New River Walk!

This is us on one of our new city busses- doesn't it look fancy?!  :)  We love riding the bus!

We hung out at our New Riverwalk- they had fun rocks to climb!  To us, rocks to climb are even better than playgrounds!

We didn't actually get any great pictures of our cool riverwalk bc we are having some technical issues with the camera, but here are a few fun ones of us!  Yay for beautiful places to run around and get dirty and have fun!  We love that our home has lots of these fun places just for us!

Yes, we want our picture with the BULLS!

I'm not really sure the significance of these bulls- i know there are bull fights.  I know the kids were pretty excited about getting their pictures taken with these bulls and so we did!  Here you go!  Enjoy!

pics with old friends!

It was super awesome to run into our old Kiwi friend who was just passing through town at the same time we were! Here is our Miao friend with 2 people from her home village- the boy had severe burns a year ago and has been healing remarkably! 

This is our dear friends' wife and baby!  WE were so blessed to meet them!

Our friend who also use to be our teacher! 

EJ and Josiah loved seeing their friend!

hahaha josiah is cracking me up here the way he is looking at L

This is our old helper JOY!   She use to help clean- and oh did she ever work so hard and make so little and did such a good job!  Now she has her own business and is doing great!  The last time she saw Jo he was only 18 months old! 

Josiah use to play with this little girl whose Mommy is a shoe-shiner on the street- anyways, Josiah was super sweet but the girl was super shy! 

We sure wished the camera would have cooperated here for a picture but here is a gift we received from this sweet family!  They own a little dish shop we'd eat at from time to time.  They still had a picture of us eating at their restaurant 3 years ago!  They were so excited to see us!

This is Koolaide- the drink guy across from where we use to live!  His son is now 6!  Wow!  We enjoyed playing at their shop and on the sidewalk in front of their shop for a bit, where Mommy and DAddy once performed "Long Black Train!" 

We feel so blessed to have gotten to visit with old friends!  We are thankful for our new friends and the city we live in now, but we will always hold dear our first home in China! 

Yummy Minority Food!

invited to a Miao home for a meal, Evie Joy was impatient and began digging in way before anyone else!

yum yum, out for Muslim noodles!  oh how we miss them!  Mommy's hair use to smell like garlic for days!

at Ivan's Mommy's fried breaskfast bread shop :) We love her!  We love her bread! And everyone else loved us!

eating at the Yang family's house for dinner! They are Dong people and they make the bestest food in all of China, in our opinion! 

Oh So Beautiful Miao ladies!

Evie Joy here is pants-less since we actually ate lunch at one Miao family's house and she spilled water or something all over outfit #1, then peed on outfit #2 and so um, that was all we had packed! So we got a lot of parenting advice that she wasn't wearing enough clothes :)  But, still wanted to get this cute shot with the green bean seller!

Oh how we loved seeing all the beautiful Miao ladies when we visited our old hometown!  Each different type of head-covering they wear represents which village they are from and thus which dialect they speak! We took a few opportunities and got our pictures taken with some different ladies for keepsake!

towel hat cucumber seller!

flower head apricot seller!

Some more sewing ladies!  They would get so tickled to have the kids get their picture with them!



Love these ladies- wearing their flowers, got their shovels in case someone hires them this particular day but in the meantime they'll sew up something beautiful! 



sewing ladies- they are all from the same area but have a few cute options as hats- trend setters!

hope you enjoyed a little dose of our minority town fun! 

Recent Village Trip!



Can you see Josiah down below?  He was just soaking up the view!





Here is a Miao village house



Josiah was so curious asking so many questions like "Where is the garden?"  So when he found this garden he was super excited!




At one point Josiah was outside alone and I went out to check on him and asked him what he was doing.  He was just looking around talking.  Then to me he said "Did you know Jesus made all this- he made the mountains and the river- it is so beautiful!" It was so cool to see him putting what he's been learning in his bible stories together with natural revelation when faced with such created beauty that we dont' get to see everyday!  Just precious to hear!





they keep their farm animals in the basement or side of their houses- they don't have barns like we do in the states




family pic with village houses behind us

 


love this shot here- have gotten it several times in years past!  Last time EJ was in my belly- now she is almost 3! 





kiddos on the bridge





Miao lady styling her hair- check out how long that hair is to wrap it up on her head!  wow!




Miao house- I actually love the village houses- they are quite spacious compared to city living!





the kids were so excited to see horses and pigs and a water buffalo too




another one of super excited josiah taking in the God-made view!

  We are so thankful to get to see old friends and a village we love!  We are blessed!