Ok, a quick one

With some coddling, some pics uploaded. We headed an hour away from home during the 9-day Chinese New Year holiday to a hotel with 2 sets of family friends. Critical ratio was 2:1 (kids to adults). Total numbers were 6 adults and 12 kids. It worked out great and the kids all had a blast. Parents did okay too. ; ) See some of the fun below:

We headed to a park by the sea one day. Kids enjoyed the mini-amusement park and riding the rented bicycle/minivan around the park. I should have grabbed a picture but imagine a Fred Flinstone-mobile with 2 "pedalers" and 2 kid seats in the front. With 3 bikes in action, there some serious Nascar action going on.

11 of the 12 (missing baby Ava) and not sure why the font went to hotlink. You might be able to pick ours out of the lineup as #2, #6, #9 and #10.

Movie night in one of the Bowman rooms.

And some of the swimmers on the way to the pool. Anna and Elijah are becoming quite the little swimmers. Rachel made great strides, er, paddles as well as she swam in her floatie solo-style. Of course, she made sure Mommy or Daddy were always within arm's length.

See ya!!!

Bad blogger.....BAD!

Sorry for the lack of blogging lately. We are doing well but between the unpacking, work-related travel, and the lunar new year holiday, we've been behind on the blogging. Plus, knowing that there is a good chance photos won't load efficiently dampens one's adventurous spirits.

The weather here has spiked into the 50's a couple of times in the last few weeks but remains cold for the most part. Once we break 60, we'll be doing some more adventure seeking in the city. And with adventure comes pics of grandkids in unique spots in Shanghai. Buckle your seatbelts grandparents!!!!

The house is pretty well settled now so we need to release the new pictoral house tour. It's been fun because we've got the wall space to hang things we never had room for in Michigan. So, a painting we purchase in China the first go round, but never hung in Michigan is now up. Ironically, we should have just left it in China!

On a somber note, for those that have followed the Rogalske blog linked at the right, they are dealing with tough news on Kristi's cancer. Please continue to pray for their family of 5. Our heart breaks for their situation. What an inspiration to see both Brian and Kristi trust in God's plan even though it's difficult to comprehend.

Mayflower truck has exploded

Hey y'all,

The photo upload has been agonizingly slow and typically errors out after waiting patiently. But it seems to be working ok today with an extra dose of patience and one photo at a time. The big shipment showed up on Saturday. Great news considering we are sticking around the city during Chinese New Year. We have a few things going on but mostly will be chilling. So, not really a better time to bring in like 4,000 boxes of stuff and sort it out. Definitely has been a work in progress. Here are some pics from the delivery day. We'll get some 'finished product' pics up soon....and of course, I will still deliver on the lunch photos. Read on....

We numbered all the rooms in the house and then played commander and chief at the port of entry. Here's Aimee providing direction. There were 8 or 9 guys which made things go pretty quick. The kids really enjoyed seeing toys that hadn't seen since mid-November. Plus, with Mom and Dad distracted with the task at hand, it meant "do whatever you want" time.
The workers helped to unpack the majority of boxes. Which helped us purge most of the cardboard and packing paper but meant we had some major re-shuffling to do. Here's the kitchen. But it's received an extreme makeover from Miss Aimee since. Quite impressive I must say.
And then there was Rachel, enjoying a sweet reunion with old toys. We are doing pretty well. Aimee has been baking bread with the arrival of her 'toys'. Happy New Year!!!!