Wandering Browns

Birthday in September! In September, Grandma Ev and Grandpa Jim came to visit! It was wonderful to have them around as we recovered from jet lag, went to doctor's appointments, and settled back in to life in the States. Grandma Ev brought birthday presents for Landon, as we celebrated his birthday in China, and we were not sure we would receive an intact package in China in the time frame we were given, so we just had her wait. Landon loved opening his gifts and having more toys to play with. Going from only a few toys that we could fit into our luggage, to having all of his old toys in our storage unit + birthday gifts was a big deal for him! We also went to the zoo with Grandma, which I wrote about on our travel blog. It's a party! Cubs game with Grandpa! Wrigley field The boys at Wrigley field The next week, Grandpa Jim came to visit. We drove into the city to catch a Cub's game and eat some delicious Chicago deep dish pizza. The Cubs lost- I t...

I coordinated with my siblings so we all departed from northern California the Monday after Hannah's farewell celebration. Our flights left in the late afternoon, so we took a quick drive down to Morro Bay- specifically the beach by Morro Rock to enjoy the ocean one last time before returning to our land-locked lives in Utah and Chicago. When we got there, the beach had been all cut up by a recent storm, leaving an interesting pool of water left over from high tide. "Icebergs" made of foam were floating on top of the water, and it had been warmed by the sun, so the water was not too cold. Naturally, this became Landon's playground. Sand...foam...water...fun aunts and a crazy uncle... what else does a little boy need? Running through the foam The play quickly evolved into a giant foam fight, with Hannah, Claire, and Greg getting in on the fun. Landon held his own, but ended up with a ton of foam all over him! Action shot of the foam fight ...

My little fireman! We spent two weeks in California after returning from China. Landon thoroughly enjoyed doing all things little boy- tromping around the backyard digging in the dirt, dressing up in his new fireman costume, a birthday gift from Grandma and Grandpa, and trying his hand at riding a bike for the first time. It was wonderful to spend some time with my sister, Hannah, before she departed for her LDS church mission to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, Spanish speaking. She is so awesome and is going to be the best missionary! Landon loves his Aunt Claire, who is still enough of a kid to have a ton of fun with Landon on the trampoline, on the swings, and playing pretend in the backyard! Of course, hanging out with grandparents and Aunt Net was also great.  In his truck Landon has been asking to get a bike/learn to ride a bike for months. I told him Grandpa was going to find him a bike that was his size (with five kids' worth of stuff at our house, I knew there must be...

Oh man, the past two months have certainly flown by and completely gotten away from me. I am planning a few posts on my travel blog, but here's the run down of the past two months for us: Grammy and Landon at Mariah's wedding reception I received word a week or so before flying back to the U.S. in September that my maternal Grammy had passed away. Grammy always lived closed to us and was actually living with my parents at the time of her passing. She struggled with an array of health problems over the past 25 years or so, but her passing was sudden. I was sad to not have been able to see her in person prior to her death, but she did hear from me the day of her passing in that I talked to my mom on speaker phone with Grammy in the room that afternoon. She was always our biggest cheerleader and had wanted to travel before her health became too poor to do so. She loved following our adventures, looking at the pictures and imagining herself in all the places we visited. As ...

He grew up too fast! I cannot believe that I have a three-year-old son. It seems like not very long ago I was holding him as a tiny infant, wondering what he was going to be like. Today, we took a taxi to a museum and he was tired on the way back. He put his head in my lap, and stretched out his legs across the seat and filled the whole back of the taxi. I remember when he was 4-6 months old and we were on airplane rides where I was worried that he was stretched out to the next airplane seat when he was feeding. He's grown so much- it all went by so fast! Anyway, Landon is quite the talker these days so I decided that instead of giving just my take on his favorite things, and how he is doing as a brand new three-year-old, he could do it in his own words. So I interviewed him. Here are his responses: 1. Favorite color? Red 2. Favorite number? 10 3. Favorite shape? triangle 4. Favorite letter? A 5. Favorite animal: The African animals at the zoo that mommy doesn...

The Birthday BOY! This weekend, we celebrated the birth of a special little boy. I would say toddler, but he's definitely over that stage. He is full-on little boy! I had him pick out a birthday activity, birthday dinner, and birthday cake/dessert beforehand so we could do his favorite things. There is only so much you can do when you are living across the world from all friends and family, so we tried to make it as special as we could. Main pool of the outdoor pool place For his birthday activity, we visited an outdoor temporary water park/pool place that is relatively close to our hotel. We can see it from our window every day, but it is a little pricey, so we have only gone one other time this summer. There are four pools with various large, inflatable slides and obstacles that he loves the play on. There is a shallow pool with a soccer field and an area with a swing! He loves the swing because we have not found a park with a swing during our time here in Ningbo, and...

I am happy to report that I feel much better this week about life in China. A few things have transpired to help me along the way, and I began reading a book that was just recently translated into English from Chinese about a Chinese factory worker that has helped me see a little better what all these people around me are thinking. First of all, I had my birthday this week. I ordered my dream baby carrier (here's to hoping it's as great as I think it will be, I bought it online sight unseen) for my birthday, and Austin took me out to a great Italian dinner. I had gnocchi with a delicious tomato sauce, and we shared gelato for dessert. There was cheese involved, in our appetizer, on my gnocchi, and I was a happy camper. The gelato was homemade and also awesome. The next day, I ordered a cake from a little shop down the street named Black Magic. It is a chocolate shop and cafe, but they also do a limited selection of cakes. You basically have a choice of chocolate, dark chocol...