Home Trip - July 2011

Hi everyone! I'm back and hopefully for a while:) I have truly forgotten that I don't get much free time with a one year old that is crawling everywhere and only wants one nap a day. I am going to try to get caught up by the week's end. Hee hee We shall see.

So - Back in July we headed back to the U.S.A. It was nice to be heading back home after being a year away. We were all ready for the vacation. We flew directly into Detroit and then onto Pittsburgh. We stayed a long weekend at my brother's which is in Greensburg.
We were excited to have our friends - The Bargemann's drop in for a day. They were driving thru Pennsylvania on their way home to Ohio. We all had fun at the Go Karts, miniature golf and a BBQ with smores.

There was some fierce competition going on. Katelyn enjoyed riding with Devin because he went faster than Mom.

A great picture to remember the day.

We were able to get some fishing in. I really like this picture of Lucas and Jacob.

I think more fish were biting on Kate's line.

Uncle David needed to get out the eyeglasses! He was pretty busy along with Jason.

It was my first time to see Blue Gill. You have to be careful with them. They sure do have some sharp fins.

Then it was on to New Mexico. The cousins were excited to see one another.

Jason got into the groove of some home improvements with Zeb. They did a great job and they were quick (sort of).

We took the Tram to the top of Sandia. We enjoyed the cooler weather and the rain coming in. We snapped this picture and hopped back onto the tram and were lucky to catch it. It was the last one to go before the storm hit. It was a fun afternoon - thank you Dad and Laura.

On our way North to Raton, I had to snap some pictures of the beautiful New Mexico Sky!

It was so dry - New Mexico was definitely in need of Rain.

At Nona's house, we saw the biggest bear.

I had to snap this picture of Lucas. We were going thru Cimmaron Canyon.

We were anxious to get up to Angel Fire - a mini Marchiondo Family Reunion. It didn't take long for the cousins to get their Uncles to play some cards.

We did some fishing, mountain bike riding and white water rafting. We had a perfect day for the rafting.

We only lost one out of the 17 of us. Happy to say all was okay:) We had lots of fun on the Rio Grande.

We saw tons of elk. I am sure we kept seeing the same herd but it was a big. Lots of little ones too.

That is Eagle Nest Lake. I have never seen the lake so low.

It makes the area look so different.

I will be posting some pictures from the Reunion in another post. There were some really good pictures taken but I need to do some talking with a certain brother in law to figure out how I can get them posted:)

Kate was thrilled to get to see her BFF (Lauren) before we left town. It is always special to see how they just pick things up right where they left off.

The boys had fun getting to see Brynna too. She is one of Lauren's older sisters. Their mom is one of my good friends too and we always have a good time catching up!

We had a great time and it always goes by quite fast. We were missing our Lily who had to stay back in Shanghai. We look forward to taking her next summer if all goes well with the adoption process!

Trip to the Shanghai Zoo

The last day of school was the 24th of June. We were all excited for that last day to come. It was funny, the first few days the kids didn't want to do anything. The weather wasn't all that great but it wasn't bad. By Thursday, I said we were going to the zoo. It's only 20 minutes away by car. It was overcast and humid but a good weather day to go.

One of the first exhibits we came to was this stuffed giraffe. We were a bit worried that we might see stuffed real animals instead of alive and kicking ones.
The grounds at the zoo is very pretty. Lots of greenery and open like park areas.

Every once in a while, we see some birds like this drinking water from the streams in our development. They get spooked quite easily and then there is a big white bird flying thru the air.

I thought this was clever.

We were surprised to see porcupines.

Kate wanted a picture touching one.

We decided to hit the pet area. It was a bit hard to see. There had to have been at least 30+ different breeds of dogs in kennels. 2 dogs in each kennel. The area and kennels were not very nice looking. It was hot but the dogs looked lifeless. I can't say they were malnourished. It was just very different to see at a zoo.

The big attraction that the kids were anxious to see were the pandas. They were hot too.

I liked this picture of the lions. We decided our dog Maggie is part cat. She likes laying on her back like this lioness. In fact, she fell off the bed the day before because she was rolling over into this position and did not realize how close to the edge of the bed she was.

This bear was performing for food.

There are signs everywhere that say"don't feed the animals". However, that doesn't stop the locals. I have to say that was the most annoying thing.

They had quite a few giraffes. They weren't big but looked better than that stuffed one!

It's official, Devin is part Gorilla.

Again, people feeding the monkeys.

Lucas is officially part monkey!

It was sad to see the other monkeys in the surrounding cages wanting food too!

Some got very aggressive and started fighting over the food. They made horrible noises and that just fueled the fire. People would just find anything they could to throw into them.

We made it thru the zoo in about 3 hours. It started to sprinkle as we were leaving. It was a fun morning and an inexpensive excursion - $5 per person. I have to mention real quick. There were quite a few concession stands thru out the park. If we were hungry - one of the more popular things to buy was soup bowls like the Ramen Noodles. I thought that was funny to see.

Devin turns "15"!!!

We can't believe it. We have a 15 year old! I like this picture. I gave him a haircut the day before and he looks like when he was 10. He wanted short hair for summer. I'm ready for it to be a bit longer again:)

I think he is wishing to get his driver's permit. Wait - we aren't in the states. He's going to have to wait 3 more years. Yay!!!!

He had his friends from school come over. Mazuki - parents from England and Japan. Zach is from Australia. Mazuki moved here in December and Zach in March. They are a really good bunch of kids.

However, they did get a bit rowdy playing video games. I had to go upstairs and tell them that if they woke the baby up, I was going to take her upstairs and they would have to babysit. I didn't hear them the rest of the night. Hee Hee

Plum Season

Well this was suppose to post back in June. I just noticed that it never posted. I decided better late than never:)

We had a day, or a few hours, that I could actually see blue sky! It never lasts long. I think we are all homesick for New Mexico's blue skies!
The following picture is considered an okay kind of day because we can at least see the highway. I am guessing that the highway is about 3 miles away. Also, we have lots of construction going on around us. They have started building another housing development on the opposite side of the club.
Then more to the right, we can actually see the city.
Then we have those days where we can barely see across the street. It doesn't rain, it is just dark and gray! I took this picture from the car. I am actually on the highway that you saw in the previous picture. In this picture, there is a highway that hasn't been completed.

I could only see the planes when they were right on top of me.


Then last week, Plum Season arrived. Plum season is the rainy season and you should not leave home without an umbrella! Our streams around the complex are getting full and everything is too wet. We went from too dry to too wet.


There is a little river/stream right by where a new house is being built. Everyday that we get rain, it looks like that water should be overflowing into that house. I sure would hate to live in that house and be that close to the water.I wish we could send some of this rain to the Southwest. It is sad to see the pictures of the wildfire that was so close to our home town Raton, NM. We will probably be arriving back home just as the rains start back there.

Duck Egg

Jin Di brought me a duck egg to try today. It wasn't refrigerated and it was in a shrink wrapped package. So I am thinking, hhhmmmm, how well is it cooked?
Well, it was cooked like a soft-boiled egg. The whites has a very different texture - almost spongy like. It was very salty. The yolk was very dark - mustard yellow and the part that was runny was orange almost.

I was thinking that maybe I could try to make egg salad but it wasn't cooked enough. I can't say it was awful but I just couldn't eat it. These eggs are a summer favorite amongst the locals. They peel one end and scrape the inside with a small spoon. Sound familiar?

Something we see every day!

I was able to finally get a picture of how so many babies/children get around town with their parents. I wonder what the actual traffic fatality is for children. I don't think there is any law against it because you see so many children on scooters like that. I have never seen a child in a car seat in a car/taxi. I have to say this is one thing that I will never get use to while living in China. Traffic and driving is too dangerous.

Ok - Hiatus is over!

Well, it's been a while, I know, but not quite 2 months:) I have been working hard! The paper chase for the adoption process is over! Yes, we are going to try and adopt the little girl that has been living with us for the past 3 months. I put all the documents in the mail yesterday. The picture below is a nice size stack. It was a good feeling to finally get it completed. Now we just have to wait to have the agency review everything and we should be good to go onto the next step of the long process! I'll keep you posted, hopefully, in a timely manner.

Time is going by quite quickly these days. The kids have been busy with year end school activities and their last day will be June 24th. We can't wait!!! The baby keeps all of us busy with all of her new things that she can do and she sure is cute. I have been playing tennis quite a bit and I am really having lots of fun with that. Jason has just been super busy with work! We are looking forward to our home leave vacation in July. The baby has to stay here which is going to be very hard on all of us. Next year she should be going with us.

I hope to get a few posts in before we leave. I received a new phone for Mother's day and I am still trying to figure out how to use it. I think I should be able to post from my phone. We shall see. Stay tuned.....