An Unconventional Trampoline Park

There is one little stop we had last weekend that I left out of my What's Up Wednesday post - on Sunday after we ate at Good Good and before we went to the Little Gym - we had a couple of hours to kill and for 50rmb (each kid), the girls got to jump on this trampoline park right in the middle of the mall (the mall is where the Little Gym is located too)!! I am still fairly blown away that there is an entire trampoline park on the first floor of a mall - pretty genius, I think.

But let me back up, you might be wondering why we were at the mall almost three hours early??

What I have not told you is that three Sunday's ago, we headed to eat (Iron Pig), run errands (Ikea) and have our test run at the Little Gym.  On the way to the mall, we were stuck in traffic and were running late (huge surprise on the traffic ;)).  I was texting a friend of mine who let me know it's on the 4th floor.  This was very strange to me because I had googled the Capital Mall location earlier and it was on the 3rd floor.  But they were already there, so we trusted them.  Our driver finally got to an elevator in the basement and let us out of the car.  We raced up to the 4th floor, ran like crazy people (this is not an exaggeration - at one point, I accidentally bumped into Emma and asked Wes to handle the situation (not my best moment)) all around and could not find the place.  I was showing pictures to people who were shrugging/not understanding me/could not have cared less if I found this place.  The people that we were meeting at the mall were searching for us.  The girl from the gym was calling me and we finally reconnected with our driver so they could speak Chinese to each other all to find out...

there are FOUR capital malls in Chengdu and we were definitely not at the right one.

Womp womp womp. The kicker? The capital mall we were supposed to be at, we could have walked to from Ikea.  Where we had been an hour and a half earlier.

Seriously though, it was one of those 'living in a foreign country is hard' kind of moments.  I know a lot of what you see on here is fun fun fun, but there is also a lot of obstacles to overcome to ensure we/our kiddos get to have fun experiences.

Needless to say, we were not going to our class this weekend ;) and so we arrived almost three hours early :).

^ I think China has so many kid friendly activities and I am continuously shocked by how many of those activities are inside malls. ^

^ it was one of those moments that almost felt like we were in the states. ^

^ it worked out perfectly the girls were already wearing their leotards for gymnastics class. ^

^ Emma loved it the most- this girl loves to be on the move! ^

^ no surprise, my two were lining things up (p.s. Nonni -I am thinking they got this from you??  I don't believe I have ever lined up anything in my life.) ^

^ the view from up top - can you spot them?? ^

^ practicing their acrobat skills. ^

^ safe to say, they may need a few more practice sessions ;). ^

What's Up Wednesday | August

It has been awhile since I have participated in What's Up Wednesday - so here is a little look at what we have been up to in Chengdu lately :).

One. What we're eating this week... well, this is really over the last week.  We ate at one of our new favorite restaurants in Chengdu called Good Good - chipotle style, the beef tacos are soo soo yummy! we go significantly out of our way to eat at this place.  Also, I made my best batch of cinnamon rolls - they were delish.

Two. What I'm reminiscing about... the first day of school.  It seems like just yesterday we were sending these two cuties off on their first day.  They are having the best time this year (which makes my mama heart so happy - it is one of the things I worried the most about when relocating our family) and come home with great stories every day.

Three. What I'm loving... getting a suitcase from Dallas!!  We had a big visit last week and someone I know was kind enough to bring me a suitcase that my mom and sister were kind enough to have packed for me.  We are so so so thankful to all three of them - you might be wondering what was inside: new clothes for everyone (including Ev's dress below), PAM (the baking spray - impossible to find where we live), Parmesan cheese and more than six pounds of our favorite coffee from Central Market. It was like Christmas morning!!!

Four. What we've been up too... we had a nice little weekend.  On Friday, when I got home I found Wes and the girls playing school (the girls were the teachers, of course, but just look at all of Wes's classmates ;)).  On Saturday, we attended a baby shower (where Emma fell madly in love with a French bulldog named Iggy).  On Sunday, we had lunch at Good Good and visited the Little Gym (more on that later).

Five. What I'm dreading... nothing at all :).

Six. What I'm working on... lots and lots of work ;).

Seven. What I'm excited about... the girls attended a gymnastics class on Sunday and they were so stinking excited about it and had so much fun - we signed them up for regular lessons!! I do feel a little bit of guilt about my children missing out on typical American extracurricular's (think dance, soccer, etc.) so when a friend invited us to try this class we jumped at the chance. Safe to say, they really want to go back.

Eight. What I'm watching/reading... I am almost ashamed to admit that I have gotten back on a Real Housewives kick in the last month or so.  I had nearly forgotten about it, but nothing really interests me on network summertime TV so while needing to mindlessly disconnect one night after a stressful day at work I got back into it.

Nine. What I'm listening too... still podcasts galore. My favorites are Young House Love has a Podcast, Chris Loves Julia, and Call Your Girlfriend.  But I am listening to quite a few others as well...

Ten. What I'm wearing... the new clothes I got for me in the suitcase were pajamas and jeans so nothing too exciting :). I have to say, I am slowly working on building up to only wearing matching pajamas instead of the men's pajama pants and Wes's tshirts that had taken over my life after Emma was born.

Eleven. What I'm up to this weekend... hmmm too early in the week to have decided this? We are thinking about taking the girls to their favorite indoor playground and then to gymnastics class on Sunday.  Also, it might be cool enough to head to our favorite outdoor playground so who knows??

Twelve. What I'm looking forward to next month... September is always a big month for us celebration wise - Wes's birthday and our anniversary!!  We are hoping to have a day date while the girls are in school to properly celebrate 7 years of being married! Right now, we are thinking massages and lunch sound pretty good.

Thirteen. What else is new... Wes and I got to sneak in a quick date after we went to our immigration apt.  I think I mentioned this, but Wes and I had to get new passports (we were in serious danger of running out of pages).  After we got our new passports, we have to transfer our residence permits, etc to our new passports.  Since the girls didn't need to attend this appointment, we went by ourselves and grabbed a quick coffee at Starbucks afterwards - living abroad, we have to sneak in dates whenever we can get them!

That is what's up with us :).  Hope you are having a good week!

Everly's Newborn Photos :)

** I was going through my draft posts this weekend at which point I realized I never posted Everly's newborn pictures.  I think partly because I did it myself and I didn't think they turned out great and partly because I kind of regret not getting newborn pictures taken, but at this point (4 years old!) it is what it is... so here are some very delayed newborn pictures of our Everly Gracie followed by a few more recent 4 year old pictures :). **

FINALLY- time to share with you Everly's newborn pictures :).  This is my most favorite picture!

This is exactly what I had envisioned for Everly's newborn shoot- a cream cocoon, a fur sheepskin and knit pants.  I already owned the sheepskin, I ordered the cocoon off of Etsy and my sweet sister-in-law Shelley knit me these pants.  The pants are so stinking adorable.

Sweet baby toes with our wedding rings wrapped around them :).

Everly in the dress that I wore home from the hospital when I was a baby :).  Emma also wore this dress home from the hospital.

And a few new pictures - she looks exactly the same to me, what do you think?

Her love for stuffed animals/dolls/Minnie Mouse does not seem to be going anywhere anytime soon - safe to say, she is still obsessed.

She looks ginormous here.

Loves to dance and twirl.

Goodness, we love this girl so much!

Thailand with Nonni | Day Four

Our last day in Thailand :). I hope you don't get annoyed with me talking about Thailand so much, but we really do love love love this place - it has been a special place for the four of us during our stay in China and we may or may not have one more trip planned there this year ;).

^ Wes and I got a massage this day! I am not really sure, but I have zero pictures of the morning - however, I am sure that we were at the pool. ^

^ do you think that Emma loves her Nonni? ^

^ and this girl loves her mommy, quite a lot (if I do say so myself ;)). ^

^ she pretty much thinks Nonni is the best and when she doesn't want to live with me when she is older, she wants to live with Nonni (so she can have ice cream everyday - her words, not mine ;)). ^

^ we went back to our secluded little spot on the beach. ^

^ original picture followed by the edited version for Instagram - I have enjoyed playing around with all of the filters that are available. ^

^ serious seashell collector. ^

^ deep in conversation. ^

^ most likely about this little/not so little guy ^

^ I have mentioned, but not sure how much I emphasized - Emma became obsessed with hermit crabs on this trip - Wes found her three or four, she called them her little guys and cared for them like they were her pets.  she was cracking my mom up, because my sister Adge did the same thing when she was a bit older than Emma.  ^

^ this really was ginormous and not so little at all. ^

^ the size of my girls compared to the immense size of the ocean always gets to me. ^

^ I am not sure our eye shape could be any more similar. ^

^ playing with their 'little guys'.  beaming does not even begin to describe how Emma felt about these guys - she was all in, full on obsessed. ^

^ Emma's hero (i.e. collector/finder of all hermit crabs) and best daddy. ^

^ last swim before we got dressed for our dinner. ^

^ I know I really shouldn't post this picture, but I am thinking that when Emma has a daughter and she takes her daughter to the beach and her daughter falls madly in love with her hermit crab friends, she will want to look back on this picture and reminisce about the time she had to say goodbye to 'her little guys'.  you guys, she was so stinking sad. she recovered, but this was a sad moment for my big five year old. ^

^ just like that, we flew home with Nonni, spent one more day getting all of our cuddles in, read one last book together and say goodbye to Nonni until Christmas. we are so glad she could come spend so much time with us, love you Nonni, can't wait to see you soon! ^