Happy Halloween! This year Zachy was Tigger, Trent was a scary mask guy, Garret was a soccer player whose head got stuck in a ball when he headed it (not wearing ball in picture), I was Medusa and Mike was George Washington Pirate.
This was our pumpkin that we entered in our clubhouse pumpkin contest.
Our neighborhood is THE PLACE for trick-or-treating! We gave out 460 pieces of candy and hostess pies, which means our kids brought home a huge load as well. Tigger was in heaven!
Mike and our friend Dave Montes at the Embassy party.
Mike loved his costume so much that he was in no rush to take it off (not kidding)! The next day at church he had black under his eyes from the eye liner and he refused to wash it off. He is calling it his Johny Depp look. It was a fun Halloween.
Friday, November 19, 2010
Halloween Fun!
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Happy 9th Birthday Trent
Nine things about you:
1. You are the "BUG KING". You can and will catch anything.
2. You're quick as lightning.
3. You are obsessed with pocket knives and weapons.
4. You are always drumming on something and I do mean always.
5. People are drawn to you like magnets
6. You never play baseball without hitting a home run.
7. You are a natural comedian with perfect joke timing
8. You love experiments and potions.
9. You cook a mean berry crisp.
Happy Birthday Trent!!!
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Beijing Wildlife Park
This summer we went to the Beijing Wildlife Park. It is like a zoo except at the end you get a ride in the back of a truck that has chain link all around and you go into the wild animal cages with meat hung on the outside of the truck. We had grizzly bears and tigers come up and eat just a few inches from where we sat. Our pictures are not the greatest because we were too busy checking out the animals but you get the main idea. This was way cool but it is definitely a Chinese thing. Their safety guidelines are not what ours are in the States. Things are always a little risky here but that is what makes it so fun. We were told that a few months after we were there a little boy got into the lion area and was pretty close to one of the lions before the parents realized. The father panicked (who wouldn't) and ran in front of the lion. This spooked the lion and the father was attacked and killed. Crazy! Anyway, this was neat.
Trip to Datong China
Back in March our family visited Datong, China and we saw some of the coolest stuff! It is about a 5 hour drive from Beijing and all along the way are old villages with house carved out of the dirt. There were also thousands of graves (dirt mounds w/ paper on top) along the road the entire way. We finally stopped at one of the rundown villages to take some pictures and while I was exploring I met an old Chinese man and we started talking (in Chinese of course). He invited me to come and see his home. I went and found Mike, our boys and our friends the Angels who were with us and in we went into this awesome OLD DIRT Chinese home. We love any chance to see real Chinese life. He had a little farm (garden and animals) in his little front court yard and inside the house was very simple. Before we left we took his picture. It was the first time he had ever had his picture taken and he had to be between 60-70 years old.
While in Datong we also visited one of China's Hanging Monasteries. This was built in the year 491 and is built into the side of a huge cliff 50 meters above the ground. We went up inside and were amazed that this ancient structure could still hold people. There was not a lot of room but the monastery did hold 40 small rooms full of Buddist, Toaist and Confusianist carvings and statues. It is very rare for one temple to contain all of these religions. So cool. Finally we visited the Datong Catacombs where we saw big and small caves full of old stone carvings. There were
