Our Family

We welcomed our beautiful, tiny baby boy into the world on October 23, 2010. Freddie is just over 2 months now and I can't believe how wonderful life is. I love, LOVE being a mom. Freddie is just a perfect baby. He doesn't cry unless he is hungry. He is eating and sleeping well. He smiles all of the time. I am so happy.
He was pretty small when he was born, 4lbs 11oz, but is growing quickly. At his 2 week appointment he was in the 2nd percentile for weight and at his 2 month appointment he moved up to the 7th percentile. Freddie is a happy, healthy baby... what more could I ask for?

New Tattoo

Can anyone guess what and where Ryan's new tattoo is? As you can see, we went to a high class place.

Yangshou 4

Yangshou 3

Yangshou 2

pictures from Yangshou 1

Our First Adventure in China

We had a week off of school in October so we did a little traveling. We flew west to Guilin and then bused it to Yang shou. Yang shou has these beautifully strange mountains that just jet up out of the earth. My favorite part of the trip was riding bikes through the countryside, surrounded by the mountains and rice fields. We rode to the river where we then got on a bamboo raft. It is kind of like a gondola because there is a man in the back guiding the boat down the river by pushing a long stick into the water. We went over little waterfalls and even got some peanuts from a lady selling them from her raft in the middle of the river. Then we biked to a mountain which we climbed and then biked back into town again. There is a children’s book by Jan Brett, Daisy Comes Home, which takes place on this river. The whole trip was fantastic. The food was good. Ryan even ate snails and snake. I think Ryan’s favorite part was when we went fishing. This is nothing like fishing at the cabin. We had to get back onto one of those wobbly bamboo rafts, at night, and drive up river in total darkness. Luckily this raft had a motor so we moved a little faster. We met up with another boat that had the fishing devices, BIRDS. They turned on a bright light that hung over the front shining on the water and then released the cormorant birds. They poor birds have a string around their neck and one hanging off their leg. The string on their neck keeps the fish that they swallow from going all the way down and the one on their leg is used to catch them with a pole. The birds swam under water looking for fish. When they found and ate one that the guy on the boat thought is big enough he pulled it back into the boat and squeezed the fish into a basket. I don’t know if people don’t think that is gross to eat a fish that a bird just puked up but I do. Despite how this all sounds pretty cruel to the birds, I think that boat guy loves his pets and wouldn’t really do anything to hurt them.