Hello Minnesota-Final Post

 

Well, we made it back home to a snowy Minnesota winter. We were greeted at the airport by our parents, Val, and Jeremy. Hauled our 8 suitcases and 2 carseats and made our way out to eat at Zan's :)

 

We then went back to our house. I had an awesome surprise waiting in the driveway with a giant red bow on it..... My new car!!!!! I knew Chad had bought one, but was expecting not to get it for awhile as it was in Michigan with him. However, he surprised me and drove it back rather than flew like I thought. I love it!!!

 

Made our way through our house after not seeing it for the last 2 years. Thankfully, Chad and his parents had already set up the Christmas tree and unpacked most of our shipment the week before he left for Shanghai. However, we had sold our living room furniture so it was still pretty bare :)

 

Thankfully, our house looked the same. The renters were pretty good and there were only a couple minor issues.

 

The kids of course put on their winter gear and headed right outside after checking their rooms out. They definitely missed the snow!

 

The next couple of days were a big blur as we were all jet lagging and also driving all over going to visit everyone for the different Christmas parties, but it was great to see everyone right away!

 

After break Rilynn started school at Benjamin E. Mays Mandarin Immersion school in St. Paul. We were likely enough to come across this free charter school where she will continue on with her Mandarin. Her teachers are native Chinese speakers and teach only in Mandarin. Her homework is also given in Mandarin, which can be challenging for us all! Thankfully, she is loving it and fit right in.

 

Brady started part time at a kindergarten readiness program right down the road from us. He stayed home with me for a couple weeks, but was dying to start up school! He is loving it and enjoys playing with all the boys in his class after being outnumbered in Shanghai by girls for the last 2 years :)

 

Chad is still working in Michigan. He is coming home every Friday afternoon and stays with us for the weekend and then flies out on Monday morning. He also stays with us for a week per month. It's definitely not ideal, but we make it work! It definitely beats us being in Shanghai, while he was in Michigan though!

 

As for me, I am trying to get our life back to normal and us situated. I will eventually go back to work, but for now am busy driving Rilynn to school and taking care of our new puppy, Ruby! We surprised the kids with a puppy for Christmas :) They were a little hesitant at first, but are loving her now!

 

I am very proud of myself for keeping up with this blog for the last 2 years. For all those who read it, I hope you enjoyed our adventure with us!! Thank you all for your support while we were gone :)

 

 

 

 Home Sweet Home

Goodbye Shanghai!!!

Chad came back on the 14th and helped get us ready for the shippers coming on the 16th. We were given 2 air boxes to bring our stuff home. One of those boxes were pretty much the 2 pieces of Chinese furniture we were bringing back. Thankfully, all of the other important stuff made their way into the shipment though!

The time came to say good-bye to Mr. Hou and Susan. Mr. Hou works for a company and told us he already had another job lined up. As for Susan, I helped her line up 2 part time jobs for when we left. Since it was so close to Chinese New Year and they were so great we gave them their hong bao's a little early.. We also gave Susan a nice picture of the kids that she loved :) We also decided to take them both out for dinner at the only Chinese restaurant we like- Din Tai Fung. It's a very easy place to eat dumplings and rice. We did the customary thing and ordered for them, which was hard as we weren't sure what they liked! It was fun and they were very appreciative of it :)

Susan gave Rilynn a pair of amethyest earrings for her birthday and each kid a silver bracelet engraved with their english and chinese name! It was very thoughtful :)

Saying good-bye to Mr. Hou and Susan

 

A couple last minute foot massages, lunches, lots of tears and one last Morton's happy hour with our friends finished our last week out. The kids had school until the 21st, which was nice to get everything done.

 

Since it was Christmas break a lot of our friends were leaving a week before us so it felt like we were always having to say good-bye to someone :( We made such amazing friends here and they truely became our Shanghai family!! Our experience here would not have come close to be as awesome as it was without them!! They all have a very special place in our hearts and we will always love them :) Thankfully, one of our friends (Kat) were also repatriating the same day as us. Although they are in Ohio it's nice to be able to talk to each other close to the same time zone going through the same thing as us.

 

December 22nd we boarded our last 14 hour flight back home for a long time!!

 

Good-bye Shanghai!!! Never in a million years would I have thought I would've enjoyed China as much as I did!! Hopefully we will come visit again in 2014 when Disneyworld and the Shanghai Tower is finished :)

 

 

Happy Birthday Rilynn!!

Another year has flown by! My baby has turned 7... We had her birthday party a week before we left and The Little Gym again. This is her 3 party there, but clearly she enjoys it :)

She had 10 friends and they all enjoyed themselves! This was also a sad party as this would be the last time we would be seeing some of our friends :( Reality has started setting in..

Rilynn wanted a Tinkerbell theme. Thankfully, Chad was coming home on the 14th so he was able to bring some decorations from the US with him.

For her birthday present we gave her a violin to bring back to the US. She has been begging for one for a long time!

Chad wasn't able to be there on the 13th, so we had a low key dinner at her favorite restaurant- Yasmine's. She loves the steak there!

At Yasmine's

 

She also wanted to visit the Toilet restaurant and get some chocolate ice cream!

 

 

The Little Gym Party

 

 Rilynn and Aoife

The whole crew

Christmas parties

December has been a stressful month, with Chad being gone and trying to get ready to move. Plus, December brings all the Christmas activities!

 

We started off the month at Kid's Club Christmas party at a hotel in Honqiao. The kids had a blast decorating cookies, playing games, singing songs, and of course meeting Santa.Well.... Santa's helper! Thankfully, we've had the discussion how Santa is too busy to be everywhere so he has to send his helpers sometimes. As you can clearly see in the pics he wasn't the 'real' Santa! lol.. Plus, Brady saw him change in the bathroom! HA

 

Rilynn's masterpiece of a cookie

 

Santa's helper!

 

My friend Katherine was in the same type of single parenting situtation as us with her husband traveling. So we had planned this weekend with going to the party and then staying at the World Financial Center using one of our free Hyatt nights. Unfortunately, pink eye made it's way through their house so they weren't able to join us :( However, the kids and I still went and enjoyed the awesome hotel! Our room was up on the 81st floor and the kids went swimming up on the 85th floor!! They loved being so high up :)

 

View from our room on the 81st floor.. Jin Mao Tower on the right

Construction on Shanghai Tower on the left

Next up was Rilynn's Christmas program. Her class skit was a song about being in a Greek restaurant. It was cute- The family had burnt the chicken dinner so they needed to go out to eat for Christmas :)

 

She also had a paragraph speaking line concluding the program. She did awesome in front of so many people!

Rilynn and Emily

 

Lastly, was Brady's school party. Santa made a surprise visit and brought each kid a book! Clearly, this was another one of Santa's helpers :) LOL

 

Barry Sanders in China!

When Chad was home for Thanksgiving he saw a sign that Barry Sanders was coming to Shanghai. He was Chad's favorite playing growing up so was very bummed that he couldn't be here for the event. But, he wanted the kids and I to go to live through us :)

 

It was a Monday night at 7:30pm so wasn't sure how the kids would do being out late, but thankfully they did awesome and had a great time!

 

There was only about 200 people and everyone was watching the Lions vs Colts on a big screen eating some burgers and fries. Barry was sitting a couple tables away from us watching the game as well.

 

During halftime, they had a Q & A session with him and also had the Raiderette cheerleaders perform. Thankful to the amazing technology we have, Chad was able to listen and see the 'halftime show'. Following that we were able to meet him and take photos and get autographs. Unfortunately Chad couldn't talk during that time or else he could've said hi via skype :)

 

I know Chad would've loved to have been there, but at least he was 'there' for a portion of it!

 

 

The MC for the evening was Allan Wu- host of the Amazing Race Asia

 

 Did a group shot with Allan Wu and Barry Sanders - and some other people :) LOL

 

Christmas party and a hotel!

Kids Club has their Christmas party last weekend so the kids and I went. It was at a hotel in Hongqiao. We had a fun weekend planned with our friends, but unfortunately pink eye went through their house and they weren't able to come with us :( So the kids and I went to the party ourselves.. They had a lot of fun. They decorated cookies and ornaments, ate a lot of food, sang christmas carols, played a bunch of games, and even met Santa... Well, "Santa's helper" as the kids said. Since they have seen some 'horrible' looking Santa's over the years they understand that they are not really Santa, but his 'helpers'. Thankfully that has worked! And luckily because this one was about 150lbs, in his 20's, and had a lovely elastic beard! LOL.. Plus, Brady saw him change in the bathroom and go back to his booth at the party!!!! :)

 

Brady's cookie

Rilynn's cookie that she worked on for 20 minutes :)

Lots of kids! Playing "Pass the Parcel".. aka present :)

OOOOOhh, Santa!!! :)

 

After our party we had planned to have a mini vacation and use up one of our free nights at a Hyatt hotel. There happened to be an awesome hotel 5 minutes from our house in the Shanghai World Financial Center. It is the 2nd highest hotel in the world! We stayed up on the 81st floor (building has a total of 101 floors) and had amazing views of the city!!!! The kids also went swimming on the 85th floor. I wish I could've gotten better pics because it really was so awesome being up that high with the amazing views of the lights..

 

 

 

Top of Jin Mao tower on right and new construction of Shanghai Tower on left

 

Shanghai Tower- Should be completed by 2014 and will be the tallest building in China (121 stories) and the 2nd tallest building in the world!

Randoms!

 

One of Rilynn's favorite classes is ICT. They had been working on a slideshow and invited the parents to come and watch it. It was so amazing how technology has changed. I remember learning how play Oregon Trail in 7th grade on a mammoth computer and here is my 6 year old navigating on her Mac :) Very impressed!

 

 

 

Going to miss our $6 haircuts for the kids. Rilynn will also miss the shampoo and blow outs :)

 

Brady's baseball has come to an end. He was so excited to receive his 1st medal!!! Definitely will be a sport he'll want to continue back at home.