Moving Day

We're moving today. The girls have just stripped their beds and are taking all the posters and pictures off the wall next to Madelyn's bed. This move isn't nearly as big a deal as last summer's, but I still have been trying to purge and sort and give away. Amazing how quickly "stuff" accumulates... didn't I just do this?! We are moving to the first floor of a three story house, with an apartment on each floor. It is in a compound directly across the street from the boys' school, and around the corner from our church. We are really looking forward to being more a part of the community by being there, but it's not without some sadness that we leave our apartment in the sky, with the amazing river view, the boats, the city lights... it's been a wonderful place to spend our first year in Shanghai.

Blowing Bubbles

Chinese Dogs

There are a suprisingly large number of dog owners living in our complex. They tend to take the dogs to the large grassy area in front of our building to run and Madelyn is always happy to join them. She has made many friends among the dogs and their owners. Many of them are Chinese, and Madelyn has figured out how to ask them in Chinese what the dogs' names are. We now know Lulu, Fur, Salala, Thompson, Marci, Ooodudu (I'm guessing on the spelling of that one!), and many others. She swears she can tell which dog is out in the field from our 48th floor window, and if a dog she particularly likes is out, she will hurry down the elevator to go play with him or her. The thing I wonder about is how these dogs came to understand Chinese. :-)

Winter Roses

I'm actually not sure what these are, but they look like roses. They have bloomed all winter, even through and after the bit of snow we had. They grow in sort of a hedge, large numbers of bushes lining walkways around our complex. I took this pictures about ten days ago. This week I noticed that the blooms are beginning to fade.

Two Views Out the Window

Several times recently we've looked out our windows to find the skyline completely shrouded in smog.

In the past several weeks as it has gotten cooler, there have also been some beautiful, glowing skies at as the sun sets.

By the Lake

Madelyn and her friend Jalen had fun by the lake here in our complex last week. They found thatif you break them open, cattails have fluff inside that blows in the wind!
Explorers in the jungle on the edge of the water!

Last Day

These pictures were taken on the morning of the last day of my dad and mom's visit, in the Chinese garden in our complex. We had such a nice time wandering through the garden together, climbing up the little rock hills, admiring the goldfish in the pond, and taking pictures. Afterwards we walked back home for a lunch of leftovers, then headed out to the airport.

It was such a great visit... as I thought about it, I don't think we have ever had that kind of time together under one roof, nearly 12 days. It was a great combination of some really good things~ sightseeing, relaxing, helping kids with homework, reading, eating out and in, showing them the places we shop, marveling over Chinese driving habits, introducing them to friends, walking the streets around our complex and having good conversations. Thanks, Mom & Day, for making your way to us.

We are so looking forward to this type of visit with many more of our family and friends!

Looking In, Looking Out

Wow! We were so excited to get to see these guys outside our dining room window today... their ropes have been hanging around the buildings in our complex for a week or so, and we wondered when they would get to our windows. We understand this happens only about twice a year, so we were thrilled to get to see them in action. You can see that they have a large suction cup in their left hands to hold them in place while they wash and squeegee with the right hand. Great entertainment!

Mid-Autumn Festival

Last night in our apartment complex there was a show celebrating the Mid-Autumn Festival. It was a combination of some acrobat acts, a little Chinese opera, and lots of talking in between by a master of ceremonies who spoke only Chinese but appeared, by the reactions of the nearly all Chinese audience, to be quite funny and entertaining. It was strange to be in the audience in this situation... we strained our ears for familiar words, catching only an occasional one that we understood.

This young pair skated in very fast circles on the small circular board on the stage, doing all sorts of amazing stunts involving the girl being held in precarious positions and spinning around. Whenever they stopped to bow, their faces were expressionless and they didn't even appear to be breathing hard!
Notice the positions the two girls on the right are in... and they are holding on with their teeth!
We loved the elaborate costumes these two were wearing.
A famous folk tale character in China, the Monkey King. This man was able to twitch his facial features in such a way that he really did look like a monkey!

Hidden Away

We recently discovered this amazing group of old Chinese style buildings hidden away right inside our apartment complex. We knew there was a Chinese restaurant somewhere in our complex, and when I went hunting for it, I was amazed at what a wonderful find it was! We haven't even graced the doorway of the actually restaurant, but the grounds and gardens and out buildings are lovely. The best part of the gardens for the kids is a fairly extensive labyrinth of small man made caves and rockery tunnels, which are lit inside at night and would be very cool for hide-and-seek.



I love this view... the old style Chinese roof top, and then in the distance one of the tallest buildings in the world, the World Financial Center, which is still under construction.
Caleb and Gwen just about to round the bend at the end of this covered walkway.
We brought some stale cookies along on one of our visits to feed to the many large goldfish and two Chinese ducks in the pond area.
The restaurant itself... someday soon maybe we will actually eat there!
Old and new together.

Lovin' the Pool

We have enjoyed the outside pool in our complex so much on the hot summer days here. It's a fun pool because it's so wide and relatively shallow, and is graded out like a beach. It also has waves for 10 minutes or so every hour.

Girls head out together!
There is a sandy area with a big round baby pool. The sand has been a source of many cakes, deep holes, and even a sea turtle Mom created one late afternoon.
The little gazebo area looks like it would house a hot tub, but it's just part of the pool. The kids love to play Marco Polo in this area. You can't see too well in the picture, but there are sort of rounded bench type seats in the water around the gazebo. These are fun to jump off of!

Elusive Fountains

These very cool dancing fountains are in one of the little parks in our complex. We had noticed them a month or more ago, but had never seen them turned on. A couple of weeks ago we happened to be out in the park around dusk, and low and behold, the music was playing, the colored lights were on, and the fountains were jumping and dancing! The kids were thrilled, and jumped right in to play in the streams of water. We went back at the same time the next night, this time with bathing suits, and it was fun again... since then, however, it seems to be hit or miss. Some nights they're on, others not. We can't seem to figure out the schedule. I guess we'll just be surprised!