We made it to China!!!

New friends!
After reading this, our mouth's were watering! It was on a window in Yuyuan, trying to drum up a bit of business.....
Adayla at Yuyuan Gardens.
Tim and the girls at YuYuan Gardens.


June 23rd





So we took off and drove to Wyoming on June 5th to spend a week with my parents. Adayla was very excited to get the Little Grandma and Grandpa's house. Tally warmed up after a few days. I think she was afraid we were going to leave her like last time. Once she realized we were there to stay, she was happy and would let everyone hold her. We made bows, went to Walmart, ate, swam, played with Bridger, visited Buddy, and the girls soaked up the attention from everyone. Thursday afternoon we (us along with Grandpa, Grandma, and Julionna) headed toward Rapid City to spend the night and see Mt Rushmore. We visited Reptile Gardens which had as it says, lots of reptiles including snakes, spiders, crocodiles, alligators, and more. We watched a show with the alligators and crocodiles, crazy! This guy was in the middle of all them and even would kick them to get them to move. He wrestled one and didn't get eaten, but it was a fun little place I wouldn't have expected to like. Little Grandpa found a new toy, excuse me, art for his office. He found this carved out of wood life-size skeleton and bought it because it is different. He is right on that one. The next morning we headed towards Mt Rushmore. We drove the scenic route through the Black Hills. It is beautiful! We are always looking for a place to retire to, who knows! Mt Rushmore itself was incredible. It is in the middle of nowhere with an amazing facility. I guess I didn't expect much, so I was rather impressed. Rapid City would be a fun place to live, it has many other attractions and things to keep you busy once you experience Rushmore. I told my dad that I would never drive far specifically to see Mt Rushmore. He responded by saying he has driven a long ways just to see family and he didn't find it worth it either ; ) I think he was kidding mom's family!

Then back to Grammy and Gramps for a few days. Again lots of prepping and to do lists for China. But we had dinner with Duane, Carolyn, and boys at the park. The girls enjoyed the swings and the slides and being free from their car seats. Tally still was pretty unsure of everyone, but as long as her parents were holding her she was fine. She loved to climb the stairs and look through the railing. She would laugh and smile. Adayla, Grammy, and Gramps spent hours playing and reading. We are thrilled to be here in China, but will miss the interaction with our relatives. We didn't seem them that often, but it was at least 2 to 4 times a year.

Our last weekend in Utah we traveled to Teasdale for the Family Reunion. It was at Kate and Brady's place. It is about 2 ½ hours from Provo. The rocks are beautiful, lots of hiking, and the weather is hot during the day and cool/cold at night. Kate had reserved some cabins. Most of them were without bathrooms, but there were a few with them. They had a large cabin that they said could sleep twelve, so our family called for it since we would have the most kids (and spouses) there. We showed up and it had 1 tiny bedroom with a double bed that took up the whole room, one loft that was literally 3 feet tall with a double mattress on the floor, and one couch pull out bed. I don't even think you could have had 6 more on the remaining floor space. Luckily Little Grandpa and Grandma were able to get an extra cabin, so they slept peacefully. We are on the other hand, had a whole other experience. We had Tally, Adayla, Odie, Bridger, Josie, Julionna, Tim, and me. Tim and I took the bedroom with a pack n play for Tally. Jewls and Adayla were on the couch bed. Odie, Bridger, and Josie were in the loft. Tally went down pretty easy, but woke up when we went to bed and could not fall back asleep for a number of reasons: there were 40 dogs outside barking, everytime Tim or I moved the bed squeaked and we thought it was going to fall apart, or after being too stuffy it finally cooled off to and we all froze. We could not get to sleep until Tim finally shut a few windows and after hours we received a few hours of shut eye. Only to way up for to a place with a bathroom that didn't have hot water. Good times and family bonding. We all had to be up early anyways to fix breakfast. We had crepes with toppings of nutella, powdered sugar, strawberries, peanut butter, or syrup along with french toast and bacon. It was yummy! Some people hiked the next day while Tim stayed at the cabin with Tally for a 3 hour nap. We ate, swam, bought items from the General Store, made Christmas ornaments, and had a family auction.


We returned from Teasdale to spend Father's Day with Tim's family. We had our usual Sunday dinner with Grammy cooking at Chuck-o-rama. And then Adayla went home with Anjie and family while Tim and I dug into our packing. What an event!! Thankfully because Tim is active-duty we could have overweight bags. We had 6 bags from SLC to Dulles, where we picked up our stroller and another pack n play. On US Airways we could have two bags up to 99 pounds instead of the normal 50 pounds. We finally had it all packed and we could weigh our bags, we had one that weighed 85 lbs! Heavy!!

We had dinner with my Grandma and Grandpa. They always have delicious home cooked food ready for you! We will miss spending time with them.

Side note on Tally:
Have I said that Tally is the toilet woman?? If a door to the bathroom is open she crawls as fast as she can, which is fast, and happily splashes in the toilet. We are finally learning to shut the door. She is still not walking and doesn't seem interested, so we will keep carrying her around! She is quite an independent gal who knows what she wants. She has learned to yank on Adayla's hair when she wants something that Adayla has and then she just giggles. She knows that it hurts and must know that Adayla can't pull her hair back (she doesn't have any!)

Today I am just a bit sad for the Chinese. As they see our kids, they are so excited. They want to say hello, touch them, and smile at them. I can't imagine knowing you could only have one, but many times the grandparents raise them during the day and more. There is something about little kids that is like nothing else in the world, you can't replace the time you miss or go back. The funny things they say and the way they love everyone, we don't mind sharing our kids with them for the next two years.

June 26th 2007

China....so far, so good. We are enjoying our exploring and trying to adjust to the quirks of a new place. Some quick stories:
Tim had on a movie (we have watched more in the last week, than we have in the last 2 years, there is only a few English channels on at the hotel). It happened to be the Story of John McCain, Adayla saw it and asked, Dad are those Chinese people? She was talking about the Vietnamese.
Tally is still not walking, though she did take about 8 steps today. She normally immediately sits and crawls.
Tally is the crazy waver woman, she waves to everyone and smiles. Adayla, on the other hand, won't even wave and runs to hide when they start looking at her. I thought Tally would be the one to ignore while Adayla would soak it up. Whatever they decide, we will go with whatever they are comfortable and guard them when we are out and about.
I feel like I have Shayla's sense of direction here in Shanghai. Adayla and I had our first outing. We went to a children's market within a few blocks from our hotel. Somehow we managed to go about ½ mile out of our way on the way there and then still took a wrong turn on the way home. I have no clue which direction is which with these tall buildings everywhere.
Adayla no longer sees Payton/MsJill cars but still does see chelsiebryan car and our green car! Who knows one day someone will drive a Nissan Xterra. (the very next day, Adayla yells Payton/MsJill car!)
Everyday people ask if Tally is a boy or girl. We obviously respond with a girl, they still turn around and try to tell us she is a boy.
Adayla sings the Wiseman and the Foolish man and now Tally does the actions also...so cute!
Whenever we hear loud music, Tally usually starts dancing and giggling.
Tally has a boyfriend at breakfast, there is a particular waiter that Tally grins, waves, and giggles at every morning! If he is across the room, she gets so excited when he heads our way.
Tim's friend perfectly described the smell in lots of streets of China, where else can you get the smell of pee, exhaust, and trash all in the same spot, even better on a hot humid day!
I bought Adayla this pink pig balloon (pig form, but made of beach ball material). Last night I told her I would have to pop her balloon (let the air out) if she wasn't being a good listener. This morning I had to and tonight as we were on our way out for the evening, she tells me Mom if I am a good girl, can we blow my pig up? Conceptually I know she understands, but she doesn't care to listen to us most of the time.
The girls are adjusting to our new time schedule, finally! Adayla slept until 5:30 today!! This will be a battle we will be extremely happy to be done with because the girls have been crabby. Dinner last night was a disaster...and in the taxi ride home, as Tally was screaming.
Tim is dealing with the frustrations of trying to get things done here. Our main problem is the language barrier, but hopefully that will get better!

June 27th 2007
This morning we talked to Binx and saw him too...Skype is amazing! We have a video camera set up and are able to have people see us and if they get themselves a web cam, we can see them. C&B are all over it and we can now chat and see them! Only downside, Adayla now tells us that Chelsie and Bryan are coming on Sunday.
You would think that the girls are thrilled to be out of their car seats in the car, not so. Tally has screamed and fussed at least half of every cab ride so far. She wants to squirm and wiggle everywhere and can't in case the cabbie has to slam on the brakes.
At one little market tonight we bought fingernail polish, 3 for 10 yuan. Very cheap, about 3 for $1.25. And then we painted Adayla's toes tonight after we got home, she was quite happy!
The weather is hot and humid, and then humid some more.

There are some of my blurbs from our time here recently. We have had fun and are looking forward to more, but more so are looking forward to being in our house tomorrow. Adayla tells everyone we are going to China, we told her we are in China, she says no because her new house is in China and we aren't there yet. So tomorrow we finally arrive in China!