Since moving to East Asia, we started designating Friday nights as “Family Fun Night.” We either hang out just as our family, or doing some family oriented stuff with other friends. It’s been something the kids, especially Colt, looks forward to! David’s local friend gave him a tent so we started adding that to the Friday tradition. Not sure if the tent is going to last very long if we keep putting it up (playing in it) each week!
Our boys are growing up. . .
On our most recent flight, Colt entertained himself using my phone to take pictures and video. I thought it was good enough to keep 🙂
Jinli Street
David and I had a morning off of class, so we used it to go explore a popular area of the city! We found all sorts of neat handmade items, beautiful places, and some “interesting” snacks (pictured below). Come visit, and we will take you there!
Chicken Feet or Duck Head for a snack?
Charbroiled Quail Anyone?
Sugar coated fruit kabobs. . . that I would try 🙂
Rabbit Head, Fish, or Squid on a stick 🙂
Spring is definitely here!
I thought this was pretty. . .
Jinli Street Entrance
One of the stores. . .
We asked a gentleman to take our picture, and he said “it’s kind of blurry. . . ” David had to tell him that was his finger 🙂
Photo Take 2 🙂
Colt’s First Taekwondo Testing
Our 3 crazy kiddos. . .
Some moments we wonder “what were we thinking having 3 kiddos? We are out numbered and their energy is endless.” But the next minute they bring such joy, laughter, entertainment, and the snuggles are all priceless. It’s so much fun to watch them grow, hear them think out loud. . . and just talk period. They are hilarious!
Colt and his buddy Kris
Kylie Joy will be 3 in June! Hard to believe. . . her “cheese” smile looks painful to me 🙂
Caden Luke is growing right up. Getting taller and staying so sweet! He’s not quite filling out his britches yet though 🙂
Cinderella in Chinese
Our local friends invited us to go see a play of Cinderella with them. It was a lot of fun, and the kids really enjoyed it (despite the whole thing being in Chinese)! The props and costumes were great, and I thought it was really well done. It was like hearing Cinderella for the first time 🙂
The last 6 months in 3 minutes…
Pixian
Part of our learning here is an activity called an “Immersion Trip.” We went to a smaller city on the outskirts of our city. . . with our limited speaking ability, all by ourselves 🙂 We were instructed to get there on our own via some sort of public transportation other than taxi (i.e. train, bus), find a hotel, and explore/observe the city, try to make connections for the possibility of future work in that city by other company workers. So, three kids in tow, we got there without a hitch! We stayed 2 nights and really enjoyed the city! We found some fun places for the kids to play, lots of good food, and we were able to make several good connections.
Actually, most of these pictures are from a park we found there. There is a picture below of Kylie with 2 kids. This family just started leading us around and showing up the fun things this park had to offer. The kids played together for quite a while too. They were so kind!
The only downfalls were the first night, I had some upset stomach “issues.” Thankfully, I was fine the next morning. Our hotel had lots of mosquitoes so we all got eaten up too! Then on the bus home, we thought we were clear on buying our tickets back to our city. . . but after riding the bus for a good while longer than we should have we weren’t any where near our home. Sooooo that was a blooper of some sort. We made it though! Obviously 🙂
It was a good trip. We are so thankful for the opportunity and all that was learned from the trip!
Caden playing in the sand pit – they don’t use sand though, they use cassia seed (plants seeds) since they are safer for the kiddos. It’s not nearly as messy or itchy either!!
Offering incense . .
Wang Cong Temple
Friends we met at the park 🙂
This man was playing beautiful music by the pond!
Our little boat we drove around the water!
Ladies exercising one morning. .
Free Photo Shoot
Of all the pictures people have taken of our family since we moved to East Asia. . . we haven’t received any copies 🙂 BUT, this past week while walking by a photography business the owners asked if they could take our pictures. We politely told them we didn’t need to pay for pictures as we liked to take them ourselves. They proceeded to tell us they didn’t want us to pay anything. . they just wanted us to LET them do a mini photo shoot. After they played with our kids and gave them lots of snacks and candy, we sort of felt obligated. The kids had fun though playing with the different props 🙂 Kylie really wanted to dress up in all of their fancy clothes and try on 67 different pairs of shoes. They were super kind, and we didn’t expect to get any copies. However, the photographer and David had exchanged contact info, and he sent us the photos! Here are a few. . . what a great surprise! Maybe we will see our faces on the side of bus one day? haha
Colt and his tongxuemen (classmates)
Colt and some of his classmates (that live in our apartment complex) catching tadpoles together after school. Colt has fallen in once already. Hopefully, he learned from it, and it doesn’t happen again 🙂
