China

At the beginning of October our family was blessed to be able to go to China. It was Ryan's second time and the kids and my first time (Keane and Gracie have now been to 5 different countries in their 2 1/2 years). The flight took about 3 hours from Kathmandu. We went to China to attend a training and also to meet our new supervisor, some of our new leadership and some of our other co-workers that we had never met before. Ryan also taught a section of the training from a small handbook that he has recently written. We were there for 8 days and we were very busy during our entire time. During the training time Keane and Gracie stayed with a wonderful Chinese lady and some of our co-workers children. They had a great time. Aside from the training, we got to spend some good time with our new friends, we ate a lot of great food that we can't get here (Dairy Queen, McDonald's, Papa Johns), we did some shopping for the kids (we did our Christmas shopping early because there were some great toys available), etc. In the middle of the trip Keane and Gracie got pretty sick (asthma and bronchitis stuff that eventually turned in pnemonia for Keane...ugghhh) so that was very difficult. Thankfully one of our co-workers who is an ER doctor graciously agreed to check on the kids each day and advise us. He and his wife who is a nurse were such a blessing to us while we were there. Having the kids sick definitely made the time more difficult but overall we had a great time and we are so thankful to have had the opportunity! Because we were so busy and the kids were sick we didn't get a ton of pictures but here are a few we did manage to take:

There is a great little restaurant there that has some delicious fresh baked goods......

One of the streets (it did rain several days while we were there and it was pretty cold too)..

Gracie loved this poster of her favorite Disney characters...

One day we went out to a local Chinese restaurant. Keane and Gracie sat at the kids table (it was their first time to sit at the kids table) and they did so well. Our friend's children (the older two sitting on either side of K and G) were amazing and helped out the whole time!

Us at McDonald's for breakfast! I know it doesn't sound that glamorous but we don't have McDonald's here or anything really like it so it was a delicious treat for us!

"Tea cakes" these type of tea cakes were sold everywhere we went. We have been told that they are a traditional gift that you give when you go to someones house or to a wedding, etc. There are different types of tea cakes and some are aged for MANY years (similar to wine) and so they range in price as well too.

Cute little local shoes

There was a store there called "Teenie Weenie" we had to get a picture in front of it. It was a clothing store that had really nice (but very expensive) clothing for kids!

T.C.B.Y. I was SO excited when I heard that there was TCBY at the mall where we were going (since I love frozen yogurt and haven't had it in years). Unfortunately the only flavors they had were green tea and mango and I am a chocolate kind of girl...we ended up going to Dairy Queen instead where I got a "Mississippi mud" blizzard (which was DELICIOUS and chocolately) but we had to get a picture in front of T.C.B.Y anyway!