The girls ballet at home

The girls love to dance and just recently they found that I can put their hair in a bun and when you do that, it means they are ready to have a ballet recital. It also helped that they just watched "The Game Plan." Enjoy the video. I hope the grandparents enjoy!!

We visit Elephant Stone Lake

When we got back from our adventures in Sanya, we decided to end our vacation going to a place about an hour away from Chengdu. It is called Elephant Stone Lake. It is a huge park with various flowers. Apparently throughout the year they have different flowers in bloom. Right now they have tulips. They also have a lake that you can take a boat ride there. However, since the earthquake, the lake has dried up and there is no longer water in it. Apparently it changed the structure of the lake and the part we went to had no water. It was such a pretty place and would be even prettier if there was water. We had fun taking pictures. The girls loved to race each other and daddy in the grass and up the hills. There was also a zipline there and the girls wanted me to try it. With their encouragement I did it!! I will try to download the video. It was fun and Rylan liked seeing me so much that she wanted to try it! However, when we went to buy the ticket, they said she was too small. She was so sad and I could tell that she is going to be our adventurous one!! Please see our photo gallery for more pictures. Enjoy!!

We go to Sanya China for Spring Break

For Spring Break, we decided to stay close to our home and took a direct flight to Sanya, China. It is on an island off of China called Hainan, about a 2 hour flight. When we boarded the plane, I quickly realized that there was not as much diversity taking the plane within China, as opposed to going outside of China. The kids were once again the star attraction on the flight. The flight attendant even took Cohen to the cockpit while the flight was in the air so the captain could meet Cohen. We didn’t get a picture, but we just thought it would be funny to see him in the captain seat. On the plane trip, we met up with some of our friends who just happen to be on the plane once again. (they flew also on the trip to Phuket). They have two girls and a son. There girls are roughly the same age as our girls and they both go to QSI. Their mother, Sarah, has been one of the ladies God has blessed me in my life.
When we got to Sanya, it was quite chiller than we thought, about 72 degrees. Not as warm as we thought, but really nice…no 40 degree weather. Our hotel was pretty good. We had a fun time playing on the beach, at the pool, and in the kids play area. There wasn’t many places to shop, but I did find lots of beautiful pearls for cheap prices. For lunch we would often go to the market and get veggies to eat. The girls ate roasted corn on the cob, big peeled cucumber, and pineapple on a stick. It was quite tasty. One night we met with our friends and had dinner at this western restaurant. It was awesome food!! I felt like I was at Chillis, eating a peppercorn hamburger!! Oh how I miss really good western food, but I am sure I will miss the Chinese food when I am back in the states. I thing that was probably the most troublesome was not getting away from the limelight. Since we went to a Chinese city, we were bombarded by Chinese people, taking pictures of us constantly. All it was fun!! Enjoy the pictures and see more on my gallery!!

Rylan has her friend over

Rylan is the only American in her class at school and the only girl who has blond hair and blue eyes. All the girls are Asian. There is only one other boy that looks like her and just happens to live in our apartment building. He is from Finland and is really sweet. His name is Lars-Samoul. Rylan already says she wants to marry him one day. Here is a pic of them at our house having a snack.

Cohen at 5 months

As I told you all before, Cohen is growing so quickly!! I want to keep him little, but he wont't stop. At 5 months, he was 60% in his weight (already wieghs 16.5 lbs) and 60% in his height. He is almost sitting up, but not quite yet and he is just dying to crawl!! Here is one picture of him and I have put more in the web gallery. Enjoy!!