Happy Thanksgiving!

Another Thanksgiving away from our family, however we were once again able to spend it with our amazing Shanghai family... All 60 of them!!! Our friend Jen hosted it at her apartment again and had the help of several of our ayi's. We had 30 kids and 27 adults!! It was so nice having the ayi's around. They took care of the kids and brough them food while we socialized :) Then after they cleaned up the kids' mess the kids left to go play with our dance/game lady we hired for 2 hours!! After we had our peace and quiet we enjoyed an amazing Thanksgiving feast, American style :)

 

It was great to have Chad come back for 5 days to spend Thanksgiving together as a family!

 

30 kids getting served up!

 The best picture we could get of the matching girls, Saria and Rilynn

 

 

 

Crazy chaos! :)

Girls Weekend!

The ladies here have all been wanting to do a weekend trip for some time now. Originally we wanted a flight weekend getaway, however with all of our husband's crazy travel schedules we just couldn't swing it. However, we did manage to plan a weekend in Shanghai.

 

We started at our 'Black Friday' early Saturday morning. It was a Christmas bazaar with over 150 vendors and was a mad house!!! However, got some great gifts so it was worth it :) Headed out to lunch and then off for our sidecar tour.

 

Still waiting to get everyone else's pictures from our tour, but here are a couple of mine. We had 8 ladies, 4 drivers, and 4 cars. We split up into 2 groups and went on a 3 hour tour of Shanghai. It was awesome to see the city in such a different way! Scary at times, yes... But awesome!!! We stopped and got off a couple times and visited some new sites. One of them was called 1933, an old slaughter house turned into a cool shopping area. And the other was an old building that was used a Japanese base back in the day. However, the highlight was just driving around :)

 

 

Kat and Chris

Turned around and they stalled right in the middle of the intersection!! LOL

 

My partner in crime, Shauna

Our cool hotel. The kids would've loved the light up tub and sinks. They also had 'mood' lighting above the bed :) Very techy hotel!

 

 

After our tour we had a drink and then headed over to our hotel, Andaz in Xintiandi. We booked a suite, and 3 other king rooms. Kat and I had the suite with a connecting room. Had a couple pre-dinner drinks and headed out to Kabb to eat some good food! Then headed over to Brown Sugar where we had a table booked and did a lot of drinking and dancing (or for me people watching! lol). Listened to a great live band and headed back to the hotel around 2. Stayed up and talked until 4 and then hit the sack.

 

Woke up feeling ok, just tired and went down for breakfast. We then all went to Dragonfly and got foot massages :) Made it home by 3:00pm and Susan told me I looked bad and tired! LOL.. She stayed longer so I could go take a nap and she took the kids outside and Brady to KungFu. Woke up at 6:00 to them coming home. REALLY going to miss her!!!

 

As a going away gift, my friends paid for my weekend!!! They are such an amazing, generous, thoughtful group of women. It is really starting to hit me how much I am going to miss them :(

However, I am so thankful that I was put here in China to meet them and will continue to have them all in my life no matter where I am!!!

 

Our 2nd China-versary!

 

2 years has come and gone here in China. I can't believe how fast it went and how much the kids have changed in that time! Brady went from a 'baby' to big boy now and Rilynn has grown into such a big girl :)

 

It's funny how accustomed I have become with the sights, smells, and people here. What would've made me stop and take a picture 2 years ago is just now an everyday sight and don't even bat an eye at it :) However, I still will never get over the spitting!!! Ewwwww

 

We all have truly enjoyed our time here and are so grateful and thankful for the once in a lifetime experience that was provided to us. It has been such a great learning adventure for the kids and us to experience a whole different culture, seeing and befriending people from all over the world, learning a new language, and just realizing that there is a lot more to this world than just Minnesota :) They have been able to experience so much more at their young age that most people wouldn't have the chance to do it a lifetime. And for that I am so happy for them!

 

Our time is almost up. The shippers will come on December 14th and we will fly out on the 22nd to be home for the holidays. Rilynn will then begin her full Mandarin immersion school after holiday break. We hope for both children to keep up with the language as to not let their past two years go to waste.

 

 

 

Happy Halloween!

 

Halloween here just kept going and going.... Seriously, way too many parties :) Definitely got our money worth from our costumes!

 

Carving the only pumpkins I could find! LOL- Mini's this year :)

 

Saturday before Halloween.. Busy day! Baseball and birthday party to start the day, then went to a Haunted Carnival Family Day, and then ended with trick-or-treating.

 

Costume contest

 

Trick or treating gang! Went to the same housing area where we went last year. Kids had fun doing the old fashioned way of trick or treating :)

 

Almost like we were home. BBQ and Mini pit :)

Sunday, went to a kids Halloween party at a play center.

 

And then, finally.. Halloween! Went out to dinner with some friends and then hit up the mall for some trick or treating. Kids had fun, but unfortunately about 90% of the candy we couldn't eat as it was Chinese candy. It is impossible to tell if it has peanuts or not, so have to very cautious and get rid of it :( Can't wait to come home and at least be able to read the ingredients!!!

 

 

And lastly, our lit pumpkins!