Meet our Ayi, Sally! She only started last Monday but we have already fell in love with her. She has been a great help in teaching me and the kids Chinese words and phrases.

We finally got pictures of our scooters! These have been a great purchase so far. We can just hop on them to go get Cold Stone Icecream (yes they have Cold Stone!) or go to the local market to pick up a few groceries. The kids love them and say they want their own...yea right!

Here is a video from our balcony that is located just off the living room. It has an awesome view and the balcony is quite roomy. We have sat out there a few nights and drank wine while we enjoyed the quiet landscape with beautiful lighting.

Getting Settled In

We are finally settling into life here in Shanghai. Our shipment still has not arrived with everything from our house, but we are hopeful it will arrive within two weeks.
Living at the Racquet Club is best described as living in a bubble; as I have heard it referred to. Inside the walls of this place you have a bit of normalcy and peace. Outside the walls is a bit of a different story. It's not that it's bad....it's just different and takes time to adjust to it.
Traffic is absolutely crazy here and it takes a long time to get anywhere. For comparison purposes, imagine Denver traffic at 5:15pm on any weekday and multiply that times 100 to get an idea of daily traffic here. Really!
I finally gave in and hired an "Ayi" (chinese for nanny, housecleaner, cook) to work part-time at my apartment. (my arm really had to be pulled, wink,wink) Her English name is Sally (can't pronounce her Chinese name). She is awesome and absolutely adores my kids. She comes in the morning so I can go out and about to run errands, work out, or just have coffee in peace. She leaves just after lunch. She cooks the MOST amazing Chinese food ever! Today she made a wonderful soup and homemade dumplings filled with pork. YUM! The kids loved the soup and Trent can eat his weight in dumplings. She also does some of the shopping for me at local markets where she can get a better price than me. She tells me I pay too much.
After nap's we go to the pool everyday. The kids are loving all the pool time and so am I. Half the pool has a sandy beach with a sand bottom and the other half is blue tile (basic pool). We still can't figure out how they keep it separated so well. Tayton plays in the sand with his trucks while Tenley explores the bottom of the pool to find sea shells and treasures. I swear that little girl is going to be in public relations or a scientist!! She's never met a stranger and loves everything about nature...dead or alive.
I suppose that is all for today. We miss you all like crazy and are counting the days until we are home for Christmas!
Call us on our local Denver telephone number! Email me for the number if you don't already have it

We made it to Shanghai!!

Hello!! We made it safely to Shanghai on Sunday June 15th with our 11 checked bags! It wasn't without some minor issues though. Trent was very sick beginning Friday night with fever and throwing up. It continued into Saturday's plane flight, fortunately he got to feeling better on the long flight from San Fransisco to Shanghai which was approximately 12 hours.

It was a VERY pleasant surprise to be upgraded to First Class on the flight to San Fransisco and then upgraded again from San Fransisco to Shanghai. If Trent and I weren't so mature we would have done cartwheel's in the main terminal of the airport. However.....we're WAY TOO mature for that ;) (wink, wink)

We are in a hotel for this first week in Shanghai with is turning out to be an interesting experience with two kids. It has been raining everyday so we can't really get outside to play. We did make it to the Zoo yesterday where we were rained on. We saw Panda Bear's for the first time. They were SO cute and we really enjoyed watching them eat Bamboo.

The time change has been a challenge for the kids. After nap time everyday they are not too excited about getting up. We carry them downstairs and they continue to nap at whichever restaurant we go to. At least Trent and I have had a few quiet dinners.

Our new friends in Shanghai

Meet our friends Mr. Chen and Mrs. Yang. They got married this past week and we were sad we couldn't attend.

Mr. Chen works very closely with Trent and has been such a HUGE help in getting things organized for our move (thank you!)....Mrs. Yang is a Kindergarden teacher in the Chinese school system.

Congratulations Mr. Chen and Mrs Yang!!

View's of our Apartment Complex in China....

Well I thought I would start this so all our friends and family could keep in touch with our crazy family as we venture off on a new chapter of our lives. We leave for China officially on June 14th at 10am in the morning. We are nervous, excited, and scared all at once. The hardest part is just getting there. Once we're there we know we will come to love this short chapter in our lives.
We're set to be there for two years with Trent's company, so that should put us back in the states summer of 2010.
Stay tuned for lots of pictures and stories that I will uplaod and write to make you all a part of this exciting journey. We'll start next week with pictures of our house being packed up, loaded and hopefully pictures of our belongings at port loading onto the ship.
We love you all and appreciate your prayers and this is also a very emotional journey. We've made friends close enough to be called family and while our real family is in Oklahoma and Wyoming it's always better having them a state away rather than a world away.
Until next time~