She did it!

This morning we read lesson 99 and she insisted on finishing the 100th lesson! Then she said, "I can read! Tonight I can read Book of Mormon stories, but I may need a little help." Yeah Tally! We are super proud of you.

Visiting London?

Anybody from D.C. planning at trip to London? $535 roundtrip!
Anybody from Denver planning a trip to London? 635 round trip!

Start saving your pennies... we would love to have visitors!!

(sale at www.united.com)

The $100 Billion Question

Ain't she beautiful???
Today the Air Force will announce the winner of the next generation air refueling tanker. The choice: the Boeing 767 or the Airbus A330. The announcement is expected to come today after the stock market closes.

I would happily fly either plane. Heck, I'm happy to be going back to fly the plane this contract is intended to replace. But if I had my pick... I'm hoping for the Airbus (pictured above).

Halloween

A quick photo of our: 50's Girl, Witch, and Chinese Princess (who refused to be anything else) I tried all sorts of things and she picked this out and stuck with it the whole month!

The best part besides all the candy...the make up, of course!

Sweet Ryann

I needed to take a second to add some of her silly's. This kid is the baby in our family, but she won't let you know it. She likes, I mean insists, that she hang with the big kids. And as long as I remember that she does things her own way, we are best friends!

The big clue into all of this should have been potty training this child. She decided that she was going to use the potty last March as we went to Disney and well....that was it. EASY! Thank you Ryann!

She dresses herself how she wants, wears her hair how she wants, wears 7 different pairs of shoes everyday, and has an obsession with chapstick.

She is the best little singer! She used to sing in her sweet voice, Daddy I love you, Daddy I do, Heavenly Father has sent me to you. And she does NOT like others to sing with her. I would post the video of her singing very articulately Santa Claus is coming to town, but lets take baby steps here.

This Christmas I talked about putting lights up on the house. It was SO cold here most of December that is just was really not motivating to get out there and do it. She didn't help at all, as she was adamant that she did NOT want lights on her house. Day after day she would say this and while we could have convinced her they would have been pretty....it was a good one to let her win.

She loves to read books, ride scooters (only 2 wheel ones like her sisters) and bikes, nursery, her sisters, take care of Binx, talk on the phone to her extended family, and follow you around the house. We have a song that we sing her at our house called Boom Boom. It is their goodnight song, i think we just made it up, but she it goes. Who does mommy love, who does mommy love, mommy loves Ryann....boom boom boom, and essentially repeats. But she loves it every time she goes down for a nap or bed. Well for about a month this winter, I would put her down for her nap, and she was mad at me for it. She refused her blanket and especially her song. I would ask her about 3 times if wanted it sung to her and NO was her answer. She would pout and then go to sleep. But when she woke up she come down the stairs and then look at me with her sad little face and say in her saddest voice....you didn't sing boom boom to me. Stubborn! I wonder where that comes from?!

As she continues to develop her verbal skills and learn new words, I always enjoy hearing them progress. Her new word is actually. Tonight I asked, would you like Boom Boom? Her reply, "No, (pause) actually yes." She really likes to say and use actually. Cute cute!

How could I forget to talk about her gathering skills. She has learned in a family of 3 girls, you take what it yours or it may be adopted by someone else. She noticed Adayla and Tally putting their favorite things upstairs by their bed (we don't usually keep toys in the bedroom). She has started storing ALL of her stuff right next to her bed. Today we cleaned it out and I found 3 pairs of shoes, dress up clothes, a water bottle, various toys, lots of headbands, and probably 3 purses. She was happy to help pick it up...probably because she knows she can get most of it back there by tomorrow.

The Dancers

We're back!

I am going to attempt to blog again, there is just too much I am forgetting about these silly girls. I love love love the stages that they are all in right now. We have our days, but seriously if I could stop the clock, I totally would right now!

Tally and Adayla attend Chinese school on Saturdays and really look forward to it. After two hours in the classroom, they head to dance class. Tally's class is Chinese dance and Adayla's in ballet. They have amazing teachers and somehow get 4 to 6 year olds to put on a cute performance even knowing most of the moves. And they have made them do their stretches. They do the splits both ways, ouch!

Anyways, at the end of the semester they perform in the cafeteria and so here are a few pics.

Tally would be the CUTEST dancer ever. She beams while she is dancing. Her smile is the biggest and lasts the entire dance. She doesn't notice if she is not in sync or get frustrated. She just moves and smiles!

Why does this not look like dancing? This dance was them being babies and the one of above babies learning to walk. Strange? Yes, still cute? Very. I wish I was smart enough to find the music. While I was taping, one kid that was watching says, "What are they doing, they look like a bunch of babies!" You guessed it kid. : )

Adayla is a little more serious, but still loves to perform. She has done great in her class and really is into the grace of ballet. Her favorite part of performance this day....the makeup!

Kudos to Tim on the photos! If it weren't for him, I can pretty much say, we wouldn't have enough pictures.

Catching up: Tim's mini-Shanghai Trip

Here's the last post from my month in China this year. I happened to be in China during two significant events in Shanghai: The World Expo and my MBA Reunion!!

As you may remember, my MBA's annual alumni reunion is on Duanwu Jie with the Dragon Boat races. Last year the entire family came to cheer my team on that can be seen here.

The timing of this China trip was perfect for me to get down for the weekend and participate in the reunion. It was so fun to see my classmates and friends after seeing them in November for our graduation.

It couldn't have been better weather this weekend. After a day of competition, we took second place. Here are a couple of pics from the day:

Mmm... dinner for four bucks. Love Japanese food at Chinese prices!

After spending most of the day walking the Expo (pics below), I met up with a friend for an early dinner on the beautiful, renovated Bund. Here was our view as we ate outside on the balcony, with a gorgeous view of the skyscrapers on the Pudong side...

...and looking the other way to see the historic Bund. Is there a more beautiful city center to view while eating dinner?? I don't think so.

After dinner I went across the river to the Pudong side to walk around where we lived. Here's a shot across the river looking at the Bund:

The area between the Super Brand Mall and the Pearl Tower was improved with a pedestrian bridge / observation deck that travels the entire roundabout.

All of the trees along the streets were decked out in lights and flower pots lined the center of the streets. Just beautiful!

A view from our apartment complex facing north to view the world's second tallest building. I just don't get tired of taking it all in...

And finally, here's a picture of our old apartment building with Jin Mao and the World Finance Center in the background.

As I walked through the old neighborhood, the Madonna song, "This Used To Be My Playground" kept on going through my head. I not only could see, but I could hear the girls running down the sidewalk or playing in the park. The feelings were indescribable. We had such an incredible two years here... and I'm grateful that I had the chance to see Shanghai in all of its beauty as it showcases itself to the world as host of the World Expo.

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The other day I had in Shanghai I spent checking out the World Expo site. The World Expo in Shanghai is like Epcot Center on crack with large pavilions from every country in the world. The site is dominated by the landmark China Pavilion:

Some of my fellow 400,000 visitors that day.

Amazing building after amazing building...

Not sure how some countries were put together. Most were geographically located, but matching North Korea, Iran and Lebanon together? There goes the neighborhood...

The US Pavilion, sponsored by Disney's huge TV screen...

One of the fun things about Expo is getting to eat food from each country. But when the US offers hamburgers, pizza, BBQ sandwiches and hot dogs, visitors immediately know why Americans are carrying a couple of extra pounds on them.

Next to the China Pavilion, the US Pavilion is the second most popular of all the pavilions. But with a sign like this one below (the wait is over three hours), I didn't bother to wait to see what was inside.

Ok, one last picture... who doesn't love a seeing an overloaded cart in traffic? It's so China!

Adayla's first homework

This was part of Adayla's first homework assignment: for social studies she needed to show how she's growing up by either drawing or providing a picture of her as a baby, as a kindergartner, and as a grown up.

Adayla told me, "Mom, I'm going to look like Aunt Josie when I grow up." So we got a picture of Aunt Josie, and she became part of Adayla's homework! Hopefully Adayla gets an A+ :-)

Catching up: Tim's cooking in Beijing

See this amazing dish of Kung Pao Chicken (Gongbao Jiding)...

Do you know who cooked it?? Me!!The three of us for our weekly "cultural immersion" experience went to a restaurant and learned how to cook for of our favorite dishes: Kung Pao chicken, braised eggplant in garlic sauce, stir-fried green beans, and "squirrel fish."

First our chef gave us an expert demonstration of how to prepare each dish -- here the eggplant is frying...

Then it was our turn to do it. While not as pretty as the chef's dishes......it was still just as tasty!

Then on to the fish...

Look at this beautiful thing...

Fry it up...

Sauce it up... so good.

The secret to making Chinese food? Having this spice rack. Everything we made was a a couple pinches this and a pinch of that, or a pinch of this and a couple pinches of that. So easy if you have the right stuff...

After our four dishes, we were certified chefs. If you get me a spice rack like the one above, I'll cook some for you, too!

Catching up: The Great Wall

I've been to the Great Wall a couple of times, but this was unique and special. This day the Wall became "mine." Barry, Lea and I took got a taxi driver to take us to the Jinshanling section of the Great Wall, then he departed to pick us up at the Simatai section of the Wall three hours later to take us back. This walk/hike took us through some restored sections and lots of untouched/crumbling sections. It was truly beautiful... loved seeing both the original and the refinished.

So here are some of the hundreds of pictures we took. Highly recommended to take this route rather than just "visiting" the Wall.

We didn't see any other tourists on the day we went. Very peaceful. But do you see the person in black behind me?

There are some locals who come on the wall to sell drinks/snacks. We were prepared and didn't need any of the offerings, but I had to buy something from this vendor. His half-frozen water (very nice) was $1.50/bottle. My instinct is to barter lower, but how could I with this person?

So instead, I offered him $3.00 for the water and some pictures with him!

Almost there... just down this hill, cross the bridge, and up some more steps to the Simatai base station...

Pretty cool to see the wall coming to an "end" for the river:

After three hours of stairs at a fairly-moderate pace, there's nothing like an ice-cold Coca-Cola... perfect!

Departing view from the Simatai section of the Great Wall.

LOVED IT!