Halloween Fun!

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.

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!!!

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 Giant Buddahs, 4 stories high and endless intricate carvings for almost a mile. China is so full of amazing things to see and we love getting out and experiencing this awesome history. (more pictures below)

More Datong pictures

"I can't wait until I'm 8 for then I'll be baptized you see." On November 21st, Trent was baptized. It was done at a club house swimming pool and he had three other friends baptized that same day. Trent along with the other three sang for us in the program and Trent had asked Brother Carl Curtis, a geologist in our branch that Trent is really taken with, to speak at the baptism. It was such a great day and it was really sweet to see Mike and Trent all dressed in white heading into the water. We are so proud of you Trent and we love you forever.

More picture s from Joan and Kirk's visit

This is on the old Xi'an city wall
Mutianyu Great Wall
Joan and Kirk went to church with us. We meet in a high rise office building- 4th floor.
Trent riding Grandma around on our Tuk Tuk. She loved it!

We took them over to the village near our home and you can tell by Kirk's face how much he liked the smell. IT STINKS!!!! But so does most of China.

Joan and Kirk in China

Mike's parents came for a visit in November. We ran them ragged but had a great time. We went to Xi'an to see the Terricotta Warriors. It is AMAZING!!!

To get to Xi'an we took the night train. Each tiny compartment has four small beds. You board the train, go to sleep and when you wake up you are there (give or take an hour). The kids had a great time on the train and we will definitely travel this way again.
We also went and saw a Kong Fu show. Afterwords we had our picture taken with the cast.
We took Joan and Kirk to a few different parts of the great wall so that they could see some of the renovated wall and some of the original crumbling wall.

Pres. Obama's visit to Beijing

In November, Presidnt Obama came to China and our family was there to see him. Mike got put in charge of Air Force One so he was extremely busy the entire month. He spent almost 3 weeks in Shanghai preparing. They would not let Mike get all the way on Air Force One but they did let him hang out at the top of the stairs and he spent many cold hours out under the wings. He brought us all home Air Force One M&M's and presidential matches. Pretty cool! When Pres. Obama came to Beijing the embassy had a little party so we could see him. The kids got to take a group photo woth him and I got to say hello and shake his hand (which is more than most got to do.) It was way cool to see him and an unimaginable amount of work for Mike. I don't care weather you are republican, democrat, pro-Obama or not, he is the most powerful man in the world and this was a great experience. One we will never forget!

I can't BREATH

Ok, so I CAN breath but some days I don't want to, the air here is so bad. Many of you have asked what the pollution looks like so I tried to take some pictures. It is kind of tricky to take pictures of air but these should give you some idea. If you look at the buildings in the distance it looks like it is a foggy day, but that is not fog. This is a tipical day here in bejing. So next time you walk out your door into nice clean air, take a big breath for us.

Back to School

Trent and Garret went back to school THANK GOODNESS!!!! Garret was so excited for Kindergarten and he is loving it. They both have the most amazing teachers from Australia. The boys attend the International School of Beijing and we are just amazed by this school. It is outstanding. Trent and Garret are so lucky and and they are really having a blast. The school buses for this school are huge luxury tour like buses and everyday 7 of them pull up to take the kids. I really can't say enough about ISB. Also, every year the day that school starts I let the boys pick what ever they want for dinner, the skies the limit. In the past we have had lobster and crab but this year it was up to Garret and he picked Peanut butter and Jelly. We couldn't change his mind so that is what we had for our special back to school dinner. Good luck boys this year and everyone else who is starting school.