P.S. That wasn't really Tracey...

Guest blogger here again, for a quick update.  'Twas really me who wrote the last post (fruit picking).  So how was I being "Tracey" on purpose this time?

If you're thoroughly confused now, it was all part of the ruse to make Tracey's parents and siblings think that she was still safely planted here in Shanghai, when in fact she was actually on an airplane to Salt Lake City.   Only her father and one of her 6 siblings were "in the know," everyone else was shocked to have their long lost China-expat daughter/sister show up at the family dinner on Thursday night.  I trust it was a good reunion.

On Friday morning US time (actually right about now as I'm posting this), Tracey will be able to join her entire family in the temple, as the last of her two sisters who had not yet been will be going for the first time.  We thought it was too big to pass up so we gladly forked over the 60,000 United miles and sent her back to America for a brief, but meaningful visit.  Tracey will be back to tell you all about it next week.  Until then, pray for guest blogger to keep the kids safe and happy for a few more days.  :)  (actually, we're doing just fine)

Fruit Picking at Dawn Garden

Last week we saw a sign in our clubhouse that said "Fruit picking Saturday at 10:00.  Meet in front of building 9"  That's our building so we decided to check it out.  David, Emma, Heidi, and I all came out with some other families that live here.  I think we were the only Americans or even foreigners.  The Dawn Garden man explained what we were going to do in Chinese and one of the women helped translate for us.

The first trees we went to were the persimmons.  I have never had them before and David said he tasted one when he was in elementary school.  We heard that they are sour.  At first the guards climbed up the ladders to get them but soon they let kids go up and pick some too.  Of course Emma the not shy girl was up in the tree very fast.  Heidi finally decided to try it too.  She wasn't scared but maybe it wasn't a "cool" enough activity for her at first.

Next we went to the pomelo tree.  Pomelos are like really big grapefruit that are green.  We have tried some in China and they were just OK, but the ones we had in Vietnam were really good.  There were only 3 on the tree but Emma marched over and of course ever the charmer she got the guards to give her one of them.

The last fruit we picked were mandarin oranges.  Some of them over here get picked when the skin is still green.  Our oranges were green but they told us to pick them so we did.  There weren't very many but we got a few.   There was one in the very back of the tree where the ladder wouldn't go so David jumped up to get it.  You can't tell in the picture very well but that's him jumping up for the last orange.

Here is a picture of our fruit that we picked.  It was a little different than getting pears in Idaho but we still had fun!

THEY"RE BACK!!!!!!

Meagan and Heidi both got back from their trips last night.  They were both exhausted from all the fun and adventures they had.

 It was so fun to hear about all the cool and neat things they got to do.  Meagan took over 200 pictures.  Some good some not so good.  I think she was trying to work on getting some pretty scenery shots.  She took lots of pictures of the clouds because she said they looked pretty.  She said her friends have some of her doing her jump off the bridge, rock climbing and hanging out.  Heidi was only told to bring a disposable camera and she only took 26 pictures.  She did say that one of the chaperones took lots of pictures and has some of her rock climbing.  I can hardly wait to see them all.  They talked non-stop about their adventures all night but they were so tired.  When we said it was bedtime they didn't complain and went right to bed. We were happy to have them back home because we really missed them but were glad they had a great time!!!!

Heidi left too

Today Heidi got to leave for her school trip.  Her fifth  grade is going to Nanbeihu.  She is very excited and just a little scared.  This is the first time she is going away from home for more than a day without her family.  I know she will have a great time!!! She is scheduled to go kayaking, rock climbing and some other fun stuff.  All things Heidi loves to do.  

This is her roommate for the next 3 days.  Her name is Yukine.  Heidi and her have become fast friends this year.

So long, and don't let the door hit you on the way out...

(blogger note-- due to illness and lack of energy, an unnamed "guest blogger" will be filling in today for Tracey.  For those of you who really miss Tracey's comments, the "guest blogger" will offer a free Tracey translation for you)

MONDAY, OCTOBER 13, 6:10 a.m.  We've finally reached that glorious point in life where we can begin booting our children out of the house.  Unfortunately it's only temporary this time, but this morning Meagan picked up her suitcase (actually  my suitcase) and headed on out the door for almost 5 full days.  Yes, a teen-free, attitude-free home for 5 days.  Do you hear that whining-- neither do I!!

(alternate Tracey version)

Our Meagan is growing up so fast!  Today she left for her school trip to Yangshuo.  She was so excited to wake up early and get to the bus at school.  Here she is all ready to go: 



Ever the boy magnet, 3 of the local 8th grade "dudes" that she hangs out with joined us all at the clubhouse for the quick walk to school.  Anyone remember Charlie's angels?  Here's the yin/yang to that-- "Meagan's Men."  All I can say is, keep that testosterone at a safe distance from my daughter, y'all (click clank goes the shotgun).

(alternate Tracey version)

Meagan has the cutest little friends.  All these nice boys moved in over the summer and they all have nice moms who love to go shopping with me.  Meagan wishes some of them had been girls but they are all really sweet boys with good manners.  They're going to have such a fun time.  But I'm really going to miss my Meagan!

There's nothing like the sight of teenagers actually conscious at 6:15 a.m., let alone pulling their own suitcase to boot.   About time they woke up and did something productive.  Unfortunately I had to wake up with them.  6:15 a.m. and I don't get along too well most days.  Didn't when I was a teenager, still don't now.

(Tracey translation)

The kids were so excited to get to school.  Don't they look cute pulling their suitcases?  I got to talk to the moms and plan our shopping for today!

Now HERE's a treat.  Meagan and two of the boys going off with her homeroom teacher, Mr. Larson.  That's right, Mr. Larson.  Mr. DAVID Larson.  Hello!  I had to put up with this in Boise!!!  Can't an American guy have his own name for himself in China for crying out loud??

(Tracey translation)

The kids met their teacher, Mr. Larson, at the school.  His name is David too.  Isn't that funny!  I wonder if his wife wants to go shopping?  They're going to have so much fun!

So, Meagan is off for the week and Heidi leaves on Wednesday morning.  We hope you enjoyed today's blog, where we added two more items to the list of near-certainties in life (after death and taxes of course):

1.  Meagan is going to have a great time on her class trip.

2.  Tracey is not going to let the "guest blogger" within 100 gigabytes of her blog ever again.

Vietnamese Clothes

Here is our family in the Vietnamese clothes we had made in Vietnam.  As we were going around to different places we saw the women in these beautiful outfits and all fell in love with them.  We really wanted to get some for us to bring home. 

Our cute little Emma.  The lady making the clothes misunderstood what she wanted and made hers the same style as Heidi's. She was quite disappointed but she still looks so cute.

Heidi's has a funky two-tone to hers and it is different colors when the light hits it just right.

Eric wanted to join in with us girls getting something new and the store had this already made.  He just loves being a ham when we take pictures.

When we ordered Meagan's she wanted the white pants and turquoise top but as her mother I said "no" to white pants on a child.  While we were travelling I noticed lots of women had the white pants and the colored top so I had David e-mail the tailor and make her some white ones.  She was pleasantly surprised and actually got both pairs of pants that we had originally ordered.

Here is David and I.

 He has told me that he wanted an Asian jacket that had a dragon on it on several occasions.  The tailor had one already made and it fits pretty well. So we got it for him.  Looks pretty good, doesn't it?

 

Top 10 and Bottom 5 things of our trip to Vietnam

The Top 10 Things We Loved About Vietnam!!!!

10. Feeding the crocs!!

9. Sleeping in the "prince and princess canopies" (the mosqito nets)

8. Boiling eggs at the hot springs

7. Going on a jungle canoe ride

6. Getting to see the stars in the clear night

5. Staying in the awesome beach house

4. Getting to watch the Disney channel

3. Going on the sleeper train to Hong Kong and then back to Shanghai

2. Bodysurfing at the beach

1. Finding sea creatures and seashells at the beach

Bottom 5 things we didn't enjoy in Vietnam

5. Sunburns

4. Crocodiles

3. Freezing cold airplane ride to Hong Kong from Ho Chi Minh City

2. Lizards in our "cabin"

1. All the sand flea/ mosqito bites we got at the beach (we came home with close to 50 each and they itched like crazy!!!!!)

But overall we had a FANTASTIC time in Vietnam!!!!!

Ho Coc ( part 2)

After a marginal night's sleep we woke up at 6 am.  Unbeknownst to the kids that they were in bed the night before by 7 pm.  They were in their swimsuits very quickly this time with lots of sunscreen and out to the beach.

 We didn't realize how high the tide had been the afternoon before until we walked on the beach and all the rocks we climbed on were 30 feet inland from the waves.

 The kids again enjoyed swimming and body surfing.

 We also found a crab,

and a starfish.

 The kids found even more seashells and we just had a great time.

 Eric wanted to know how many days we can live at the beach.  I think we all felt that way but alas all good things must come to an end and we had to make that 3 1/2 hour trip back to Ho Chi Minh City to get ready to take our flight back to Hong Kong the next day.

 When we got back to HCMC we picked up our traditional Vietnamese outfits we had had made while we were on the coast.  They look great.  We didn't have time to take pictures until we got home but they look pretty cool.  We got ready to get on the train to come back to Shanghai and we were all tired but we had had a great trip, even with all the bug bites that itched like crazy.

Ho Coc (part 1)

Today we got up and went to feed the crocodiles.  David and Emma and Heidi were very excited to do this.  Meagan had to be pushed all the way and Eric didn't know what to think.  I got to take pictures and try to get the action shots.  I did get a few.

 They even had tons of baby crocodiles.

 I didn't know what they do with all those crocodiles until David reminded me that they were an item on the menu at the restaurant.  After feeding the "crocs" we took a quick trip to Ho Coc beach and got into our own house right on the beach.  It was huge and we could definitely have a family reunion in that place. Here is a picture of our beach house

and "Wow", look at the view we had!!!

The kids quickly got their swimsuits on and were off.

 They jumped in the water,

swam in the water,

looked for sea shells,

built sand castles,

and drew sand pictures.

Dad found a great rock he walked out to and all the children wanted to follow.

We were having a great time until we realized we were getting sunburned.  We went back to the house and they had this fun little barrel filled with clean water and a scoop that we could rinse off all the sand and broken seashells off our bodies before going inside.

 The kids decided they wanted to watch a movie.  David and I thought it would be fun to take a walk on the beach by ourselves.  While we were walking we saw some locals looking for something.  We kind of asked by using hand gestures since we don't speak Vietnamese and found out they were hunting for clams.  We watched and before we knew it we were helping them.  Heidi and Emma came to find us and also started looking and in the process got soaked in their clothes.

 We had a great day at the beach and again looked up into the sky and saw beautiful stars.  When we got ready for bed we let the mosquito nets down.  Our kids called them our "princess and prince canopies".

 They felt all safe and snug in them.  Little did we know that there were bed bugs and some of us would feel like things were crawling all over us all night long.

Binh Chau

Today we took a car ride to resort with some hot springs.  We thought it was only going to be about 2 hours but we miscalculated and it was a 3 1/2 hour car trip.  Luckily we have wonderful children in the car and they watched movies and played gameboy.  The only problem was when Eric told us there was a problem with his body.  We asked him what it was and he said he had an accident.  We didn't believe him because he doesn't have those but sure enough he had and didn't think to tell us.  We arrived at the resort and went into our "cabin".

 It had six beds for us and a few little geckos too.  

We aren't too adventurous for those and tried to tell dad to get them out and he did the best he couldbut they would come back in.  We got on our swimsuits and went swimming in the hot spring.  They were very warm and it was a warm day so it didn't quite seem refreshing.

 

After we were done swimming we walked around to see what else was at the resort.  We found the foot bath pools that were burning hot and Eric said he wasn't going to do that.  He explored with mom and Meagan.

 We came across the place where the pools were really hot and you could buy 10 eggs for 40,000 dong (about $2.50) and put them in one of the pools and they would boil the eggs.  We found a cute egg and lowered our basket in and walked around some more.

 The hot springs were so hot you could feel heat just walking by them.  The kids all wanted to take pictures.  Eric is still learning to get everyone in the picture and Emma is getting better.

 We went back to check on our eggs and the guide told us a few more minutes.  Our silly kids wanted us to make movies of them doing things. We will spare you the silliness and not put one of them on here. We wanted to find the crocodiles and feed them but that part was closed.  We did find a little park that Eric and Emma loved playing in and we found the animal of the year we were born in too.

Later we had dinner and since we were at a resort we thought it would be fun to order some "fancy" drinks.  The kids all loved them.

 When we were walking back to our "cabin"  we got to see a beautiful night sky with lots and lots of stars.  We realized that living in Shanghai we don't see those very often and just enjoyed looking up at them.  We all tried to sleep well and hope the geckos don't like to crawl on people.  (In the morning we seemed to still be just fine.)