Along with the autoshow came work visitors. Both Kirk and I hosted people from the States. We were able to meet up for a bit as a group one night.
The large group picture from left to right was: Rob Eckstein, Larry Denton, Cindy Zhou, Tim Glock, Hudson Yang, Sean McGuire, Dr. Wang, Kirk and I. In the next picture, it was Kirk, me and Matt Pohlman.
Kirk and Sean were so stressed out from the Autoshow, they had to get a foot massage.
On the weekend, I took Matt for a whirlwind tour of the popular tourist attractions in Shanghai. Then later that night, we met up with Clifford Kang and his wife Wendy Wu. We had dinner at a great Korean barbecue restaurant and finished the night at the piano bar in the Jin Mao tower.
The last few weeks have been kind of crazy. These pictures show the Auto Shanghai show. It was just as big and glamourous as the Detroit Auto show. The show was at the exhibition center just around the block behind our apartment.
Dura had a booth and Kirk was very busy involved with the preparation for the show. You can see the booth and some other pictures of cars that he saw.
You can also see how much traffic was in front of our apartment. It was awful, it took forever to get around that week. We were glad when it was over!
Would you believe that Bumpa and Gigi would fly to China? So many things to do and see.If we weren't sightseeing we were entertained by Alex and Elizabeth.
Alex loves to play with all his cars and trucks. Bumpa would ask him were the tractor and cars were and he would line them up ready to play.
Elizabeth likes doing puzzles and dolls. We went to Elizabeth's school and Gigi read them a book she composed about the farm. They enjoyed looking at Elizabeth and Alex pictures. The boys liked the picture of the homemade tractor plowing snow.Some have not seen that much snow. We went to Alex's school, the girls out numbered the boys. Before Easter went back to school for an Easter egg hunt and lunch with Elizabeth's class.
We went to the markets and could not beleve what goes on. A person can buy anything they want. They had their calculators out, ready to bargain. And don't touch it because they thought you were going to buy it. Marion said that was the biggest goodie barn he ever saw.
About the traffic and drivers. That is another story in itself. I think GiGi had a hole in the floor from braking so much. We managed to cross the streets without getting hit by the buses,cars,motorbikes and bikes. That was our first lesson.
Marion said the only safe place to be is on the 20th floor of their apartment and watch all the traffic. What a view they have. A person would not believe they lived in the city looking out the window. At night the buildings are lit up and a couple of nights we watched some fireworks.
We went to an Chinese Acrobat Show and they had 8 motorcycles in a cage. They went ever which way but loose, around and round, up and down. They sure do know to entertain. If you ever get a chance to see one of their shows it is a treat.
The gardens and the flower show were just beatiful. But I have to remind myself they have many people working on those. So if I choose to do a couple of new projects in my garden I'll be happy this year. The ideas are going to be time saving for me, like less weeding. Of course, Marion doesn't know what is in the planning for him to help out.
All in all we had a good time with the Roessler Family. Thank you again. Marion and Karen
We went to the Botanical Garden on Monday after Easter. When we first walked in, we thought it would only take 30 minutes to walk through the exhibition. Little did we know! This place is huge, a lot like Century Park. It had some amazing exhibits and we really enjoyed walking through. See some of the pictures I took of flowers that I thought were especially pretty.
That afternoon, we watched Elizabeth dance again with her friends. They have a recital coming up at the end of May or in June.
On Wednesday, I pulled Elizabeth out of school early and we went to People's Square to check out the Shanghai Urban Planning and Exhibition center. It was amazing. It has a model of the city of Shanghai! We saw our apartments, although they must have been planned to be on the opposite corner of Huamu Lu and Fangdian Lu.
We had such a great time with our visitors. Gigi will be doing a guest blog for me (hopefully) so that you can hear her perspective. I think they enjoyed themselves and they even got comfortable enough to take the Metro around by themselves!
We're thankful that they came and thankful that Kirk's Mom came in March. It will be busy for us until we come home in July, but it helped get us through!
Okay Pelton, that should've kept you busy for a while. Stop pestering me now! :)
We decorated Easter Eggs. Elizabeth had a lot of fun doing this with the Princess Easter Egg kit that Grammy had brought. You can see the beautiful eggs with GiGi and Elizabeth.
On Easter Sunday, we went to our church, Sacred Heart in Pudong. It was pretty crowded, but we got there early and got a good seat. We ended up seeing Elizabeth's friend Sophie and her family and they sat next to us. Alex went into the nursery and loved it.
After church, we went to Elizabeth's friend Oia's birthday party. I forgot to take my camera, but she had a blast.
Then we got to do the Easter Egg hunt. Alex just liked finding the eggs, shaking them, and opening them when the shaking sounded liked Jelly Beans. He thinks they are "nummy". We had so much fun and were so thankful to have family celebrate Easter with us as it wouldn't have been the same.
The last thing we did that day was take Alex to Farhana to get his hair cut. He was a little better this time. We really chopped it off and with it we chopped off all of his sweetness. He is a full blown terrible 2 year old!! We'll take more pictures of him but he really looks like a little boy now, not a baby, and he looks just like Kirk.
On Saturday before Easter, we went took the Metro (subway) to Xintiandi. This is an area of Shanghai in Puxi that was occupied by the Europeans and then once they were kicked out, it was the site for the first Communist party meeting. Now it is an upscale shopping and restaurant area. We ate at Latina which is a Brazillian steakhouse. The food was very good.
Then we walked to Nanjing Lu. This is a pedestrian street in Shanghai that has always (since the 1800's) been a shopping area. It is now lit up with many neon lights and is a site to see. We stopped at a Pearl market and Gigi was able to spend some money that had been burning a hole in her pocket.
Gigi and Bumpa found the Metro so easy to use, the next week, they mastered taking it on their own to many places.
These are funny pictures, I'm just getting a look at them for the first time. So Kirk and Alex took Bumpa to the Science and Technology Museum and Gigi, Elizabeth and I went to her friend's, Crystal Tan, birthday party. Apparently Bumpa and Alex were a big hit with the local Chinese students! They all wanted their picture's taken with the Laowai (foreigner).
The party was a lot of fun and Crystal's parents, Dave and Peline, did a great job organizing it. It was at their apartment's clubhouse and their were 28 kids. On top of that, there were parents and Ayi's too! Elizabeth had fun and you can see the picture of her and her buddy, Jacob B. I think they have a crush on each other. Jacob is a very rambunctous but smart 4 year old. He draws pictures all the time for Elizabeth and she brings them home in her lunchbox.
The Monday after we returned from Beijing, we just did a little local sightseeing. Bumpa had read in the newspaper that Paul Allen (co-founder of Microsoft) had his yacht in town. Liu drove us down to check it out. Well as you can see in the pictures, it was pretty huge! It has a crew of 60 people, a helicopter, and a submarine!
Another day we went to the Oriental Pearl Tower and looked out at the sights. We saw the progress of the new financial tower vs the Jin Mao tower. We went to the Bund on the Pudong side and had dinner at Paulaner.
Finally we ended up at home with both kids on Gigi's lap for some stories.
On the Friday after they arrived, we made them get right back on a plane to Beijing. We spent the weekend touring China's capital. It really is an amazing city that is under a lot of change and construction getting ready for the 2008 Summer Olympics.
We took the Maglev to the airport and then arrived in Beijing on Friday night. We stayed at the Sheraton and in front of the hotel was the Beijing Hard Rock Cafe. We ate dinner there that night. It was very loud, but Elizabeth was so tired, she still was able to pass out at dinner.
We hired a private tour guide and driver. The tour guide's name was Rita and she lives in Beijing. She grew up in Harbin which is a northern China province. She did an excellent job showing us the city.
The first place we saw on Saturday morning was Tiannamen Square. It is the largest city center in the world. Here was saw the countdown clock to the Olympics, the place where Mao's tomb is (closed for refurbishment) and the picture of Mao on the entrance to the Forbidden City. You can see from the pictures that is was chilly and windy.
We couldn't believe how big the Forbidden City was. This was the place that the Chinese Emperors lived. It's easy to understand why the Boxer Rebellion happened since these people lived so large while there were so many peasants with nothing on the outside.
After the Forbidden City, we went to lunch at a traditional Chinese restaurant in the area where the Heaven's Temple is. After lunch we went up to the Heaven's Temple. Twice per year, the emperors would come here to pray to the gods for a good harvest.
On the way out of the Heaven's Temple we witnessed daily Chinese life. Singing, playing cards, dancing, kites....It wiped Alex out.
Before we returned to the hotel, we stopped at a silk factory and store. We saw the silkworm lifecycle and how they extract silk thread from their cocoons.
Our day ended with a swim in the pool and dinner at the hotel. Again, Elizabeth passed out at dinner!
The next day we went on a Hutong tour. Our guide's name was Seven. The Hutong houses were traditional Chinese houses with many rooms surrounding a central courtyard and many family members would live together. We rode in traditional bicycle drawn rickshaws throught the neighborhood. The alleys were no bigger than 2 bicycle widths since that is how most people traveled. At one time there were 6000 Hutong neighborhoods in Beijing. Now with modernization and construction there are only 2000. The one we went to is now protected by the government.
We had lunch in a family's home. Elizabeth ate with Rita, Seven, and the home's cook in the kitchen while we ate in the family room. The food was very good and there was a lot! Gigi even mastered using chopsticks to pick up peanuts.
On our way in the car to the Great Wall, we drove by the Olympic Stadium and the Swimming pool under construction.
It took us about an hour to get to the location where we were going to go up to the Great Wall. Once we arrived, we had to take a cable car up to the top of the wall. What an amazing place. It truly is a wonder how this could have been built and how massive it is. It was pretty windy on top of the wall and pretty steep in some cases. The view was outstanding. While we were on top, a snow squall came through! For some reason, Elizabeth had it in her head that we were going to walk the whole great wall and she was upset when we told her it was time to go. We had to explain how many days it would take to walk 6000 kilometers!
We weren't that impressed by the city life in Beijing, definitely not as cool as Shanghai, but the historical sites and landmarks were truly amazing! Definitely a great trip.
We had our next batch of visits arrive on March 28th. Bumpa and Gigi made the trek from Fountain MI. They made it through the flight, that is the toughest part. I picked them up from the airport and then the next day we spent time exploring our neighborhood. Elizabeth didn't have school so we all went to Century Park. We rented one of the bikes and had a ball peddling around the park. Going up hills was tough and we got to laughing pretty hard when we barely made it up one of them!
There are also pictures of the kids going for bike rides and going to the little park.
We had a busy weekend on this weekend. On Saturday morning, Elizabeth and I went and met up with one of my friends from Delphi in the US, Dan Renick. They brought him back to the apartment to check out the view and to meet Alex. Dan was kind enough to bring some goodies for Elizabeth and Alex. A lot of chocolate and peanut butter candy! You can't buy Reese's in China and if you could, it still probably wouldn't taste the same.
In the afternoon, the kids were playing in the hall outside of our apartment. Elizabeth was playing with Disney princess book that Aunt Cole sent over. Thanks Aunt Cole!
Then on Saturday night, we had the Concordia Charity Auction. It was held at the Shangri-La. We sat at a table with Rob and Stacy Eckstein. It was a lot of fun and there were so many people we met. After the auction was done, we went upstairs to the Jade on 36 bar and danced. Since the auction was open bar (meaning bottomless wine glasses), I had a little too much fun! The lady in the blue dress dancing with me is Stacy.
The other picture with me is with two girls that were traveling with Dan. Julie and Connie ended up coming to meet up with us since Connie also had a friend that was at the auction.
We celebrated Kirk's birthday with an ice cream birthday cake from Haagen Daaz that Elizabeth picked out. He turned the big 37! One of Kirk's colleagues from Dura in the States was in town, so Dave, Kirk and I went out to dinner at the Jin Mao tower. Good celebration.
Elizabeth and Alex wanted to go home with Grammy's in her suitcase
This is my last day of a 19-day visit with Kirk, Kath, Lizzy and Alex. I am sad to leave China, but I have so many wonderful memories of my visit here. We were on the go everyday! I got to see Puxi, the Bund, Shanghai Museum, Shanghai Art Museum, Yuyuan Gardens, the French Concession, Xintiandi, Century Park, and Pearl and Jin Mao Towers. We took a day trip to Suzhou, where we saw ancient Chinese gardens, towers, and pagodas. Very beautiful! Kirk, Elizabeth and I spent an evening at the ERA, Chinese acrobatic performance at the Shanghai Centre Theatre, which I highly recommend. It was amazing! I was here to help Elizabeth celebrate her 4th birthday. We had three celebrations: one at school with her classmates, where Kath and I spent the morning, did a shell-painting craft, and provided birthday treats for the children; next we had a small celebration at home that evening, sharing cupcakes with DeDe (Alex) who liked them very much; and lastly on Saturday, with a full-fledged Princess Tea Party for 12 dancing princesses, their moms and ayis (nannies). It was very special. I also got to go to ballet class and spend a day helping in Elizabeth's class. This was very special! She is so happy here, and has many friends. I also took Alex to his Chinese preschool one afternoon, and enjoyed that a lot, although I didn't understand a word of it! You don't need to know the words to communicate with babies and teachers! Kirk and Kath's apartment is very nice and spacious. The most impressive thing is the view. I don't think you could find a better one in Shanghai. I love the Pudong side of town. It is mostly modern and fairly easy to get around in. The Puxi side is the opposite. It is noisy, crazy busy, and a constant traffic jam. The Bund is a very interesting contrast to all of the modern skyscrapers that are going up, one after another. Construction is everywhere. I do not know where they will be able to put all of the cars we Americans would like to help them acquire from us. Right now busses, taxis, private autos, motor scooters and bicycles all fight for the same road space. Traffic signals seem optional. Underground in the Metro are many little shops selling the fake designer bags, watches, etc. It was fun learning to barter with Kirk! We ate at some amazing restaurants. Most of the places in Green City, near their apartment, cater to Americans and other ex-pats, so the food was much like home. Others like the hotel buffets have a wonderful assortment of Chinese specialties. Lastly, I cannot express enought thanks to Soujou and Mr. Liu for taking such good care of me while I was here. XieXie! You all should consider a trip here. It is an amazing place, and the hospitality was incredible. Thanks Kirk and Kath!
After church this past Sunday, we went to brunch at the Novotel. The food was horrible but they had a play area for the kids!
Afterward, we took a walking tour around the French Concession. Again, in a couple weeks, flowers will be blooming and it will be pretty. We'll have to go back.
Kath searched and searched for shoes to wear to a black tie thing they have. Every salesperson laughed when she told them her size - 9.5 - 10US or 40-42 UK. Guess they don't sell those in China!! Good reason to shop this summer!
One night, Kirk and I took Grammy on our own while the kids stayed at home with Shou Ju. We went to Nanjing Lu and she was able to see the pedestrian street and do a little shopping. We also took the Metro. She really liked getting around the city on that.
Unfortunately it was raining, so we didn't have good views when we went to the top of the Royal Meridien for a drink.
Kirk and Elizabeth took Grammy to see the Chinese Acrobat show. They came back just in awe. They loved it and had so much fun.
Kath doesn't work on Mondays and Kirk's Mondays are slow so we decided to take Elizabeth out of school and drive to Suzhou for the day. It's called the Venice of the East. It has a lot of canals throughout the city as well as gardens and temples. We went to the, can't remember the name now and too lazy to go find the book, gardens and in a couple weeks it will be full of flowers. We bought a Chinese calligraphy picture here with the words Home Sweet Home in Chinese characters.
On one of the two sunny days we had during Grammy's visit, we went over to Century Park. Elizabeth rode her bike the whole way. She did an awesome job. We got to show Grammy all of our favorite spots including the children's playground. We wish the weather would have been nicer so that we could've had a picnic, but we still had fun.
So this was the big birthday party. We all agreed it wasn't quite the same without Ally, Anna, Sarah, Katherine Wasik, Allison Bruett, and Rachel Harris here.
Elizabeth was sooooo excited to have her girlfriends come over to her house. She had Orla, Ciara, Oia, and Chloe from our neighborhood. From school, she had Sophie, Crystal, Samantha, Claire Y, Claire W, Leslie, and Lauren. She had a Princess Tea Party and all of her friends came dressed as their favorite princesses.
She had an Ariel doll cake. We didn't make this one because our "easy bake" oven isn't quite big enough!
Thank goodness we had Grammy here to help. She made tea sandwiches - PB&J, egg salad, ham and cheese, chicken salad, and cucumber and cream cheese. They ate them all!!! We also had Shou Ju make dumplings. Of course those went as well.
It was a fun party and Elizabeth got lots of nice gifts!
One of the reasons Kirk's mom came when she did was to celebrate Elizabeth's birthday with us. Elizabeth had about 4 birthday parties when all was said and done.
On the day of her birthday, she opened gifts in the morning. Then Grammy and Mama took a craft and cupcakes to her school for a whole class celebration. She really wanted to have her whole class come to her house party, but there was just not enough room! So this was our compromise and it worked well. We took the shells we had collected from Langkawi and the kids painted them. Of course, she had cupcakes with pink sprinkles. All the kids had fun. You can see the pictures of her friends at school.
At night, she had her favorite - bow-tie pasta with parmesan. And Daddy brought home an ice cream cake from Haagen Daaz. It was heart shaped.
Grammy made the trip from Sunny Florida to Dismal Shanghai on March 1. The weather this last couple weeks has been cold and rainy. I think she had maybe 2 sunny days while she was here. She decided next time to come later in the spring season!
These pictures of her visit show us visiting the YuYuan Gardens and Bazaar during the Lantern Festival. They hang hundreds of red lanterns throughout the area and they are all lit up at night. It was very pretty.
We made our first Asian excursion during the time we had off for the Chinese New Year. Without any knowledge of what to do, we chose to go to Langkawi, Malaysia based on a recommendation from a local travel agent.
It turned out to be a good recommendation. We took the Maglev on Sat Feb 17 to the Pudong Airport (see previous pictures). This train is about 1/2 mile from our house and it takes 8 minutes to get to the airport vs. a 45 minute car ride. Amazing!
The kids were great on the plane. It took about 5 hours to get to Kuala Lumpur (KL), then we had a layover, changed planes and arrived on the island of Langkawi around 6 pm. It was hot and humid when we got off the plane and we were excited about getting to the hotel to swim! We had a van pick us up and it took about 30 minutes to get to the Westin Resort.
The resort is in a very tropical location and has an open air lobby. The service when we arrived was good and we knew we would be taken care of. We got into our room and we saw that we had a beautiful view of the landscaped area of the hotel and waterfalls as well as partial view of the sea.
I actually don't think we made it to swim that first day because by the time we ate dinner, the kids were toast. They had a swim in the bathtub and then to sleep to get ready for the next day. Kirk and I were able to sit on our balcony and have a glass of wine while they were sleeping so we did get some alone time!
We got a start the next morning by letting Daddy sleep in while we went and had breakfast at this awesome buffet! Then we went swimming. This was pretty much our standard routine (Daddy joined breakfast occasionally) for the next 6 days.
Those kids had so much fun swimming. There were 4 pools and here is what Elizabeth named them...1.) The Fountain pool (1 ft deep childrens pool with a small fountain in the center), 2.) The Rock pool (see pictures) 3.) The Big pool (self explanatory) and 4.) The Small pool (on the other side of the big pool). We pretty much worked our way around all of the pools everyday.
Alex's favorite was the fountain pool. He could swim around on his own in this pool. He could crawl on his hands while kicking his feet. Good start to swimming.
This was also the pool where Elizabeth learned to swim. She didn't have to wear her water wings in this pool and she was doing the same crawling thing as Alex. Except one time, she decided to swim with her face underwater and that was it....she was an official swimmer.
I'm tired, I'll edit the post and write more tomorrow!
The last day we were in Malaysia they held the Ironman Triathalon. This triathalon consists od a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike ride and finshes with a 26.2 mile (marathon) run. The temperatures reached 95 degrees plus on the island but it didn't seem to phase most of the athletes completing. Above is a picture of the lady that won as she was about a mile from the finish line.
If you want to learn more about the ironman race goto www.ironman.com.
The Chinese New Year begins on February 18th. At midnight the skies all over China will be filled with fireworks as everyone sets them off. This upcoming year is special as it is the year of the Golden Pig. The Golden Pig only comes once every 60 or 600 years depending on who you talk to. It is believed that if you are born this year you will be very successful. There are many articles in the english paper here about how many couples are planning to have a child this year. The government is worried that there will be a population surge which will require them to build more schools several years from now.
We will not be in Shanghai for the New Years Celebration, we are going to a beach resort in Langkawi, Malaysia. If you look at the map below it is the little island south of Penang and West of Georgetown. We will update the blog with pictures and stories when we return.
We had a pretty good Valentines Day! Mommy made a wonderful meal for dinner and Daddy brought home a Heart Shaped Strawberry Ice Cream Cake from Haagen Dazs. Elizabeth had a Valentines Day Party at school where she exchanged Valnetines with all of her friends.
Kath took me to see Roger Waters (original member of Pink Floyd). She would tell you it was not that good, but he really put on a good show. Roger Waters is very much from the left side and is not a big fan of George Bush, Tony Blair or the War in Iraq. Regardless of how you feel about the previous people/issues it was amazing to see him freely speak out about those subjects and many other anti-government subjects. The crowd went crazy over it. Most Chinese are also not big fans of George Bush. They especially went crazy when they played "Another Brick in the Wall" (We don't need education...We don't need thought control...) while showing video of the Wall separating East and West Germany coming down. All of this happening in a supposed Communist Country. It was pretty interesting to be there.
The show was very good, he played almost all Pink Floyd songs and played the "Dark Side of the Moon" Album in it's entirety. The politcal talking got to be a little too much, but the music was very good for a 60 year old dude. He played for 2.5 to 3 hours. Unlike the Eric Clapton concert this show was made up of mostly Chinese.
Here is a review of the show including the set list:
If you ever wondered how they wash the windows of our apartment, this is how they do it in China. I will remind you that we live on the 20th floor of a 32 story building. Alex was pretty impressed.
We went out to dinner with Kirk's Sales Team to celebrate Chinese New Year. We also invited Shou Ju (her husband couldn't come due to work) and Liu and his family. We had dinner at the largest buffet that I have ever been to. We had a good time getting to meet everyone. Elizabeth and Alex got a little restless towards the end of the dinner, but overall were pretty good.
After too many times of being asked whether Alex was a "nushi or nanhai" (girl or boy), we decided it was time to cut his hair. I'd cut his bangs one time in the past, but never had been ready to part with his baby curls.
We took him to Elizabeth and my hairdresser, Farhana. He was pretty cautious about the whole thing. Kirk held on to him and we gave him lots of different stuff to play with. He cried a little bit, but overall did a fairly decent job. Kirk did have to hold him in a headlock once, so that she could snip around his ears.
You can see his new cut. Fortunately, he still has the curls. After a shower last night, the afro came back and it is still very cute!
This past weekend we tried to go to the aquarium, but the closing time was different than what we read in a book. So instead we went to the Super Brand mall and the kids got to play in an indoor play place. Alex loved the pink bunny. He thought it was his lovey. More stories on that one in the future........I'm concerned! :)
After, we went to Hooters for dinner. The chicken tastes good and they have good blue cheese dressing...hard to find here. The Hooter's girls all loved Alex of course. Elizabeth said, "Mama, where are the waiters?"
We went to see Eric Clapton at the Shanghai Grand Theater. He got bad reviews because he didn't play a lot of his famous stuff and only played for about 2 hours. He didn't interact with the crowd much either. We liked it. The guitar playing was awesome. I guess you can do what you want when you are 62 yrs old and have a huge fan base.
We had no snow in Michigan but we were able to go sledding in Shanghai! Elizabeth's preschool class took a field trip to an indoor ski hill in Puxi. The kids all had a lot of fun. It was like a bunny hill, but you could ski there. There was an escalator that took you to the top and you could ski or sled down. We chose just to sled and you can see Elizabeth loved it!
Now we begin our trek back to China. There is no direct flight from Florida to China, so we had to fly back to Detroit, stay the night and fly back the next day. We chose just to stay at the Westin right at the airport. This was a good choice. We stepped off the plane, had a baggage person handle our luggage right to the hotel, which was right inside the airport, and then they transferred it to our room. This made things much less hectic than if we had stayed with family or friends.
God Bless Pelton for packing the stuff we left at her house into boxes and bringing it to us. We had dinner (just P and Kath for the last half) so it was nice to visit.
The Westin at Detroit Metro is really nice. Although pricey, it made our trip more convenient.
Our plane trip back was uneventful, except I thought I lost my new Red Ipod. I found it in Alex's backpack.
Kirk put together the Thomas table when we got back and Alex and Elizabeth LOVE to play with it.
We were pretty jet lagged for a week after we got back. The kids were passing out at dinner!
Disney pictures. I also forgot to mention the rides that Elizabeth and Alex went on. Elizabeth went on the Tea Cups and Dumbo and Alex got to drive the cars with Dad.
After the fun party at the Harris', we loaded a USA 3000 flight to Ft Myers with Grammy and PopPop and Sophie. Alex was less than thrilled to have to board a plane. We made it through and got to sunny Florida safe.
Wow, the weather was incredible and you can see the fun we had.
We went to Disneyworld (thank you again Grammy and PopPop) for two days. We woke up early one morning, drove 3 hours and were in the park by 10 am or so. We stayed at the Shades of Green hotel, right on sight and were able to see A LOT in 2 days.
One of the highlights of the trip was Elizabeth getting to see the princesses. Daddy waited in line for over an hour for her to see Belle, Cinderella, and Ariel. We also had lunch with the princesses. It was hard to figure out who was more excited to see them...Kirk or Elizabeth.
Another highlight was Alex getting to see McQueen and Mater. He loves the Cars movie and the characters and they had full size cars at MGM.
Finally, the fireworks and parades we saw were awesome and the kids really enjoyed themselves. There were about a kazillion people there, but we really had a good time.
We got back from Disney and were able to relax for the rest of our US tour. We were able to go to Naples Beach. Both kids had a blast and just love the beach. We made it to Cheeburger Cheeburger. Well all of us except for Alex, he passed out in the stroller.
Finally, the biggest highlight of our Ft Myers time was Elizabeth's new skill....the Cannonball! The Big Beluga (aka Pop Pop) showed her how to do it, and she didn't stop. Alex also really enjoyed swimming in the pool. He likes to think he can swim by himself.
We definitely have a couple of fish kids on our hands.
We spent New Years Eve 2006 with the same friends that we've spent the last....maybe 10 years with???????????? Is that right Pelton? It wasn't nearly as fun as the one we had in 1999 in Chicago, but it would be impossible to top that one. It's a different kind of fun since we now have kids to watch have fun. The craziest thing done was hanging streamers and neon bracelets from a ceiling fan and turning it on to watch it go around. Pretty sad.
We were able to see Chris and Sherry House from California, that was nice. Pelton and Suzanne did an outstanding job making dinner, which I'm sure contributed to the 10 lbs I put on while we were in the States.
Rachel Harris is walking, Clare Cronley is talking, wow how fast they grow! Elizabeth and Ryan had a sleep over, only Ryan had to be taken out of their bed since he was talking Elizabeth's ear off and she only wanted to sleep!
The night was too short as we had to get up early to catch our flight to Ft Myers. Thanks to Pelton for letting us dump our stuff in her house and being our taxi service.
The next leg of our trip was to the northern suburb of Chicago, Bloomindale. We met up with Kirk's parents, brother's family, and all of his aunts and uncles on his Mom's side. In total, there were 27 of us. On Friday night, we all went swimming and overtook the pool. The pool limit was 30! Not much room for anyone else. At one time, all of us were in the same hotel room eating dinner and exchanging gifts. It was a Residence Inn by Marriot, so there was space, but it was close quarters!
On Saturday, we went to the Shedd Aquarium. The kids had a lot of fun looking at the different fish, making crafts and watching the dolphin show underwater. It was very crowded, reminded me of China! We only stayed a couple hours since the kids were tired and ready to go swimming again.
On Sunday, we packed up again and left for Detroit. Elizabeth and Alex had a ball playing with their Wisconsin cousins.
We drove on Christmas Day to the Gigi and Bumpa's. Nicole, Dale and Olivia were there alreay. Gigi and Bumpa had recovered from the flu, but since Suzanne had it, our family Christmas dinner was postponed. That was okay, the kids got to have some one on one time with little Miss Olivia. They all had fun playing.
The next day, we went over to the Thompson's for our family Christmas. The kids all got to open up their Christmas gifts and they were pretty excited about it. It was kind of crazy actually. Alex got more cars and Elizabeth got Elina, the Barbie doll from Fairytopia/Mermadia stories. Elizabeth had a ball playing with Ally and Anna. You can see the two girls in their Chinese dresses. Suzanne and I got hats made by Gigi. You can see the picture of Suzanne's.
You can see from the pictures, there was a little bit of snow. Not much though. The kids never really got to play in it.
The adults played cards and got to exchange gifts that way. The most popular gift was the Poker bucket. It had poker chips, cards, beef jerkey, and alcohol. We passed on that one and took the McDonalds gift card and the lottery tickets. Didn't hit it big - $8!!
It was a lot of fun to be with everyone. Unfortunately, Steve, Kim, Nathan, and Sarah weren't there. They traveled to Michigan at Thanksgiving and were spending xmas in Minnesota. We did get to talk with them on the phone and that was nice.
While we were at Gigi and Bumpa's, Alex got the flu. I know where he picked it up too.....we first got up there on a Wednesday and went right to the bowling alley to see Gigi bowl. Alex didn't make it past the arcade because he saw the race car video game and had to sit in the seat and turn the steering wheel. Then he had his cars with him and was on the floor up and down the alley with them. I'm sure this is where he picked it up! Anyway, it was a 24 hour bug. He, of course, passed it on to Gigi and Bumpa. Then Anna Marie got it and Elizabeth and I had a mild case. Then we went back to the Roessler's for Christmas eve and after Christmas, Ethan got it! I didn't feel so bad when I heard it was going around other families as well.
The kids and I had fun spending time a few days with Gigi and Bumpa and seeing Jake, Josh, Ally, and Anna. After their house, we drove back to the Roessler's on the 23rd. I wasn't feeling so hot, so we didn't do much celebrating for my 29th birthday :) We did, however, have to finish some Christmas shopping. So Kirk, Elizabeth, Grammy, and I went to Lakeside Mall to finish up. The reason we had to finish was that I ordered a Princess blanket from Disney.com and I put in the wrong zip code so it didn't make it to the Roessler's in time for Santa to bring it. We also bought a new camera which you will see new pictures being taken with.
Christmas Eve, we went to 4pm mass at ? Can't remember the name. Anyway, it was packed and the kids did a great job at mass. They were all really good since we had to be there at 3pm to get a seat! Alex, near the end, got ants in his pants as well as something else that really stunk!
Kevin, Chrystal, and Grammy stayed up to put together the train table and Kirk and PopPop passed out, snoring......gee imagine that!
Santa Claus came and he brought everything that was asked for, even the real pink lipstick that Elizabeth asked for! Alex and Ethan got a lot of Cars. Alex finally got McQueen. (We spent the better part of November and December going to every McDonalds in Shanghai since the "Cars" characters were the happy meal toys! We never got McQueen, we had to buy him on Ebay!)
The last gift to be opened was the train table. Alex did not want to leave playing with his cars. He threw a fit when we carried him into the room where the table was. As soon as the blanket was lifted, the tears stopped. Ethan and Alex played for the rest of our day there with the table, it was a hit. Alex has one waiting for him at the apartment in Shanghai.
Then it was time to head up to the Thompson's to celebrate Christmas with the Dufon side. Only Nicole called and said not to hurry, dinner was postponed a day....Suzanne got the flu!! :( Thank goodness it was only the 24 hour bug!
Our trip back to the US started in Michigan. We stayed with Ethan, Kevin, and Chrystal. Alex and Elizabeth had a lot of fun playing with their cousin.
We then spent a day at the Harris' with the Wasik's. Chesna and Beth showed up for dinner as well. Elizabeth had a ball playing with Katherine Wasik. You can see how big Rachel Harris is getting. Not a baby anymore!
The kids also had fun playing with Ashley and Emily, Aunt Chrystal's girls that she watches.
After that, the kids and I drove up to the farm and Kirk worked. Elizabeth and Alex had a ball playing with Anna and Ally.
We're back from our trip to the US. We arrive back last Friday night. We will be posting notes, pictures and videos of our trip very soon. We have had very poor Internet service since we have been back due to the earthquake that hit Taiwan just after Christmas. This has made our Vonage phone service not work consistently, so if you are trying to call us please leave a message or send an e-mail.
