Thunder's China trip

Thunder is now in China for a business trip (yes, I am 36 weeks, but I feel good, and don't think I'll go into labor). Here is a description of his first day over there.....


Right now its 1am, so we woke up from going to bed at 1am the previous day and a long flight. We headed upstairs for some breakfast, it was decent. From there Mr. Lee, the Vice Chancellor of Foshan, (like a Lt Governor in the US) picked us up and with our agent Thomas and we went to the largest steel manufacturer in the world. Then we went to the largest ceramic manufacturer. Driving here is crazy, I cant believe there are not accidents all the time.

Randall kept joking about getting some real Chinese food... he was thinking something good like at PF Changs. Well, we showed up to a restaurant with nice BMW's, LandCruisers, etc., and Thomas said this is a very nice restaurant Mr Lee is taking us to. Hey, free lunch on the communist party? Works for us.

We walked in and there was a ton of tanks filled with fish, shrimp, clams, eels, snakes, turtles and pretty much everything else. I was couldn't believe it. We were asked what we wanted. We deferred, and we ended up having a ton of seafood, a little cooked, and a bunch of other food that I have no idea what it was, and I didn't want to ask. They just kept bringing more and more food out. Anyways the custom here is to drink tea at every meal, we had coke instead. Thomas said the meal was over $1000.00 US dollars that was paid for us.... uuggh my stomach.


We then went to the Canton fair, indoor trade show of miles and miles, 50,000 vendors. We looked at a lot of product, hopefully something will work out. We then went to visit Mr. Chang, who manufacturers our totes. The factory actually was amazing, 3 levels with over 800 employees. We actually see them working on our totes, they also were working on backpacks for the Lakes and Travelon, for QVC; this is a quality place. Of course, before going to the factory we had another huge dinner the owner wanted for us. Now I can't eat anymore Chinese; I was just looking at the whole fish, and it looked like his tongue was sticking out at me.... no more seafood please! Well, Thomas took us to get massages, not bad for 10 bucks, what a long day.

On the Road

Spring Break was last week. About 4 days before Spring Break started, Thunder called me from work and asked, "so, hey, what do you think about renting an RV and visiting some national parks next week?" After I had a few minutes to wrap my mind around that, I figured that would be great fun!

This is our RV. Ahhhh, our lovely RV. We learned so much about fixing RV's on this trip. Some interesting "features" we discovered:

• retractable stairs to get inside the RV- not functional... we used a stepping ladder
• the door separating off the back bedroom, um, fell off the frame
• the heater stopped working one night
• the generator overcharged the accessory battery (to power onboard electronics), resulting in boiling battery acid that smelled like rotten eggs
• we clipped a dear; we almost missed it.... almost
• our kids absolutely LOVED the RV!! (Or SURV according to Sunshine) Great way to travel

We stopped here on our way through Zion National Park. Cloudburst felt like dancing when she saw the beautiful scenery.


After driving through Zion's, we decided to head to Bryce National Canyon for the night. And it snowed that night. Randall and Michelle's heat went off the whole night.


We spent the rest of the trip in Moab. We had wanted to go to the Grand Canyon, but the north rim is closed until mid-May! Bummer. On Thursday we rented an off-roading Jeep and headed into the Canyonlands Park near Moab. We started on Potash Road and it was so BUMPY. I swear the baby dropped a few inches from this ride.


The kids loved the ride, but they held on for dear life in several sections.


After climbing several hundred feet, we stopped here for a breather. The expansive views were just breathtaking.


It was so fun to watch the kids' eyes open wide as they took it all in.


We caravanned everywhere with Randall and Michelle and kids. Cloudburst found a surrogate little sister.


And this is what it's like for an 8-months-preggers lady to climb repeatedly into a small Jeep. At the time of our trip I was 35 weeks along.


We then drove on another trail to Musselman Arch, which is one of the few arches that people are allowed to walk on. I thought Thunder was absolutely nuts to walk across with all 3 kids, but that's how brave dads are!


It was about 3-4 feet across. I had a brave guide on our Indiana Jones-like walk.


The kids all got along great! It was fun to travel with friends.


We then drove up, up, up the Shafer Trail. It kept climbing and climbing on a narrow road with sheer cliffs right out my window. We collected rocks from the side of the mountainside. I was getting a bit sore by this point and was never so happy to see asphalt at the end of our ride.


In the Canyonlands, we drove down to Mesa Arch. The hike in was only about 1/2 mile... just about my limit.


This is all of us in front of Mesa Arch. The air was so fresh and the view was humbling.


We took one more short off-roading trip back to Moab, along Long Canyon Road. Along the way, each car has to pass under a giant boulder that fell several years ago.


Too bad the kiddies missed the end of the ride!



On Wednesday, we had passed a park, and the kids made us promise that we would play at a real park. Zion National Park? No, mom, a real park.


See? All the kids enjoyed playing at the park.


Friday we went over to Arches. I knew we wouldn't be able to visit many of the arches, since they require long or strenuous hikes, but Sand Dune Arch sounded perfect for us and the kids. Too bad it was cold and blustery!


All of us had sand blown into our eyes, hair, and clothes, and we had to dump out our shoes before getting back in the RV. If you can see the small dot at the top of this pic, it is Thunder's head peaking over the top of this slickrock near Sand Dune Arch.


More fun at Sand Dune Arch.


Awww, what a handsome guy.


Here is the Parade of Elephants... one of the many arches we had to enjoy from the road due to lack of parking.


We all looked forward to taking a nice warm shower at the end of the day... one of the perks of finding a nice RV park!

Tidbit

Last week we went on a spontaneous RV trip to Moab, Bryce Canyon and Zion National park... pics to come.

Last night at dinner, Tornado had eaten an entire hamburger and had some undisturbed strawberries on his plate.

Me: Tornado, is your belly full?
Tornado: It's wonderful!

Happy Easter!

We just had a nice relaxing day by ourselves at home. The kids each got clues to find Easter baskets... Cloudburst had hers written out in words for the first time, and the boys had pictures. They each got a toy and some candy, though not as much as last year since we still do our Treat Days just two days a week. We still have Christmas candy left!

It was nice to go to church and really think about the amazing miracle of the Resurrection. Too bad Dad had to be to church too early for pictures!

We hope you all had a great Easter as well!

April Fools!

Yes, I know this post is just a few days late... but give a prego lady a break. A few days before April 1, Michelle H. and I conspired on a great prank for our dear true-blue, BYU-fan hubbies. We got things ready, got some help in putting our plan into motion, and covered the office in

RED everywhere!

I came to the office later that morning, but everything (balloons, streamers, signs) was taken down. The only thing thing left was a Ute logo on the dart board. Then for dinner that night, we decided to be totally backwards and eat dessert first...

and dinner last.

Imagine the kids' surprise to find the cupcakes were made out of meatloaf (with colored mashed potatoes on top) and dessert was toasted angel food cake with orange frosting. The kids got into April Fool's day themselves too:

Sunshine spent the whole day saying silly things and then immediately saying "April Fools! HA hahahahah!" For example... "We're moving to China!" or "Mom you're having a girl baby!" or "Mom you're a mo-mo! April Fools!" What does that mean anyway?

Cloudburst made a secret list of what she wanted to do on April Fool's Day. She kept telling me, "Mom, don't look at my list behind the couch!" Then that day when Tornado was thirsty, I went to get a cup of water from our bathroom, and there were no cups or toothbrushes! She came running in laughing, so I asked her what else was on her list. That was it. Thank goodness for short lists.

Tornado is apparently an alien, judging by those eyes. And he spent the whole day repeating exactly what Sunshine said. In fact, he does that every day.

And you can see what a simple sense of humor I have... I still think it's a great computer trick to change somebody's eyes! Hopefully you had a great April Fool's Day!

Winds of change...

...were blowing today (literally and figuratively). In church, Thunder was sustained as the Bishop of our ward. As a family, we are excited. This morning, we told the kids and asked them, "what do you think this means?" Sunshine chimed in, "that means Daddy will be really old," and Cloudburst added, "and you will be a Grandma!" After church the kids were very excited to go visit the Bishop's office and see who was sitting in there. As a family, we have prayed a lot about this, and feel peace and excitement. Our ward is just great and we look forward to this new journey for our family.

Bowling up a storm

Last week we went bowling with some friends. While this was not such a pregnant-friendly activity, the kids loved it!

Cloudburst had fun choosing the ball, looking at the different colors, and had a great dance to follow up every throw.
Sunshine kept trying different methods to make the ball go the fastest- kinda hard with the bumpers and ball ramp.

Tornado did NOT want anyone to help him carry his ball. He picked up that 8-pounder and lumbered over to the ramp...
got the ball up there most of the time by himself....

and ended up beating everybody with the high score of 121! Not bad for his first time bowling.

The big 3-0

No, I'm not 30 years old, I'm about 30 weeks pregnant! I might even be 31 weeks, depending on which counting method you use. This is totally the home stretch! So why does May seem so far away???
This was taken before Thunder and I left for a business dinner honoring top Utah businesses.

I must say I can't complain too much. By this time in my last pregnancy my hips were sore most of the time and walking was painful. This time around I have kept up on my exercise (3 times a week, anyway) and I feel pretty good. My hips and pelvic bones have started to hurt at night, but sleeping with a million pillows helps (one under my torso, two under my head, one between my knees). I also wear support socks every day, which is helping with the emerging veins on my upper legs. Lovely. Oh, and a little self-tanning lotion never hurts...

Toothless Wonder

Yesterday I returned home from a church meeting to hear Sunshine screaming excitedly, "Mom the coolest thing in the world happened!" And then Cloudburst ran out to meet me holding a ziploc bag with something very valuable in it...

Her first tooth!

Cloudburst carried that bag around with her all day, showing and telling everyone we saw. While I had been gone, Thunder noticed how loose it was and pulled it out for her. She said she didn't even know he pulled it out, so it must have been ready!

I can't believe my baby girl is big enough to start losing teeth!