Mexico.

Quick and easy. Here is a handful of pictures of our trip to Mexico, celebrating 10 years of marriage. Had a great time despite some abnormally cool weather.

Biking in Shanghai

My biking friend, Evart, posted a great video of a recent bike ride in Shanghai. I saw a lot of unique scenery when riding in Shanghai, including sights similar to those in the video. Lots of memories. Thanks Evart for posting it.

"Oh My Word"

Yes,

I fully predicted the words that would come out of your mouth when you looked upon the Bowman Blog today. Call me gifted. I think that's why my kindergarten teacher called me "special". She knew.

We just haven't updated because we've been flat out staying out of trouble. You know, the whole China thing completely scrambled our lives. Reading our blog was like reading the headlines of your national newspaper...."Trains collide in Scranton" "Ryan is running of deodorant" "Sully lands in the Hudson" "Anna successfully pee'd in a chinese toilet" and the headlines go on.

There is one update...our adoption continues to progress. Aimee is the leader of this process for our family so if you want specifics, talk to her. If you ask me, you're going to get something like, "Uh, yeah, we are going to submit our 'dossey hey' this year. And then we'll probably wait about 12 to 48 months, give or take, before we can pick her up."

In reality, I just tend to take it one month at a time. If I get too worked up about timelines, the months will start to feel like weeks. I don’t need that.

For the adoption, the Chinese government wants to see our family with others. Here are pics that have been taken with that in mind, though not all of these will make the final cut. Some of you look too deranged. If you have the time and a camera, snap photos with us soon. Photoshop also works too.

And Happy Birthday Ryan Krauss.




My sister Megan, her husband Derek, and son Evan

Our friends Ryan, Missy, and Joshua.

My grandparents.

The Bowman clan.

Aimee's sisters Joy and Heather.

Aimee's parents.

Aimee's sister Heather and husband Dave.

The Underwear Girl

I finally thought to get the camera to get proof of Rachel's love for underwear as a hat or necklace. She doesn't care if they are clean or dirty, race cars or flowers--anything works for her. Thankfully, this pair is clean.

Great Wolf Lodge

This weekend, we were blessed to be able to go to the Great Wolf Lodge in Traverse City. We had a blast. It has been a very busy year so it was fun to get away and enjoy some down time together.

The kids are listening to the bed time story in the lobby.

Christmas

The kids and I had a lot of fun doing holiday baking together. Elijah had fun crashing his peanut butter cars in a big pile up.

The Kids Praise Christmas concert was so beautifully done. Anna had fun getting her makeup done and then singing her heart out. Notice the bright lips in the picture with Nana and Papa. :)

Rachel now sits on the bar stools with "the big kids". She LOVES it!

Iceman Cometh 2008

I raced 27 miles through the woods of Northern Michigan with about 2,500 others (though we did not all start at once) in early November. Here’s a picture approaching the finish line. Can’t wait until 2009.

I've been busy posting tonight!

For those of you who still check the blog, I really am sorry that I am so bad at posting new posts. I have tried to catch you up a bit with what we have been up to and have added lots of new pictures. I hope that you enjoy!

Winter Wonderland

This whole week Holland has been beautiful. Snow started falling Sunday night, and it has pretty much snowed everyday since then. I hope that it stays, but I know that it will not. Everyday Anna and Elijah have gone outside to romp in the snow or is it to eat the snow... Rachel does not like snow... she is scared of it falling on her face--it is pretty heavy, and of the boots that are necessary to go play in the snow. She starts crying and fighting the boots when she sees them come out. Needless to say, Rachel only joined the "fun" the first day--the rest of the days she has been inside with me, taking care of her baby. Notice all of the leaves on the snow. Because of the warm weather, our trees in the back did not drop their leaves until after the snow fell--nice.

Chicago

This past weekend, Ryan and I went to Chicago to visit my sister Heather and brother-in-law Dave. We had a wonderful time touring the city with the experts. They live and work/study downtown so we were able to tour the city in true Chicagoan :) style. Along with seeing a lot of the normal sights, they took us to a really fun Greek restaurant and then to Comedy Sports, an improv comedy club that was hilarious. Thanks Heather and Dave for a great weekend! (Thank you also for the awesome car you sold us!--God provided just in time. Ryan has been riding his bike to work and the day after we returned from getting the car, we had quite a bit of snow on the ground. God is awesome, isn't He?)