The Next Lil Bit

We are on the plane from Minnesota to New York as I write this:

Our time in Minnesota was really great. We are going to miss all you Minnesotans while we’re away!

New York has many treats for us. We are going to be able to meet with many wonderful people, many of whom will be at the TWO family reunions we’ll be attending. We’ll also have some great opportunities to spread some information about what we’re doing in China.

Until next time,
Jeremy, Jenny, Levi, & Liam

Party in the USA

Tomorrow at 5am (5pm for you east coasters) we are heading out to the airport to get on a couple planes which will take us to New York! We are very excited to see all of you! Here’s our schedule (written out in PST)

June 22nd
          20:00-22:00 Xi’an > Shanghai

June 23rd
          0:00(midnight)-14:15 Shanghai > New York City
          19:00-20:35 New York City > Buffalo, NY

After a few days in New York, we’ll be heading to MN, so stay tuned for more info on when that’ll be.

Until next time,
Jeremy, Jenny, Levi, & Liam

Aaaaannnnd we’re back!

Hello everyone!

First off, we are glad to be back in Xi’an! Our time in Thailand was incredibly refreshing for us and we are so grateful that we were able to go. We would like to share all about it with you guys in person this fall when we come back for a bit!

One of the things we did in Thailand was switch our visas to allow me to return to school and pursue Chinese further. There is still much for me to learn, and I am very excited about it. This semester will start up in about a month. I’m also returning to my Chinese character studies; I will hope to progress much further than last year.

We’ll keep you all updated with everything in between!

Until next time,
Jeremy, Jenny, Levi, & Liam

Levi’s check up

Hello everyone!

We just wanted everyone to know that Levi and I are back from Beijing. The doctor said his eyes are much better than she had expected! He did well on the eye exam, and she said we don’t have to come back for another three months. Perhaps after that, we’ll just have to come back every six months! Please keep thinking of him!

In other news, we’re heading off to Thailand in two days. We’ll be there until the 24th, and we’re not sure how the internet situation will work out. We’ll keep you guys updated as often as we can, though!

Until next time,
Jeremy, Jenny, Levi, & Liam

Back to Beijing

This Thursday, Levi and I will be going back to Beijing for Levi’s first follow-up appointment for his vision issue; we’ll return Monday.

I’ll also be using this time to add some pages to my passport because mine is all filled up with the visas I’ve gotten in my travels.

Levi is really excited; I am really excited. We can’t wait, really. Levi’s especially fond of the subway so we’ll have to use that a few times.

Jenny will stay home with Liam during our little trip away. We’ll let you know how the appointment goes. They want to make sure the prescription is working well and that Levi’s vision is progressing.

Shortly after we return from Beijing, we’re off to Thailand! Neither Jenny nor I have been to Thailand, so it’s going to be a great experience. We’ll be back on the 24th.

When we return, the next semester will begin. I’ll be back in school learning Chinese and Jenny will be back volunteering at a local foster home. I also hope to begin teaching the Life Education course! We’ll be keeping you all up to date on that.

Until next time,
Jeremy, Jenny, Levi, & Liam

No Pigeons Are Safe

Sorry for the delay! We have our last bit of content from our Hong Kong trip here!

On our last day in Hong Kong, we went to Victoria Park. It was a beautiful park with an amazing cityscape in the distance. Check out the pictures we took here.

Also, you can watch a video of Levi chasing the pigeons here! If you can't see the video because you are on Facebook or email, come to our site and watch it!





Until next time,
Jeremy, Jenny, Levi, & Liam

Ferry to Kowloon

On the fourth of May, we took a short ferry ride to Kowloon. Once we crossed, we walked around a bit until we found a TGIF's.

A short but good time! Enjoy the video. Click here if you can't see it.



Until next time,
Jeremy, Jenny, Levi, & Liam

The Hotel & Peak Tram

I am just getting over a sickness, so I haven't posted anything for the past couple days. Let's get right back into it, and post about our May 3rd in Hong Kong!

We took many pictures here. We started out eating some ice cream in the hotel in the morning. (It was SO hot/humid outside!)

After the afternoon naps, we snagged a bus to take us to the Peak Tram. What an incredible experience! It is beautiful up on top of that mountain! We spent some time in the mall which is up there, then went to the top floor to eat at Bubba Gump Shrimp. MMMmm!

After that, we spent some time looking at the city as the sun slowly set. We went to the McDonald's outside playplace, then returned home. What a great time! I recommend everyone goes to the Peak Tram if they find themselves in Hong Kong some day. Below is a video of us looking at the city from the mountaintop. If you are reading this via email or Facebook, click here to go to our blog so you can see it!





Until next time,
Jeremy, Jenny, Levi, & Liam

ABCs on the Bus

On the second of May we went to the visa office to apply for the visa swap to a Z visa. We started the day with some cereal in a cup (see pictures here) and then we went back home for naps via a double-decker bus.

Levi started singing some songs. We managed to get the ABC song on there, as well as a "We're going to Hong Kong" song which was slightly altered from a Ni Hao, Kai Lan song.





If you are viewing this on Facebook or email, click here to go to our website to watch it.

Until next time,
Jeremy, Jenny, Levi, & Liam

Outback Steakhouse

We have a new video up at the end of our first day in Hong Kong.

We originally flew in to Hong Kong on May 1st, which is a holiday here in China. Many Chinese were travelling to Hong Kong, so it was a little crazy with the amount of people.

We flew into Shenzhen, China, then rode a bus to Hong Kong. Partway through your bus ride, you need to get off the bus and go through customs. That's where we were stuck for a couple hours.

Outback was REALLY good, for those of you who were curious. ;)







If you want to watch this video and are reading this post via Facebook or email, click here to go to our site.

Until next time,
Jeremy, Jenny, Levi, & Liam

Hong Kong!

Hey everyone! We are back safe and sound from Hong Kong. It was such a great trip! We had a great time! Instead of posting a huge essay about everything we did, we'll be uploading pictures and videos over the next couple weeks along with stories to share with them. Today we posted a new one just before our trip of Levi & I making funny faces at each other. Enjoy!



For those reading this in email and/or Facebook, click here to go to our site.

Until next time,
Jeremy, Jenny, Levi, & Liam

The Small Goose Pagoda

Yesterday, we went to the Small Goose Pagoda with our landlords from the last time we were in China. We have a good relationship with them now - we are very happy about that. They were also the people who took us to a village a while back. (I tutor their daughter every week, for those of you who may not remember.)

We had a great time! Levi had a little rough time because this "park" was more like an outdoor museum - you just go there to look, not touch! :) He enjoyed sitting on some horse statues and checking out some other ones as well. Afterwards we went to a restaurant and had some great food. They said they have a lot more places to take us to, so we are excited about that!

This coming Saturday we are going to be off to Hong Kong! We have to get my visa switched over to a working visa, so I can get paid while in China. I will be working at an Elementary School and a Kindergarden school as well. I'm so excited about all this! We'll be there for seven days total. We should have internet at the hotel, so I'm sure we'll be updating you guys while we are there!

Please check out our pictures from our time at the Small Goose Pagoda by clicking here.

Until next time, Jeremy, Jenny, Levi, & Liam

中国！！！

We've arrived in Xi'an!

Sorry it's been a couple days to write this, but it's been incredibly hectic, as I'm sure you'll all understand. Since this will be a hefty post, I'll separate the paragraphs by topic. Enjoy!

How did all that travelling go? Our flights were as awesome as they could be! Levi and Liam were CHAMPS! Levi happily got on plane after plane, despite the incredible length of time we spent on them. We flew from Minneapolis to Tokyo to Beijing (spent the night) to Xi'an. What was it like seeing your friends and brother's family again? It was amazing! We saw them when we were coming down to the baggage claim and everyone involved was beaming with happiness. Levi was pulling his little luggage along and I showed him Sydney and he ran to her with happiness and was not shy of anyone! In fact, we immediately left him with them while we went and "claimed" our luggage. He was completely okay with it! Seeing everyone again was such a great experience.

Where are you living now? We have taken over a place that our friend had while she was here. She moved back to America for now, so we just moved right in! Jenny and I LOVE it!!! We had the landlord over today and after some bartering and discussion we reached a great deal! We have signed a TWO YEAR lease on this apartment, which we are both very excited about. We can now "officially" move in! Can we see pictures? Definitely! Just please give us some time and we'll get you all the pictures you need! :) Since we didn't officially rent the apartment until today, we haven't focused on unpacking yet. We'll start all that tomorrow, and I'll take some pictures as soon as we get the place looking pretty nice. :)

What is next for you guys? We are going to focus on getting settled in and making our apartment a home. After that, the next task will be Jeremy getting his job teaching English and we'll both get set up with a Chinese tutor/school so we can get our learning going. Things move slowly here though, so we need to be patient and move forward with the progress we are allowed here in China.

How is the family feeling? All the boys are sick with a cold. I blame myself (Jeremy) because I got it in Minnesota and I was not being careful around the boys. Levi has a rough cough going on and Liam has coughs as well. Other than all that, we are really really happy to be here!

I hope that caught most of you up to date on us here in China! We'll be posting more as things progress around here!

Until next time,
Jeremy, Jenny, Levi, & Liam

rice and travel

Liam had rice last night? And guess what? He liked it! He also slept through the night that very night, which was a pleasant experience for the whole family. He's growing up so fast. Jenny mentioned how he's been growing like a weed lately. He's quickly filling out his clothes and moving on to bigger and better things. He's been practicing sitting up as well and he's been laughing and smiling lots.



We have a big week coming up! If you refer to our site, you'll notice the countdown timer to China is down to just under FIVE days! We are shocked that time has flown by this fast, but we are also excited to move into our own apartment and get reacquainted with everything "familiar" to us in China. I actually had a dream about it last night. It was quite nice. :)

For those of you who are still foggy on the itinerary, here goes: We are departing from Minnesota at around 12:40pm. We arrive in Tokyo at 7:30pm (Tokyo time) and depart three hours later for Beijing. We'll arrive in Beijing at 11:05pm (Beijing time) and then we'll be spending the night there. The following morning, we depart at 10:30am and arrive in Xi'an at 12:30pm! We are really excited about all this. Hopefully two days of travel is better than one in this case and that spending the night is a nice adjustment for us. Please be thinking of us during this time!

We'll post again soon from Xi'an, China!

Until next time,
Jeremy, Jenny, Levi, & Liam

Operation (not the game)

Sorry for the delay! This is just a really quick post about Jenny's surgery. It went really well and she is recovering nicely! She's still in a bit of pain, but she can finally walk around without feeling light-headed. She's not supposed to carry anything over 10 pounds for the next week and a half or so, and Liam weighs 14 pounds, so I'm the designated baby-mover. ;) For the next few weeks, we are just going to focus on getting Jenny some nice needed rest!

We haven't gotten our visas back yet, but I anticipate we'll get them by Friday. I'll let you all know as soon as we get them!

Until next time,
Jeremy, Jenny, Levi, & Liam

Goin' to the Doctah!

Yesterday we went to the doctor to get Liam's second and third month check-up as well as Levi's two year check-up. I was slowly pulling into our parking space at the doctor's office when Jenny said, "Levi! We're goin' to the doctah!" in a silly voice.
Levi quickly replied, "Don't say that mommy. It's not doctah, it's doctor!"
Jenny and I were really surprised to say the least! We laughed to each other, and me, (being somewhat of a skeptic) asked Jenny to repeat what she said. Jenny repeated, "We're goin' to the doctah!"
"Mommy, it's not doctah, it's doctor." Levi repeated.
We laughed again. Really, I was surprised to be completely honest. I had no idea how much he really understood! That was a highlight of our morning.

Levi and Liam got some shots and we found that Liam is in the 90th percentile in his height, as well as the 75th percentile for head size and weight! Way to go Liam!

Jenny had her pre-op appointment today, and tomorrow we are getting her into surgery on her umbilical hernia that she got from her pregnancy. We'll head in at about 7am and we should be there for about 6-7 hours total. The operation takes about an hour, and it's in-and-out, so I'll be driving her home as soon as we are discharged! We hope for a quick recovery for Jenny!

We also applied for our visas today! They should arrive in Chicago tomorrow by noon and hopefully we'll get them back within a week. We'll keep you all posted on how that goes.

Until next time,
Jeremy, Jenny, Levi, & Liam

Safe and Sound

Hey guys,

We arrived in Minnesota! The trip was relatively uneventful. Levi was REALLY tired when we arrived in Minnesota though, because it was four hours past his bed time and he didn't sleep at all! Too much excitement I guess!

Coming up: Jenny's surgery is on Friday! We'll be leaving for China on the 2nd of February.

Until next time,
Jeremy, Jenny, Levi, & Liam

Minnesota bound (again)

Here we are on our last move before we head back to China!

Once again we are packing up everything and moving back to Minnesota. It's all bitter-sweet. The moving and goodbyes gets to be a lot, but we are happy to say hello to some family in Minnesota once again.

We have a total of six suitcases, three carryons, and four personal items (laptop computer, camera bag, Jenny's purse, and our diaper bag. Sounds like a lot, doesn't it? That's because it is! haha

Please remember that you can keep checking for updates on our blog on the right hand side. Right now we have a countdown timer as well as some flight tracking sites so you can see where our plane is, etc. Enjoy!

Until next time,
Jeremy, Jenny, Levi, & Liam

FINALLY

We have tickets to China!!!

We are leaving New York on January 4th in the evening, arriving in Minnesota around 10pm. During this time, Jenny will get her surgery and she should have plenty of time to recover and I (Jeremy) will have enough time to get our visas for China.

We leave Minnesota on February 2nd at around noon, fly to Tokyo, then to Beijing. We'll arrive at 11pm, so we'll be staying overnight there, then we'll be hopping on an early flight the next day to Xi'An! We can't wait!

This has been a HUGE deal, getting these tickets. We have had countless obstacles purchasing these tickets ranging from travel agent issues, prices, and tickets being reserved by us then cancelled by the airlines. (a few times!)

Until next time!
Jeremy, Jenny, Levi, & Liam