Mike & Erin Featherstone

Joseph hanging out on a Chinese horse in our neighborhood shopping center (above)
Below, Lizzie hanging out in our closet, one of her favorite places to hide.

She seriously does this pose all the time when I ask her to smile for the camera -- then she tilts her head and squints her eyes

NEXT: My parents came to visit!

First my mom came, then my dad, and they left and flew home together. It was so fun. Here are some pictures, although they are a bit out of order and backwards.

This is seriously what every dinner at home looked like. Ayi was so happy to cook all of her fabulous Chinese food and my parents just loved every minute of it.

JOSEPH SELFIE

I had a doctor appointment and in the waiting room Lizzie made a new friend

BIKE RIDE TO THE PARK

BIKE RIDE to the park! It was cold! Lizzie got to ride on the back on the bike -- these seats are very popular here in China. My dad dragged along the bike trailer with both boys who are now way too heavy for it!

This is taken on our street outside our house as we set off. You can see how glamorous our street looks - lol

THIS is the park:

My boys LOVE this see saw and I just keep thinking "This is so dangerous!" But they haven't gotten hurt yet so I guess that's good

Then Lizzie wanted to join for a ride

Then there is this drainage ditch to a river and the boys loved playing near it with sticks and rocks and such

My dad - such an awesome dad - let them play in the drainage ditch and this is how he got them out!!

Lizzie at the park, again

TAKING MOM AND DAD TO EAT PEIKING DUCK

Lizzie and my parent's first trip to a DUCK restauant. Of course we had to take them to Peiking Duck while they were here and this place - DaDong - is the best in the city.

The duck restaurant guy carving our duck with much concentration

Again the duck restaurant

MORE SIGHTSEEING

Here we are sight seeing around the old hutongs -- a hutong is an old Chinese house with a courtyard

LUNCH:
THE BEST XIAO LONG BAO
AKA: SMALL DRAGON BUNS

This is where my Chinese teacher took us to try xiao long bao - dumplings - and it is supposed to be the best in the city -- my parents totally got spoiled with great food

While we were waiting for our food to come, LIZZIE was so hungry just kept asking all the waiters who would walk by for rice. "rice! rice! rice!" she would say. One waiter brought her a candy thinking she was cute, which I didn't let her eat obviously since it was a total choking hazard, but finally they brought her the rice she was begging for

Mom trying a bao

There is my awesome Chinese teacher Wei Wei between Lizzie and dad.

In the mall bathroom there was a sink just Lizzie's size!

Hanging out around the mall were all sorts of funny scuptures

Here is my dad's first car he had in high school - a VW bug

Of course the Winged Nike is my absolute favorite out of all my art history classes - it is a 2nd century BC marble sculpture - here the recreated TWO and stuck them together

This is our car and our driver - here he is picking us up from our lunch

Later at night in bed with the boys reading -- Joseph lately has been wanting to wear one of dad's shirts to bed -- it's really cute

Next up: MY BIRTHDAY!

Ayi made us dinner -- you can see her here above Lizzie

My mom made me our famous Robinson strawberries and cream topped chocolate cake

Later the next day for my birthday Mike took me and the boys horse back riding! I will have to get those pictures from him and add them here

CELEBRATING JOSEPH'S BIRTHDAY AT SCHOOL

Joseph's birthday is in July so he never gets to celebrate it at school. The Montessori school does such a cool job with birthdays. The child holds a globe and walks around a candle which symbolized the sun. So one walk around the "sun" represents one year. So Joseph got to walk around four times!

Joseph's Chinese teacher is named May Li

My sister called in on facetime so they got to watch the celebration from Utah

Afterward Joseph brought a morning treat for each of his friends which was a mini bagel from our favorite organic restaurant called Mrs. Shanen's.

SLEEPING OVERNIGHT ON THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA

Mike took my parents to a little Chinese farmhouse at the foot of the Great Wall to sleep overnight then get up early and hike the Great Wall. They brought the kids and had a great time.

This is the little house where they stayed overnight

Morning breakfast

MORE PIC HANGING AROUND THE HOUSE

Another dinner

Another book

Lizzie with her little purse and sitting on her brother's booster seat in our front entryway

Morning Breakfast - Andrew requested we eat at the dining table

Hanging out with Grandpa Greg

A TRIP TO SOLANA MALL TO GO ICE SKATING

There is a Magformers display & play area at this mall and the boys LOVE Magformers. I would have bought them a box for Christmas but they are exorbitantly expensive here.

Joseph changed his mind and wanted to race cars instead, so Grandma Jillair took J to race cars and I took A to ice skate

Andrew did pretty awesome for his first time skating. He went all the way around once holding on to my hand and the wall

Later at night we hung out in front of the beautiful fountain and they were playing live music so we danced in the square

LUNCH WITH MOM AND WEI WEI AT CHINESE HOT POT

Wei Wei took us to this awesome Chinese hot pot place. We had to wear red aprons!

ANDREW'S BIRTHDAY

These pics are out of order again

First we had a big scavenger treasure hunt all around the neighborhood with all his little friends riding bikes and scooters from one park to the next. Then we came back and had a lego building competition