Winter Baby Carrier (-6C degrees)

Planning for a Date night concert, but the "MasterCard Stadium" in Beijing doesn't accept MasterCard!! What to do???

Waterfalls x50

The kids counted over 50 waterfalls on our cross country trip from KD to Chengdu. Reminded some of Colorado highways.

We've been Yaked! Yak truck blocked our only way to airport this morning.

Loaded for Airport Friday, Snowed in yesterday

My Favorite Restaurant! I'm glad they use canola oil.

Chinese Monopoly

Playing Monopoly tonight with the kids. Cool Chinese Monopoly board. Staying at a great hostel in KungDing and visiting some great friends from the past.

Lauren Soccer

Lauren playing 6th grade soccer against WAB.
They are undefeated!

Baby Safety Seat

Passed this today. Amazing how worked up we get over safety seats in the car. I still remember riding in the back of a pickup truck with nothing.

Goats in Church Nursery.

We have special goats to entertain our children in the church nursery, do you??

PineCove Camp Bumper Sticker in China

Camp PineCove bumper sticker on our car in China. Our Buick min-van is very popular and hard to distinguish from the others, but no one has a PineCove bumper sticker except us!!

Beijing Window Washing

This is the way a real man washes the windows.

Lunch at 7/11

Eating lunch from 7/11 today, Kung Pao Chicken (宫保鸡丁).

I also got a little bonus with it, a FREE plastic bag.

Yvette is 42

Celebrated Yvette's bday the day after they got back to Beijing from summer break. It's been 2 months since being "home". Last year we made her favorite red velvet cake, but this year picked out something I thought she might like better. Tiramisu was not that good either. 2 years of strike outs!

Drums at Yunan Restaurant

Heard these cool drums outside this Yunan restaurant. He bangs with the butt-end of the sticks.

Wondermilk is Our Favorite - $16/gal

Our favorite Beijing milk is Wondermilk and it only comes in 500ml containers. It costs $16/gal and Leafe drinks a gallon a day by himself.

Street Sweeper at rush hour

Street sweepers come out during rush hour... Why sweep a busy road?

Somewhere in Western Chinese Mountains

One of the highest altitude airports in the world at 14,000'... it has an extra long runway due to the the air and even has a VIP oxygen room for those of priveledge... most are dizzy when you get off the jet. There is only 1 flight per day, which is another strange phenomena of Chinese growth and expansion ahaead of the buinesses. "Build it first and hope they will come".

Mountain in the distance above clouds on our approach... over 20,000'.

End of the runway on the side of the mountain... the airline approach flys down a mountain valley with an incredible view.

helping someone with a tow near the airport... who drives a 700 serries BMW in the remote mountains? Very wealthy Chinese businessmen.

after landing at airport, we took an offroad diversion that eventually "led" us to meet a Nomad man herding his yaks and he invited us to his tent for tea. We couldn't visit this first day, but visited at the end of my trip!

T'btn prayer flags waving in the wind.

Our first encounter with a nomad friend who invited us to his tent for yak butter tea.

Beautiful view of nomad tent and valley.
 The air is clean and crisp unlike the cities.

A city i visited in a valley with a river running through the middle of the city

This is one of those empty cities you hear about in China. They build out the city first then hope for the people to move into it, but maost can not afford and still live downb stream in the cheap area.

This is a church in the middle of the city, but it is all for show. It is completely empty, no life.

Nomad group that invited us in for tea... what an experience. Making butter and cream in the back. ask me about this experience.

A very humble and faithful people.

Natural hot springs in this area.







Leafe - ISB Javelin Throw

Leafe represented ISB in the area wide Javelin competition.

Wacky Chinese Tennis Tournament

Here's my draw for a wacky tournament I played this weekend. I was to play Adams on the top draw in the finals on Sunday, but they brought a single guy and his private coach that did not play in the tournament at all to play a three-way for the finals. I've never seen anything like this before! Even with bad bad line calls from the umpires, I ended up with the win.

Lauren in "Monkey King" Opera

Lauren played the Tiger character, all the kids put on their own face paint and helped adapt the play to their liking.

Start Your Day

Many stores and restaurants start their day by lining everyone up for instruction. This is across the street from my office.

Spicy Food

Finally have the kids eating some spicy Chinese food. Actually fighting over it.

Ming Tombs Spring

This visit to the Ming Tombs was much warmer than last time.

Leafe's Dog Bite

Leafe was bit by a dog yesterday... Deep gash, but chose not to stitch it up. The dog jumped up through the netting of a trampoline and snagged his leg.

Powder Days at Whistler

We had lots of new snow the next 4 days... The first time the kids skied in this much snow.

Leafe's favorite "black diamond" in the trees.

Look at her go!

Peak to Peak Gondola, the longest stretch in the world from Blackcomb to Whistler mountain.

Deep powder

Playing in the powder!

Yard sale!

I couldn't keep Leafe & Lauren out of the trees. Tons of deep powder and fresh tracks in there.

Easter eggs arrived early. Elle's friend from Beijing.

Leafe's friend from Beijing.

Relaxing after a hard day on the slopes.

View from the window of our hotel room.

Another view from the window of our hotel room, with hot tubs and heated pool.

Lauren in our room at the hotel, lift is just outside the window.