More posts coming I hope!

So I started this nice long post about Uncle Jason's visit, but our internet has been SOOOO slow lately that I can't get any pictures to load (don't even think about video) and I am hoping even these few sentences will make it online. I waited a long time to even get the blogger start page going. SOOO, we had a great time and had to say goodbye this morning, but hopefully can get a real post going sometime soon. I also wish my mom and Nana a Happy (slightly belated) Birthday and want to post about her sometime too. Here is hoping to better internet speed soon!

A Full House

We have an exciting last few days. Chris' brother Jason arrived safely Sunday night about 12:30 AM to our house after 24 hours of travel. We are so excited to have him visit and have been having lots of fun. About an hour after Jason arrived, Ashlei called me to tell me her water had broken! Almost three weeks early, but they had to take off for the hospital. I slept the rest of the night at their house and brought Grady (and Sidney the dog) back home with me Monday morning. Grady has done great and plays with the boys like he has always lived here. So we have had Jason in the guest room, Grady in a tent downstairs and Sidney...wherever she wants to be.

Monday we took everyone to the Bird's Nest and Olympic park to take in some of the sights. The boys ran around in the hot sun and had fun, ending with a McDonald's lunch (it is right inside the Olympic park). We took it easier today. I took Grady to meet his didi (little brother) and Chris and Jason played baseball with the boys at home. So it has been a full but fun filled week so far. Tomorrow Grady with stay with Jason H., Bree and Jesh and hope to take in the Summer Palace. Hoping it will be a little cooler than Monday.

Grady with his new didi: Langdon Cloud Warren, born on July 4th!

More fun with old friends

I am trying to get back on the blogging bandwagon...somehow the summer schedule, visitors and my big tummy (which means I am more tired) have gotten in the way. Tonight we had the fun privilege of getting to see Nate Sims...who was probably 7 or 8 when we first met him the year we moved to China. He is now 19 and in college! but here in BJ for an intensive summer language program. We love the Sims family and it feels like a strange reversal in some ways that he is now here hanging out with our kids and eating dinner at our house...when Chris and I spent many, many days and nights playing with the Sims' kids and eating lots of meals at Daniel and Marian's home. Of course, Graham was also a very frequent visitor at the Sim home and it seems fitting we are all together for a time. Nate is going to spend the night and go to church with us- get a break from the dorm.

They are all laughing at this face below:

Bennett eats a cupcake with no reservations!

The big boy with our little guys. If our boys turn out anything like Nate, we will have lots to be thankful for! Nate has done great at being a "TCK" Third Culture Kid. He grew up half in Chinese school, half homeschooled. Had lots of foreign and local friends, befriended a minority classmate in high school and became an almost adopted member of their village and now is navigating American college where he is majoring in linguistics and Chinese.

The silly face picture.

"New" old friends

We have had such fun reconnecting and hanging out with some "new" old friends here this summer. Our good friends from our former city, Graham and Ashlei and their son Grady are here living in our neighborhood this summer waiting the birth of boy #2. Grady is Bennett and Jesh's age and they have become great buddies in just the few weeks they have been together. It is so fun for us to get lots of time with Graham and Ashlei too. We have been grilling out together, making pizza, splashing in the pool and just living life.



Then this weekend was a special treat- my friend Laura from both Carolina and China came to visit me and Ashlei. We had a great weekend together- mostly talking and catching up as well as a shopping/eating girls' night out.

I feel like people come and go a lot in our lives here overseas, but am really thankful for these friends who have been here in this country (though we really live far apart within China) with us and done life together for awhile.

Bunk Beds

After returning from Hong Kong, we made the official switch to both boys in the bunk beds. I am excited to free up the floor space in their room and it has been too hot for Bennett to sleep in the tent. They have done great- Bennett (mostly) staying in his bed and Austin seems pretty comfortable with the top bunk. They are cute in them and seem so big and grown-up. We have mostly recovered from our trip, though we all still seem a little tired.

Look at these sweet faces- they can do no wrong when you watch them sleeping. As you can see, Bennett is still VERY attached to doggie, now officially named "Jimmy Doggie". He sleeps on him like a pillow every night.

We are excited to welcome our friends Graham, Ashlei and Grady this week to the neighborhood. They are old friends from our former city (and Graham from UNC days) here to have baby boy #2 and are living in our neighbor's home for the next 6 weeks or more. No pictures yet, but I am sure they will come. We are all planning to grill out tonight. I am making pork and pineapple skewers- we will see how they turn out.

We survived!

Our hotel was on Austin Road and near Austin Station on the subway. Well, Austin thought that was pretty cool and read the signs whenever he saw them. Here is the proud Austin.

Well, we are back one day late from our trip. We got our visas, everyone is healthy...nothing to really complain about. HOWEVER, we seemed to encounter transportation woes at every turn and it did not exactly go as planned. We left the house rather frazzled Tuesday afternoon after Chris had to go sign a random form 2 hours before we were to leave. We got on the train in plenty of time though, after a quick McDonald's dinner in the train station (I was actually impressed they had a McDonald's in the train station). The train ride itself was not too bad. There were two youngish aiyi's sleeping above us who loved the boys and played with them. We had two soft sleeper bottom bunks...pretty much the best seats money can buy on a train. Kids don't need to buy a ticket, but that meant the 4 of us were sharing two narrow beds in a small compartment. It WAS air conditioned, thankfully, but actually pretty cold. The boys slept really well- a bit of a short night for all of us but once they were asleep, they slept all night. I, on the other hand, with my pregnant belly and Bennett in the bed with me, did not sleep very much so i arrived rather tired.

Bennett playing with the aiyi on the top bunk- they helped entertain on the 12-turned 15 hour train ride.

Austin with Chris in their bed during breakfast...as we tried to call the airline to tell them we would not be showing up for our flight.

In the morning though the troubles began- we were informed that our train would be 3 hours late. I had noticed it seemed to have stopped for awhile in the night. Apparently it had to be repaired. Usually train travel is actually rather reliably on time. But not this time. SO...this started a chain reaction of events that changed all of our travel plans. Since our train was late, we missed our flight to ShenZhen. The next flight we could get on was 2:45 that afternoon (as opposed to our original 9:30 am flight). We did get about 70% of our flight money back at least. Since we had a later flight, we couldn't go the visa office until the next day, which meant we couldn't pick up our visas until 10 am Friday morning. That made it impossible to make our 11:30 am flight on Friday out of Shenzhen, also meaning we would not get to our next train ride home on Friday night. SO....what to do?

Bennett kept laying on the floor in the various airports and stations we found ourselves in. I tried to stop him but finally gave up- this was in the Changsha airport, where we had to spend about 4 hours. Not an impressive airport.

Finally so tired from waking at 5 am on the train and traveling all day, Bennett zonked out on the bus across the border on Wednesday. He slept straight through getting on the bus, off, through the exiting China and entering HK customs lines, back on the bus and into HK.

Well, we canceled our two flights (getting most of the money back) though the train tickets were just a wash. We were able to book a direct flight back Friday night (leaving at 10:30 pm) so we could get back for a concert event Chris had Saturday night. So Thursday morning Chris spent applying for visas and rearranging flights while I took the kids to the pool. Thursday afternoon after long naps I got my pacemaker checked by a doctor I really like in Hong Kong (everything looked great, thankfully). Friday Chris picked up the visas and booked us bus tickets across the border and back to Shenzhen and Friday afternoon we finally enjoyed some family time all together at the pool again after checking out of the hotel.

Though Kayak.com said there was a pool at our hotel, there was not. Thankfully, right out of the hotel parking garage was Kowloon park. It was an amazing public park! It had 3 outdoor and several indoor pools for a very reasonable price. The boys made 3 trips to the pool in 24 hours and loved it. It was such a nice pool. This park also had a great playground, aviary, nature center and workout center. Another reason to be impressed with Hong Kong.

The playground at Kowloon park.

Then Friday night. We get to the airport in plenty of time, but see that all flights to Beijing are delayed. They actually moved us to an earlier flight, since the 10:30 one would probably be cancelled due to bad weather in Beijing. We wait and wait and it keeps getting delayed. Finally at 11 pm they announce it is delayed until 1:55 am! This was kind of the last straw in a long line of travel. Even then there was no guarantee the weather would be cooperating. So we asked and were thankful that we could be put up at hotel and switch our tickets to the morning. We did this as fast as we could, but it was still after midnight before we got to our room and put the kids in bed, only to be up at 5:30 to catch the morning flight.

However, today our flight was on time and smooth and we are home with the main goal, new visas. I must confess I had quite a few times of total crabbiness and was not very patient. The kids had their moments but overall probably did better than me! Somehow being pregnant in the heat and walking around with the double stroller made me irritable on top of all the setbacks. BUT, I know friends right now who are very sick and know many, many people are suffering much greater things. So I am thankful for our safe return and a bit ashamed of my bad attitude...but that was our trip. Austin today was telling Bree about our trip and acted like it was a great time, so maybe the pool impressed him most. Hopefully. I know I will be very thankful for my bed tonight. Poor Chris had to go straight from home to set up for his concert, got a flat tire in the car we are driving on the way and will be home late tonight. I think we need to stay home for awhile after today and not go anywhere. :)

We ate dimsum at a local hole-in-the-wall. Dimsum is famous in Hong Kong- lots of little dishes that are often steamed. The boys liked some of it, even after our plans to go to the Spaghetti House fell through (it was being renovated). After that I decided we should stop trying to plan anything about the trip at all.

Hong Kong at night- we stayed in an area that looks a lot like the movies...lots of neon lights and characters. Most of my trips to Hong Kong have not looked like this at all.

Leaving on a train

After days of trying every possible combination of transportation, we finally are headed to Hong Kong to get new visas. If you are switching visas you have to leave the country to get a new one and technically Hong Kong counts as leaving the country. We wanted to save money, since a round trip flight for 4 people costs about $1,500. SO, we are training for about 12 hours starting tonight. Then in the morning we will fly to the border within the mainland, walk across the border and do customs, spend 2 days in Hong Kong getting our new visas and return Friday. Friday we will fly again part way and then take a "fast train" another 5 hours to home- getting home about midnight.

Wish us luck..or rather, pray for us. Hopefully it will be a fun family time together. But ...the alternative is also true, so pray we have good attitudes and get a little sleep on the train. And get our visas smoothly.

Will update with lots of pictures when we return!