Drivers License

Well, getting a driver's license in China is quite a to do for American Diplomats. Only American Diplomats, not French, English, etc. You get the picture.

 

We had an important visitor to post. While we were at a dinner meeting the subject of driver's licenses was brought up. The attachements didn't make it. To see the beginning of a funny thing follow the link. Funny little world.

 

Washington Post article:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/04/AR2006100401902_pf.html

 

James

Group kid picture. Marlo, Natalie, Zoe, Teac, and Tea. 

We made it to the bottom! 

For the kids, feeding the fish was the highlight of the day. It was really fun to watch them swarm and practically jump out of the water to eat the food. 

Group Hug!! 

Here are the flood gates that automatically control water flow. Oh, and the people in the picture are cute too! 

Mom and Teac. We took most of the pictures so I thought I should document that we were there, and yes, Teac is sucking his thumb... we are working on that. Anyone have any thoughts or ideas? 

Looking back accross the river you can see the building on the mountain where we started. 

We walked accross the bridge with everyone else. The kids and dads had a great time making the bridge sway. We were almost sea-sick by the time we got off. 

It was a typical cloudy day so my camera kept getting fooled into using the flash...since the lighting was bad, I thought I would experiment a little. 

This is a sample of the original dam construction. 

Tanya and David taking pictures... In a Chinese National Park, it is more like walking through a well manicured garden than getting back to nature. Even the paths are all cemented in. 

You can kind of see the grey river through the trees... 

As we walked down the first part we wove our way through buildings done in traditional architecture. 

Here are the four amazing little girls that walked all of the way down the mountain over the bridges and through the woods to the end of the park. 

Saturday after soccer practice we took a day trip with some friends to the mountains outside of Chengdu to a place called Dujiangyan. It is the oldest irrigation system still in use today. It was created in the 4th century AD. Not only was it a beautiful walk down the mountain, but it was amazing to think that the man who came up with the system changed the Sichuan area for ever. They used to have constant devestating flooding and the canal and dam that they built changed all of that so that the fertile soil was safe to build on and farm permanantly. 

We went to a friend's birthday party and the kids had a great time playing with the bubbles in the park. 

It took them overnight to decide that they could play together. Mostly, it took Ping Ping that long since she had probably never seen a foreigner before in her life. After that, they had a great time. 

Yes, I know my parents are taking this picture of me pretending to sleep in the car on the way home...and I tried so hard not to smile :) 

This is Huang Ying's father in law with some of the carvings he has done. 

One of the "roads" we traveled on our adventure. 

This land is why Sichuan is known as the "bread basket" of China. So many rivers running through very fertile, rich land. They are still trying to solve the problem of getting the food out of the villages and into the market place. Although the mountains are beautiful, we didn't see any wild animals (other than a small rabbit) while we were there. Every bit of land is being used in some way. 

This is what they used to hull the rice. They did some for us and sent it with us. 

This is some of their equipment for making flour. 

At the farm they have a room devoted to raising silk worms. They bring in mulberry leaves from trees on their land to feed them. 

Here are the 3 girls doing their "work" of raking the rice while it is laid out to dry. 

Huang Ying, her older sister, their mother, and a neighbor in front of their home. 

Have high-chair, will travel. Teac ate his meals here on the front porch. The cat and dog were all too willing to help clean-up afterwards. 

This is the direction the car was facing after an hour of trying to turn it around. We realized later that the hubs on the front wheels kept unlocking- so it was really quite a miracle that we were able to do it in 2 wheel drive. It is hard to tell from the picture, but the road is very slick and muddy, and the patio there is bordered by flagstone sticking up on edge..... 

Notice the direction the excursion is facing. This is how we came down the road that is only as wide as the car and usually only traveled by motorcycles. 

Marlo and Ping Ping feeding chickens in the morning. 

We continued on our walk to her husband's grandparents' house. The valley is beautiful, but there is no wildlife that we could see. All the land is being used in some way. 

They had a fun time chasing and catching the chicks...not sure how much fun the chicks had. 

We decided to go for a walk to visit her aunt down the road. 

This is the room where we stayed. James, Teac and I shared the bed and they brought in a fold-down couch for the girls to sleep on with their sleeping bags. Here they are all watching TV after we first arrived. Ping Ping (on the bed) was nervous at first to even talk to the girls. After much persuasion by Marlo and Zoe, they were good buddies by the morning of the 3rd day. 

This is Huang Ying's in-law's house that she now calls home when she is not living in the city, and where her daughter (in pink) lives full time. 

Note the beautiful mountains and the sludge we are driving in. The whole time all I could think was "what if we have to get out and push?" 

Last week was the Chinese holliday for the moon festival. For three days we went on an adventure out of the city (now that James has his driver's license) to the village where our ayi grew up. This is the road? we were on after 4 hours on regular highways headed north east of Chengdu. Good thing the Excursion was up for the challenge, not to mention some expert driving. We didn't get stuck once. 

I like the bow in my hair mom :) 

A friend took this pic of Teac and I thought it was great! 

Zoe, Huang Ying, and I built a big city out of blocks. 

This is the latest BYU gymnastics wear modeled by the fabulous Zoe and Marlo. I think they have a little room to grow. (That is our new piano in the background.) 

While in the US, I made a quick trip to AZ to check on the house we are building (don't ask). Mom came with me because taking Teac on such a long drive by myself was too much... So here is Teac with two of his grandmas at Slide Rock. Yes, they put him on the rocks to climb. 

Teac and grandpa had a great time. They watched TV together, fell asleep on the bed together and played pirates, argh! 

Must eat the flower.... 

Jamie and Lincoln....so cool. :) 

We went to LA because sweet Grandma Golda went back to be with grandpa. My grandma (mom's mom) lived 10 minutes away from us my whole life. We lived with them for a time while we remodeled and spent countless Sunday dinners and almost every holliday together. Grandma never missed a holliday or birthday card and was always ready to give you a hug. We measured how fast we were growing by whether we were taller than grandma. (She was only about 5'2" so that didn't last long.) These are her grandsons... James, my sister's husband Ryan, and my cousin's husband Alex were the only missing grandchildren. 

Seoul, Korea airport 4:00 pm that same day, waiting for our flight to LA. The part in between we spent in a hotel taking naps and eating lunch....that was a long day. 

Teac at 4 am in the Seoul, Korea airport on our way to Los Angeles. 

Teac and Zoe are good buddies. They look related, right? 

This is looking down the atrium of one of the local electronics malls. Each floor is filled with different items for sale- cameras on one floor, tv gaming systems, computers, computer parts, dvds.... just about anything you could ever want. 

Small boy, big TV! Teac is mesmerized by TV. He really loves it. He will fall asleep on my lap watching it at night. Marlo was like that too. I wonder what else they have in common? 

Eating take-out dumplings (jiao zi) for dinner at the Marine house. Yum! 

Here we are playing fooseball at the Marine house one Friday night.