What’s Going On?

My, my, my………..goodness.  Busy school year has taken all my time the last few months.  Here’s a quick recap of July, August, September and October.

Most of you know about my trip to China.  Here are a few of the highlights – walking on the Great Wall was probably the best moment of the trip.  Beside the sheer amazement of walking on such a remarkable piece of history was the relief of being in a mountain breeze and out of the sweltering smog and humidity of Beijing.  Jessica, one of my co travelers, and I opted to hike up the “road less traveled” and hoofed it up the steep portion to lookout #2 to the upper right in the picture below.

Highlight #2 was riding a bicycle around the ancient city wall in Xi’an.  Again, I think the breeze created helped in the oppressive heat too.  It is safe to say that I would not have thought to do this adventure on my own – rent a rickety bike and then ride 8+ miles around the city on top of its wall – pretty fantastic.

In Taiwan we had the experience of a Buddhist tea ceremony – tea is a BIG deal in Taiwan.  It was one of the more interesting parts of the trip and a valuable insight into the culture, even if it doesn’t mesh much with my religious beliefs.

As far as unique experiences go, teaching a lesson at a girl’s school in Taipei was way up there.  I found that students are students, regardless of location – the same uncertainties and quirks surface as soon as you begin to interact with them.  The school system in China has a different focus that in the west – instead of a “well rounded” focus they focus on academics, specifically, test scores.  Students must score well on government tests to get into good colleges.  Otherwise, they are left with few options after high school – low paying factory jobs, primarily.  I suspect if a few of my students had the reality of working in a factory if they didn’t study, more would get serious about their future. 

Before the school year got up and running, we made a trip to the Seattle Aquarium with Grandma and Grandpa.  Lucky for us all, Grandma and Grandpa now live close enough to go on field trips like this more often.

As the school year started, Camden learned how to ride his bike without training wheels.  We celebrated with some cupcakes and frosted shirt sleeves and elbows.

First day of kindergarten.  School is just a short walk from our house….or a shorter drive when it is raining.

Puyallup Fair – kind of crazy and busy, but we had fun.  In response to the question “what did you do at the fair”, Shelby replied “we walked”.  Yes, we certainly did.

Shelby still loves everything princess and especially anything Cinderella.  She is currently sitting here on my lap and insisted I add this picture to the blog.  Okay, your highness.

October’s annual trip to Remlinger Farms was very fun.  It appeared that everyone else thought that was a good day to go also…our trick:  stay until closing because the last hour or so is not very crowded and we can hop right onto the rides one last time.

 

Grandpa found some big pumpkins at Spooner Farms.

Camden designed his own pumpkin this year.  We still aren’t brave enough to hand him a knife, however.  We call it “doing our part in managing the health care crisis”.

Their Halloween costumes.  Shelby has worn hers every day for the last two weeks.

Stickers from Grandma Lee.  Camden is still fascinated with volcanoes and turned his stickers into a volcano erupting.  As he says, “we need to add some details to this paper”.  Cute.

 

On a final, too much information note, Shelby is day time potty trained now.  It.  Is.  Awesome.