Farm Day!

It was my turn to pick up Takuya and the three other students who are staying with families in our area. Here they are waiting at BYU (Brigham Young University in Provo) for the last bus to come back from the farm.

After Takuya spent a day at the farm feeding the horses, we decided to continue with the farm theme and spend the evening in Lehi at Cornbellys. Cornbellys is the annual fall festival and corn maze at Thanksgiving Point. As you can see by the pictures, we had a lot of fun!

Getting lost in the corn maze. Fortunatey, there are a few of these bridges you can use to get a view of the whole field. The maze is huge and always has a theme which you can see from an ariel view. This year it was David Archuleta (American Idol) and they had his music playing in the maze. http://www.cornbellys.com/cornfieldmaze.htm click here to see the field from above.

Of course, with all that corn around they had to have some to play in! It felt kind of good on our feet after walking for half an hour in the corn maze.

Lots of jack-o-lanterns. I'd never seen so many before and they were all made by two people!

Kirk and Takuya with some "pumpkin heads".

On the giant rocking chair.

Takuya tries to lasso a "steer". None of us were very successfull at this but it was fun to try.

Tetherball match and person riding the mechanical bull in the background. Nobody wanted to try that event from our group though. I guess were just not cowboy enough to try the bull.
Princess Olivia on the way to the ball. She just needs her fairy godmother to show up and make her a beautiful gown!
Olivia rides her "cow" Bessy. I was right behind her bringing up the "rear".

We all rode on the haunted hay ride too but my camera wasn't working and people get mad when you use flash pictures in the dark evidently. We won't forget the scary spiders and racoons that "attacked" our wagon though! It was really fun and I bet Takuya has never done anything like that before!

Having fun at dinner and Jr. High Day at school!

Before we headed to dinner at Fuddruckers, I stopped the three boys for a picture in front of the house. That was a good thing since dinner included lots of ketchup and mustard!

(Earlier in the day, Takuya went back on the bus for a field trip to Hill Air Force Base and Antelope Island at the Great Salt Lake.)

Eliza in the backseat after dinner Wednesday. She was playing keep away with her baloon with Takuya. She really likes him and has to say his name over and over in the car.

THURSDAY: JR. HIGH SCHOOL DAY
Oak Canyon Jr. High

Kirk and Takuya after school. They went to Kirk's regular classes which are Woods (he helped Takuya make a top but don't worry-no sharp instruments were used except by Kirk), Peer Tutoring (this is a class where Kirk assists students who have autism and other learning disabilities-I'm not sure what Takuya thought of that class), they had their lunch outside and then went to English and Geography classes.

Playing tennis after school.

Aren't the jr. high courts in a beautiful setting. Their is a steep hill just behind the school with a track and the tennis courts off to the side.
The boys had a great time playing and Olivia and Eliza ran around after the tennis balls.

Sometimes it took longer with Eliza trying to catch the balls, but the boys were good sports. Takuya is a good tennis player. Kirk is wishing he had lessons this year. We haven't played much but he had fun anyway.

Olivia loves her kitty pen that Takuya brought for her. Yeah! She didn't lose it at school!

THURSDAY EVENING:

After the boys were tired of playing tennis, they walked home and me and the girls rode bikes. We had a quick snack and headed off to piano and grandma's house when Zach came home. While Olivia had her lesson, the boys went to the library. It is what we always do on piano day so that's what we did!

Then we had a SPICY dinner Mike made of curry chicken with rice. It was "delicious but very spicy" as Takuya said. He had to drink lots of orange juice but he liked it and went back for seconds. We were all tired and had a quiet night of playing foosball (we have a table version in our basement) and read books before bed.

FRIDAY AT THE FARM:

Today, Takuya gets the farm experience! I hope he takes some pictures so we find out what he did. Tonight we will eat out somewhere , maybe Mexican food or our local western style buffet restaurant if he wants, and then just Kirk and Takuya get to go to Thanksgiving Point to the Corn Maze. (Zach has a class trip to the Christa McAullif Space Center tonight and the little girls will probably stay home with dad). It should be a fun day for all!

Our Japanese Student...Takuya Arrived Last Night!!

Takuya's bus finally arrived last night at BYU. We came home and had a "delicious" meal of Chicken soup, with noodles, Asian style and dumplings.

They may not speak the same language BUT they do understand Wii language! The three boys (and Copper) had fun playing Mario Supersmash last night.
Some of the beautiful gifts Takuya brought our family. Notice the lovely necklace by the fabric and purse. His mother made it as a gift for me! It is absolutely beautiful! I think with the purple and black beads it is a perfect match for my silk dress . Thank you Kazumi! And thank you to Takuya's whole family for each of the gifts. We will enjoy them all!
Japanese candies and cookies...can't wait to try them! I don't have a picture of the girl's gifts since they went to bed early but they opened them this morning and were excited to get Hello Kitty toys. Olivia took hers to school...I hope it comes home with her!
Voodoo and his new toy that Takuya brought. He wouldn't stop playing with it last night! How thoughtful to even bring toys for our kitties!

Takuya is friendly and polite and so far seems to be having fun here with us. He seems to fit in great with our family. He says he likes hamburgers, so we are going to Fuddruckers for dinner tonight. We will post more pictures throughout the week.

STILL waiting for our LOA for Grace and "new Shoji" comes today!

Yes, everyone, we are still waiting for LOA (letter of approval). Most of the time it takes less than 90 days from LID (log in date-in China) and we are close to 120 days now!! We were hoping to travel in November but that is looking less likely as the days go on. Now, we just hope we get to go before the end of the year.


I have learned that Grace is doing well though. We recently found out she is in the older child apartments in Hangzhong rather than with a foster family in the city. I like knowing that she is with the other children and being watched out for but also has her own "home" and mama to take care of her. She got our package we sent and the clothes were a little too big so she's definitely smaller than Olivia.


Otherwise, we just have to wait and in the meantime, there's plenty to do! Last week, Grandma Carol was here and we had a great visit. Eliza loved going to lunch with Grandma and mom every day. Olivia and Eliza both had fun playing with the puppies she brought to sell too. She brought the cutest Schnauzers and some Shitzu/Lasa Apso mix puppies. Fortunately, the weather warmed up a little while she was here.

Today our "new Shoji" as Olivia calls him, arrives. Last year, we hosted a Japanese student for a week and his name was Shoji. This year our student's name is Takuya, but she can't say it. He is Kirk's age and goes to a private school in Tokyo area. The whole 9th grade comes here for a week to experience America and work on their English language skills. It is fun for us and we enjoy showing him around. He will have most of the days busy with the other students, so I have to drive him down to BYU in Provo. On Wednesday, he goes to school with Kirk and a few other students who are staying with families close by. We plan to do a few things during the week and then have a big outing on Saturday up to Salt Lake or maybe Park City. I'll fill in more details after he comes.



I don't have many new pictures, but here is one with Kirk and our first snowfall on the 10th.

American Fork Canyon and our favorite rock!

I discovered the perfect place to take a picture while driving up the canyon a few years ago. The background is always georgeous in the fall and I love the grasses around the rock. The boys think it's silly but I love this tradition. Enjoy our pictures!

It's Autumn...time for exciting hikes in the canyon and a blog makeover!!

Sundance area...Stewart Falls Hike

This is the view after we hiked for just a few minutes. The colors were so vibrant! We went at just the right time before the maples turn brown. Unfortunately, our timing wasn't perfect. We didn't start until 5:30, which for a quick 30 minute hike sounded plenty early to me. But 30 minutes is probably how long it takes if you are Kirk (or someone in his scout troop) and you don't have to carry or wait for small children! Not that I was annoyed at how long this hike turned out to be or anything (see Kirk's face at the waterfall after I noticed it was 7:00 and we still had to walk all the way back!!!) I was not happy at that point. Mostly because the thought of wending our way through rocks and roots in the dark with 4 children and probably bears lurking around every corner was not appealing to me!

This is where the POWER of PRAYER comes into play! Whenever I am in a situation that I think is not going to go well, I turn to prayer. I knew we had to get back fast and Olivia was tired and complaining about her legs, especially after tripping...again. Also, Eliza had to be carried as she was way too slow and tired.

Kirk said the prayer for us and afterwards we talked about having FAITH in our prayer. Well, guess what? We made it back to the parking lot from the waterfall in 40 minutes!! (And all those scary noises of branches breaking turned out to be another hiker and not a bear chasing after us! That was rather embarassing since we'd been singing silly songs the whole way to keep our pace and spirits up). It was too dark to see just minutes after we got back. There is no way we could have done it without prayer. Kirk, bless his heart, remembered we had to do one more thing when we made it back safely to the car...pray again, but in gratitude.

I guess this was a learning experience and really taught us once again to rely on Heavenly help in times of trouble even when we feel it's our fault we got into the trouble in the first place!

I think this is one more story to add to my list of miracles in our life.

The first hill as we head up the mountain.
Olivia loved the maple leaves...and they make a pretty background for a pretty girl!




Awesome Aspen trees!Views of cabins at Sundance
Taking a break! Eliza was really tired at this point. Thank goodness mom and Kirk were there to carry her the rest of the way!

Yeah! We made it to the waterfall!

My Little Mermaids!

Eliza loves the water...can you tell by the big smile on her face?

Olivia filling up her "hot tub" boat.

Eliza just discovered how fun it is to jump off of the diving board this week. She always liked jumping from the side but she wasn't so sure about the diving board. Now, she thinks she's a big kid!

Another busy weekend...

Thursday was Mike's work party here at our house. That's what happens when you have a big backyard with a pool and bbq grills! I cleaned up in the house and Mike worked on the patio and food. Then Saturday I had swimming lessons in the afternoon with the neighbor kids I teach. Eliza and Olivia came out too and ended up swimming for hours!

Last night, Saturday, I attended the women's General Relief Society Meeting. It is broadcast from Salt Lake City to our meetinghouse that's just a couple of blocks away and all over the world as well. What an uplifting meeting it was! My favorite quote was from President Uchtorf "It's not necessarily the number of prayers you say, but the number of prayers you answer that will be of eternal importance". (That's from memory, so it may not be exact). If you want to hear some beautiful music and talks on the Savior and especially what we as women can do to serve others, click here http://www.lds.org/broadcast/grsm/0,6220,285-1-41-1522,00.html
or just go to Lds.org and click on the General Relief Society Meeting link.

Today, we went to church with family for Josh and Emily's baby blessing and then had lunch together at Bruce and Koral's house. Next week we will all meet at our home for our semi-annual after conference pot-luck!

Oh, and I can't forget about a wonderful experience Grandma Earl and the boys and I had last Saturday. The Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Utah Symphony had two special guests put on an O.C. Tanner Gift of Music concert called "An American Songbook". They sang Broadway tunes and Patriotic selections. Brian Stokes-Mitchell and Denyce Graves were both great. But he was amazing and had us all on the edge of our seats, especially for his "Man of Le Moncha" song. I had tears in my eyes, it was so beautiful. Music can be such a blessing and lift the spirit. I know Heavenly Father knew that was just what I needed to hear! Every once in a while it's nice to go see something musical, especially for our children to have these experiences while they are young.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZE4KGB6Wt4&feature=related Bryan Stokes-Mitchell "To Dream the Impossible Dream" He has an amazing voice, which was even better in person.
Hope you all had a fantastic weekend!

Is Summer Over? Where did the time go?

I've been a little overwhelmed and have had a hard time wanting to add to the blog. Sorry, about the big gap again! Here are a few pictures of our latest happenings...

Eliza and two friends at our China adoption group picnic (August). The other girls thought this was a lovely place to sit, but Eliza wasn't so sure. She doesn't usually sit on top of flowers and that was just wrong!!

I looked over and saw all four of my "Luau" cuties by the swings together.

I have no clue what they were doing!

Eliza started preschool! She was so excited when she found out she would be going to school this year. She thought that meant she would have "homework, backpack and lunch!" We let her know she wouldn't have to take her lunch, which was rather disappointing to her. But as you can see, now she enjoys having lunch with just her and mom 5 days a week!

Kirk must have some technique of getting small animals and children to fall asleep!

That's probably enough for one entry.

I'll have some pictures of our visit to the zoo on my next post.

Mike becomes the "cat lady"

So, after our old cat, Miserable, died in July, I've been lonely for a cat. Sounds stupid when we already have two other cats at the house, but they don't have too much to do with me. Stephenie wasn't for it at all, but then, she said I could get one; and before she could change her mind again I brought home a little black kitty. After trying lots of names on him, I named him Voodoo. The family is split on the name. I like it and no one else does! He is extremely friendly and is always demanding attention. Stephenie just "enjoys" him waking her up every night by purring and wanting to be petted. Oh well, I like him! He has even made friends, more or less, with the other cats.

This is the picture of him before I brought him home. He is much bigger now. And it looks like he will be a very large cat when he's done growing.

Skagway and Glacier Bay (Alaska cruise)

Skagway: This is a small port. Only a few boats are docked. Notice the green and yellow train. The White Pass rail was an excursion some of our family took but it was cloudy and they didn't think it was really worth our time so we skipped it.

View from above. This is actually a picture Larayne took on their way up to the sled dog excursion.

We enjoyed walking through the cute little downtown area. It had wooden walks and lots of old buildings with plenty of shopping of course! We also saw the play about Soapy Smith (cute and well-done but a little pricey for what it was).

Back on board-hey Deb, what's for dessert? The food on Princess is fantastic! I ate too much most of the time though since I love food and have a hard time turning it down- especially when it is already paid for! Also, a rare smile caught on photograph of Robert (he will not smile for posed pictures no matter how hard we try to get him to).

Next day: Cruising Glacier Bay National Park

When we sailed into the bay for awhile, the captain pulled us up close for a good view and everyone congregates on deck to listen for the ice to "calve" or break off from the glacier. It makes alot of noise and is really fun to watch for. It was so cold, we all bundled up and they even had the carts around deck with hot chocolate. Which, by the way, I finally found out was FREE if you didn't have the alcoholic version. Oh, now they tell me! I would've been sipping on that the whole trip if I'd known! Also, the bar would mix you up some yummy chocolate milk too. Oh well, I guess the cold water I drank the rest of the trip saved me a few calories. We seemed to stun the waiters every time we turned down coffee and alcohol! Let me tell you, there is an endless supply of booze for those who wanted it but we really didn't see people overdoing it at least. (Or maybe we were just in bed to early to know!)

Quick draw! Debbie and Koral with their cameras at the ready. I'm just an innocent bystander this time.

The beautiful atrium where they took our group picture. I connects the dining and shopping areas. For some reason, I didn't see this area for the first few days of the trip, it's kind of easy to miss, huh?!
The excursions were fun at port, but we really enjoyed seeing the glaciers, playing cards (our version of bridge that Steve and Larayne taught us...it's addicting!) and eating dinner together. It was so relaxing to not drive anywhere and just walk wherever we wanted to go.