Hair

When you have an older sister and you're both in silly moods, sometimes your hair gets put into little piggy tails!

Happy Easter

Happy Easter! We had a lovely, beautiful Easter around here. We enjoyed the baskets the Bunny brought, went to church and were pleased to have Ali's friend and her family there with us as our guests, dyed eggs, had an egg hunt, had Family Home Evening...a great day. 

We spent the week reading from the scriptures the different eye witnesses to Christ's Resurection. I have not seen Him on this side of the veil, but neverthless I know He lives. He makes everything worth it, makes everything possible. I love Him. Happy Easter.

More Celebrating

Birthday celebrations are never limited to one day, right? So Jake got to celebrate his birthday again with two cousins who have birthdays near his, one on the same day and one a few days later (Ethan and Josh are college and mission bound, rather than Jake's preschool bound, but they're all amazing!)

And we also had Jake's first friend birthday. It was a Scooby Doo party and it was a huge success. I had to laugh at the difference of time I put into my first four-year-old birthday and this one! In my defense, I have thrown a Scooby Doo party before and have 21 other kid birthday parties under my belt (Wow, my kids are getting old!).

Jake felt very loved and properly spoiled after his "birthday month," so mission accomplished.

Typing

Eli wanted to type a story on the computer and Logan volunteered to help...!

Pig Cup

We got a basketball hoop this spring, and all the kids have been enjoying it with their dad. When Jason was young, he and his dad and brother had a "Pig Crown" that the reigning pig champ kept in his room, so our kids made a "Pig Trophy" for the same purpose. Logan was pretty pleased the first time he got to have it in his room!

Daddy Daughter Dance

Ali and her dad got to go to their last Daddy Daughter dance. I took her to get her hair and nails done before as a fun treat. The ladies that got to do her hair and nails oohhed and ahhed over her long hair and long nails!

Looks like they had a great time.

The dress was so fun to twirl in!

Happy Birthday Jake

This boy has been asking if it was his birthday tomorrow since Christmas, so on April 6th it was so fun to tell him that, yes! his birthday was tomorrow, and then to spoil him on his actual birthday April 7th.

My "One Great Chef" (something he calls himself) of course had to help me make his birthday cake, sporting his new chef outfit from his Grandparents.

He was so excited about the paw patrol guys I got to decorate the cake with...he just wanted them off the cake about .3 seconds after helping me put them on.

He was so excited to be sung to and blew out his candles about half way through the song (too hard to wait till the end!)

We're so thankful Jake is part of our family. He is loving, creative, and fun and we sure love him.

While we were away...

While we were gone, the kids were totally spoiled by their Aunt, Uncle and cousins. They had a fun Spring Break with them and were great kids, not giving us a hard time at all for leaving them to go on this adventure.

Their dog Maddie came too and she was a hit.

I hear they spent a lot of time outside on the trampoline and playing wax museum.

I got good reports of kind, helpful kids.

And they went on lots of fun adventures.

We loved being able to WeChat with them morning and night (our nights/ their mornings and visa versa).

Again, Thank You JD and Lianna!

Jinan Market

On our last day we hiked to a monument called Hero Mountain, and then went to the Jinan Market. You could buy anything there from bread to household items to expensive jewelry to nick knacks and everything in between. 

 Everyone in China seemed to be eating food on sticks, so I had to give it a try.

Live scorpions, No, thank you. Aren't the little ones the most deadly?!!

This guy was an example of someone who wanted to come talk to us even though we don't speak the same language. Jason chatted with him through the app on his phone for awhile, and as they ended their conversation I asked for a picture. After this he indicated he wanted one too and when I tried to take it he indicated that, no, he didn't want the photo with Jason but with me!

We only had time to tour one of their campuses (the other being at least an hour away), but it was fun to see some of the places they've been teaching. They are having such  an amazing adventure and it was so fun to be a part of it for a few days.

After that we took the train back to Beijing, slept in a hotel by the airport and flew out the next day. Somehow we time traveled, leaving at 1:40pm on Sunday and arriving at 1:20pm on Sunday! It was an amazing trip.

Daming Lake and Food Street

Mom and Dad got us around Jinan by bus.

We wandered to another pretty spot, Daming Lake and Old Jinan.

We saw many brides and grooms taking pictures on our trip. These two were especially picturesque.

 Again, I loved the lanterns everywhere.

And there were always amazing statues everywhere.

Dad has been learning to read and speak Chinese and Jason was a willing pupil. It was fun for me to watch the two of them chat and chat and chat.

The food street had delicious food, some of which we had, and not so delicious food that we avoided.

My mom makes friends everywhere she goes, and China has not been an exception. She took us to meet a baker friend of hers who raved and raved about her to us (through our interpreter apps on our phones; those are so cool!) When we left we asked how many times she'd been there...a couple! The two of them seemed like sisters!

This might be our favorite picture of our whole trip: this guy totally photo bombed us, but he fits so perfectly it looks like we planned to have him there! He took off in a hurry after so we didn't get to show him how great the picture turned out!

Baotu Springs

The next day in Jinan we started at another of my parents' favorite spots, Baotu Springs. Again, Spring was just beginning there and everything was so beautiful. We took a lot of pictures! Jinan is known for having many, many natural springs and this complex is built around 20 of those. 

  

Jinan 10,000 Buddha Mountain

After a few days on our own in Beijing, we traveled by train to see my parents in Jinan. Once again, Jason's thorough research got us where we needed to be.

It was fun having my parents show us around their town. I was really proud of them! Not only are they living in a foreign city, they are living in a BIG foreign city--a far cry from their suburban life at home. But they know their way around, have friends and favorite places. Pretty cool, you two.

"Jinan!"

On the day we arrived, after a yummy lunch, my mom took us to one of her favorite places 10,000 Buddha Mountain. It is a working monastery (we saw the monks leaving from their prayers) on a beautiful mountain that was in the middle of blooming for spring.

There are Buddha statues carved all over the mountain, most notably this Big Buddha (who you can actually see from their apartment miles away).

There was also this amazing cave with 1000s of Buddhas. We were in awe.

It was a great way to start our stay in Jinan.