Delay Delay Delay

Why can't our airplane be delayed when we just have the two hour flight? But no, we always get our delays on the international flights and they don't delay the plane until we are boarded! If you remember our trip getting to China, it was the same. The day before leaving for Shanghai, we arrived late in DC (we had to fly from Salt Lake back to DC so they would pay for our flights). We were supposed to be in by 7 and I think it was 9 pm, and so therefore checking into our hotel at 11pm. We woke up early early to get to the airport for a eight o'clock flight. We boarded and then sat on the run way for a couple of hours to because of United's system failure. We arrived in San Francisco only to run to catch our flight. The girls literally had no time to get out and run around. When we went to Hong Kong, delays again, thankfully it was 2 hours but NOT on the plane!

Anyways, because of the snow in Shanghai (biggest storm in 50 years) our plane needed de-icing. We boarded about 30 minuntes late and then sat there for the next 3 1/2 hours waiting for our turn in line. Thankfully before our turn came, the sun came out enough and we didn't need to be de-iced because it went away on its own. After 5 hours we arrived to the 90 degree weather here in Bangkok, Thailand where we begin a 3 week adventure! I forgot to mention how WONDERFUL the girls were, the whole time, no melt downs and no crying!! They were fabulous and made what could have been a very long stressful day into a long pleasant one!! Thanks girls!

Happy Birthaversary!!

So here we are in China celebrating our 6th anniversary and who else better to celebrate it with, then my sister who shared her 13th birthday with us when we married! We planned to eat at Applebee's, yes the American restaurant opened it's doors in China this past October. We hadn't been there and thought we would all celebrate together. We didn't know if we would even be able to go because my girls gave Josie the flu for her birthday. She laid on the couch and slept most of the day. But she decided felt better and we all went out to enjoy a nice American meal! Tim had ribs, Josie has pasta, the girls shared a burger, and I had a sirloin....yummy! The fries and mashed potatoes are definitely not as good, but overall it felt like America!!!

Josie didn't want her picture taken, but aren't we cute?!

The rest of January......

They made it home just in time for really cold, cruddy weather to come our way. It was foggy for 4 days after they left, sometimes we couldn't even see the road from our windows. It has even flurried a few days this past week.

So what a good time for us to have the flu right? Adayla woke up last week puking and was so dang cute while doing it. She then would say, I don't feel good and would want to lay in the floor on the bathroom. She would then fall asleep and helper lady would come in and yell at us because it was too cold on the floor. We'd say that she was just fine and helper lady would be not so helpful and move her onto the couch, waking her up in the process. She ate and drank a little and then barfed a little. She was so good to do it in the bowl. We made her a nice little bed on our floor for the night and happily slept there.

Tally is a little opposite. She didn't even slow down, I am not even sure which days she had the flu. A few days before Adayla was sick, she puked in her crib and few times, but didn't act a bit sick and so I thought nothing of it until a few days later. Then two days after Adayla was sick, we find Tally asleep in her crib in a huge puddle of puke, but she seemed fine for the rest of the day. Other than her crazy tantrums that she has been throwing, she has seemed healthy....they go something like this.....she gets upset over something and starts to cry, one of us pick her up, but she doesn't want picked up, so we set her down, but she doesn't want down, so we pick her back up while she screams and screams, finally we just put her down, and she throws herself on the floor and beats her head against it, sometimes leaving bruises. This aren't just a two minute tantrum, these can easily last a 1/2 hour and more than a few times a day for the past week. We were about ready to let somebody else have her for awhile! But today was a great day without any major fits! I am hoping that she wasn't feeling well, even though she didn't have a fever and acted fine the rest of the time!

Enough about that....what are they really up to....

Tally continues to attempt more words, she laid her head on my shoulder a few weeks ago and said "ai ni", which is love you! She now does this almost everyday and at random times, it is very sweet! I also showed her a picture in her coloring book of a plane and she immediately pointed up to one of Tim's newly framed airplane pictures and said "fei ji". The other night as we were out and about she didn't want to hold my hand as we were walking, so she clasped her hands together so I couldn't grab hers.

Tim went to a Chinese New Year party for his program on Friday night and the door prize for everyone was a nicely boxed set of nail clippers??!!

Adayla funny: Tim's sister sent us a box for Christmas this year and it contained those little white packing peanuts. Adayla immediately grabs Tally and tries to get both of them to sit in it. It was clearly not big enough, it fit one of them with little room left to wiggle. I asked what she was doing and she said, "Mom, it is just like the ones back in Virginia." I knew that we received a box from his sister last year that was much bigger and both girls could sit and play, but I didn't think she could remember that. I was wrong....she said, "Mom you know, we had a REALLY big box and Tally and I played in it!" She had just turned two before Christmas, her little mind continues to amaze me!

I went back and found the picture, I will have to show it to her tomorrow!

Adayla started primary at church, which she loves! They moved me up to teach the 6 and 7 year olds, so I was kind of sad not to be her teacher. I still get to watch her. She sits and listens very well and does her best to sing the songs. She also will turn around to occasionally check on me. She will also point to the picture of Jesus on the wall. She is also very into putting barrets in her hair, cute huh?

So with Adayla in primary, Tally is left by herself for nursery. But they have asked Josie to help out in there and so we are able to get a true report. She hasn't been their consistently anyways because of a few trips and a few runny noses.....but last week it went like this. She cried and cried, even with Josie in there. Then she wanted to play with some cars that other boys were playing with, they were not interested in sharing with her. She stood their for literally 10 minutes and gave them her best naughty glare! They better watch out because I know she has no hesitation to wack them.

Thankfully Shanghai's weather isn't what it was after church on Sunday. It was COLD and nearly pouring when church was over. This is not good for taxis, but finally after about 20 minutes on the side of the street trying to keep from getting wet, we were able to get one to stop for us!

I have been busy trying new recipes, in fact, I plan on occasionally posting them for you to try. This week we made focaccia bread (Tim loved), but I do need to find some kosher salt, and some monkey bread (helper lady's favorite!). Broccoli soup was not a hit, but I enjoyed it. The chicken pot pie was quite simple and very good! Like I have said before, we (Josie and I) make most things from scratch. I really had no idea how easy some things are!

Tim is finishing up his semester classes before Chinese New Year. He has his finals and a group paper (that he will mostly write) due on Saturday. Group work has a whole new meaning here in China.

A few weeks ago, we met up with one of Shayla's friends from Germany. Her name is Lin and she was studying in Germany for a few years and happened to meet Shayla. So Shayla was excited when we were coming to Shanghai because that is where Lin was living. But she moved down south by Hong Kong the month we arrived, but was back in Shanghai for a weekend. We had a fantastic Chinese dinner with her and her friend. They chose the restaurant and were waiting when we arrived. They had looked over the menu and I think were ready to order (Chinese style - order a bunch of dishes and everyone shares). They then asked if we had any dislikes, I said other than fish, we are will be good. I think they had to change the entire order, oops!

Vacation Over

So the two weeks flew by and we loved every minute of it. They shopped and shopped! It is a good thing they had filled up their suitcases with things for us because they barely had enough room to make it back home.

We hit up the fabric market. Tim and I went we first moved here, but I found it completely overwhelming and hadn't been back. My mom had some fabulous tablecloths made and Corde and Dad went home with quite a few new button up shirts. Dad - Where is the picture of you in your favorite shirt??? It is a 3 story building with every kind of fabric imaginable! They have all sorts of things hanging as demos, but all you need is a picture and a week before you are wearing something tailored especially for you!

They had their fill of Chinese food and probably their fill of Pizza Hut too! Oh the memories! We made it all out one evening to a "non hole in the wall restaurant", which has some very tasty food.....the pic shows sweet and sour fish. Almost everyone at the table enjoyed it, really! I do a pretty good imitation of the fish, maybe I will post it later....

Adayla thought she could go on the plane with them and go play in Wyoming for awhile. Little Grandma told her that when she was 4, she could go visit her. (We will be done here the summer after she turns 4.) A few hours later someone said something about her being 3. She is into wanting 3 of everything because she is 3, but this time she said no I am 4. And then she goes and tells Little Grandma that since she is now 4 she is able to go with her to Little Grandma's house! We hope they make it back to China one more time, we have tons more things we could find to see!

Beijing

You can't come all the way from America to China and say you have seen much if you don't go to Beijing, especially with all the Olympic hype. So we bought tickets for everyone and left Tim in Shanghai to study and off we went. Tim did find us an excellent, cheap hotel right near many of the tourist sites!

Arriving in Beijing, things were noticably different. It won't make sense unless you have been to Shanghai and taken a Shanghai taxi. It is pretty scary, but somehow they manage to not wreck all the time. In fact, I have seen only probably 2 minor wrecks since we moved here. They fly down the highway, weaving in and out of traffic, even using the shoulder as a passing lane. (We are getting so used to it, that when we have the occassional driver who doesn't, we are irritated by his slow driving!) Beijing taxis go with the flow of traffic, use blinkers, and don't gas it only to hit the break two seconds later. But I did see as many accidents in Beijing as I have seen in 6 months in Shanghai, and ones that looked much worse. We made it to the hotel and checked in and then were off to Tianamen's Square.

Beijing is quite far north, but somehow we picked a nice weekend that was cold with no wind....so we could stay warm. Tianamen's Square has a flag ceremony in the am and pm where thousands of tourists, mostly Chinese, gather around to watch the soldiers raise or lower the flag. Definitely interesting, but my kids became the tourist attraction and instead of watching the ceremony people were taking pics of the girls. Another noticable and extremely annoying difference was the amount of people selling things and they wouldn't go away! In Shanghai, you will have a few people come up to you to see if you would like a "watch, bag, DVD", but they go away and don't hound you. Every place in Beijing has people selling junk that hound you, especially as a foreigner.

The ceremony ended and we were off to find dinner and get inside once the sun went down. We found a fun mall just a few blocks from the hotel that had some decent places to eat. We finished dinner and bought a few things from the grocery store for the next day. We went to bed early so we could venture out early the next morning.

After a hearty western breakfast buffet, we went to Forbidden city. This place was built for emperors that covers acres and is just enormous. You can get easily lost! A tour guide struck up a conversation with my dad and we had a tour guide for the day. He was quite informative and spoke English quite well. I missed out on most of the conversation as my two small friends didn't allow anyone to hear if we were that close to him. The thing I do know about Beijing is that it is not kid friendly. (The ground isn't smooth, their are very few ramps for the millions of stairs, and they have this thing about keeping the evil spirits from entering through the door, so all most doors have a 12 inch tall blocker that you must lift a stroller over.) Thankfully for the good helpers, we were able to lug 2 strollers and 2 kids all over. But by mid afternoon, Corde and I grabbed a taxi to head back to the hotel for naps. The rest finished up the tour and Dad made a deal with the tour guide for the next day as we headed to some tombs and to the Great Wall. He even arranged to have a 14 passenger van hired for the day to take us from place to place. The Great Wall is about 1 1/2 hours from the city.

The tour guide - You must know his English name, Bill Gore, he told us he really liked Bill Clinton and apparently Al Gore. Just sounds funny to us!

The next morning we loaded up and we were off. This day we were sure to pack gloves and hats for the wind on the Great Wall. It was an amazing site, but once again not a kid friendly place. The walk way on the wall isn't smooth and the one stroller Corde thankfully managed to make it up a little ways. But once we arrived at the stairs, my afraid of heights mom, the girls, and I waited for the others at the bottom while they hiked up. It was freaking cold up their, but the hiking with the sun made you sweat. It doesn't look that steep....very deceiving. We stopped at some tombs and lugged some more strollers and kids around. Then the driver drove us around Beijing and passed the main site of the Olympics. It will a hopping place this summer, we look forward to catching them on TV!

But after two days of going and going, this mom and her kids were exhausted. We left the others to head back to the hotel for a good nap and stayed in the rest of the evening, other than to grab a bite at McDonalds! My parents enjoyed some Peking Duck, which they loved, while the "kids" opted for the Sizzler! The McDonalds was about 3 blocks from the hotel, if you took the shortcut through the scary alley. Funny thing about this is that here we were in a city of 15 million people and I don't hardly think twice about taking my kids through a dark alley! NEVER would I do that in most American cities, big or small!

We still had one whole more day of touring ahead of us with a flight leaving Beijing at 10pm the next night. I didn't think I could handle it and I know my kids were exhausted. Neither were sleeping very well as Adayla kept us up with her hacking Shanghai cough. So we were able to change our tickets to an earlier flight in the morning and left the family to enjoy a day with out carrying and pushing strollers all day. They hit up the zoo and made it to a little market to buy some more junk, I mean goodies to take home with them! ; ) I was glad we came home when we did, the girls did okay on the flight, and Tally finally feel asleep as we came into land....buster! But we made it home in time for her to take a much need 3 hour nap and be well rested for our last day with our visitors.

So here is my summary of Beijing....my family were more than helpful with the kids and didn't complain for all the extra work we created. My kids were great and were quite content, they just are heavy! (Adayla is capable of walking quite a bit, but she just isn't that fast!) I am extremely glad Tim and I didn't attempt Beijing by ourselves, but it is not a place for small kids that need to be in strollers. I was completely worn out after two days and I will not be going back anytime soon. I love my kids and will gladly take them anywhere (we have attempted many strange places with them), but Beijing was more than I could handle! We leave in a week for a 3 week jaunt to the south, good thing we will be sitting on the beach for some of it!

Something I Miss

As I should be posting and catching up on the rest of January, I would rather post a thought that came to mind last night. We were watching an American (probably pirated) DVD last night and in the movie they go and get a drink of water from the sink. They just turned on the tap water and drank it, I cringed. I thought that would make them sick! Then I remembered back in America, you can just turn on the water and drink it (use it cook with, not have to keep grouching at the kids while they are playing in the bath about putting water in their mouth, and not have to use bottled water in the humidifier!) I really miss it!

New Years in Shanghai

Many people in China don't even worry about New Years as they have Chinese New Years about a month after. That is their big celebration and when they have tons of fireworks. Everybody except the girls and I decided to head to Nanjing street to check it out. It seems their were plenty of people out celebrating and as they walked along it would get some jammed that they were in the middle of a big pushing war. Noone could walk really, just get shoved along. They then enjoyed the minimal firewords on the river. They then needed to take a taxi back across the river. Tim had very obviously flagged down a taxi, as it pulled over for him, a Chinese couple opened the doors and hopped in. My family was shocked! Tim had a few words with them, but it didn't matter they were already in the car. Oh well! Taxis typically won't let 5 adults ride in the car, but it was late enough that night they all just hopped in and arrived home in 2008!

Chinglish

You have heard about these signs that are in English, but somewhere they have been lost in translation....here are a few that we saw!

Yu Yuan

One day we took the ferry across the river and walked to Yu Yuan. We have talked about this place before. It is the only place in Shanghai that looks like traditional China and so it is a big tourist attraction. We had never entered the actual garden before as we thought we would wait until someone came with us.....beautiful! We enjoyed a traditional Chinese lunch afterwards, what a fun day! (I was very impressed with Corde and Jewls, they were pretty adventurous when ordering Chinese food, at least until they realized Pizza Hut was too hard to find!)

The first few days in Shanghai

So we spent the first few days wandering and shopping the streets of Shanghai. Julionna and Corde nearly perfected the art of bargaining and made some new friends doing so. They saw all the food that is ready available just around the corner and took many more "China pictures" in two weeks, than I have in 6 months. I have this weird thing about putting people that I know in most of my pictures...but I do appreciate the photos they captured.

Christmas morning....on the 27th

So my parents finally arrived and the girls were in bed for the night. Adayla woke up Christmas morning and really didn't even remember that Santa was supposed to come. My family was already awake downstairs (thank you jet lag) and waiting for us. Tally could have cared less, but Adayla was a little bit excited when she saw that Santa had come. We told her she better look into the guest room to see if he had left anything else. She peaked her head in there and said our friends our here and then shut the door. She then looked again and ran and gave them all hugs when she realized it was her little grandma and big grandpa. Tally is shy and just clung to me for the morning. She did warm up quickly to them, but it took her a while to like Uncle Corder. She gave him plenty of her famous Tally face. We opened a few presents and enjoyed breakfast together! And then it was see how much we can see of Shanghai and China for the next few weeks.....

(I thought everyone would like to see Little Grandma is some of Josie's cool China pjs! If anyone would like a pair I will get them in the mail soon.)