The Stone Forest National Park

Posted on March 22, 2016 by HALEY MILES

We made a weekend trip to Hunan province to say goodbye to some good friends before their return to the States. They live about 1 hour from the famous “Stone Forest” or Zhang Jia Jie. It’s known for its unique mountains, and if you have seen the move Avatar, it was also based on this scenery. As you can see from the pics, it REALLY is amazingly beautiful. The park has several different parts. The first day we rode the cable car up Tian Men Shan and found it covered in snow! The kids loved hiking and being out in this huge national park from morning to dark. So thankful we were able to make this trip!

The mountains are breathtaking!

Locals washing their clothes in the fresh mountain streams

The “specials” advertised outside of a local restaurant included organic chicken, rat, giant salamander, and snake!

Hanging meat isn’t uncommon at all. . . check out the piece Colt is “biting into.” It’s the pig’s face 🙂

Family pic photo bombed by a monkey 🙂

There were monkeys EVERYWHERE! Colt enjoyed them the most being the animal lover that he is 🙂

Just hanging out on the trail. . .

Again, the uniqueness of these mountains. . the “Stone Forest.”

We did a 5 hour hike following this creek through the mountains. The kids did great, and it was truly beautiful.

I just love this picture. . .

Tian Men Shan had way more snow than we were expecting!!

The building across the way is a temple on the top of the mountain.

Colt was BEYOND excited about getting to play in the snow. He didn’t care that we weren’t dressed warm enough. He would have stayed there all day to play in the snow!

Beautiful. We haven’t seen snow for years. . . What a treat!

Definitely glad we made the extra effort to visit here!

Exploring on 2 Wheels. . .

Posted on March 9, 2016 by HALEY MILES

David LOVES to explore our city on his bike. What’s neat about our city is that it’s so diverse. In a short bike ride you can come across fancy apartment complexes, brand new shopping centers, run down apartments, vacant buildings, poor villages, and beautiful countryside. It’s crazy. Because I love this place and my husband. . . I explored yesterday too. Here are some pics of what we found:

Getting ready to try to pedal fast enough not to get wet (didn’t work).

Minus all the trash that has came from the floods of past rainy seasons. . . this would be a beautiful picture! Wild ducks, mountains, the man herding his water buffalo. . .

In the villages it’s common for most people to have larger houses like these (as opposed to apartments in the city). We saw a couple of nicer ones, but most are very basic with cement walls and floors. It’s not uncommon for 3 generations to live together in the same house.

Sunbeams. . .

We met a local man and his son down by the river.

Riding back through the village streets. Watch out for the power lines!

A building made from extra doors? I like it 🙂 Not sure what was inside this one, but we have seen buildings like these that house pigs!

These may be the same greens sold at the market across from our home. The one’s with yellow flowers are my new favorite! They are called cai4hua1.

David started talking to this new friend as he was working in his garden. He insisted on giving us a bag of fresh greens which I cooked up for dinner 🙂

Exercise with the 80 year olds

Posted on March 8, 2016 by HALEY MILES

The weather has been so comfortable lately with quite a few sunny days! We try to be outside as much as possible and enjoy it! Yesterday morning I went across the road to run some laps and get some exercise at the sports complex (so I can keep up with the kids and David!). The sports complex has basketball courts and a big track and field which they have turned into a driving range. So my laps were on the outside of the stadium 🙂 There were tons of people out walking, jogging, doing their little dance exercise groups or morning stretches. I love this part of the culture. The funny thing is that the majority are the older generation (already retired).

This boy. . .

Posted on March 2, 2016 by HALEY MILES

I love him.

New Pets!

Posted on February 29, 2016 by HALEY MILES

Colt wanted to get 2 more little ducks (remember our last 2 were eaten by rats in our complex). He planned to bring them in at night so they wouldn’t get eaten by predator rats, and we agreed. When we got to the pet market, they didn’t have any baby ducks so we switched to baby rabbits. Colt used his own money and picked out 2 cute little bunnies ($3 each)! The kids spent the whole evening playing with them outside on the back porch and in the grass. . . then we brought them in for the night. Colt and Kylie both swept up lots of bunny poop on the porch and even mopped at the end of the night! Colt commented that when he agreed to clean up after them (before we got them) he didn’t know they pooped that much! 🙂 Pretty proud of how responsible he has been, but realistically. . . I know it’s only been one day! ha!

The lady we bought the bunnies from was teaching Colt how to care for them.

Typical pet store, right? This is the plant and pet market. They have every kind of plant and pretty much every kind of pet too (turtles, fish, gerbils, hamsters, guinea pics, cats, dogs, rabbits, birds, ducks, and chickens roaming everywhere like the one on top of this bird cage).

Colt used his own money and picked out 2 rabbits. Later we found out we have a boy and a girl bunny. Oh dear. I hope there aren’t lots of baby rabbits in our future!

Kylie loves the girl bunny. She named her gongzhu (Chinese for princess)! hehe.

Colt helped Caden hold Fluffy. Caden did a pretty good job. Colt was nervous 🙂

Our beautiful city. . .

Posted on February 27, 2016 by HALEY MILES

Remember I mentioned before “our mountain?” Well, technically it’s not OUR mountain (obviously). It’s just the mountain across from our house. . . we climb it frequently. These 2 pics are from the top. One is the view to the left and the other the view to the right.

Where have we been?

Posted on February 26, 2016 by HALEY MILES

Sorry I haven’t posted in about a month, and I also didn’t get our update out in February! That seriously stressed me out a little bit. . . but I didn’t take my computer on our trip since we were going to gone for about 17 days! It was nice to be without it actually. It was nice to spend quality family time together, to see old friends (to speak English with our friends), and to have a break from the freezing temps and enjoy warm weather and sunshine! We also had a week of meetings that was really encouraging and great to catch up with people we haven’t seen in almost a year (some even longer)! The kids had a VBS program during our meetings by some wonderful volunteers from the States who just loved on them well! They spared nothing to make it a great week for the all of the kiddos there. Such a blessing for the kids but even more so for the parents!

So, I will post some pics here of our time in Thailand and try to update with more recent pics over the next few days 🙂 By the way, it felt so good to get back to our Asian home too!

Having to leave the country every 90 days is getting a little old. . . we are hoping to switch visa platforms, but there is lots to do! The kids have become quite good at traveling though!

It was so fun for the kids (and us adults) to meet up with English speaking friends that we haven’t seen in almost 1 year!

We all enjoyed the family time, warm weather, and the kids especially loved the water!

I either contracted some nasty bacteria or food poisoning during the trip which had me down for almost a week including a night in the hospital. Thankful it was me and not the kids. Thankful for good medical care in Thailand!

A 45 minute ferry ride took us to a beautiful little island with white sands and clear water. Amazing creation and a more amazing Creator!

Colt enjoyed searching for creatures under the water. He found lots of neat fish, an eel, a giant crab, and a sea urchin!

Creatures right outside of our door too. . . David took the kids out to catch geckos in the evenings 🙂

No photoshop here. The water was beautiful on Koh Lan island!

Another perk of traveling to Thailand – they have KK in the airport!!

Some of our favorite things. . .

Posted on January 30, 2016 by HALEY MILES

These are some of our favorite winter “warm” foods! We have soup almost daily. The broth is made from scratch, then we add whatever fresh veggies we buy that day from the market. A popular way to eat with friends is to have the pot of soup going at a low boil in the center of the table, then each person adds the raw veggies they want and eats them as they get cooked. It’s a slow meal. . . but fun and good fellowship! The next to last pic is a favorite street food – spicy potato wedges!! The last pic is of purple sweet potatoes and rice. So yummy! Naturally sweet, nothing added!

Our Mountain

Posted on January 28, 2016 by HALEY MILES

We call this “our mountain” because it’s right across from our house, and we have climbed it many many times (especially David and Colt). It’s fun to climb other mountains in the city and try to find “our mountain” from the view. . . Climbing has become a new hobby we are able to enjoy! Thankful David and Colt can enjoy these special times together.

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Colt’s End of Semester Performance

Posted on January 27, 2016 by HALEY MILES

Before moving to GL we had no idea this school existed. Local school for our kids is really important to us for their language and socialization, and I am in awe of how the Father has provided such an amazing learning environment for Colt! It was a big deal that he didn’t have to sit in a strict environment with up to 60 other kids and 1 teacher while listening to lecture all day, then come home with hours of homework (such is the traditional local school system). I really felt like homeschool on top of that would be unbearable and inappropriate for a young child. . . so when we found this school we were so thankful! Now, he has 6 kids in his class and 2 teachers. They learn through play and hands on activities (i.e. math – counting by 2’s, 3’s etc while jumping rope), they have a garden and grow their own food, they learn cooking, they learn how to make things with yarn and wood, they go on hikes for science class. . . it’s really neat! Then Colt comes home and is able to do homeschool with Mom, no problem, since he’s had such a fun day at school.

Really, it could be a totally different (and much more difficult for everyone) situation without this blessing! Thank the Father!