Recently I had to make several trips to Chongqing to visit our new joint venture company DuraMinth. They are currently making door frames for the Ford Focus that is sold in China. The picture above was taken at an overlook point of the downtown area of Chongqing. In the picture are myself and the CEO of Dura, Larry Denton along with a group of people from Minth.
Chongqing is a very interesting city as that is growing very fast. The metropolitan area is the largest in the world. There are 30 million people that live there. Most of the people live outside the city in Chongqing where in Shanghai most of the 18 million people live in the city. Also, Chongqing is still very Chinese where Shanghai has much more Western influence. Pretty soon you will be more familiar with this city like you are with Shanghai and Beijing.
Alex is required to wear a uniform to his nursery school on Monday through Thursdays. This is a picture of his fall/winter uniform. He is going to hate us when he is 16 and we show his friends these pictures. He looks like he just flew in from 1950. I remember having a board game when we grew up. Something about who you would date. The nerdy guy was Poindexter. Yes, this is what Poindexter looked like in the board game.
I actually love him in this uniform, I think he looks soooo cute. It is actually much better than the summer white outfit with the girl collar!
1. Don't ever drive to a water town on a weekend in Shanghai. 2. If you've seen one water town, you've seen them all.
That's probably not a great spirit to have and I'm sure there are plenty of reasons to see all of the different local villages. We decided to take Mal to visit one of the local water towns that show traditional Chinese life. There are many small towns that sit on water and they are called the Chinese Venice's. One of them, not sure which, was used for filming Mission Impossible III.
We also invited a colleague of Kirk's to join us since he was still in town. Neil DeKoker joined us in our journey. So we took off from Shanghai around noon and reached the water town about 1.5 hours later. The kids were good in the car. That is where the "good kids" part ends.
We walked into the city and there are a lot of small alleyways leading to a where the water was. There were a lot of people today since the weather was nice. We walked over some bridges and walked along the water canal.
It was lunchtime and we decided that we should get something to eat. This is the season for Hairy Crabs so we looked for a restaurant that had them. Now there are many restaurants here, but they are basically the size of your dining room and you are not sure which one serves good food. You typically look for the busy ones. However, not one of them alone seemed that busy. We just picked one and hoped we'd get lucky. The food was okay. The kids were bad. They didn't want to sit still. Elizabeth had to go potty twice and it was a 10 minute walk to and from the nearest toilet. I had no control. Kind of embarrasing when a work colleague is with you. Thank goodness Neil has grandkids and understood. Or at least he didn't voice his opinion!!!
After lunch, we took a boat ride. This was really nice. The "captain" of the boat sang songs for us and gave us a good ride. It was short but good for us to see the canals and bridges.
After the ride, we shopped for a bit and then decided to head back. We got stuck in traffic in Shanghai on the way home. A 1.5 hour trip took 3 hours! Elizabeth had to go potty but there was no where to stop. As soon as we got into the city, Liu found an exit and we went to a hotel, she was relieved!
When we returned from the wedding, Elizabeth's new BFF, Malini Goel, came to Shanghai and stayed with us for the weekend. Mal was here for the Shanghai Toy Fair which was at the convention center just behind our house. It was great have a visitor from the US and we had fun talking about the wedding we had just been to. Mal was one of Vineeta's bridesmaids and a very old friend of Vineeta.
You can see that Mal and Elizabeth had a lot of fun playing. We picked her up from school on Friday and Elizabeth was so surprised! Mal and I had fun catching up as well since it has been a long time since we'd seen each other. I think Elizabeth exhausted Mal!
The last part of our visit to the States was a visit with my family. Nicole and Dale had already planned to be in Michigan that weekend for the MSU homecoming game. Since I didn't get to go to Frankenmuth, my favorite, during the summer and I knew we wouldn't have time to go at Christmas, we all met here. Dale, Nicole, Olivia, Dale's parents, my Mom and Dad, Suzanne, Collin, Jake, Alli, Anna Marie, (Josh was playing hockey), Collin's brother in law, Nick and he and Kandy's daugters - Makayla and Madison all came. WOW - what a huge crowd!
Elizabeth had a lot of fun with all her cousins. All the kids sat at one end of the table and all the adults at the other. Who knows what they ate because the girls made about 10 trips to the bathroom! Linda Lee, the accordian player, came to the table and played a round of songs for the kids to sing along and dance to. The food was great of course. Especially the ice cream at the end! Look how many the dude had to bring! I love that place and always have.
Elizabeth, Bumpa, and Gigi and I walked around the little mall afterwards to walk off a little of our food. Elizabeth passed out in the car on the way home!
While Kathryn and Elizabeth were in Michigan for Vineeta's wedding, Alex and I spent our Sunday together in Shanghai. We started our day off by taking the subway to the downtown area of Pudong. We went to lunch at Hooters. Isn't this what guys do when the girls are away?
We then went to the Shanghai Aquarium. It is a really nice aquarium. We took the stroller, but Alex wanted to be out to run around so he could see all of the sealife up close. Probably the most interesting things we saw were the jellyfish and the scubadivers feeding the sharks. They had a tube where you walked under the water. It was really cool. At the end of the aquarium tour they had an arcade where there were several car rides. Alex had to try all of them out. On our way out we bought some popcorn as Alex needed a snack.
We then went on a bus tour (with an open top) of the Pudong downtown area (called Luijiazui Area) so we could get a good view of all of the tall buildings. It was a very clear day so we were able to get some very good pictures of the Pearl Tower, Jin Mao Building and the New Financial Tower they are building. It was nice on the bus as they had a waitress that served you drinks and snacks during the tour.
After the tour we walked through the Lujiazui Park. It is a really nice park, but much smaller than Century Park across from our house. It was also a good place to take puctures of the tall buildings. Alex wanted to ride the golf carts that you could rent, but he was getting tired so we needed to get home. We can do that next time.
The reason that Elizabeth and I went to Michigan in October was to attend our friend Vineeta's wedding. Vineeta has been my friend for about 17 years. We went to GMI together. She was a year ahead of me and was my big sister in the sorority. She has been a wonderful friend to all of us. I hold her responsible for my kids because she was instrumental in me seeing what a great guy Kirk was. She set us up on our first date and held both Elizabeth and Alex in the hospital on the day they were born!
When she sent me the email to let me know about the wedding, I knew that I couldn't miss it! What a happy occasion to be a part of! She asked Elizabeth to be a flower girl. I knew that Elizabeth would get a lot out if since it was going to be a traditional Indian Hindu wedding celebration.
Indians know how to have a good time! On Thursday, we went to the Henna ceremony. I'm sorry I forgot the Indian name. This was held at her parent's house in Troy. There was a lot of food, music and dancing all while Vineeta was getting her feet, calves, hands and forearms painted. You can see the beautiful detail in the pictures. We met so many wonderful friends of the family who traveled from near and far. We got to meet Rahul's (Vineeta's brother) son Sebastian and Maria. We got to meet Praveen, who is wonderful. Praveen's (Vineeta's fiance) father took a liking to Elizabeth, he is holding her in the pictures.
On Friday, we attended the Sangeet. This is like a bridal shower but everyone attends, men and women. It was just like another wedding reception with lots of food, music, and dancing. We met more people and caught up with Vineeta's friend Malini. Elizabeth loved Malini and always wanted to be around her. Elizabeth passed out in the car on the way home from all the dancing she did.
On Saturday, we attended the wedding. Elizabeth and Vineeta's cousin Diya were the flower girls and both did an outstanding job. You can see the video and how nice they walked down the aisle. Vineeta was stunning! The ceremony was very nice. We also caught up with Chris, Sherry, Maddie, and Olivia House. They are living in the Chicago area now. The girls all had a lot of fun dancing together.
I am so glad we were able to meet so many of Vineeta and Praveen's family and friends. They have a lot of friends who love them very much! Elizabeth and I both had a ball!
Elizabeth and I made a quick trip to Michigan to attend a friend's wedding in Detroit. You'll see info about that in the next post. While we were there, we stayed with Kevin and Chrystal. Grammy flew in to see Elizabeth. We had the opportunity to go to Blake's Cider Mill.
Chrystal, Ethan, Nolan, Grammy, Elizabeth and I visited the cider mill on Saturday afternoon. It was a beautiful sunny day, a little brisk, enough to want to wear a hat. I forgot how much I love fall. The crisp smell of the air, the beautiful colored trees and listening to Michigan football on the radio. There were a lot of people at the cider mill too!
There were all kinds of activities to keep us busy. The kids played in a Pumpkin shaped bounce house. Then we walked to see the animals. Then we went to the barn where there was musical story telling by robotic animals, very cute. The corn field maze was next and we almost got lost a few times. Then the kids ran around on some of the toys, you can see the pictures. A train ride was next. This was a lot of fun going through the apple tree orchards and seeing all of the different kind of apples. The farm also had a u-pick area where people were picking the last harvest of all types of fresh vegetables. We also saw the raspberry bushes! Oh how we all miss walking into our backyard and picking fresh raspberries.
The kids started getting antsy and we knew it was time to move on. We made it to the last stop....fresh cider and donuts. We bought a gallon and a dozen cider donuts and went home to eat them. Wow! They tasted so good. You take for granted those things when you have them all the time. You really appreciate them when they are not accessible. I have never seen apple cider here in China.
We would have like to bought a pumpkin and brought it back to China to carve, but they don't let you do that! We can buy pumpkins here, but they are not bright orange, so it doesn't seem the same.
The day after we got home from Phuket, we had a party to watch the last fireworks display over Century Park. For those of you who remember, we arrived here this same week last year and there were a ton of fireworks. Same thing this year, only we wanted to share our awesome view with others. So our new friend's, the Steven's came overs as well. Rob, Stacy, and Roman Eckstein came and brought along John and Jenny Absmeier (John works for Delphi). Cindy and Fred also came so for those of you who have been to the apartment, you know this makes for a house full. We all had a lot of fun and the kids all had a ball playing together. I think we'll be able to even handle a few more people next time!
The first week of October is the National Holiday. In 1949, the current government of China took control and this is the week they celebrate. Schools and offices are closed for the week and there are mass exodus' in and out of Shanghai.
We decided to go to Phuket, Thailand to spend the week at the beach. The travel agent failed to tell us that it was typical to have rain in Thailand in October! We had heavy rains for 3 days out of the 6 we spent there. It didn't really matter though, we all had fun still. We stayed at the Sheraton Grande Laguna. I wouldn't recommend it. The service was not that great and it was over priced. The pools were nice. It had a pool with a sandy shore that Alex loved to play in.
Every morning, we went to breakfast, and they had 2 elephants for all the kids to pet/ride. There was a mama elephant and a baby elephant. Our kids loved to feed them and pet them, but didn't want to ride them.
One day, we rented bikes and rode around the complex. There a few different resorts with many villa type houses. We stopped at the Banyan Tree resort. Too nice to take kids there! We stopped at a beach and jumped in waves. It was a lot of fun.
There was a strong undertow in the Andaman Sea at the beach where we were, so there was no swimming in the sea. There was a lot of wave jumping though. A couple times, Alex and Elizabeth were almost swept out to sea. Okay that is a little exageration, but they were big, strong waves.
Everywhere we walked around the resort, Elizabeth would see little girls with braids and beads in her hair. Soooo......introducing the next Bo Derek. It is almost one week later and she still has the braids in!
During the end of the trip, we made friends with a nice family who happen to live about 10 minutes from us and their oldest daughter is in kindergarten at Concordia. Luke, Missy, Lucy, and Allie Stevens are from Minnesota and just moved to Shanghai in July. Elizabeth had a ball playing with the girls and was sad that they had to leave one day before we did.
We didn't love Phuket, but I suppose the weather didn't help it. Probably if we went in February, we would have felt differently.
Most Chinese festivals are wrapped in a combination of history and legend, and the Mid-Autumn Festival is no exception.
Chang O The Mid-Autumn Festival is linked to the ancient fable of the beautiful Chang O, wife of the Divine Archer. The tale is told of how she took a magical pill from her husband and suddenly began floating into the air all the way to the moon! She remains there to this day, and on the full moon of the eighth lunar month, her beauty casts a silvery glow upon the earth!
Moon Cake During the Mid-Autumn Festival people eat sweet tasting cakes called moon cakes made of ground lotus and sesame seed paste, egg yolk and other ingredients. Moon cakes symbolise the gathering of friends and family and are an indispensable part of the Mid-Autumn festivities. Moon cakes are also associated with the overthrow of the Mongol invaders in the 14th century. The story goes that Chinese revolutionaries planned to revolt against the government on the fifteenth day of the eighth month. This message was passed around hidden in moon cakes amongst the people who subsequently rose up and overthrew the oppressive tyrant.
We ate many mooncakes that day. We even had Ice cream mooncakes from Haagen Daaz. They were delicious!
We had a free Sunday afternoon, so we decided to visit a new tourist spot with the kids. We decided on the Shanghai Insect Museum. Not Mom's favorite place! It was a little creepy and not as nice as other museums we've been to. The kids were very entertained by snakes, bugs, and other vermin. I don't think we'll have a return visit anytime soon.
Kirk and I went to our first Chinese Wedding reception. It was for his old administrative assistant, Angela Feng. Angela helped us transistion from the US to China and always went out of her way to help us. She is a great lady.
She looked beautiful and her husband, Zhou (Joe) is very nice. She also had a crazy drunk uncle there. Isn't there always a crazy drunk uncle at weddings!
Okay, this is a late post! Work and schools shut down in anticipation of Typhoon Wipha on 9/19. However, this typhoon turned out to be just as hyped up as a Michigan blizzard. The wind blew a little and it rained, but nothing severe and nothing more than a normal spring or fall day.
Then on Sunday, Oct 8, Typhoon Krosa hit. This brought some serious wind and rain. Sheets of rain fell starting at night and continued until the next day. We all went to work and school. After school, the kids and I went to a friend's house to play. We had to hold hands to avoid being blown away! We laughed all the way there and back.
Here is an article from the local English newspaper about the new Financial Tower that we can see from our apartment...
Mainland's tallest is topped off by -- HUNDREDS of people gathered on the ground yesterday morning in Pudong as a steel girder embedded with golden bolts hung 492 meters above them.
When the girder was swung into place it marked a major milestone in...
Here is the view of the building before the last piece was put in...
Here is how it compares to the other tallest buildings in the world...
We are in the home stretch. Kath comes home tomorrow. The last couple of days have been a little more difficult as I had to be at GM all day and into the evening Wed - Fri. Xiao Ju has been a big help over the week.
We kept Alex home from school on Friday as he had a temperature when he woke up. He was fine after we gave him some Tylenol. Both kids have had runny noses all week. Xiao Ju won't let them have cold drinks or ice cream or even have the air conditioning on as this will not let them get better.
Elizabeth had a day off from school. They both had fun with Xiao Ju. Xiao Ju taught Elizabeth how to write some Chinese Characters and they did art projects.
We are just hanging out today, it looks like it is going to rain so hopefully we can get outside.
Okay, I feel better knowing that Kirk is handling everything on his own. Elizabeth and I were pretty weepy when I left.
So now I'm staying in Delhi, India. The Delphi office is in a town called Gurgaon. It is a growing industrial area.
You cannot believe this place. It reminds me a lot of China, specifically Wuhan, 8 years ago. A lot of bikes and no separation between the bike lanes and car lanes. Traffic is crazy. Except in China there are no cows walking in the street. People told me this, but you cannot believe it until you see it.
We were busy today visiting with suppliers and meeting the India team. They are all very hospitable and proud of their organizations.
I'm excited to be here. The food is great. I had my favorite, chana masala, today and learned a lot about it's origin in Northern India.
Here is a picture Elizabeth drew yesterday if we were a Mermaid family. You can tell Alex and have very nice Mer-man outfits. Surprisingly we are surviving without Kath. This morning was a challenge getting the kids ready for school. Once we got going it was no big deal.
I picked up Elizabeth from ballet this afternoon and she wasn't being the best ballerina. She was goofing off with Crystal and Ms. Li had to separate them. Once we returned home we all went to Century Park again and played soccer. Elizabeth scored a lot of goals on me and I could not score on her. Alex didn't get the concept of scoring goals. Maybe next time. We then walked through the wildflowers and came home and ate dinner. Xiao Ju helped get the kids baths and we were able to get them to bed on time. I have to be to work early tomorrow so we have to get an earlier start tomorrow.
Kath had to make a trip to India to meet with her team members there. This left Kirk alone with the kids for the week. We had an eventful first day. We went to Century Park for a picnic and to play. We had our picnic in the shade near one of the ponds. We then went to an open area to play soccer then we spent some time in the sand at the small beach they have. Alex didn't want to leave. He had sand all over him if you can believe it. We then played some more soccer and Alex and Elizabeth rolled down a hill. I cooled them off by pouring water on them. Lastly we went on the Bee Ride at the park and Elizabeth went on the Bounce House while Alex went down the slides.
We came back to the apartment and took naps. Then later we made dinner. Elizabeth helped make Chicken Noodle Soup. She had a craving for it. After dinner we had dessert then it was tubby time as the kids were dirty.
Elizabeth and Alex hope their Mom has safe travels and they want her to come home soon!
The construction company blew up something in the basement of the building they are constructing behind our building. It was really loud! A bunch of smoke and dust was in the air for a while.
Alex must wear a school uniform to school every day. The golf shirt is the nice one. He also has a long shirt with a round collar. It doesn't look too manly. We will get a picture of that one when he has worn out this uniform.
All of the Pictures and Videos are Loaded. Kath is currently working on writing the notes to go along with them. Keep checking back for updates.
Okay, Okay, I finally took some time to sit down and write. According to Kirk, I am not writing enough detail so I have to work on that. Whatever! You can see by the Simpson's picture what he does in his free time, nerd :)
Pop Pop brought presents from Aunt Gretchen this summer. You can see the beautiful quilts she made for Alex and Elizbeth. Eliazabeth got a dancing quilt and Alex got a Thomas quilt. Alex asks for his every night now before he goes to bed.
We now have a yearly pass to enter Century Park. We have a card that will let us in at 5:00 am and we can enter into the gate by our house. It makes it so much more convenient to get into the park that we have gone about 4 times per week now. It's amazing, it doesn't smell of pollution in the park at all.
We also made a trip downtown to Elizabeth's favorite restaurant and a walk on the Bund. Camera guy went crazy again.
Here is our family Simpsonized. You can do it yourself at www.simpsonizeme.com. You have to upload a picture of yourself and then you can make modifications if necessary. Elizabeth came out Yellow (like Lisa from the Simpsons) the first time so we made some modifications. She also insisted to have blond hair.
Alex has also started school. He is going to the Victoria Kindergarten just outside of our complex. Same school where we went to Bee Bee Playland, the parent tot class. The first two weeks, I went with him to help transition. He has two Chinese speaking teachers, Clare (Li Laoshi) and Sarah (Tian Jin Laoshi). He has one English speaking teacher, Judy, from New Zealand. Judy has 30 years experience teaching 2-6 year olds so I am happy about that! She'll be able to help get him out of the terrible twos!
He likes it......part of it....He likes the playing but doesn't like it when he has to sit still! The Chinese lessons usually take about 10 minutes to explain and then they get to do the activity which takes about 2 minutes!!!! Just a different style of teaching.
His friends, Ciara Young and Orla Surlis are in his class, so that helps him. I left him alone on Thursday and he did fine.
I am picking him up after lunch because he is disruptive in the nap room. In a few months, I think he will see all of his other friends sleeping and will join them. Until then, he is most comfortable coming home and sleeping in his own bed.
I am sure to have more stories about him and school in the future.
The Mickey Mouse Magic Show came to town to the Grand Theatre. We took the kids, Kirk thought Elizabeth would really enjoy it. True enough, she did. However, it was in Chinese. If you think Donald Duck's voice speaking in English is annoying, you should try listening to it in Chinese!!
Alex couldn't sit still so gladly I took him into the hallway so that he could walk around. He did like dancing to the music.
Afterwards, we found a new restaurant called the Naked Cow and had the best flank steak ever there. We ended our day at the new Coldstone Creamery in Raffles City. There were about a million people there. Turns out, it was the equivalent of Chinese Valentines Day. Kirk has vowed never to return to Puxi on the weekend!
Kirk found a program on the Internet that allows you to take multiple pictures and stitch them together. It worked really well for getting a panoramic view out the front and back of our apartment. You can click on the pictures above to make them larger.
Kirk had some free time on his hands and took some panoramic pictures. I truly think we live in the best place with the most awesome views of the city.
Elizabeth was so excited to be going back to school. She is a Ladybug again in Mrs. Chiu's room. She has a new teacher as well since Mrs Round went back to the US. Miss Alforte was in the Frogs room last year. She is very nice and Elizabeth likes her as well.
We made it back home to Shanghai after a long flight through Minneapolis and Tokyo. It was a painful trip as Alex is such a terrible two year old now. The pain of the trip is still fresh enough in my mind not to want to come back for Christmas. Hopefully Alex will have matured, or I will have found a drug to knock him out with!
Here you can see the new Financial building that is being built. You can see the hole at the top is starting to develop.
Elizabeth got to see her buddy Oia again. Here they are getting ready for their weddings. They don't look that excited do they? They will both make beautiful brides when they grow up.
The next part of our trip was to Northern Michigan just south of Traverse City. We stayed at Crystal Mountain Resort. This is a golf resort in the summer and a ski resort in the winter. It is a family owned resort but is really growing. Kirk's co worker (and BFF) Dave has a place there and highly recommended it.
We rented a house that was on the 17th hole of the Betsie Valley course. It was a short drive to the pool area. The pool was great for small children, it had a small slide and water guns, and lily pads to go over. It was a zero depth pool on one side so it was perfect for our kids.
Kevin, Chrystal, Ethan, and Nolan and Grammy, Pop Pop, and Sophie came with us. We had a lot of fun just hanging out and swimming everyday. Ethan loved golfing. That guy has some serious natural athletic ability! Kirk and I took Elizabeth one night for a chairlift ride. She loved it. Too bad it didn't run everynight.
We drove to Bumpa and Gigi's on Saturday for the Fountain 125th birthday. There was a parade in town and Gigi drove her Cadillac and Bumpa drove his tractor. Elizabeth joined in the party in the Cadillac. It was actually a really big parade! After the parade we had a cook out at the farm and Alex got to go for another round of golf cart rides.
We ended our trip with a visit to Traverse City. I know it is commercialized now, but I love going there. We took pictures on the beach. Alex just wanted to play in the sand so it was difficult to get good pictures.
We will have to try it out during the winter time when the kids get older and have a try at the ski hills.
On our way back to the Minneapolis airport, we had a little time to kill. Kim suggested that the aquarium at the Mall of America would be fun. Indeed it was! We really enjoyed our time at the aquarium and even got to pet some baby stingrays. Okay........ that was a little gross.
When we were done walking through the aquarium, we went to the amusment park and Legoland. Alex loved building the cars out of Legos and racing them down the track. After lunch, the kids and Kirk went on some rides. They rode the Semi Truck ride and loved it. After that they went on the Carousel. The only thing that would've made the trip more complete was if we had the time to get Dippin Dots (I looove those!)
Our next blessed event was going to meet Natalie Grace Dufon and attending her baptism.
We flew to Minneapolis from Flint. The Slivinski's, Thompsons's, and Bumpa and Gigi also came. Instead of our yearly camping trip at the farm, we had it at Steve and Kim's.
They borrowed a bounce house from their friends for the whole weekend. Not only did the little kids like it, but the big kids and "bigger kids" did too. Even Bumpa and Gigi jumped on it! That was a blast!
On Saturday, we walked down the street and went into the river. We played in the water and then floated down in tubes to where Steve's house is. Elizabeth thought that was pretty cool. That night we had a great barbecue and we celebrated Anna Marie's 7th birthday with cake and ice cream. Saturday included lots of tennis games, jumping matches in the bounce house and card games.
Sunday was the baptism. It was a very nice ceremony during Mass. I was blessed to be Natalie's Godmother and Dale is her Godfather. You can see how sweet Natalie is from her pictures and how much her brother and sister love her.
After the baptism, we took some family pictures. You can see how big all the kids are getting.
It was a great weekend and a lot of fun to all be together. Thanks for hosting Dufon's!
We had to spend the morning at Dr. Politis' getting 4yr old and 2 yr old checkups. They are both on track. However, they both had to have shots! Fortunately to take their mind off of the pain, Aunt Chrystal invited us to picnic with them at Firefighter's Park in Troy.
This is a really nice park that Chrystal takes the boys to and meets Kevin for lunch sometimes. The only problem was that there was a considerable amount of dirt on the ground since there were a lot of trees and the grass in some spots couldn't grow.
Of course, Alex is naturally drawn to dirt. We think he will definitely be either a farmer or an archaeolgist when he grows up. You can see from the pictures, he was covered in dirt shortly after we arrived. He and Ethan also had much fun playing on the structure.
A trip to the US wouldn't be complete without seeing the Wisconsin gang. Jill, Jan, Amy, and Kelly graciously made the drive to Michigan to spend the weekend with us. We had a lot of fun basically just goofing off!
The Police reunited for a tour and it just so happened that they made a stop in Detroit while we were in town. A few years ago, Kirk took me to see Sting in Detroit and we got lucky and got front row seats. Since we've seen him once in the front row, we had to do it again.
The concert was great! They played all of the great Police tunes. A lot of 40-50 something year old women were screaming!!! See the video attached.
Today Elizabeth went to the dentist for her first cleaning. She went with me last year to watch me get my teeth cleaned, but I don't think she remembered that. She was SOOOO good! I had an appointment too.
They took xrays on her teeth and then we went into the cleaning room. She listened to the hygienist talk about what was going to happen. My hygienist then came into the room and said that she was ready for me. I asked Elizabeth if she needed me with her for her cleaning and she said no. I was two cubicles away and heard everything. She did great and never cried once.
No cavities (for either of us!).
After the dentist, we visited our old neighborhood and our neighbors, the Bruett's. Elizabeth was curious about our old house, she remembered it.
Allison and Nicholas both grew a lot over the year. We had a great time visiting. Allison gave Elizabeth a manicure and pedicure and of course she loved it. Scott and Cindy were both there and it was good to catch up with them. Unfortunately, this is the only time we had to spend with them as our time got too busy.
We'll look forward to seeing them again next year!
Here are picture of the first joyous party that we went to. Nolan William was baptized. We were able to see Chrystal's family and all of the kids had a great time playing. After the baptism, Kevin and Chrystal had a party at their house. It was a really hot day and the kids ended up getting out the hose and having a splash party. Alex loved to fill up the bucket and dump it on his own head!
We left the farm and headed south to the Harris' mansion on Commerce Lake. I teased Andrea a lot about the size of their house. You have to understand that we are used to living in a small apartment. Compared to our apartment, their house is an absolute mansion. I could never keep it clean! You could fit a couple families in their house. Ten Chinese families. :()
Anyway, we had a great time with Jeff, Andrea, Ryan and Rachel. We actually met John, Suzanne, Clare, and Maggie (the dog) on the way. They were coming down I-75 also from Suzanne's parent's house up north on their way back to St Louis. Cronley, although we were having dinner at the Harris', was hungry as we drove through Grand Blanc and we pulled over to the Hot Dog Stand. He ate 3. Does that surprise anyone?? :)
You can see from the pictures we had a really good time. We were able to get out on the lake and do some tubing and some swimming and some Jet Skiing. Elizabeth likes to go fast, imagine that! Maybe next summer we'll have her up on skis.
We made a trip to Cass Lake beach and the kids loved using the slide. That night, Pelton and I were able to go meet up with friends. Michele Miller and Angie Bohr, then Pelton and Beth Hatsios, then Jeri Ward and Kath in the pictures. We had a great time catching up.
The next night we took pizza and salad over to Chesna and Beth's new house. Harris got pulled into doing some moving as they were not all moved in yet. Alex liked hiding in the furniture. You can see him in the pictures with his pink Wowee still. Nichoel Wasik, Nick and Katherine also came.
The rest of the week, we just hung out and played. I think Ryan was ready to get rid of us so that he could have his toys to himself again! On Friday morning, we got to finally have Friday morning breakfast with Grandpa and Grandma Pelton and Aunt Deborah. Uncle George had to work. Aunt Deborah is pregnant with twin girls!!
Thanks to the Harris' for letting us live in the lower wing! We felt so much at home and loved hanging out. Can't wait to do it again.
After my leadership conference, I drove back to Cleveland and picked up the kids. Gigi and Jake and us had a caravan back up north. They brought Olivia with them and Dale and Nicole followed a couple days later.
Wow! What a great time we had. It was really hard for me and the kids to be away from Kirk for so long, but this was the best thing for the kids.
Let's start with Elizabeth. She was so excited about being able to spend time with Alli and Anna. When they came over, I didn't see her again until they left. They had fun playing in the back, going for golf cart rides, and we went to the beach as well.
Now for Alex. If he heard anyone say "Golf cart", he would be right there by the door ready to go out. Being the routine boy that he is, he would talk about what we would see next on the ride. Let me walk you through:
We would drive down the lane, pass the pond, go around the junk pile, go over the bridge, look for fishes, drive past the cornfield, point and say "cornfield", go into the new paths and look for berries along the way. Then return and say all the same things!! He just absolutely loved running around the farm.
At the pond, Bumpa had to put up a rope to keep the little kids from walking into the pond. One day, it was windy, and we flew kites by the pond. Bumpa had a lot of fun doing it and said it was the first time he'd ever flown a kite. He was the last one flying them.
Oh, and the swing. Alex still loves to swing. Everyday, we had to walk down to the swingset and swing for at least 30 minutes.
On Tuesday, July 3, we loaded up the kids and went to Scottville to hear the world famous (well maybe) Scottville Clown band. We got there, sat down and waited for them to start and then it started raining. We thought it might, so we brought umbrellas and waited and thought it would pass. It started raining harder. So we went into the VFW hall and waited. While we were waiting, Elizabeth saw one of the clowns. He was dressed as a girl. She said, "Mom, look at that silly boy, he's wearing a dress!"
It started raining so hard and didn't look like it would quit. By this time, we were wet dogs and it was warm, so I hauled the kids through the pouring rain, through puddles into the car. You can see Elizabeth's displeasure at being so wet!!
The next day, we went to the parade in downtown Ludington. We went to the same spot as last year, by the shoe store. The girls had fun dancing around in the empty street before the parade. Jake was bored! House of Flavors gave away pints of ice cream again. Alex's favorite was the firetrucks, Elizabeth's favorite was the Clown band. We came back after the parade and had an awesome cookout!
At night, we attempted to go to the fireworks at one of Suzanne's friend's house on Lake Michigan. No luck...cancelled due to fog. They rescheduled on Friday, but Nicole and Dale wouldn't be able to go since they were leaving for a wedding during Friday afternoon.
The rest of the time at the farm was spent just enjoying the fresh air and wide open space. The kids loved playing in the pool that was set up and running around in the back. It was too short of a trip and we'll spend more time next summer. This will be a place that we will spend time at every year in the summer no matter where we may live. Thanks to Gigi and Bumpa for a great time!
All around our apartment there is construction. There are cement trucks, welding equipment, digging machines and cranes moving 24 hours a day. Behind us they are building an office building. They have dug the underground garage. Across the street they are building a shopping mall and a 5 star Japanese hotel. They are continuing to add more restaurants, shops, and a small boutique hotel in the strip mall behind us. Down the street they are just completing a tall office building. Soon they will start construction on a new 5 star Shangrila Hotel. All of this is supposed to be complete within the next year or two. This will not be the quiet area for too much longer.
Natalie Grace Dufon arrived June 26th at 3:16 PM Central time.
She weighed 8 pounds and was 20 3/4 inches long.
This is Steve and Kim's baby, Nathan and Sarah's new sister. We've done a few webcams with them and Natalie seems to be a very good baby and she is very beautiful.
Elizabeth was excited that she is a girl! We will fly there July 27th and spend the weekend with them and attend her baptism. More to come with that trip.
The kids spent the week at Aunt's Cole's house from June 24 - June 30. Gigi and Jake came to help out. Needless to say, they had a blast and didn't miss their Mom at all. Alex LOVES Buddy (their dog). Elizabeth had a lot of fun playing with Olivia.
I had to work in Troy that week and really missed them, but I knew they were in good hands. I loved it when I got the text message from Nicole saying, "Al pee pee'd in the potty". By the way.....one time thing. :(They swam, went to the park, did arts and crafts, went to the community pool......
When I picked them up, they seemed like they were both more grown up. I cannot imagine what Kirk is going to think after being away from them for 3 weeks.
I picked them up on Saturday and we left for the next destination....Bumpa and Gigi's.....more to come
Ahhh....the smell of clean air and new cut grass! Nothing like that in Shanghai! The kids and I made it back to the USA on Thursday. We waited too long to book our tickets and had to fly from Shanghai to Tokyo to San Francisco to Detroit. That last flight was painful. Will not do that by myself with the kids again. They were really good considering having to sit in a seat for the better part of 18 hours. We went the the St Isadore Strawberry Festival today. There was a band called the Polish Muslims out of Hamtramck playing music. Elizabeth, Ethan, and Alex had a ball dancing. I love summer church festivals! I love American made, grilled, hot dogs! I only ate one, but I could've eaten a couple more. Note to anyone we are visiting this summer.....just grill a few hotdogs and we'll be all set! We are cheap dates. The kids really miss Kirk and we are struggling with the body adjustment to the time. It will get better in a few days. For now, we watch a lot of Mickey Mouse clubhouse and Little Einsteins in Kevin and Chrystal's guest room between 4am and 6 am! I'll post pictures later in the week.
I was able to take a couple of hours away from work to take Alex to school. Just my luck it was the day that taught the kids how to turn water and flower into dough. Alex isn't the best kid is class as he doesn't like to sit still while the teachers are showing the rest of the class the activity. When the teacher brought out the flour to show the kids how it felt, Alex ran right up to her a stuck his hands it and started tossing the flour around the room. When it was time to mix the flour and water to make the dough, Alex had to pour the whole cup of water into the pan so it was impossible to make dough. He stuck his hands in the mixture and didn't like the way it felt do he wiped them off all over himself and me. I think that the Chinese people in the class must have thought we have never seen flour and water before.
We did finally get cleaned up and Alex got to go a play with all of the toys. He also got to go outside on the swing, which I believe is one of favorite activities. We had a good time together and it was fun getting to meet all of his friends at school.
I couldn't have asked for a better Father's Day. All you have to do is look at the pictures and you will see why my day was so much fun. I was woken up by my two lovely children who gave me beautiful picture of themselves for me to hang in my office. You can see the pictures in the link above.
Elizabeth had her last day of school as a 2007 Ladybug. She will be returning to Concordia in the fall and most likely Mrs. Chiu will be her teacher again.
From the left, Mrs. Taylor, Lauren Round, Mrs. Round, Crystal Tan, Mrs. Chiu, Elizabeth and Samantha Chow. Mrs. Taylor, Lauren and Mrs. Round will not be back this fall. Mrs. Taylor and her family moved back to Australia. Mrs. Round and Lauren moved back with their family to Warren, MI.
I made a trip to Melbourne, Australia on business to visit Ford about an opportunity for my company on the new Global Truck they are developing there. I met an old work mate and good friend Jeremy Gill and his wife Crystal there. Crystal was able to get time off work to make the long trip.
Melbourne is a really nice city. It was nice to visit a Western City after being in Asia for so long. It is amazing how much you miss the little things. For one I can eavesdrop on conversations there and understand what the people are talking about. We spent most of the time wandering around the city. Jeremy and I spent most of the time preparing for our meetings while trying to stay top of work issues back home. We will have to come back as a family on vacation where we can spend more time touring.
The pictures in the link above are from around town. They have a free cable car that takes you around town that tells information about the key areas of the city.
Finally after all the practicing the recital was here. It was a production of the Nutcracker and it was held at the Portman Hotel Theatre. It was really amazing. It was like a professional production of the ballet. The dancers were amazing and all the practicing really paid off. Miss Li is the teacher in the middle.
The little girls were the youngest and really did an outstanding job for being so young. The craziest thing at the end though. You know how you give your ballerina flowers after???......Well you do that here as well, but in true Chinese fashion, all the parents rush up onto stage at the same time, while all the dancers are there on stage at the end, to give them the flowers. There are about 200 people on stage at once!! Chaos.
A lot of singing practice for the school recital was happening during the last couple months of May. The preschool and elementary school classes performed American Folk Songs. Elizabeth's class sang: I've Been Working on the Railroad, Shoo Fly, Knick Knack Paddywack, and Polly Wolly Doodle. Alex loves to sing Shoo Fly with Elizabeth. Kath loves the Polly Wolly Doodle song.
They all did a great job and it was a lot of fun watching the concert.
Oh yeah......more of Alex's antics on the last picture. He pulled one of Elizabeth's Easter Bonnets out and decided to wear it! Ha Ha
Alex's Ayi couldn't find Alex one day. She was very worried searching the house and the outside hallway (Alex has been known to sneak out when the door is open and ride the elevator down). Kirk was working from home that morning. Looks like Alex was playing schoolbus in Elizabeth's room and fell asleep on her bed! Shou Ju put pillows around him and let him take his nap there.
Orla and Ciara came over for dinner one night and we had a pretend sleepover. We had pizza for dinner and popcorn for dessert. We watched a movie and had a lot of fun. When it was time to go to sleep, Kim and the girls went home. A lot of fun for 4 and 2 yr olds.
The preschool and elementary classes had a field day. They had a lot of fun doing running races and other outdoor activities. The day was hot and humid and the kids were pretty tired at the end of the day.
Dance recital practice.......this was very painful for the Mommies!!!
For 4 Sundays, we had to take the girls to an all day recital practice where there were about 100 other girls ready to practice. The Chinese take their ballet very seriously!
They were very tired after practice and usually very cranky as they had to wait in between their performance practice for hours at a time.
We (the other moms and I) think that the other local girls are used to this. But we complained at the amount of time 4yr olds had to wait around to practice.
The girls who were in the recital from Elizabeth's ballet class were (see picture of girls standing by the wall) - Crystal Tan, Claire Wang, Elizabeth, Samantha Chow. Missing from these photos are Claire Yin and Shue En (not sure on spelling???)
Dottie is the Ladybug's classroom mascot. Each child in the Ladybug's preschool class got an opportunity to take Dottie home for a week or so and had to take pictures of where Dottie has been and what the child did with Dottie. The day Elizabeth brought Dottie home, she was literally jumping for joy!
There was a journal that came with Dottie. Dottie has been to the Great Wall in Beijing, to Thailand, and to Century Park as well as many other local places. Dottie can help make coffee, go to sleep with kids, and go to ballet classes.
Elizabeth took Dottie many places as you can see. Dottie watched the Goodyear Blimp from outside our apartment on our balcony. Dottie helped Elizabeth cook a grilled cheese sandwich and eat it. Dottie went to Church with Elizabeth. Dottie went to the Bund and overlooked the Pearl Tower, rode bikes, participated in Field Day, went to the little park, and hung out with Alex too.
Elizabeth was sad when Dottie had to go back to the classroom. However, at the end of the term, the teachers made "Dotties" and gave them to all the kids!
Yes, it has been a while since we've posted. We've had an eventful spring so far. Actually, they say that as of May 22, it is officially summer in Shanghai since the temperature has been so nice.
At the end of the May holiday, we went to Century Park for an International Music Festival. There were all sorts of different types of musicians and bands. The kids had a lot of fun dancing. We went with San, Sophia, Oia, Chloe, and Bella and Elvis, Kim, and Juna.
The next couple pictures were at Alex's friend, Chloe's birthday party. She turned 2 and had a princess party. Alex had fun playing with the tea set. The first princess is Oia and the next princess is Juna. The family picture is of the Eng Family - Sophia, San, Oia, Bella, and Chloe.
Alex made a crown at the party, see how great he looks as the handsome prince! He may be a prince, but he still wants to drive himself around. Olivia - look out, you will have no chance at riding your cozy couple while Alex is visiting you!
Mother's Day brought me a bike. I am now closer to being a native Chinese. The kids and I have had a lot of fun riding the bike to the Carrefour, Church, and School. We are very careful and always look out for the other guy!
The Goodyear Blimp was flying over the Park one day. We were able to snap a few pictures. It will be heading to Grand Blanc soon, I'm sure!
Finally, a picture of Alex, Pooh, and Daddy. Alex calls his milk - Nook A Nook. Not sure why????
It was time for the curls to go. The weather is getting too warm for him to have the mop haircut. Alex got his first "buzz" haircut today. He did not like it very much as he screamed and wouldn't sit still the entire time. The haircut is not exactly even, but it will keep him cool. The Chinese lady that cut his hair mentioned several times to Kirk that next time he should bring Alex in while he is sleeping. We are not sure that is going to work. Kirk took him to get an ice cream afterwards and he was in much better spirits. You will also see in the after picture that he has his pink wooee (fuzzy blanket). He had to hold this the entire hair cut.
Elizabeth also got a new summer haircut. She went to the hair salon with Kath. She is very excited about her new haircut.
I think this video speaks for itself. This guy is really good with the soccer ball. Okay, I am a little partial, but for a 2 year old, I thought it was good. This was the first time Kirk saw him play, when he video taped it. He agreed. By the way, I taught him!
For the May Labour Day in China, we decided to visit Hong Kong. It is only a 2.5 hour flight from Shanghai and is in the same time zone so we went for a short 3 day stay. We stayed in Kowloon overlooking the Victoria Harbor. Wow! There are a lot of buildings here.
The transportation system in Hong Kong is top notch. We rode an immaculate subway from the airport into the city and caught a free shuttle bus to our hotel. It was very easy to use.
Right by our hotel was an Outback Steakhouse. Yes....we gorged on some really good US food. Blooming Onion, Steak, Potatoes, veggies, salad with good blue cheese dressing!!!! Of course, we did do the Australian beer, Fosters.
On Wednesday, we went to Hong Kong Disneyland. Everyone warned us that we might not like it because it is small and would be crowded during the holiday. We found the exact opposite. It was perfect for kids our age and there was no crowd. Perhaps it is overpriced for China, but we loved it. We had such a fun day. The kids got to ride all the rides they wanted to. They splashed around in a small water area, got soaked, but I had a spare set of clothes. It was a pretty hot day. Alex doesn't do well in hot weather! We watched the parade and then stayed for the fireworks.
Alex's favorite ride was the Buzz lightyear ride. Elizabeth's favorite was the Teacups. She got to talk to Belle and saw Ariel in the parade.
They both passed out on the way home.
On Thursday, we didn't have such a good experience. We went to Ocean Park which is similar to Sea World. Apparently it is not overpriced for China because that is where the crowds were. I'm very tolerant of crowds and a lot of people, and I couldn't handle it. We had to secure seats 1.5 hours before the dolphin show that lasted all of 20 minutes. We left right after that!
Then we took a taxi to Victoria Peak. It is a high spot with shopping and you can overlook all of Hong Kong. You can see some of the pictures that Elizabeth took. We took the Tram down, which started in use in the late 1800's. On the way, we met a nice lady teaching English in the Yanxi province near Mongolia. Her name was Jennifer and she was originally from Menominee Wisconsin. We all caught a cab to the Star Ferry and then took the ferry across from Central Hong Kong to Kowloon. Any Amazing Race fans out there??? They were just in Hong Kong and rode the Star Ferry.
We watched the laser light show that they have every night and then parted ways with Jennifer. We were all pretty tired after this. That's about the time I noticed that my work mobile phone was gone. It must have slipped out of my pocket during a taxi ride. Well, in Hong Kong, it must be finders keepers, because whoever found it, when we called it, shut the phone off. That made that day a bummer! We were able to catch 15 minutes in the top of the hotel outdoor pool and that really tired us out. So much so, that the kids and I passed out without dinner. Kirk went and had Mexican.
On Friday, we tried to swim again, but it was raining. So we packed up, left our luggage at the front desk, and headed out to shop. We wanted to find some shoes to fit me (although i really don't NEED any) and a new dress for Elizabeth, but ended up with a Wii for Kirk. If you don't know what this is....I didn't either.....and Kirk probably didn't.....until we heard about it from Cronley. Anyway, once Kirk's has his mind set on something, he has to follow through, so we searched up and down Nathan Road for the best deal. Since it was raining, the kids and I couldn't take it anymore and went to the bookstore by the hotel. We were able to pick up a few English books.
We flew back after getting the subway again and on the plane, Kirk realized that he left his Ipod in the hotel room charging. Now, we stayed at a 5 star Intercontinental Grand Stanford. Once again, finders keepers. Guess with kids, we need to keep our belongings to a minimum since we get so busy trying to keep them in line. By the way, I will NEVER stay at an Intercontinental again and am going to smear their name on Trip Advisor.
Overall, Hong Kong was nice. It was clean and easy to get around in. We may go back again, but I think we would stay right at Disney and just stay a couple days to hang out in their pool.
Not sure where our next adventure will take us. Perhaps Thailand, New Zealand, Australia, or Vietnam.
We would like to welcome Nolan to the world. Kirk's brother Kevin and his wife Chrystal had their second boy today. Ethan is proud to be a big brother. The whole family is doing well. We are looking forward to meeting him when we come back to Michigan this summer.
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Alex's Ayi couldn't find Alex one day. She was very worried searching the house and the outside hallway (Alex has been known to sneak out when the door is open and ride the elevator down). Kirk was working from home that morning. Looks like Alex was playing schoolbus in Elizabeth's room and fell asleep on her bed! Shou Ju put pillows around him and let him take his nap there.
