We finally got the VPN up and going on the computer, so I can blog again. I will be posting at least this weekly update that is taken from our letters to Moe. Please forgive me for spelling and grammatical errors, writing this between taking care of/holding/feeding/... kids, can make for an interesting slightly scatterbrained version of what I am trying to convey.
MOnday 4/22:
I
talked to the fam today and they were eating my birthday dinner for me!
Chicken cord on bleu, jello, and cinnamon rolls... yum! :) Mitch fell
asleep watching Megamind... don't even have to put him down for his nap
:) that never happens, and Jules is playing with her toes next to me!
Sunday 4/21: Well we try to talk to the Palmers and
the fam/Ash on Sunday mornings, this week was no different. After
chatting we realized it was getting off-ly close to church start time,
so we raced getting the kids ready and decided getting a taxi and taking
the subway were to much of a gamble... time-wise we were past those
options. So since we now knew how to walk to church we made a run for
it! The usual 30min walk became a 18ish min run (I told heavenly father
it was not exercise... it was formal speed walking. I hope he agreed.)
Well the good news is we made it for the opening song, even better, both
kids were asleep in the stroller! The rest of the day was wonderfully
uneventful. We successfully made Panda Express chow mein noodles,
finished off my birthday cake, ate some left over cookies (a friend
made), our fav. chinese street popcorn from the night before, and ice
cream. It was one of our most healthy days in China...Americanish junk
food tastes SO much better in another country!
Saturday 4/20: Dallin went into work for a few hours in the
morning, the kids and I cleaned the house, did wash, and made my
fabulous chocolate birthday cake using my own homemade applesauce to
cut the fat (and how much i have to spend on butter here.) When Dal
got home we took the subway and bus to get to the art district. However
while we were waiting at the bus stop a friendly drunk chinese man was
trying to make friends with the kids. We couldn't convince him to leave
the kids alone so we walked to the next bus stop... which happened to be
down the road and over a small part of a freeway-ish road. It was
interesting. But we made it. Crossing the road in China a game of chicken. Luckily I am pretty good at this game. The art district was awesome! We even
happened upon Ai Wei Wei's exhibit opening! He is a big deal! He has had
shows in the Guggenhiem and is a worldwide known contemporary artist!
And of course the photographer there could not stop taking pictures of
Jules! We found out that one of the reasons they love her so much is
they only have white baby dolls, and she is the spitting image of them
with her pale skin and big beautiful eyes! That night we had some
friends from the ward over for cake and ice cream (which is where we
acquired the delicious chocolate chip cookies :) Dal even set up a movie
projector on our white wall. It was really fun! Pictured: Jules eating
her first Chinese rice cracker. ( They taste like bugles).
Friday 4/19: MY BIRTHDAY. We spent a slowish morning at home
as I slept in then dal made me breakfast and I talked to mom for a
little bit. Once we got out the door (dal stayed home from work to play
with me:) we headed to the National Museum and saw and exhibit that was
visiting from the Met in NYC. They had a Van Gogh that was gorgeous. Now
dal understands why he is a big deal. Ban Gogh in person is a
breathtaking experience. We then ate at the Blue Frog. An american style
restruant, where we ordered a pastrami and club sandwhich with mac and
cheese for Mitch. He loved it! So did we. Jules slept. Afterward we went
to Uniqlo and our fav. movie store, then home for the night. We watched
a movie and ate a slice of cake we bought. Pictured: My birthday cake,
art exhibit
Thursday 4/18: Baby Group day.
We used the subway
and bus system to get to our friend Jessica's house. We went to Daylight
Donuts (apparently they have some of these in Utah.. weird) the only
donut shop I have heard of in Beijing. Mitch was in heaven! They even
had drawings of route 66 inside! Afterward we went on a walk with
another family from the ward who have daughter that is 4. Mitchell
adores her! They had such a fabulous time.
Wednesday 4/17: We started running in the mornings and going
to the market as part of our run! It is really fun! We spent most of the
day after that inside until we met dallin at a friends house for
dinner. We brought pound cake. And it was incredibly good! I made it
with yogurt in my rice cooker!
pictured my tasty pound cake, and the kids... mitch was trying to be a baby
Tuesday
4/16: The kids and I tried to go to a meeting about first aid at the
hospital, but I couldn't get a reasonable taxi man. And we had a
following as we tried to get the taxi. People just kept following me
trying to touch the kids, as I'm carrying both of them. Love Chinese
people some days, they are so fabulous and their love for kids can
really be so helpful, but other days.. like this day I had to swat a
few. After that we spent the day inside. Did not want to deal with any
more attention.
Monday 4/15: We had a family night about listening and played
the game of whispering chain. Where you tell the person next to you
something and they pass it to the next person... Mitch was really good
at it! We tried to talk about listening to mom and dad and learning to
listen to the holy ghost.
Here are some photos from the Ai Wei Wei exhibit:
This is our fav. piece since it reminds us of the ceramic made by the very talented Joan Palmer!
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| Each cow, such as this one had its counterpart the camel, pictured below to accompany it. |
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| And we loved that they served MILK as the refreshments! |
