Jason's Trip Up North

We are having a holiday here in China with the 60th anniversary of the country and the Mid-Autumn Festival coming back to back, so Jason took to the rails and visited some friends in provinces north of us. It was an awesome time to see these friends and see what their lives are like.


Here are some photos of our friends' town in the far north. It was a little cold there, but beautiful.

Sunset view from our friends' door.

Our friends' toilet. No one has fallen in , yet. This is typical for the homes in the area.

A village school we visited.

Central Heating in our friends' home. Again, typical for the area.

The mountains north of town.

Sheep in town.

My train car with bunk beds. Surprisingly comfortable, but a loooong ride.

Our Family Expands

We have added a new member to our family....Gerby. Hannah Grace has been saving her money from doing chores and we went today to the dog market (for pets, not for eating) and picked out this cutie. Hudson calls her a "gergil". So far, she hasn't escaped so Felicia is happy.

Exciting News For Us!

While many of our 3 readers won't find this too amazing, we were a little excited to see this sign going up in a new shopping development downtown:Of course, we do already have Pizza Hut here and only have eaten there once in the last nine months, but Papa John's has better ingredients and better pizza. In reality, we will probably eat here once as well, but it is always fun to have new stuff available.

Also, next door to Papa John's was this jewel. While some think Peanuts is just a comic strip and Charlie Brown is limited to holiday specials, here in China he is branching out with his own cafe. Rumors are he will be launching a fashion line in Spring '10, soon to be followed with a Nascar sponsorship.

Summer of NaiNai

Jason's mom, NaiNai, came to visit this summer. We tried to show her a good time. Here are some shots with her...

Her first picture with the kids. Her plane landed near midnight over here so the kids woke her up the next morning. No real chance to overcome jetlag with these three around.

I can't turn this picture the right way to save my life.

Eating a handmade sugar bunny.

Eating dumplings!

In front of beautiful pools.

Around 14,000 feet.

Making chocolate for a contest that our kids won!