eagle, bat, and crowe

Olivia is fascinated with all the production that goes on at Grandma's house. Grandma had bought too many oranges so she had Olivia help her make this delicious juice. I keep trying to think of ways to get rich making juice...too bad I have no head for business...and no orchard.

That was last week...may have even been Wednesday and Olivia was still wearing her church dress. I wish I could be a child in summer again, sleeping in my Sunday best, waking up Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday morning to the sound of a lawn mower, The Price is Right, or in this case, the juicer. So Wednesday must have been the day we went to the zoo with Bekah, though maybe it was Tuesday.

We packed a lunch again. Sam is growing resentful of lunch meat. I love this picnic spot across from Hogle Zoo. The grass feels so lush, though we have to watch out for a big pile of horse poo that has been sitting there over a month. The river runs yards away. With William we're at the stage to avoid that, but Ben could spend hours by a river. Here's Aunt Bekah and the cousins.

I posted other pictures of this spot, and the zoo, in June, so no need to go on and on, but of course that won't stop me.

We always get stuck at this globe. It was a good thing, we ran into our friends, the Evans, from the Beijing branch.

The day was considerably hotter than June, and the teen and preteens were less possessed by their whimsical inner children, than their bored and uncomfortable inner adolescents. That is, until I said even the big kids could ride the carousel, and Sam went tearing off to find his favorite creature like a kid at Christmas.  Nine carousel tickets add up you know, so of course I had to document the fun.

Will looks bewildered here, but I took a hard punch in the ear for taking him off when the ride ended.

Bethany is one of my biologists and wasn't bored a bit.  There were several things that she wanted to photograph.

This eagle because she loves "symbols of America."

This random squirrel.

Every one's favorite, the fruit bat.

It's impossible to leave without the train and a picture like this.

So last week what else? Aunt Courtney took us to her Uncle's factory, Utah Truffle. He was very gracious.  The kids were skeptical at first but got excited when we opened the door and the smell of mint and chocolate met our noses.  We left with a couple of bags of truffles, raspberry and mint.  I didn't take any pictures because I've seen Willy Wonka enough to know better. ("No one ever goes in and no one ever goes out.")

We got a fun "summer package" from Grandma Martha.  Got ready for our trip to Colorado, more on that next.  Sam continued his obsession with getting his hands on a copy of A Beautiful Mind. We found one at Walmart.  It's always a relief when Sam is satisfied.  So when Grandma Julia cut Will's hair the boys were all impressed that he looked just like Russel Crowe.  What do you think?

party detail

Meanwhile I was on Saturday birthday party detail. Mary was invited to her good friend Audrey's make-over party at Small World in Europlaza. She came home looking like a princess. Next she was off to Jason's party.

Saturday evening I walked with the little ones up to the clubhouse. We had dinner at the Resident appreciation party. There was quite a nice selection of international foods on the buffet and a huge stage set up for what Grant called "the talent show," a bouncy house that was too rowdy for little ones and collapsed while Ben was jumping in it, popcorn, neighbors, lots of loud music. The girls and I left in the middle of the festivities to walk up to the Ice Zone. Olivia's good friend Sora was skating in a show.

Sunday was our last day in the branch. Sam bore his testimony on my behalf, he said, since I was in the lobby with Grant. It was beautiful. Then Ben stood up and shared his testimony of eternal families, remembering the time, two years ago, that we attended Uncle Don and Aunt Myla's wedding in Manila and were able to visit the grave site of my Grandfather who died in the Philippines during WWII. That is also one of my favorite memories of this three years in Asia.

On Monday I was invited to Kyle's class to see his project about the brain.

After visiting with Kyle, I had lunch with Bethany and her friends, then played with Mary on the kindergarten playground.

Tuesday we were back to birthdays. Caitlin and her preschool friends attended Amelia's party.

Tuesday afternoon I went to ISB to watch Mary enjoy water fun day.

building a library

Something I took for granted before I moved to China was my freedom to move. Here, when parents decide to move from their town of birth into the city, they have to leave their one child behind with relatives, or the child will lose his or her benefit to attend school. If the parents have two or more children they don't have any government benefits anyway. These kids moved with their parents. They attend what is called a migrant school. It's run by charity organizations.



Saturday afternoon, the boys, Bethany and Rob went to this migrant school to help Nick from our branch complete his Eagle project. He collected books and furniture to make a library for the school.

There's Nick. This is his project.

And Nick's mom. She's been quite busy too.

There's the Telly tubby I gave Ben for his first birthday. I'm a little wistful about that.

There's the stuffed lion my Laurel advisor gave me when I turned eighteen.
When I took it to college with me my roommate's boyfriend told me I should give it to charity. There you go.

Thank you to Nick. We have been hoping the kids would have an experience like this before they left China. And thank you to Rob for taking these great pictures and the beautiful pictures at the camp out. It will be a while before I'll be able to enjoy his photography on my blog again.

fathers and sons

Friday, June 4, Rob took the boys back to Goose and Duck campground for the branch fathers and sons camp out. Sam insisted that Grant go too. As you can see, he took good care of Grant on the trip.

I think this is part of the male bonding ritual.

As is meditating about fire.