First Day of Kindergarten

Last Thursday Gemma started her first day of kindergarten. She was so excited for school to begin and see her old friends. The big surprise at the bus stop was that the school had a bright and shiny new school bus. Here is my big girl getting ready to board the bus. I think she looks so grown up!

The First Tooth, Lost!

On Sunday, August 19th Gemma lost her first tooth. We were having dinner at the Shamrock as they have this great Sunday buffet BBQ. She was taking a bite of her garlic bread and her tooth came out. Here she is that evening showing off her new found space.

Happy 40th Anniversary Mom and Dad!!!

August 26th, 1967 Wedding Photo





On Sunday my parent's celebrated their 40th Anniversary on the Fremont Dinner Train. My sister Becky and I were partners in crime in pulling this off. She so graciously went and picked my parents up and delivered them to their suprise afternoon. My dad said they were plesantly suprised as they were worried that I was going to send them to some fancy restaurant, which is not my dad's thing. Here are a couple snapshots my dad sent me today.

Rock, Rock Til You Drop!

This morning after breakfast Jonny went downstairs with the kids and decided they would have a little rock band practice to some Def Leppard. Jonny kept yelling at me to come downstairs to see what they were up to. This is what I found! Yes, that is Jonny in his underwear with his new wig and Angus in his sister's Liverpool kit with Jonny's old wig! I thought this picture was too funny not to share!

Kangding

Our first evening was a little eventful. After we checked into our hotel we went to the fantastic Tibetan restaurant. After eating most of our meal Gemma went on to projectile vomit all over the floor. Poor thing, I think she had been suffering from car sickness on the windy roads and the food just made it come to fruition.

The next day we decided to go up Paoma Shan one of the small mountains in Kangding. It had a nice view of the city and a nice place to hike around with the kids. Here are some of our photos of the day.









One of the temples at the top.



Tibetan prayer flags



Tibetan Stupa





Angus and I decided we would try our luck on a Tibetan pony/horse. Luckily we faired better than Gemma and I did in Songpan.





Catherine and Sam

After our trip to Paoma Shan we headed to meet Ethan at a Chinese restaurant. Ethan really knows his food! This tiny hole in the wall place had probably the best food I have ever had in China! I couldn't believe how fabulous it was!

Unfortunately we had some sad news from home as our dog Clark had some pretty major issues with a tumor and had to have emergency surgery to have it removed. Lily, the kids and I had to call our trip short because I needed to get back to take care of Clark. Fortunately he is doing well after a successful surgery. Hopefully next time we will get to Tagong!!!

Drive to Kanding

On Tuesday we woke up to get ready to leave for our trip and found out that our dog Clark had dried blood all over him. We weren't sure what to do as we couldn't pin point where the blood was coming from until we could get him cleaned up. I did find a small scab on a fatty tumor. He seemed to have stopped bleeding, so Jonny told me to go ahead and go on our trip. I was a little hesitant, but he assured me he could handle Clark. We got on the road a little bit late, but were able to catch up with the Platt-Goldings around Stone Elephant Lake (if you are a regular reader you have seen pictures of the tulips in this park). We drove about an hour past the park and then stopped in a small village past Ya'an for lunch. Our friends Ethan and Catherine told us that they have fantastic chicken dumpling soup. Here are so pictures from our lunch...



Making the dumplings



Cooking the dumplings



A really tasty chicken with a sesame-chili seasoning



Our Chicken Dumpling Soup! This was delicious!!!

We got back into the van and we all crashed out for about 2 hours until the Platt-Goldings had to stop because one of their kids had to go to the bathroom. It was perfect timing because we were all due to stretch our legs and check out the beautiful scenery.

Yes, there are really blue skies in China! You just have to drive until you find them!

Gemma and Angus checking out the rest area and the mountains.

We Off Again!!!

Gemma begins school on the 23rd of August so we only have a few more weeks of doing out own thing before we have to get back into a routine. Tuesday the kids and I are going to head to the mountains for a few days. We are going to the Tibetan part of the Sichuan Province for the week. I am very excited about the trip as really love Tibetan culture so it will give us another look at Tibetan lifestyle in China.

Stay tuned for pictures of a beautiful new world!

Last Night

On our last night in Phuket we went to the beach to watch the sunset. We actually didn't spend much time on the beach because the water was quite rough and unswimmable. I was kind of mad at myself for not spending more time there just relaxing and having the kids play in the beautiful soft sand. Here are a few pictures of the kids on the beach and of the gorgeous sunset.









Gemma, Me and Angus taking in the sunset.



After our time on the beach we went to get ready to have dinner and see the Philippino band one more time. They were really fantastic and the kids loved listening and dancing to their music. The kids were exhausted and Angus fell asleep on my lap before his dinner came.



Here they are before Angus fell asleep. You can tell by this picture they are absolutely exhausted!!!

We had a really nice vacation! Probably the best family vacation we have ever taken. We had so much time together and really felt like we bonded as a family. We look forward to sharing our next adventure very soon!

Friends

One of the best things about going on vacation is meeting new friends! We were extremely fortunate this time to meet several neat families. We met a family from Scotland, two Australian families (one living in Bangkok and the other in Shanghai), and an American family living in Ho Chi Min City, Vietnam. It is so great to meet people from other places, especially foreigner living in Asia. It is nice to hear about other experiences and where they have been. Usually the best thing about it is the kids are able to meet new friends! Here are a few pictures of the kids and the friends we met on this trip.





Angus sitting on a rock by the pool during a tropical rain! I love swimming in the rain and so do the kids!!!



Elly from Bangkok and Rory and Savanah from Scotland!



Angus and the boogie board! He looks like a little surfer boy!



Angus in his speedo with Gemma and the boogie board! Like father like son!



Here is a video clip of the tropical rain! It was really nice.

We spent most of our time with the family from Scotland which consisted of Claire the Granny, Brenda the Mom and Rory and Savannah the kids. They were loads of fun and really, really nice. In fact we are looking forward to them all coming to China for a visit in the next year! Here are some photos of us with them at Happy Hour on our last night.

Brenda, Claire, Savannah and Rory

All of us!

Silk

Jonny and I decided that we were in need of another date night, so we found a nice restaurant not to far from our hotel. It was a really nice Thai restaurant that had won a bunch of awards in Phuket called 'Silk'. It was really gorgeous, but the food was probably some of the most amazing Thai food that I have ever had! If you are ever in Phuket this restaurant is really nice place to eat fantastic food and relax in a gorgeous atmosphere.

The next day Jonny realized that he left the hotel umbrella at the restaurant, so we decided to go pick it up and have lunch. Here are a few pictures of us at lunch.



Jonny and the kids hanging out on a huge opium bed by our table.



Angus being his cute self!



We all ordered fancy drinks! Here is Gemma with her pineapple smoothie. I ordered a mango daiquiri which was fantastic! The mangos in Thailand cannot be beat!



Angus with his mango smoothie.



Jonny and his fresh watermelon juice.



The kids and their stir fried noodles. I absolutely love this dish, but I never order it. I always end up eating their leftover though.



We had an appetizer sampler of spring rolls, fish cakes, this yummy chicken in banana leaves and shrimp fried with glass noodles. It was amazing!



Here is the main dining room.



Here was the outdoor seating.

Lily and Yum Yum

One cool kid feature about our hotel is that they had two baby elephants living at our resort. Every time that we walked by the elephants I was without my camera, so we made a point on the last two days to take the kids to have their pictures taken and an up close and personal moment with them.

Here is the older of the two elephants named Yum Yum. Yum Yum was quite talented. Here she is playing a harmonica!



Angus absolutely loves elephants and is always saying "Da Xiang" which is Chinese for elephant, but Gemma is a bit weary of them. Jonny had to slowly get her used to them. Here is a picture of Jonny introducing Yum Yum to Gemma.



Yum Yum also liked to give hugs!

The kids also took their turns riding Lily, the smaller of the two elephants. Here are a couple video clips.








Fearless Angus on little Lily. She was a sweetheart!

Gemma, Jonny, Angus and Lily

Me and the kids with Lily