Swimming!

Felicia and the kids went with some friends to a pool the other day. It was indoors with an option for it being outdoors. The fun part is that the pool is supplied from a warm spring. The water is clean and warm and the kids had a great time. They were too busy playing to take many pictures, but here are a couple of shots.

Hudson is 6!

Hudson celebrated his 6th birthday the other day and had a great time. He wanted a Spiderman themed party with a Spiderman pinata and a Spiderman cookie cake. Felicia and I are thinking about going into a pinata/cookiecake business here in China. Micah has already said he wants a pinata and cookie cake. Here are some shots from Hud's party.

Hud's Birthday Breakfast:


Spiderman cake and pinata:


Opening presents with friends:


Hitting the pinata:


Trying out his new 'wiggly' skateboard:

Pandas!

We had a fabulous time going to the Panda Research Base! Hannah Grace even got to hold a baby panda! She was six months old, weighed 14 kilos and was named "Fuzzy". Here are some shots of HG and Fuzzy...


Near the entrance...



A cute panda...



HG with Fuzzy...



Love at first sight...



Fuzzy kissing HG...

Hudson lost his first tooth!

On our trip south a couple of weeks ago, Hudson wiggly tooth came out on the bus ride. It was his first lost tooth and another tooth is already feeling wiggly, too. Here he is with his tooth missing!

More Wild Animal Park Pictures!

Just to give you a few more shots from last month at the park. The kids really did love it.

In front of a camel:



Elephants!



It almost looks like she is petting the panda:



Hud holding a bird:



HG holding a different bird:

HG's 8!!!

Well, almost. The 8th is her birthday, but we had a party with some of her new friends on Saturday. It was a lot of fun. Hannah Grace wanted a cowgirl theme, so we made rainbow bandanas, a horse pinata, and a horse cookie cake. Everyone had a great time. Now Hud and Micah are fired up about their birthdays. Lots of pinatas this year, apparently. Here's some pictures...


The pinata and horse cake...



Girlies making bandanas...



Blowing out her candles...



Hitting the pinata...



HG and her friends...

A Trip South

We recently had to get our visas renewed so a trip out of the country was in order. Instead of flying to some exotic locale, we hopped on a bus and traveled to our old hometown and then trekked a bit farther to the Vietnamese border.


Here's Hannah Grace with one of her oldest friends, Peng Peng, in our old hometown. (Our old hometown is absolutely gorgeous these days.)



Felicia and the kids halfway between China and Vietnam. That is the Mekong River in the background in front of Vietnam. China is on the right.



We stopped a little north of the border and played on this waterfall. Felicia, HG, and Hudson actually took a little tumble down part of it. Just bruised and scratched, no major injuries.



The kids climbing on our old college campus. They had so much fun there and were asking when we could come back.



On the bus ride home. Someone (Jason) thought he would save some money and put the 5 of us in 3 seats on a smoky unair-conditioned bus. Great choice!

Our Little Girl Growing Up

We recently visited our old hometown in China and took some pictures of our HG in similar spots as we had taken before.

Here she is in 2004:




In 2009:

Wild Animal Park!

In mid-February (we've been offline for a while), we visited the Wild Animal Park in our city and the kids loved it. We saw bears, jaguars, tigers, lions, ostriches, pandas, yaks, camels, kimodo dragons, elephants, birds, monkeys and about everything else you can imagine that walks on the earth. Here are some shots around the park...


Up close with a panda



Hudson holding a monkey



A white peacock



That is a bear with no cage



Feeding the bears some carrots on a fishing pole