How do you Choose?

 So, before I start, I will say that I understand that most of you will not look at this or read most of it because there is just too many pictures. I really did try to choose just a handful, but our trip was just so full, how could I choose?  This is where we eventually made it to...the top of the house in the mountains...we could have stayed there all week, but we had many people to visit and places to see.

 I just love the mountains, the rice fields, and the sprinkling of little village homes along a windy road.

 Haha! Mini date on the train there.  All of the kids had seats on the row behind us :)

 Lauren was quick to make new friends on the train.  This boy is one day older than Lauren.  They have both just graduated from kindergarten and learned many of the same songs in school, so they decide to give the entire train a performance.  Very cute :)

I think this was the highlight of Hudson's trip.  This boy is always saying he wants to drive.  He finally got his wish.  There was a lady at the park who had about 10 of these cars and the kids could pay about a dollar to ride for 2 minutes. It was the quickest 2 minutes ever, but boy did he have fun.  I thought he was going to cry when the car stopped working.

Breakfast

The town we went to is well known for their watermelons and grapes.  I have to say, they were both delicious!  We took home 12 pounds of grapes and 4 big watermelons!! YUM!

So, after 2 buses from the city to the town, we rode another bus from the town to the village.  It was about an hour up the mountain.

This is where we were dropped off to go to the house.  I thought it was similar to where my Papaw used to live...main road to the unpaved driveway...no big deal.

But the "driveway" turned to a small path...

and eventually to not really any path.  We all LOVED every minute of our 40 minute hike to the house.  I am very thankful Ayi carried Hudson on her back.  She said she would carry him instead of me or Jonathan because she was very familiar with the land and had carried both of her boys when they were little down these same paths.

If you look in the far right corner, you can see the houses that we are eventually making our way to.

So, I was telling the kids to be extremely careful and not fall of the mountain and things like that, but I can't help but take pictures or all the beauty around me.  I saw the kids walking around the curve and the sun was peaking through the clouds and their hair was shining and blowing in the wind and then I did it...I stepped right off the path into the rice field.  My shoe was muddy and drenched!  They all laughed at me  when I got there and gave me some flip flops to where while my shoe and sock got washed and hung out to dry :)

We made it!  The kids played and explore the entire time.  One of them asked if we lived up there "would you let us explore these mountains any time we want?" Sure.

One of three cows that they "found"

Everyone getting a drink of water!  It was cold and fresh.  The kids learned how to drink from their hands...glad that Jonathan had one empty bottle in his backpack that came in handy when we were wanting to guzzle the water a little faster ;)

Beautiful farmland

We watched them sharpen their knife on this stone outside.

firewood being stored for the winter

cooking lunch

I know my children have grown up in Asia, but I am still amazed that Katherine can sit just like all the locals.  Go ahead try it! feet flat on the ground and squatting just inches above the ground...that's my girl.  She just "rests" like that all over taking in the views.

The view from on top of the roof.  They were so excited that we let them go up there!

Me and my baby (still can't believe she is taller than me)

Kid picture

going down the steps from the roof.  The local kids just ran up and down....I mad ermine go one at a time and very slowly! ;)

Hudson taking pictures with his Daddy.

Jonathan carried Hudson down

inside the house...some of their tools for processing their crops

more fire wood (and the back wall is missing) Ok right now, but COLD in the winter if there is no wall!

hay in the loft above us

Visiting the 95 year old grandfather

Love the look on his face

Lunch

one of the little girls coming in the front door of the house

Katherine's friend the pig...she would snort at him and he would snort right back.  He was quiet otherwise.  I have a video...so funny!

My kids love catching the little ducks.  They were pretty cute (and no, we did not bring one home)

feeding the cows

Don't step off the path! More rice fields.

Leaving and on our way back into town

bamboo everywhere!

In the side of the mountains were these little "caves" that were dug out.  They were all empty right now, but will eventually be full of sweet potatoes.

One of the homes (waiting on a bus to come take us back into town)

We just played in the street for about an hour a half waiting for a bus (don't worry) There were not really any cars and if a vehicle did come you could here it coming way before it got to you :)  Benjamin was so proud of his "scary" stick that he found.

Here's the lady walking down the street with a big ole knife!  Sweet lady just eating her corn asking all kinds of questions about us...the knife just seemed a little big for her piece of corn :)

We saw a shark in the sky!!

Out on the town

I have never picked peanuts before...it was starting to sprinkle, so really they were "picked" by someone else and we all pulled the peanuts off when the bundles got back to the house. Still fun though!

Lauren picking some "la jiao" chili peppers

Now this was one funny lady.  Her hands never left her hips and she was animated! She was trying to guess the ages of everyone in our family.  She couldn't believe it.

Walking a little further to some more relatives homes

The kids in the village trying to get a glimpse of the foreigners.

We had taken some gifts for the 4 kids of this family...the oldest (12 years old) was already working full time and not there, but we did get to meet the 9 year old (green shirt) the 7 year old (pink shirt) and the 3 year old boy.  I have sent some clothes to them via Ayi in the past, but realize now that the kids are MUCH smaller than I realized.

This little boy had a great smile.  I asked him if I could take his picture and he said yes, then he proceeded to give me the most serious face (common picture taking style here) and then I asked him what happened to his great smile...and then I got this picture.  Ayi says his eyes look like Benjamin :)

Katherine hanging on to her watermelon and eating peanuts (another specialty)

What a good big sister! She loves helping her brother.  More noodles for breakfast :)

Just walking down the street and we see the chickens eating corn.

You can't go to a new city without visiting a local park and climbing to the top of the hill.

Look at the love :)

These two little boys hung out with us several days.  It was fun to see the older one wearing all of Benjamin's hand me downs....especially the UT jersey.

Those boys were on cloud nine that they got to eat pizza!  I have never seen a kid eat so quickly! He was so afraid that it would be gone and he would not get any.

A little dancing in the house before we go out again.

Haha!  This little guy still makes me laugh.  He was just frozen staring at us.

Selfie at the restaurant

My crazy girls getting excited over a stuffed worm.  They were definitely enjoying themselves.

Playing on the monkey bars

These are all of the buildings that are being built right outside of the apartment.

Mosquitoes!  Crazy thing bit her eyelid while she was sleeping!  Her eye was swollen for 2 days!!!

Who says you cannot fit 7 people in the back of a car?!?  Here is my proof!

Buying some grapes...12 pounds to be exact....about 50 cents per pound...best grapes ever!

on our way back home...one last goodbye

Katherine is cutting one of the watermelons that my sweet husband carried back in a rice sack!

Here are some of the peanuts we picked.  I was told they are good for 3 months after we pick them.  I think we will eat them before three months is up though. :)
We had an excellent time and cannot wait to visit again some day!

Connecting with Friends

 This week we have been connecting with some friends. (sorry to this mom for the pic while she was eating...she'll never see it..haha)  We met with this family and Lauren got to spend some time playing and eating with this sweet friend.

 The kids were given some fun little crafts from the States.  Katherine was concentrating so hard on her piggy bank.  She was trying to hide her work of art so that no one copied her ideas :)

 This little guy has really improved in the area of fine motor skills...check out that coloring! He's stain gin the lines and having a great time!

 He enjoyed painting his piggy bank, too.   His took the longest to dry because he LOVED putting on lots of paint :)

 Everyone hard at work :)

 Benjamin is showing us his sand in a bottle creation.  When we got this, Hudson was so excited that this sand was really from America.  I loved seeing their personalities come through in the two projects.

 Regan is taking taekwondo every day (except Sundays) this summer.  The first couple days she was really sore, but she is absolutely loving it!

 Here is our family picture all in our new shirts.  Notice Hudson has no glasses...when we met with the family in the first picture, one of his lenses came out while he was playing.  We never could find it.  We took his frames down to a local shop to see if they could make him another lens...took two days, but now he can see again.  He kept telling me, "Mommy, I so sorry because I can't see anything."

 Gracie is getting bigger and more playful and more daring...I'm thinking she's about ready to take on Charlie the cat and hold her own.  :)

 This is Lauren's absolute best friend in the world!  They were leaving to go to Spain for the summer, so we wanted to get the girls together.  The mom told me while they were playing that they were not coming back! :(  She hasn't told her girls and I'm going to wait to tell Lauren.  I'm still hoping they change their minds and come back.

 This is Marissa, Chloe's big sister and Katherine's good friend.

 This is Regan's new sidekick.  This cat has decided that Regan is the favorite.

 Since the news about our friends possibly not coming back, we arranged one more get together!  (Hudson loves playing with Phoebe, too)

 We went to see a movie together...Shaun the Sheep.  I had no idea that it would be in the movies theater, but I have to say that is the kind of moving to watch when the first language of the children watching is not the same...then all the kids can enjoy.

 Hudson's very first movie!  He did about how I expected...after about 30 minutes he wanted to "go home and watch a movie" I'm sure because he doesn't have to actually sit and watch it :)  When I didn't take him home, he was thirsty, needed to go potty, and repeated all three excuses throughout the movie :)  but he still had fun.

After the movie, we went to Pizza Hut.  I'm so glad that the kids had such a good time.  We are going to miss them!

Officially Summer

 The summer break has finally arrived!! :)  The kids were all allowed to choose one fun class for the summer.  Katherine and Benjamin chose swim lessons.  Since the coach was completely booked up the entire summer, she said she could teach just Katherine and Benjamin weekday mornings because local schools were not out yet.  It was perfect.  They got one on one coaching and the rest of us got to swim around a bit, too.  Their lessons are now over, but they look forward to some more swim days this summer.

 We took the kids to McDonald's for ice cream.  They were so excited until our McFlurries and Sundaes came to us...they were all yellow to promote the new minion movie.  If it were just yellow then ok, but it was banana flavored!  The kids were not thrilled with the switch.  No vanilla available :(   Hopefully the regular ice cream will be back soon.

 We ran into Ayi.  She was on the way to our house, but I couldn't resist the photo op.

 The kids had movie night in our room.  This is how they started...Hudson soon fell sound asleep and the others continued to enjoy Mary Poppins.

 Jonathan is so good to find creative ways to help us celebrate the 4th of July!  Here was our little flag fruit plate (apples, bananas, and blueberries) with some southern cookin' to go with it...sweet tea, fried chicken, and corn bread :)

 Lauren's last week at school had all of the kids' art on display.  She was so excited to run around and show us all of her things.

 My two little swimmers...Katherine and Benjamin

 Lauren was giving the little cat some attention.  She finally has a name....Gracie.  She a fast little kitty, too.

 Lauren's school celebrated their 15th anniversary, which means another performance.  One of the mom's had to go backstage to take some tights to her daughter.  She took this picture and sent it to me.  This is Lauren's teacher, Xu Laoshi, and her best friend, Chloe (Liu Yi Jin) and her other friend Du Jie Yin

 Also, another parent snapped this at the performance.  Her seat was much closer than my seat.

 The teachers also performed a dance.  It was very good.

 These were all of the people that performed that night.  All of the shows were really good.

 After the show, the kids got one last picture with their teacher.  Then Fang Xu Xian and Lauren (and parents of coarse) went to get them a snack.  Lauren was soooo hungry afterwards.  The kids arrived at 4:30 and we didn't leave until 10:30.

 The NEXT day...her class got together for one last hoorah.  They had a buffet lunch, the kids played games, and sang one final song to their teachers (who all started crying this time because they knew it was the last time for the class to be together).  The way it works here is the teachers move up with the kids every year until they graduate from kindergarten, elementary, middle, or high school.  So they really do have a special relationship with the kids.  Most of these kids have had this same teacher for four years (Lauren had her for three years because she did not start at the school until she was 3 years old in xiao ban)

 So, what does a 10 year old boy do to entertain himself at a kindergarten lunch?  He makes static electricity :)  and yes, I know a hair cut is on the list of things to do soon :)

 I think Katherine had just as much fun as Lauren.  They both won a flower hair bow.

 And yes, Hudson played with balloons, too.

 So, to start our official summer, we had a girls scrapbook day and the boys had a boys day out.  Jonathan forgot to take pictures, so I will just have to tell you the exhausting day he had ;)  The boys started by going swimming and playing all kinds of games in the pool, going to Burger King for lunch, going to the arcade, going grocery shopping and buying some "junk food" for the girls because Lauren said, "Yeah! Today is a fun day which means we get to eat junk food!" coming back to the house to drop off the food, going to an indoor play place, and finally coming home for dinner and stories.

 This was Lauren's first official scrapbook day.  She was  so excited and had her spot claimed for the "event." Look how neat and organized...my entire room was so neat and organized...

 ...and then the fun began and my nice clean room was no more  :)

 taking our little junk food break and watching the movie on the computer...and yes, ALL of those pictures are of Regan and Kayla Moore :)  Best friends.

This had to be my favorite page that Katherine did.  She just loves her bunny.