Merry Christmas - Froehliche Weihnachten

Before the Santa Jingle 5km race with Cheryl and Jeff

Hope decorating the Christmas tree

Our little Christmas tree

And then the fall was here....und der Herbst war da....

Long time since my last post but there is just too much going on and it won't slow down. I have a few pics to post, hopefully more soon (the Germany pics are on kodakgallery, will try to establish a link).
Es ist schon eine Weile her, dass ich geblogt habe aber es ist einfach immer zu viel los. Ein paar Bilder anbei (die Deutschland Bilder sind auf Kodakgallery, ich werde versuchen einen Link reinszustellen).

Three more sleeps - noch dreimal schlafen

Three more sleeps and we will lift off to Germany. As one has notices, the time has flown away without me posting anything here but I have put pics onto facebook which is a bit easier. I am going to put a few shots here to show what we were up to since June.

Noch dreimal schlafen und wir haben ab nach Deutschland. Wie man vielleicht bemerkt hat ist die Zeit verflogen ohne dass ich etwas hier in den Blog reingestellt habe aber auf facebook sind ein paar neuere Fotos und wer interessiert ist, kann mich suchen und einen Friend Request schicken. Ich stelle ein paar Bilder hier rein um zu zeigen, was wir seit Juni so getrieben haben.

First Canoe Outing

At the camp in Midland July long weekendCanoe outingAt the camp, after three hours in the poolFirst cottage visit for KaiMosquitos were badOn Erin and Craíg's boatAnother visit at Canada's WonderlandFirst time camping up in WiartonWith the group, about 16 adoptees from ChinaOur trampolineOn Papa's Birthday

Back for three weeks and busy as ever - Zurueck fuer drei Wochen und busy, busy, busy

Man kann sich gar nicht vorstellen, was wir alles in diesen drei Wochen gemacht haben...und ich habe festgestellt, dass wir meistens die Kamera vergessen haben, somit nur aufgelisted ein paar Dinge:

Zwei Taufen

Ein Brautshower

Ein Zoobesuch

Eine Chinafamilien Party

Vier Arztbesuche

Ein Canada's Wonderland Tag (so wie Europapark)

Eine Party mit Freundinnen

Ein Race (Hope 1km, ich 5km)

Ein Buchclub Abend mit Freundinnen

Familienbesuch aus British Columbia fuer eine Woche.......und wahrscheinlich habe ich noch was vergessen.

Es wird aber auch in den naechsten Wochen nicht weniger bis zum 17. August, wenn wir nach Deutschland fliegen. Daher hatte ich nicht viel Zeit am Computer, aber ich werde versuchen wieder mehr Bilder zu machen. Hier schon mal ein paar....

You cannot imagine what has been going on in those three weeks since we are back....ich noticed that I forgot the camera on most occasions, but I am going to list the few things we did:

Two baptisms

One Bridal Shower
A Zoo visit
A party with our Chinese families friends
Four doctor's visits

One visit to Canada's Wonderland

A party with my girlfriends

One race (Hope 1km, I 5km)

A bookclub night

A family visit from BC for the last week....and I probably forgot some things. It won't slow down much over the next weeks until we leave for Germany on August 17. I will try to take more pics, here are just a few...

Before the Zoo

Camel Ride

Father's Day hug

With YeYe Eddie and Grandma Janet at Isabella's baptism

At Tracey's and Jeremy's gathering

Having some pizza in the backyard

Helping Papa clean his bike

Back home - wieder zuhause

Yes, we are back and this time around it seems to be especially difficult to adjust to the time, at least for the kids. They both want to sleep all afternoon and then not go to bed but wake up around 2 or 3 am. That means that I am up with them because Steve will have to function on Monday...well at least I can have naps in the afternoon. I haven't found the camera with the newest photos yet but here are some shots that our friends took when they picked us up from the airport......

Nun sind wir wieder zuhause und dieses Mal scheint es schwieriger zu sein mit dem Jetlag, besonders fuer die Kinder. Sie wollen beide den ganzen Nachmittag schlafen (Nacht in China) und dann natuerlich nicht in's Bett, wachen dann aber um 2 oder 3 Uhr nachts auf und sind hellwach....dann stehe ich mit ihnen auf, da Steve am Montag wieder in die Arbeit muss. Ich mache dann halt auch einen Mittagsschlaf halten. Die Kamera mit den neuesten Fotos ist noch irgendwo verpackt, aber hier schon mal ein paar Fotos, die unsere Freunde gemacht haben als sie uns am Flughafen empfangen haben.

The Great Wall and the Beijing Zoo - Die chinesische Mauer und der Beijing Zoo

Yesterday was Great Wall day (and the Jade Store and the Cloisonne Factory - our friends from our first China trip will remember) and it was a very hot day. In about 35 degrees we first climbed a really steep set of stair, some of the stairs are about 50 cm high, no kidding, and Hope did it with some support. We decided to come back down and try the other "easier" side. After going up that side for about 20 minutes we had to go back to catch the bus back, Steve was unhappy not having reached at least one of the watch towers...today, I had a Chinese full-body massage and, after that climb, not a good idea :-)
Today we were at the Zoo, some of the animals had cages that were a disgrace, pretty much just empty boxes, so we didn't spend much time, besides, the Chinese people are a bit different than Canadians and after being pushed away a few times, we decided it was time to leave. One more thing, did anyone ever see a Racoon throw up? I did today......Check out some of the newly posted photos (Flickr Link on the right-no worried, no photos of the racoon).

Gestern waren wir an der chinesischen Mauer und es war ein superheisser Tag, 35 Grad mindestens. Wir fingen an auf der rechten Seite hochzusteigen und die Treppenstufen waren bis zu 50cm hoch (Hope ist alleine mit etwas Unterstuetzung alles raufgeklettert). Dann sind wir wieder runter und auf die andere "leichtere" Seite hoch. Leider mussten wir nach 20 Minuten wieder zurueck, der Bus wartete auf uns.  Steve wollte gerne wenigstens einen der Wachtuerme erreichen und war unzufrieden....heute hatte ich dann eine Ganzkoerpermassage, war nicht so eine gute Idee mit dem Muskelkater....
Heute waren wir dann noch im Beijing Zoo, einige der Tiere hatten so kleine, leere Kaefige, es war eine Schande, sie liefen nur von rechts nach links, besonders die Raubtiere. Und ausserdem waren wir nach einer Weile die lokale Bevoelkerung satt, die einen staendig beseite schieben, und ohne sich zu entschuldigen. Somit blieben wir nicht lange. Oh und noch was, ich habe zum ersten Mal einen Waschbaeren kotzen sehen, war mir neu, dass sie das tun, in Kanada essen sie alles, wirklich alles.....
Ich habe wieder Fotos of den Flickr Link gestellt (nicht von dem Waschbaer :-)), auf der rechten Seite einfach anklicken.

More photos -noch mehr Bilder

Ich habe noch ein paar Bilder auf Flickr gestellt, der Link ist rechts...viel Spass

There are more pictures on Flickr, again, cannot upload on the blog directly - enjoy the photos

Day 3 - Der dritte Tag

Today was the third day we were together with Kai and we had some good and some bad moments, more details later. I have posted more photos on the Flickr link, check them out
Heute war der dritte Tag den wir mit Kai verbringen, wir hatten gute und nicht so gute Momente, mehr daruber spaeter. Ich habe ein paar Fotos auf den Flickr Link gespeichert, schaut sie Euch an

We are in China -wir sind in China

So, we got Kai today after we were told that due to some missing papers we weren't able to get him yesterday. Here is the day in short (sorryonly in English, will have to translate it later):
We got up early in the morning after a not-so-good sleep partly due to being nervous about the day to come. We had breakfast at 7 and left the hotel after packing all the orphanage gifts. The hotel staff was very helpful and found us a bus that took us directly to the hotel where we met Yulin, we drove with her and her brother in his car to the orphanage which was very hidden and under construction, nobody would have ever thought that it looked as nice as it was on the inside.


We were welcomed by a very pretty, young orphanage director who offered us tea and after a few minutes (I was soooo nervous) they brought Kai in who was still having lunch. They told him that we were his new Mama and Papa and Hope was being really cute and tried to give him stickers which scared him and he started crying. They told him (that’s what I assumed) that he will be leaving with us and started saying Goodbye to him and he started crying miserably. We were able to take a few photos and some video and after about 30 minutes altogether we went downstairs back to the car. Only then, the orphanage director who had tears in her eyes handed him to me and he cried in the car for about 3 minutes. The drive back to the hotel was difficult mostly because Hope wanted my attention and sit on my lap, she was being really jealous. We managed to get back to the hotel, all of us out of sorts, and once there Steve left to get some food. Later on we all went for a walk and then Vivian (our guide here in Beijing) came and took us to a photo store to take a family photo. She left and we had a really nice dinner in a ‘restaurant’ that looked more like somebody’s back porch, but the food was unbelievable. After some dessert (ice cream) we went back to the room and now everyone is settling down, even Steve already sleeps I think (8pm). It was a long day.

I have added all the photos to the Flickr link that you can click on the right hand side.
 
Alle Fotos von heute koennt Ihr sehen, wenn Ihr auf den Flickr link klickt auf der rechten Seite.

Ready or not, here we come - Gepackt und los geht's

Here a few snapshots from the packing yesterday

Hier ein paar Schnappschuesse von gestern

The stacks of RMB bills are actually about 1cm high....

Die Geldscheinpakete sind ungefaehr 1cm hoch....

Kai's room is ready

Kai's Zimmer ist auch fertig

He knew something was going on....

Er wusste auch, dass was im Busch ist....

An exited little girl in her new pretty dress

Ein aufgeregtes kleines Maedchen in ihrem neuen Kleid

First visit to Canada's Wonderland-just mother and daughter

We go outselves season's passes for CW and thought that this would probably be the last opportunity where Hope and I go alone (unless Dad stays home with Kai to do some guy's stuff :-)) so we went until someone melted down and we had to leave (who might that be). We stayed for about 5 hours and it was fun, here a few snapshots:

Hope und ich haben uns Saisontickets fuer Canada's Wonderland, ein Vergnuegungspark, gekauft. Heute war wohl die letzte Gelegenheit fuer Hope und mich allein zu gehen (oder vielleicht wollen Papa und Kai ja auch mal was 'nur die Jungs' unternehmen :-)) somit waren wir heute fuer ein paar Stunden dort...bis jemand einen Wein/Muedigkeitsanfall bekam und wir uns wieder auf den Weg nach Hause machen mussten. Hier sind ein paar Schnappschuesse:

She was soooo disappointed when she was 1cm too short for the 'Ghoaster Coaster', I thought they were a bit too 'by the book', they should have let us in......so we had to do facepainting (which came off in the meltdown)

It had to be that one, I told her that this was a special Mommy and Hope day, so she won't get that one every time (right Steve)