Back to China

We have a 7:59 am flight tomorrow to Chicago to catch our flight to Beijing. I cannot believe how quickly a month has flown by. I believe I have had a very relaxing time in Nebraska compared to my day to day life in Chengdu. The kids however probably will sleep for days when we get back as I have never seen them play so hard in their little lives.

I was really hoping to catch up with my blogging, but I haven't even posted my 4th of July pictures yet. We will see if I have time between the jet lag and our trip to Northern Ireland (we leave a week from Thursday!!!). I guess I should have caught up while I was here because it wouldn't have taken me as long because the internet connection is so fast it is unbelievable!!! Until next summer!!!

Here are a few shots of today. We hung out with my sisters and their kids.



Angus and Aiden playing in the sand. Boy are my kids going to miss this!!!



Gemma and Isaac on the trampoline. And this too!!!



The cousins! (Gabe couldn't be with us because he was going to Adventure Land.)



Aunt Becky and Gemma



and Angus



Aunt Jenny with Angus



and Gemma



The Hendersons



The Woods

John C. Fremont Days

While we were back in Nebraska we had the pleasure of attending one of the most popular events of the summer in my hometown, John C. Fremont Days. Fremont was named after John C. because he was know as an explorer and was nicknamed the 'Pathfinder'. I was really excited to attend because it was the 21st year of these Days and I had heard from my parents that it had turned into quite the event. I have to say I was extremely impressed with the evolution of this event and really enjoyed everything about it.

The highlight of the event for me was being introduced to a band called the String Beans. Now maybe I shouldn't be the one that got all excited, but these Wigglesque band were hugely entertaining and their tunes were extremely catchy.

Gemma eating her kettle corn on Grandma's lap.



Angus and Abby really enjoyed the String Beans, but from a distance.



Poor Aiden was bit by some type of bug the night before and had a horrible allergic reaction. My poor sister had to endure jokes about her being an abusive mother all week-end long.



We also had the pleasure of attending the parade. Here was one of the tractors that was a hit with the boy cousins!



And the old cars were popular too!



My favorite was the marching bands!

4th of July

This past 4th of July I had the pleasure of spending it with most of my family in Nebraska. We had a great couple of days of swimming, hanging out with the family and fireworks.

We went down to Wahoo to enjoy the picnic and games in the park which we always attended when I was a little girl. I was a bit sad to see that they didn't have as good attendance as we had when we were kids. I guess I was just having a bit of a nostalgic day of 4th of July in small town USA.

After our little picnic all of the cousins went swimming in Wahoo (the town where my Parents were born and my Grandma lives). Here are some pictures of the pool.



Isaac a little cold after his first dip!



Abby enjoying the water!



Becky and Aiden



Angus really didn't understand the whole concept of the 10 minute rest break. We don't have those in China.



Aiden didn't mind the break.



They had fun games at the pool and the kids were to go under water and fetch some diver sticks and in turn they would get a lollipop. Of course you didn't have to tell our kids twice!

The funny thing about 4th of July at the Wahoo Pool is that back when I was Angus' age I went swimming at the Wahoo Pool on 4th of July. The next week in the Wahoo Newspaper was a picture of me swimming in the baby pool. I wish we had digital photos back then and I could share it with you!

After swimming my dear, sweet 90 year old Grandma invited us to dinner at her apartment complex. She reserved the party room for us and had the food catered by the local grocery store. She also treated us with some patriotic music on the electric keyboard!



Grandma tinkering on the ivories!

After dinner we went back to Fremont to watch the fireworks display there. We found a great place to sit in a field. The kids quite enjoyed the field because they were able to run around and be crazy for a while.



Isaac and Gemma



Fireworks!

Fireworks at the Lake

The one major disappointment on our trip back to Nebraska was that we had the major storm the week-end before the 4th of July week-end. Woodcliff Lakes, where my parents live, always has an incredible 4th of July party with the best fireworks display I have seen (in America)! Unfortunately they decided to delay the party to Labor Day week-end! We ended up having some fireworks of our own though and had a great time!



Jonny's favorite spot in Nebraska!



My Dad, the fire master!



Isaac, being cute!



The kids loved the fireworks!



Angus holding his ears and watching the show.

'

Isaac and Gemma holding their ears.

The funny thing about my kids holding their ear was that I think they were trying to copy their cousin! They have survived 3 Chinese New Years in China and have never held their ears and we have fireworks from 8 pm to 4 am every night during Chinese New Year!

Fishing with Daddy

Jonny fishing off the dock.

Everytime Jonny visits my parents one of the first thing he does is throw a line in the water. This trip it was all about teaching the kid to throw a line in the water.



Angus loved to net the fish for his Daddy.



The proud fisherboy!



Jonny trying to get Angus to release the fish by himself. He wasn't quite sure of the slime factor.



Another catfish too small to keep. Gemma reeled this one in and Angus netted it for Jonny. Although I do not have many pictures of Gemma fishing she loved it!



Taking out the hook, a Daddy job.

I feel like bad luck!

The day before my class reunion as I was preparing the food for the party the weather started to get a bit dreary, so my Dad turned on the television. The weather report was that there was a hail storm heading our way. I was cursing to myself because my van was just out of storage for one week and now it would be pummeled with hail the size of golf balls. While this was all going on I was also on the phone to my friend Cyndi. I ended up having to get off the phone with her because the winds picked up and the water on the lake had so many waves it looked like a really rough bit of ocean. We started to hear noises on the rough and I took the kids to the hallway thinking a tree might fall on the house and that would be a safe place. The wind didn't stop and there were more loud noises and I finally realized the bathroom would be the safest place for all of us. The kids and I climbed in the bathroom and in true fashion my Dad paced around the house checking out what was going on outside. In my 25 years of growing up in the Midwest through hundreds of thunderstorms, tornado watches and warnings, I have never seen a storm quite as bad as this. I was thinking to myself as I sat in the bath with my kids, 'We just made it though an earthquake and now this?'. Honestly I couldn't believe that I could go through two stressful situations like this in a matter of 45 days.

After about 10 minutes the wind started to slow down and the loud noises from the roof stopped. I had the kids wait while I went to assess what had happened and I couldn't believe my eyes. Here are some pictures of the damage.



One of the 5 fallen trees and one side of my parents back patio.



The other side of the back patio.



A view of my parents house from the beach. (This is about an hour after the storm. Notice how it appears to be sunny and great weather.)



The roots of the tree.



My parents side yard. The leaves just stuck to the fence.



We had part of a tree fall of the roof. I think this is the one that made me run to the bathtub.



My Dad's truck underneath some pretty big branches. There is also a power line that fell 4 feet from his truck. Remarkably there was no damage to his truck.



A tree across the drive from my parents house.

Many people thought the storm was a tornado, but it was actually called a Straight Line Wind Storm and if you could see the damage it went in a complete straight line through this area.

The worst thing that happened though was that there were thousands of corn and bean crops that were completely shredded. The beans were replanted, but it is too late in the season for the corn. It will result in big losses for farmers and food prices growing again.

We ended up being without power for 5 days, but luckily thanks to my electrician brother-in-law Jared we had a generator that provided power to a few outlets in the house. My class reunion had to be moved to a different location (post to follow!).

We took a drive around the neighborhood and here are a few pictures from our damage tour.

One of the fallen trees. There were hundreds of trees just like this in the neighborhood.



There were a couple houses with massive trees on top of them.



This garage was complete destroyed by a tree.

Sunday with the cousins

Breaking out the noodles!

Isaac and Aiden came home with us from Grandma's birthday party and spent the night with their cousins. The kids had a ball together and here are a few shots of their high energy day!

Papa found a fish that hopped the seawall and the kids watched it swim around.

Angus was contemplating what to do next.

They are all a bunch of posers!

They got tired of their noodles and decided to catch some rays.

After they basked in the sun they went and picked mulberries! Here they are running back to the house with their harvest. They were really yummy!

We got the two little boys to bed and Gemma and Isaac had time for a very serious game of Trouble.