Britton takes on China

We sent Britton with a camera to take a few pictures of his trip.  He did take pictures, but of course he wasn't in a single one of them, so it's a good thing Grandma took 533 pictures of the trip so we would have a *few* of Britton. 

 

Britton did take a few on the airplane getting ready to leave.

Safe arrival in Shanghai.  Nothing like starting out a trip to China with some Papa John's pizza.

Getting measured for a suit.

Ok, so using chopsticks is not Britton's forte, but at least he tried.

Britton was on the lookout for English translation signs, they are always good for a laugh. 

Looking at some of the yummy things available at the market.



 New Shanghai Skyline

On the flight to Beijing

Britton said his favorite thing to see was the Great Wall



Wow, that's steep!

 

He also really liked the Forbidden City

We heard all about the huge ice cream cone.

 Britton was able to try all sorts of new foods and liked them. The only thing he wouldn't try were the scorpions with legs still moving on sticks.  Good call, Britton.



Korean BBQ

At the really Chinese-ee tea house.

It's always nice to find a 4 star rated toilet.

Thanks Aunt Jen for being a great hostess!

 Britton thought the underground markets were cool and brought home a few small gifts for his sisters and parents. 


Hanging out in Taylor's massage chair.

Will and June loved having their cousin visit.  Will was quite upset when Britton had to go back home, he wanted him to be adopted into their family.

It was an incredible 9 day trip for Britton.  He arrived home on Sunday afternoon and went to bed at around 8 p.m. that night.  I thought he was going to have major jet leg and it would take him a few days to adjust, but I was wrong.  He slept through the night and was up for school Monday morning without any problems. He didn't miss a step.  Oh, to be young again!

Spring Break

On Wednesday, March 25th we said goodbye to Britton.  The time had finally come for him to go to China with his grandparents and visit my brother Taylor and his family.

 I discovered that it's one thing to anticipate such a great opportunity for your child and another thing to actually send your 13 year old child to China without you! Fortunately I was only nervous for a nano-second. He was in very good hands and I knew it so I really didn't worry about him too much after he pulled out of the driveway. Luckily we had plenty to do to keep us busy while he was touring Asia. 

Lagoon opened last Saturday and we decided to go and break in our season passes.

The weather was great and Jameson decided he likes Lagoon, especially the train.  He went on the train 3 times and still talks about it.   Jenna and I went on a few of the bigger rides while Korinne hung with Jameson for awhile.

 I think it will take Korinne some time to warm up to the bigger rides. We did get her to go on "Wild Mouse" and she decided she liked it so that was a step in the right direction.  I was laughing at some of the people Jenna and I talked to while waiting in line for the Spider. They went on and on about how hard it is when the kids aren't quite tall enough to get on the big rides.  Why was this so funny to me? Well, this is NOT our problem.  My kids are WAY over the minimum height requirement before they even start to consider going on the big rides.  Thrill seekers we are not.

Since we were heading down to St. George for spring break we stayed in Salt Lake on Saturday night and attended our old ward the next morning.  We moved out of the ward 6 1/2 years ago, but I was surprised at how little the ward has changed.  It was their ward conference which was a perfect day to go because they sustained pretty much the whole ward in their callings so we got a great snapshot what everyone is up to. We knew 95% of the people sustained and it was fun to see our old stomping grounds.

We made it to St. George by early evening on Sunday.  Stephen is currently living in Adam's parents house while they are on their mission. He got married just before Adam's parents left, but the marriage went south pretty quickly and he is in the process of getting a divorce.  Divorce is never fun, but in this instance we think it is for the best.  He has only been living in the house for a short time, but it was fun to spent some time with him while we were there.

We met a few new cousins while we were in town.  Kim had a baby girl, Bonnie, a week before we arrived and Jaclyn had a baby boy, Sawyer, last month.  Lots of babies  in St. George!

Jameson holding Sawyer

It's always fun to visit with GiGi.

And go swimming with Aunt Bethany's kids in their neighbor's cool pool.

 

Jameson got to participate in an Easter Egg Hunt at a park with his cousins Cameron, Dallin and Ammon.

The weather is usually warm in the spring in St. George, but this year it was HOT.  It got up to the mid to upper 80's and felt like summer. On Tuesday Adam took the girls miniature golfing while Jameson took a nap and then we hit the park before going to visit Aunt Jaclyn's family.

 

Tuesday are discount movie nights at a local theater so all of the kids and Adam and James went to see the move, "Home" while Stephen and I went to see "McFarland". 

 



On Wednesday Adam spent about 3 hours helping Stephen move around desks in their Dad's home office.  Their Dad should win an award for how many desks he can fit into one very small room.  I think I counted 6. 

It was kind of like playing Desk Tetrus but Adam and Stephen were able to fit Adam's Grandpa's desk in and arrange all of the computers, printers, monitors and misc cords. It was quite a feat. 

After the project we were able to take the kids swimming in the large pool in GiGi's complex and then went to Bethany's afterwards. 

Jameson, Cameron and Dallin

Korinne

Jenna

Jameson was in heaven while we were there. So many cousins to play with, so little time.  For the first time EVER I heard him say that he didn't want to go home. Wow. He is a kid that always wants to "go home." It helped that Aunt Bethany kept making him chocolate chip cookies so she could "win him over".  I think every time he sees Bethany from here on out he will probably ask her for a cookie. :-)

Our original plan was to go home Thursday, but Adam decided to stay one more day since it was Bethany's birthday.  Another sister, Marci, and her family came down on Friday so Bethany had 5 siblings at her birthday party.  It's not often that you get 6 out of 10 kids together at one time.

Marci and Bryan

Kim and Bethany

Stephen, Marci, Jaclyn, Bethany holding Sawyer, Kim holding Bonnie and Adam with Jameson.

On Friday it was time for us to hit the road.  We made it home in time to Skype with Britton in China that night.

Since we were only traveling with 3 kids we decided to take the smaller red car to save money on gas.  I've decided that the savings wasn't worth it. After traveling in a van you feel super squished in a small car, especially since we brought all of our food for the trip with us. Note to self, always take a van if it is an option. :-)