Fish, Food, and Flowers

Sunday 5/19: Was Dallin's pretend birthday! (He was gone on his real birthday). So he had Mango and sticky rice for breakfast, a lion candy bar as a snack, and dinner included bacon, eggs, fruit (that was my addition to his requests), and an amazing sausage potato recipe I got from Alex! He also got a happy birthday sign with some weird ballons that kept popping while I tried to blow them up. His "knock you naked" brownies will be featured later this week along with his shopping trip for some fun summer clothes and a stop at our fav. Korean BBQ restaurant! He and Mitch also tried to build a boat, (Mitch quickly lost interest), at the park. -The Nephi building a boat story sunk in a little too literally this week. (We taught it in Primary and acted it out at home for scripture reading). He also got a haircut, which he modeling quite nicely in the picture with his birthday BFD (breakfast for dinner).

Saturday 5/18: Dal was gone on his business trip. The kids and I had planned to attend a district women's conference. But all the stars were out of line for us. So instead we stayed at home and went crazy. :)

Friday 5/17: Dallin's Birthday! He left at 6am for his business trip. Boo. Mitch had an ear infection, so we went on a hunt for the nearest clinic... we got a little lost. But once we found it we had a great appt. and afterward sat down in Starbucks to eat our lunch. I realized once again the different views Americans and Chinese have on personal space, since the majority of people there were from the American embassy (the embassy and its housing are part of the building and next to we were in.) We were hardly even noticed and no one came over to inspect or coo at my children. (Even grown men coo at Jules, everywhere we go. She loves it!) Downstairs we found a little piece of home, in a store full of American imports. You will be happy to hear they had Lucky Charms! They were $15 a box! :)

Thursday 5/16: Dal got off work early and we hit up the zoo/aquarium! The aquarium was so well kept up we almost thought we were in America!  Mitch loved the deer, probably because they are so exotic. Moe, they have unicorn fish! Here's the pic. Oh and as a pre-birthday we had Mango popsicles for dessert. They taste just like a frozen mango and look like the seed of a mango. You need to eat one of these sometime! You will love them! Here are the boys eating them...Jules may have had a taste too.

Unicorn Fish!!!

Spider crab... creepy

Sea turtles.. hiding in the water

dolphin whales? Whatever they were it was pretty amazing!

Eaten by a giant dead shark

Amazing mango popsicles!

Wednesday 5/15: Was our wash/clean the house/ go shopping day. Mitch was an excellent helper. He is getting so big. He really loves chores (when he is in the mood), and loves doing it himself! He takes his "big boy-ness" very seriously. He and I are loving it!

Tuesday 5/14: We went to the botanical gardens! It was beautiful. Although the tulips had just died and the roses were still in their buds. Once again we were quite the attraction. Three white women nursing their babies was a perfect  target for a group of about thirty. With people trickling in and out of the  crowd one of our friends was stuck there for a good 30 min. Like I said before and will say again, Chinese have a whole different view on not only personal space, but most social norms. Mitch loved playing with his Chinese  friend Isabella from our branch!

Monday 5/13: We went to the Silk market with our friend Whitney.

And Jules always seems a little left out when it comes to these insta-mails so here is a pic of her from our Sunday walk. And one of Dal and Mitch on Pride rock.

I will post last weeks letter... when I finish writing it. Due to a weird week, it never got written. But it will have some great pics and stories, so it has to be written. I made a great friend... and might have gotten into a slapping match with a Chinese mom....