aunt b

aunt b left for africa a week ago today.

we sure do miss her.

duncan has been saying "b" a lot - i keep on telling him that she is not here.

he thinks when we are going to see the rest of the family that she will be there.

jayden today asked - "when does aunt B come back?"

i had to tell him that it wouldn't be for a LONG time

- (after his birthday, my birthday, daddy's birthday, and aunt amy & uncle blakes birthday

trying to help him realize it is a long time away.)

we had lunch together last sunday to celebrate her.

she is such a good aunt!

her nieces and nephews love her.

mary beth lived with us for the past 9 months

it was such a fun time and she was such a huge help to me.

it was fun for our relationship b/c when we lived together at home - she was a lot younger (she was 10 when i left to go to college)

so it has been great to be able to relate as adults.

i think we both loved it.

on a side note - i am now more self aware from having her live with us.

i think it is the artist in her - but she notices everything - and if you know me that well,

i am not that observant or self aware.

so i have learned more about myself and my kids body features than i ever thought possible :)

thanks B!

she is serving at Restoration Gateway in Uganda

you can follow her blog here

campbell and B have a special connection.

ask B - she will tell you about it :)

(we think it has to do with the calling on campbell's life to bring creative beauty to the earth - b is good at doing that and so we think she will disciple c in this)

see how much they love her :)

duncan & ek with the hug

btw - these two are so stinkin' cute!

they are having so much fun playing together and LOVE each other.

duncan is at such a fun age - i am loving it!

he loves to laugh!

B we love you and miss you!

i know you are having an amazing time!

india

india!

our second part of the trip was just as fun as the first.

we were visiting some friends in india and it was quite an experience.

i really enjoyed seeing how different the culture was there.

you know that you are in a third world country when you are on the streets.

this is the only family picture i got of us in india

the sun was really bright - so sorry about the bad picture!

(of course the sun in always really bring in india - at least when we were there it was!)

our friend ryan was there with us as well!

it was a great treat having him there.

he just got his phD in anthropology - pretty impressive -

he studied tibetan culture - so he had been in these parts before

the best little world traveler ever:

i mean - how cute is that little thing? :)

one morning we went to a coffee shop - it was a really fun atmosphere and fun to see what it is like in india compared to the US

the coffee was very good!

okay, so here are random pictures that i took from the rickshaw (in case you don't know what that is - it is the way you get around - it is like a motorized cart almost)

so i wasn't prepared for the cows that were on the side of the road - EVERYWHERE -

they love to just walk around and eat the trash - so interesting!

random pic of c

rickshaws and town center

typical scene in india -

house, bike rider, random car, cow

this is what most of the store fronts looked like

this was not typical :)

my friend took me to breakfast in this amazing palace hotel

this is what it looked like - very ABnormal for india -

i think a lot of the westerners stayed there - it was beautiful!

our rickshaw driver one day

a cow and a stray dog (which are everywhere as well) eating trash

another cow - with the scoters :)

the boys played soccer quite a bit

not your typical green grass soccer field - causes falls to be a little more painful :)

we had such a wonderful time in india!

thanks to all who prayed for us as we were there and traveling!

i flew back by myself with campbell - while jordan went to dubai for 3 1/2 days to study and learn from a teacher he loves.

he was in heaven!

he studied, read, and thought for 8+ hours a day!

my flights (3) back were good.

we had a bassinet for the long flight (14 hrs) so campbell slept 8+ hours on the flight -

it was a life saver for me!

glad to be back with my boys and into the swing of life again.

we are so thankful to be able to see the world and get a bigger worldview than just our american view.

we (as americans) obviously have a lot more than most people in the world.

i am thankful for the ability to go on that adventure with jordan!

happy monday!

china

i wanted to try to do an update on our first leg of the trip in china.

we had a wonderful time getting to visit and be with our friends.

the city we stayed in reminded me of new york city - with a few differences :)

after some delay with the weather - we were finally able to get a flight to china.

here is us before:

hope you appreciate the nice, fake smile from jordan :) he loves the pics!

we went to an asian fusion place for lunch one day -

this is how the diet coke came with the straw -

very unique :)

it was the chinese new year while we were there.

this means everyone is off work and go to their home towns for the week.

it also meant a lot of decorations (see below) and even more fireworks.

they don't have regulations about where to do the fireworks - like we do in the US - so pretty much all day every day you hear what sounds like gunshots - but is actually fireworks going off.

one night they had a magnificent firework display - it was around midnight - and it lit up the entire sky! pretty amazing!

here are some random food offerings from the street:

i think they told me that this was shark tail

any type of fish you would like - dead or alive - there is also a fish tank next to this where you can get the alive ones and get it killed right there (or i guess kill it yourself)

and they have fruit . . .

sweet campbell has been the best little traveler

she was quite a star in china - they loved her white skin and blue eyes

everywhere we went they wanted to touch her, take pictures of her and talk to her

she would just smile at them and give them quite the show!

here we are on a bridge - it was foggy so you can't see the city behind you,

but just trust me - it was busy with a lot of people!

i loved all of the different type of buildings that they had in this city,

very interesting architecture!

walking in a beautiful park

public toliets

(thankfully i didn't have to use these:))

and yes - there was starbucks!

one day we went to get our nails done.

that was a bit of a challenge communicating with very broken english

at lunch at pete's - a tex/mex place that was really good!

views from outside our hotel window

this is what most of the housing is like in this city

lots and lots of buildings

our room - this was just the sitting area - it was a huge place!

a typical arrangement for the chinese meal

sweetie pie c

see, i told you - everyone was in love with her :)

here we are leaving the city to go to the airport, this train goes up to 250 mph

i don't know if you can read that sign - but it says 430 km!

waiting for our next plane!

hope you enjoyed our little bits of china!