Since we managed to sneak in one more October visit to Gardner Village before Erin's family joins Spencer in Hawaii, I've added snap shots to the longer video and added to the following that I had previously posted in September (now deleted).
In 2006, my daughter Erin and I started making trips to a local shopping area in West Jordan called Gardner Village. It was once a grist mill in the early days of the community, and the original silo is still there, including the water wheel. The atmosphere there is wonderful. They've relocated some small old homes, which have shops in them. There's a nice restaurant called Archibalds. There used to be a bookstore there called The Storybook Nook, and that's where we decided to go for the release party for the last Harry Potter book. It was perfect for the experience with the quaint atmosphere.
Gardner Villages puts up some minor Easter decorations, but they really go all out decorating for Halloween (lots of witches) and Christmas (Elves). It's always been too cold to take the grandkids, when we wanted to go around Christmas, but the fall visit has become a tradition.
One of the things I enjoy the most of watching this particular show it how much the kids have grown over the last three years. You can see it especially in Mad, who make her first showing as a newborn and sits eyeing the candy in the most recent visit.
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Madelyn's Animal Sounds
Madelyn, who turned 2 earlier last month has started talking now, and she's learning her animal sounds.
Monday, September 28, 2009
Video of Dave's 3-Wheel Scooter
Dave sent this little video, so I thought I'd share it. You can tell that Tyson and Savy are loving it. =D
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Update from Dave's Family in China
Got this message via Skype from Dave today:
Things are going well. We finally have our first holiday break next week. We get 9 straight days off for the Mid-Autumn Festival. Our school gave us a bunch of moon cakes and giant melons. They kind of treat this holiday like we do Thanksgiving. Its a big family type holiday.Families gather from all around and get together and usually just hang out and eat Moon Cake and sit under the moon. Kind of interesting. We weren't sure what we were going to do during the break.
I think we will give the tree house trip another go some other time, as our friends decided they can't go. We are probably going to go to Hong Kong for a few days during the break. It should be fun. One of Shannon's good friends from Seattle has a younger brother there and he can show us around a bit. An interesting bit of information, if we go for a temple trip, the Church has small apartments that they rent for super cheap, so we will probly make it a temple trip as well so we can stay in a cheap place .
We just bought a 3 person scooter yesterday. It is great to get around our garden area in. So much faster and easier than walking and waiting for buses with the kids. We can only drive it legally within the confines of garden area and some small streets right around it, unless we want to get our Chinese Driver's license, which would cost us about 750 US dollars to get. No thank you! This is just fine. The kids absolutely love it.
We'll send some pics soon. We've been hoping to do some blogging, but seems like either the internet is down, we can't bypass the blocks for the internet, or we friends we are hanging out with. We've got some great pics and some great video of some stuff. But just thought I would drop a line and let you know how we are doing.
Things are going well. We finally have our first holiday break next week. We get 9 straight days off for the Mid-Autumn Festival. Our school gave us a bunch of moon cakes and giant melons. They kind of treat this holiday like we do Thanksgiving. Its a big family type holiday.Families gather from all around and get together and usually just hang out and eat Moon Cake and sit under the moon. Kind of interesting. We weren't sure what we were going to do during the break.
I think we will give the tree house trip another go some other time, as our friends decided they can't go. We are probably going to go to Hong Kong for a few days during the break. It should be fun. One of Shannon's good friends from Seattle has a younger brother there and he can show us around a bit. An interesting bit of information, if we go for a temple trip, the Church has small apartments that they rent for super cheap, so we will probly make it a temple trip as well so we can stay in a cheap place .
We just bought a 3 person scooter yesterday. It is great to get around our garden area in. So much faster and easier than walking and waiting for buses with the kids. We can only drive it legally within the confines of garden area and some small streets right around it, unless we want to get our Chinese Driver's license, which would cost us about 750 US dollars to get. No thank you! This is just fine. The kids absolutely love it.
We'll send some pics soon. We've been hoping to do some blogging, but seems like either the internet is down, we can't bypass the blocks for the internet, or we friends we are hanging out with. We've got some great pics and some great video of some stuff. But just thought I would drop a line and let you know how we are doing.
Monday, September 21, 2009
Fall Colors at Sundance
Saturday was my birthday, and I chose to go to Sundance up Provo Canyon to see the fall colors. I LOVE to do this every year, riding the ski lift. It takes about 45 minutes all told, and I love the smells of the trees and the glorious views.
Here's Ed after we bought out tickets and are heading up to the lift.
It was a little scary for me the first time I went up, but not anymore.
This is the back of Mt. Timpanogos, where there's a glacier that I think stays icy all year round.
The yellows weren't out yet, but the reds and oranges were awesome.
Rough life, huh?
Here's Ed after we bought out tickets and are heading up to the lift.
It was a little scary for me the first time I went up, but not anymore.
This is the back of Mt. Timpanogos, where there's a glacier that I think stays icy all year round.
The yellows weren't out yet, but the reds and oranges were awesome.
Rough life, huh?
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Madelyn's 2nd Birthday
Friday was Madelyn's second birthday, so Erin and I took her and Aidan to the new Pirate Island restaurant/play place.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
A Chat with Dave
I had a chance to talk with Dave on Skype today and thought I'd share:
School has been good. We both have a few crazy classes but most of the students are good, and they are so cute. I teach 10 different classes, usually about 2 times a week, and Shan teaches 4 classes but sees them more often during the week.
Tyson loves school. He is so cute. The kids wear uniforms and he got his two days ago. He was so excited when he brought it home he had to wear for pajamas to bed. Then when we dropped him off at class he was totally strutting around and showing off. I even heard a few "oh yeahs' from him. ...
When I have breaks in my classes I usually go peak on him. He has a girl in his class who is totally taken by him, and when they go on walks for class, she is always trying to hold his hand....its so cute....he usually will break it off and take off somewhere else.....not into the whole girlfriend thing, and if we ask him if he has a girlfirend he gets quite mad.
All the other students speak Chinese, but the teacher addresses the class in English....so he is getting both. The teachers have said that other students who did not speak mandarin picked it up really quickly just from the interaction with the other students....and he is trying to learn it. We have ice age 2 but found it was only in Chinese, and he asked to watch it yesterday. We told him it was only in Chinese, and he said, "Well, I want to learn my Chinese..."
We are bringing a swimsuit for him to class today....there is a cute little wading pool for the kids that they go to sometimes....I happened upon it yesterday and saw that Tyson was out swimming with his class in the nude. Yeah I saw his bare cheeks from a long way off.....He wasn't alone though, about 6 or 7 other students didn't have their suits on either....the rest of them were in their undies....this is totally typical Chinese though. I told his teacher, yeah, we just don't do that in America! We'll be bringing him a swimsuit from now on...
Little Savy though has some rough moments. She hates when we drop her off, and kicks and screams, and tells us, "I don't want to go to school." Its heartbreaking, but we don't know what else to do. She calms down after a few minutes and is fine the rest of the time, its just the dropping her off that is hard. She has a teacher who speaks english in class ,but most of the class is taught in Chinese. So she will probably pick it up the fastest....
We get a huge 2 and a half to 3 hour lunch, and we have been picking the kids up from their class and taking them home for lunch. Its been nice. Our Aiee, makes us food while she is here cleaning and doing laundry, and we always have lunch ready for us when we arrive. At lunch we have also been working with Tyson ourselves on his reading. He always acts like he can't do it, but when he actually applies himself, he does quite well...
So we are getting along just fine. We will both be excited when the cooler weather gets here. The heat just zaps us. The classrooms are kept cooled but you have to leave the classrooms and its hot. Some of my classes are on the 4th or 5th floor and its all stairs.
School has been good. We both have a few crazy classes but most of the students are good, and they are so cute. I teach 10 different classes, usually about 2 times a week, and Shan teaches 4 classes but sees them more often during the week.
Tyson loves school. He is so cute. The kids wear uniforms and he got his two days ago. He was so excited when he brought it home he had to wear for pajamas to bed. Then when we dropped him off at class he was totally strutting around and showing off. I even heard a few "oh yeahs' from him. ...
When I have breaks in my classes I usually go peak on him. He has a girl in his class who is totally taken by him, and when they go on walks for class, she is always trying to hold his hand....its so cute....he usually will break it off and take off somewhere else.....not into the whole girlfriend thing, and if we ask him if he has a girlfirend he gets quite mad.
All the other students speak Chinese, but the teacher addresses the class in English....so he is getting both. The teachers have said that other students who did not speak mandarin picked it up really quickly just from the interaction with the other students....and he is trying to learn it. We have ice age 2 but found it was only in Chinese, and he asked to watch it yesterday. We told him it was only in Chinese, and he said, "Well, I want to learn my Chinese..."
We are bringing a swimsuit for him to class today....there is a cute little wading pool for the kids that they go to sometimes....I happened upon it yesterday and saw that Tyson was out swimming with his class in the nude. Yeah I saw his bare cheeks from a long way off.....He wasn't alone though, about 6 or 7 other students didn't have their suits on either....the rest of them were in their undies....this is totally typical Chinese though. I told his teacher, yeah, we just don't do that in America! We'll be bringing him a swimsuit from now on...
Little Savy though has some rough moments. She hates when we drop her off, and kicks and screams, and tells us, "I don't want to go to school." Its heartbreaking, but we don't know what else to do. She calms down after a few minutes and is fine the rest of the time, its just the dropping her off that is hard. She has a teacher who speaks english in class ,but most of the class is taught in Chinese. So she will probably pick it up the fastest....
We get a huge 2 and a half to 3 hour lunch, and we have been picking the kids up from their class and taking them home for lunch. Its been nice. Our Aiee, makes us food while she is here cleaning and doing laundry, and we always have lunch ready for us when we arrive. At lunch we have also been working with Tyson ourselves on his reading. He always acts like he can't do it, but when he actually applies himself, he does quite well...
So we are getting along just fine. We will both be excited when the cooler weather gets here. The heat just zaps us. The classrooms are kept cooled but you have to leave the classrooms and its hot. Some of my classes are on the 4th or 5th floor and its all stairs.
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