Halloween Fun!

We had a great end to October here in China. We made halloween cookies, went to a Harvest Festival and ate lots of goodies. Here's some shots of the kids having fun...

Cookie Making...


...And Eating.
Getting Ready.

At the Festival!

HG's Bangs!

Well, our little girl wanted bangs. What's a Daddy to do? HG went today and got some bangs. Here she is...

Felicia's Birthday!!!

Felicia turned 29....again! We celebrated with a once a year trip to the brand new Papa John's and Dairy Queen in our city. We say once a year because it will take about that long to 1) burn off all the calories consumed, and 2) save enough money to go there again. It was a great time and Felicia got 140 photos of friends and family as her gift from the kids. Our city ran out of frames, though, so it may take a while before they are all displayed.

Pepperoni pizza at Papa Johns.

Opening her gift.

Her first bite of DQ!

Only about 5000 calories.

The kids enjoying their treats.

Family Fun Festival

The International School in our city hosted a Family Festival for everyone to come and enjoy. There were all the games you see at these things in America with some Chinese extras. The boys got balloon animals and tattoos and did a football toss. HG loved this gooey game where you had to find marbles. There were also Muslim lamb sticks, Korean barbeque, hot dogs and donuts. The kids had a great time.

Soccer Stars

We started soccer this week and all three of the kids had so much fun. A real benefit of living here is that the soccer league is run by Brazilians. Its like having a fat southern lady teach you how to deep fry. Considering Jason was the kids' most recent coach in the States, this is a considerable step up. Here's some pictures from the first practice.

Hot Eats, Cool Treats

Sometimes people will ask if it is difficult to leave behind things in America to live in China. We definitely miss some things, but a lot of things we can do without, find a substitute or apparently some things just follow us here.

We loved cooking out on the grill and having hotdogs, hamburgers, baked beans, corn on the cob and asparagus all going at one time during a relaxing weekend during the summer in the States. So, we were missing it until we found this baby at WalMart here. While it doesn't quite have the capacity of our old grill in the States, it can still get the job done and it only cost 4 dollars. You can't beat that combo.

Also, after a long day playing outside in the sun or just wanting a little treat, who doesn't want some delicious, cold ice cream? Well, DQ has decided to follow us here and is opening soon. Now, for more than the cost of a new grill at Walmart, we can enjoy a oreo blizzard with cheesecake crumbles. Of course, due to the cost, this might be a "birthday only" kind of treat.

We are on one hand happy that we now have Papa John's and Dairy Queen and McDonald's and stuff, because it is a nice treat to have on occasion, but it is also a little sad to see China lose some of its Chinesy-ness. Sometimes, in some places, you can feel like you are in an America that just speaks Chinese. Of course, some people think that day might not be too far away anyway. Maybe we're just getting a headstart.

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.