Pictures to prove it

Check out the name of the coffee

thank you Kiko for taking these pictures for me.


a little taste of home.. PAKE PLACE ROAST

Interesting flavors

thought you would like to see the amazing flavors we have in china

OREO's
Ice cream
Green tea

CHIPS
blueberry
seaweed
Hot and sour soup
shrimp
ketchup
spicy fish
mustard
beef

Popcorn
orange
strawberry
chocolate
sweet


I know there are more but my mind just went blank..... more to come

The Joys of China

Oh the simple things that make us smile or giggle.


Doug and I went shopping on Saturday. The boys got to spend the day at the aquarium with some of our teacher friends. Thank you Jon and Eli. They had so much fun. Pictures to come...

Anyways when we were shopping several things happened that were "blog worthy". My favorite of the day is when I was in Starbucks (I do not do often but it was a nice treat) I noticed the coffee of the day. " Pake Place Market Blend" Now being from Seattle and where Starbucks started it made me laugh so hard. I so wished I had my camera. See even in China I am reminded of the PIKE PLACE MARKET :) It was GREAT!!

Another moment was when I was getting fingernail polish. I needed clear and white polish. So Doug and I went to the bin to pick the right colors out. There were tons of shades so we hunted for what I needed. We found the ones I needed and the sales lady wrote it down on a paper then I had to go across the store to another lady to pay. Okay it was about 30¢ total, but I had to go through the steps. I felt like I was buying a high end item.

We met up with the boys and Jon and Eli for dinner. We went to one of our favorite restaurants " The Green Restaurant" Not sure what the real name is but this name works with us. Eli was telling me that she has to shoo people away from the boys at the aquarium. It was like they were movie stars getting photos. Doug and I just laughed. We know, we know.

At dinner Jon was looking out the window and saw a wreaking ball. We got to watch a building across the street get destroyed.

In my devotionals this week, I read a passage about how God puts little things in our lives to make us smile or giggle. Today I witness this. It was crazy. Just another day in China!!

September

Just cracks me up.. the signs



The boys love soccer

I realized the other night that it has been awhile since I have updated the blog. What have we been up to? School has been going for 22 days. Matthew and Isaac are both enjoying school. They have been playing soccer on wed. nights and loving it. Doug and I have been busy. Doug is coaching the boys volleyball team and having a good time.

We went to the zoo again a few weekends ago. This time we went to the older section where they have pandas. Matthew was so excited to see one. It was a rainy day so there were not many people there. It was great because we were NOT the show. I have to say that the zoo was a bit sad. It reminded me of the Woodland Park zoo before they fixed it up. Animals were in cages and looking sad and sick. We went and saw the polar bears and there was one that was sick looking and had a sore on his paw that he was chewing at. We all felt bad for him so when the Chinese worker said we could buy some food to feed the bears we jumped on the opportunity. For 5 rmb (73 cents) we could get a bowl of fruit to feed the bears. They wanted us to feed the bears that were looking healthy and happy but not Matthew he ran to the polar bear section and started feeling the sick looking bears. The bears were so excited to get food. Matthew was just as excited. He ran out of food but said that he would pay us back if he could get another cup of fruit. So off he went to get more food. It was so fun to watch.

Coach Smith... loving it!!

Crazy kids at the Zoo

school

This post is for my brothers and parents.

Don't you remember all the pictures we HAD to take of us on the first day of school. I have such great memories. I remember Mom begging you to stand in the picture once you got older. Well I thought you would like these pictures. Yes, I am turning into Mom and doing the same tradition :)

Love you all

Birthdays

I worked on my birthday this year but let me tell you it was way better then last year. Last year I was sick from jet lag. What a difference a year makes.

The boys spoiled me rotten and were super cute about it. We went to our friends house for a great dinner. We are so blessed!!


Thank you for the birthday wishes. I love you all.

second summer

We got back from the states and had visions of traveling around China. Well when we asked the boys what they wanted to do they said they wanted to stay and play with their friend and have another vacation here at our condo. So that is what we did. It was great just to reconnect with friends and get our bodies back on China time.


Feeding the Zebra's

our friend Ed :)

We went to the Dalian Zoo one day with the Emery's. That was a lot of fun and REALLY hot. The zoo was different then we are use to but we all had so much fun. We know we are so spoiled with the Seattle and Portland zoo's. Check out some of the pictures. You could get really close to the animals. At times I asked Doug what was keeping the animals from getting us and he smiled and said good question. :)



Another day on our stay home vacation we went to an indoor water park. It was packed but the boys had a great time. I even got to swim laps. I miss that.

Doug and I also worked on setting up our classrooms and helping the new teachers shop. It was nice to get an early start and not feel so far behind.