Welcome China!

Mars and Kelly arrived on Wednesday! They are our new Chinese daughter and son for 3 weeks. Garret, Kaelyn, and Brynlee have been so excited to have them come...they've been counting the days! Garret is sharing his room with Mars and Kelly has Bryn's room...Bryn is in with Kaelyn. Mars and Kelly are very fun and we are enjoying getting to know them. Mars is quite a character, he certainly isn't shy and he isn't afraid to try new things. Kelly is sweet and quiet, she loves being with the girls. I think. haha. They get along super anyways. Kelly is 14 and Mars is 12. Teenagers! haha! So far this has been a great experience! We are learning a little Chinese, and hopefully helping them learn some English. Communication is our only struggle, but we are figuring out how despite the language barrier.
During the weekday they are with the other Chinese Students studying English for 3 hours in the morning and then after a lunch break each day they get to take a tour or do something fun. Last week they toured a downtown fire station and walked to River Front park. We went along on that trip, it was fun. Then Friday they got to go to the Oregon Coast and outlets for the day. The weekend is our time to entertain them...so Saturday they wanted to go pick berries, so a group of us went to Olson Farms and picked raspberries, blueberries and cherries. Yum! And Sunday a bunch of us walked around the Salem Art Festival. I think they really enjoyed seeing all the different art booths. A few of them bought some small prints to take home. So we have lots more fun planned during the next 2.5 weeks. I'll try and keep updating!

This is awesome!

If you have a few minutes watch this video, its pretty awesome! I didn't have the sound working for some reason when Kelli showed it to me, but even with no sound it is powerful. But turn up the volume and watch this video!

Friday Re-cap

Well I was wrong about last night, there wasn't any fighting, arguing or complaining! Never once did I hear "i'm bored". haha! The kids had a great time! They fed some geese that were down by the river, they liked ritz crackers and vanilla wafers. Then when they'd given them all that, the kids gave them left over pizza crust. Garret took some good pictures of the babies, i'll have to get those shots from him to share. Garret finished another book he was reading at the parade, so he brought a new book with him to Springfield and read like 100 pages or something crazy like that. I'm so glad he enjoys reading! The girls just entertained themselves, playing catch, musical chairs, and general goofing around. The fireworks started right around 10pm and then we went over and helped with clean-up while the kids watched Ratatouille in the car. We made pretty good time with clean-up and were on our way to Denny's before midnight! A new record maybe? Everyone looks forward to the Denny's tradition, even Bryn who fell asleep on the way didn't mind being woken up to have a yummy midnight snack or was it an early breakfast? haha! Speaking of Bryn...we think maybe this year was the first year she didn't fall asleep during the fireworks! Marley and her were sharing a chair and chatting the whole time, so Bryn got to see a show from start to finish! It was a great show! Lots of oooohs and ahhhs from the crowd!
We went to the Monmouth/Independence parade earlier in the day and the kids enjoyed scrambling for all the candy that was thrown their way! I enjoyed the Dutch Bros coffee that we sat in front of! Yum! Bree took some pics of the parade, so i'll have to get those from her to share! Last year it was super hot, so we made sure and came prepared for the heat with extra water bottles, sunscreen, etc. But this year it was much cooler, and we should of brought sweatshirts! brrrr! haha!

Happy 4th of July!

Hope you and your families are out enjoying the summer sun, and planning on watching an amazing fireworks display somewhere. We'll be at a parade in the morning with the kids, and then we'll be working up a sweat getting the show ready in Springfield, Or. Of course I won't be working as hard as the rest of the crew who will have been at it since 8am. haha! The kids will entertain themselves near the parked cars for a bit; think Ipod, DS, PSP, books..but more likely it will be fighting, arguing, complaining! LOL! I'll have pics to post Saturday! Stay safe, be cool! If you want to come see a fantastic fireworks show head our way!