Trip to Qinhuangdao

This past weekend we were able to go on a trip with all the Tianjin team of our company. We had a wonderful time relaxing, playing on the beach, visiting the Great Wall and swimming. Our hotel was gorgeous. We had a great time and were thankful for the opportunity to be there.This is a view of the first sunrise from our hotel room. Every morning when the boys were still sleeping I would sit out on our balcony and listen to the ocean and read. It was wonderful!Logan loved playing football on the beach with Preston and some of the other guys. This is a picture of our hotel on the beach. Here Logan is working on demolition from the previous days sandcastle competition. Preston and Logan are sporting their GT hats to keep the sun out of their faces.Every morning a huge complimentary breakfast buffet was provided. The selections were too numerous to be able to enjoy them all.Here you will see the pools at the hotel. Logan and Preston are in the kiddie pool (which was short enough to let Logan stand in it and the water only go up to his shoulders).

We were also able to take a side trip to another section of the Great Wall. This section of the Great Wall was a lot more steep then the one we previously visited (which at the time we did not think was possible). Most of this wall was at a 45% + grade.If you look closely, you can see the Great Wall going up the mountain.Logan climbed most of the way by himself.Here are Preston and Logan on a part of the Wall they have recently (in the past 100 years) provided some stairs to climb up (which are at about an 80% grade).We were able to take in some beautiful views from the top of the Great Wall.
We decided, in the interest of time, to take the chair lift back down to the bottom. Logan loved this ride!

The assembly of "The Bus"

After quite a big of searching I finally found the perfect stroller for the triplets. It was a little surprising how few companies actually make triplet strollers (but then again, how many people actually have triplets). I needed something that was not too wide, as it would be hard to very many places. I finally found a triplet stroller that went front to back from a specialty stroller company in Portland, Oregon. (The company was great to work with, just in case any of you want to get one just like mine or for four, five, or six children!!!). We ordered the stroller several weeks ago and had it air freighted to Tianjin. It then took a few weeks for it to go to customs and to be delivered to our house. It finally came last Friday!! Saturday morning Preston put it together. Here are some pictures of the assembly process.

The first adventure in "The Bus"

Logan was so excited that Preston had finished putting together "The Bus" as Logan fondly calls it that we had to take it out for a spin. Logan wanted his friend Abby to go on a ride with him. So, our friends Mandy, Adam and Abby came on a walk with us. We went to a nearby market. The kids enjoyed it (all though neither wanted to stay in it the entire time). We were quite a the sight. People would just stop and look in. It was fun. We are very excited to have "The Bus" and I know we will gets tons and tons of use out of it once the triplets arrive.

Baby Update - 16 weeks

Unfortunately I don't have any pictures to post. They just don't give us any during the ultrasound. I had an appointment on Wednesday. Everything is going well. They measured all three babies during the ultrasound and all three were measuring at 16 weeks or above (baby B is always measuring at least two days ahead of schedule). My blood pressure, weight gain, etc. are all looking good. I have another appointment in 4 weeks and will hopefully be able to find out the sexes of the babies at that time. We may not be able to find out all three. It just depends on what positions they are lying in at the time. With three in there it is pretty hard to make them move around. Since I get ultrasounds about every 4 weeks, we figure we should be able to figure out by the time they arrive the sex of each baby.

When we were at the hospital we met a couple who had twins just two months ago. The twins were born at 3 lbs and 5 lbs. They spent two weeks in the NICU and then another week in the regular nursery. They were very pleased with the care they received and their children are thriving. It was nice to see them and talk to them about their experience.

I promise I will put up some pictures of myself soon.

KTV

We went to KTV for the first time last night. For those of you who don't know what KTV is, it is basically karaoke in a room that would probably sit about 10 - 12 friends. The buildings are extremely nice and have a huge song selection in both Chinese and English. KTV buildings are very popular because the Chinese love to go to KTV. We all had a wonderful time, even Logan participated! After KTV we had dinner with our friends Holly and Derrek. We had Beijing Duck. It was delicious. On the walk over to our house, we were able to see a rare treat. There is a plant that only blooms four hours a year. Our friends Holly and Derrek have lived in China their entires lives and have never been able to see the plant bloom. Once we stopped in the crowd of people to take a picture of the plant, the main attraction shifted. Everyone wanted to take a picture of Logan with the plant instead of just the plant alone. Logan did a good job cooperating. A little closer to home we were able to enjoy watching a fan dancing class. The ladies were so funny. Once Preston started taking pictures they all started smiling really big!! We had a great evening. We can't wait to share all of these experiences in person with those of you who will be able to make it over here for a trip!

Logan loved his first day of school

Yesterday afternoon when Logan got off the bus he was so excited. I asked him if he had a good day and he said "Yeah" wish so much excitement he could hardly get it out. He then skipped all the way home. When he got home we sat and ate blueberry muffins and he told me a little bit about his day. He got a green smiley face on his calendar chart (which means his teacher, Ms. Seavey, thinks he had a good day too). He will go back to school on Wednesday and then no school this week on Friday. I am glad he had such an exciting day!

Logan's first day of school

Today was Logan's first day of school. He was excited to go, but only if I was going to stay with him. We had been one other time so he could be in the class picture for the yearbook. I am anxiously waiting for his return to get his take on the day.
Logan ate a manly breakfast today of pancakes. Once he was ready he ran down the sidewalk to the bus. Logan really enjoyed riding the bus. Once at school he enjoyed playing with the huge lego bin. His teacher also told me they were going to build Noah's Arc and make a birthday cake today. I am sure he had a great time. It was hard leaving him because he cried really hard and asked me not to go. His principal called me a few hours later to let me know that he only cried for about five minutes and then was fine. He also wanted me to know he was engaging well with the other kids in the class. I will post an update on Logan's comments later tonight.

A Fun Family Saturday

We had a great Saturday hanging out with friends. Logan slept in until almost 9:00, much better for a Saturday morning than last weeks 6:30 a.m. waking time. We spent a little time skyping with Preston's Mom. She told us his Grandmother was planning on giving us an early Christmas present.... funds to purchase a dryer. Now, to most people at home that is not too big of a deal. But here in China, very few people have a dryer and because they are not very common they are really expensive. So, we are very excited. We were wondering how our upcoming family of six was going to survive without a dryer.

For lunch we met up with a friend and her two children. Logan loved her daughter, Hannah, who is eleven. They played together very well. We went for lunch and then just spent some time walking around the White Market. We found a great toy store there. We also found a furniture store where we plan to get a chair that will turn in to a bed. The chair is nice and the prices are very reasonable. We did not like their fabric selection so we are going to bring our own fabric and they will send it to the factory and make the chair exactly what we desire. This entire process will only take 2 weeks!!! This will be a nice extra bed to have when people come to visit. Everyone is welcome! After lunch and shopping we went back to our friend's house and played Rock Band for a few hours. We had a lot of fun. It was a great afternoon.

For dinner our entire 2009 group (those of us who just moved here) had a progressive dinner. We were able to see everyone's house, eat lots of yummy food and have a great time visiting together. Everyone really enjoyed our time together and hope we will be able to do it at least a few times a year.

The weekend was made just a little bit better since Georgia Tech won their game!! I am also excited that Michigan won and of course I am pulling for Auburn right now too. It is a little weird for it to be Sunday morning and football games are happening back at home.

Hopefully later today I will be able to post pictures of Logan's new room.

Date night - anti-pasta

Preston and I went out last night to celebrate 15 years since we started dating (Wow, we are getting old). There is a great little Italian district in Tianjin. Some of our friends here watched Logan for us and he had lots of fun playing with their kids. We enjoyed walking through the Italian district before settling on a restaurant. It was a beautiful night. We even picked out the place to stop for dessert before we got to the restaurant. The restaurant was beautiful and in an old house. We had our own room to ourselves The manager came to wait on us and he spoke English. The menu had so many wonderful options. We had pretty much settled on what we wanted to eat and the power went out. We did not mind though, because they came and opened the door to the balcony and lit some candles for us. We sat and talked for a while and then stepped out on the balcony to enjoy the scenery. A little while later the manager told us he was very sorry but their was construction going on the next road and the crew had cut some electrical cables and the power was not going to be fixed until Saturday morning. We were a little sad we did not get to try the food, but had a great time just sitting and talking in a romantic setting. So, we were off to find a new spot to eat. (By the way, there are 4 entries to this story...don't forget to read them all.)

Date night - search for the Entree

It was a beautiful night and Preston and I really enjoyed our walk. There are many times with all the pollution that you can not see any starts at night. We were very excited the starts were out. We walked several blocks and found a great, lively walking street. We walked on this street for several blocks looking for a place to eat. After just looking for a while we went back to a restaurant we had found that would serve Italian. We were in the mood for Italian so we were glad we were able to find a place.

Date night - Entree

While waiting we decided to go ahead and choose our food. Here you order everything at one time, including dessert. There were so many good options, we decided to share. We went with a pumpkin and scallop dish over pasta in white sauce and a thin meat and mushroom dish in a black pepper sauce over pasta. They two dishes were delicious. We also had fun fruity yogurt smoothie drinks (but I forgot to take pictures of them). Yes, we ate at Pizza Hut.

Date night - dessert

Since this was a special night, we decided to get some dessert. We had not ordered it at the beginning of our last meal so we decided to just go ahead and find another place to get something. We went back out and found a place that had cheesecake. I got a plain New York Cheesecake and Preston got an Amaretto Cheesecake. Both were very good. We found them at.... Starbucks

The past few days

We had a wonderful weekend. On Saturday Logan and I made homemade pancakes and Preston got a chance to sleep in. After lunch we went to the Exchange Mall, a very western mall, and just did some browsing. This will be a great place to keep myself stocked with running shoes (once I can actually run again). We also found a Cold Stone Creamery, so we all got a Gotta Have It (which is closer to the size of the US Love It) and shared it. This will only be a special treat because it cost us 52 RMB (about $8). After the mall we went to the Drum Tower, which has lots of shops, very much like Ancient Culture Street. We found some beautiful embroidery pieces. Two of them found a way to our home and now sit on the wall of our living room above our couch. The embroidery here is so beautiful. There were pieces nicer than the ones we got, but they were also about 10 times the price.

On Sunday, we went to a friend's birthday party. Later that evening the same friend and his parents and sister came over to our house for dinner. I made a favorite mexican dish and everyone enjoyed it. Oh yes...and the sad part. We went and bought Logan a fish. He was really happy at our house for about 4 hours....and then he died.

Today I had a Chinese lesson. They are getting harder and harder every time. We then walked with three of Logan's friends and their parents (no school today) to McDonalds. After McDonalds Logan's friends came over and played at our house all afternoon. They spent tons of time in the sandbox of our back yard. Logan was a complete sand monster when he was done playing and I had to take him straight to the bath.




Tonight, Preston had an exciting moment. Preston was sitting on the couch with a chocolate chip cookie and a glass of milk. Logan, after finally finishing his entire dinner had a cookie too. He scooted on over to Preston and dunked his cookie in Preston's milk. Preston was so excited.