more comfortable. :)

I am too tired to post pictures but I will do it tomorrow.


Still more to unpack.......

Great Things

Today we got two packages!! Thank you Grandma Eggs and Grandpa John AND Poppa and Grandma Marilyn.

We were all so excited. We even found stuff packed in the shoe's toes.. Your amazing.


The other great news is TOMORROW we SHOULD get our shipment. If you hear screaming it is the Smith family in China. We are so excited. We really would like our shoes and warm clothes.

I will post more when it actually happens.


More to come (I HOPE)

Pictures

Discoveryland

We live 5 minutes away from a Disney “like” amusement park. We have been wanting to take the boys but just have not had the time. Nor did we really want to go when it was so hot here. So we decided that we would go on Friday. Sarah and Trina joined us for our adventure. We got there around 9:45 and there were tons of tour groups. We all moaned and decided to go anyway. Once we got through the gates it was not so bad. There were characters walking around and people rushing to get photos. We decided to continue on our way. Many of the big rides the boys were too short to go on. They were troopers. We would time it so when the big school groups would leave a ride we would rush over to the ride. It was nice. We of course became the show at time but the kids are getting so use to it. At one point the kids were chasing bubbles and dancing down the street. The next thing I know is we have a crowd watching us. Then several Chinese parents start to encourage their children to do what the kids were doing. It was a hoot.
We found an indoor playground and ball room. I think we spent most of our time there. It was a great day. Some of the Chinese students got up the nerve to come and talk to us. They always seem to ask “What is your name? and Where are you from?”. Then after 2:00 it seemed to clear out. It felt like we were in a ghost town. The kids loved the rides then. At one ride the 3 kids were riding and we have 3 couples come to take pictures of them.

We also found out this week that Grandma Eggs and Grandpa John along with Uncle Chris are coming to see us in March. We are SO excited!!!!! We miss you all very much.

(I am having issues with uploading pictures. I will try later)

THANK YOU GRANDPA DALE and GRANDMA JAN

Need we say more.... We love you!! A treat from home!!!! Thank you.

More pictures

Great Wall

Matthew and I touching North Korea

love the name

so tired from hiking