Dear Family & Friends,
End of April & May:
Tom’s dad and wife (Tom and Trish) came to visit for two weeks. We took a 4 day trip to Beijing with them and enjoyed seeing the city. We had a full agenda and saw a lot. Two of the days we had a tour guide which was fantastic (if anyone goes to Beijing and wants a private tour guide, we highly recommend her – email us and we will fwd. on her details). We had come prepared with several masks to protect us from the polluted air, but we had fantastic weather and low pollution days during our visit (probably because we were there during Chinese holidays, so the factories were closed). In Beijing we saw Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, and the the Temple of Heaven. We also toured Hutong, the oldest part of Beijing, and had a lunch there in a family home. One afternoon we went to the Summer Palace and saw the luxurious lives the emperors had built for themselves. Learned a lot about China’s history and the pride they have for their history and where it has led them as a country today.
Our final day in Beijing we went to Mutianyu and hiked part of the Great Wall. It was incredible. The weather was fully cooperative with our visit. Our tour guide told us it was the clearest day she has seen at the Great Wall in seven years!! What luck! We got some great pictures with the wall and had a great hike. I had always thought about visiting the Great Wall, never really thinking I’d see it – so I really enjoyed the day! It was absolutely breathtaking. Again, our tour guide was great and very knowledgeable. I felt smarter at the end of the trip.
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| Bejing, China - Tiananmen Square |
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| The Great Wall, China |
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| Little Tom and Big Tom. One in the same. |
Tom and Trish also took a small vacation to Thailand while they visited. In Hong Kong, they enjoyed spending time with the kids. We did the usual tour spots of Hong Kong (the Peak and a ferry ride to Kowloon). They took the kids to their favorite places (Disneyland & Ocean Park). It was great to have time with them to catch up. We enjoyed taking them out for traditional Chinese food, but they were much more happy when we had lasagna and took them out for Italian.
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| Doing what Grandparents do best - spoiling the children at Disneyland |
May and June:
We had some quiet months...it was nice! We spent time in Hong Kong with the kids. There was some rain, so there were movie days inside. On nice days we hung out with the kids on the podium. We did our usual routine. Patrick went to school in the morning. In the afternoon the kids usually had some sort of playdate or activity planned – or I took them out for a stroll. Their social calendar is much more exciting than ours.
I’ve been back and forth from Shenzhen a few times… I’m not a big shopper, but when it comes to shopping in China – it’s a sport and I just want to get better at it. My friends in the complex have also become a bit addicted to working out in the mornings… it’s fun and motivating to have gals in the gym next to me. The hardest part of these months were the goodbyes - it comes with expat life, people are always coming and going. However, the going-away parties were great fun and some of the greatest memories I will have of Hong Kong. The people make all the difference to your experience overseas - and we've met some remarkable people!
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| HK Professional shoppers |
Tom is enjoying his job and still enjoys working in all the different countries – always learning. Tom took a morning off a few weeks ago and visited Patrick at school for Father’s Day. Patrick was so proud to show daddy around. Evan’s personality is beginning to shine – he is such a cute kid and has such determination (hence the 2 visits to the Emergency Room for stitches a week apart). Evan enjoys pushing Patrick’s buttons… there are definitely more tears coming from Patrick than from Evan. It is so fun watching them interact, grow, and laugh together. Whenever I have Patrick by himself and we getting chatting to a neighbor or friend – he always tells people about his younger brother, Evan. He gives him a kiss before school and right when he gets home. Now that they share a room we hear them talk to each other every morning before they start screaming for us. It’s awesome. We are so blessed.
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| Heading home from the hospital (again...) |
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| Father's Day at school. Dad loves his new hat! |
Tom and I had a short get-a-way to Toyko, Japan. He was there for work and I flew in for the weekend. We went to an onsen to relax and just walked around and ate a lot of food. We went back to Hiyoshi, the neighborhood/suburb where he lived in business school and ate at four different places in about 4 hours. I know, it’s gross, but we really like Japanese food and we have our favorite places that we have to hit up every time. We enjoyed sleeping in and eating – perfect holiday for us!
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| Doing what we do best in Toyko - eating. |
July and August -
July 2 we flew to Chicago. Flight was okay, about what we expected. I seriously could write an entire blog about flying with our children - the funny moments, the not so funny moments... it would be very entertaining. Anyways, went to Elkhart, Indiana (where my parents are) and we stayed there for a bit over 2 weeks. Tom left after the July 4th weekend and flew to Bentonville for work then back to Hong Kong. The kids and I had a great time traveling the mid-west in the month of July (Indiana, Chicago, and Iowa). We stayed at my parents home, my two sisters houses, and Erin William's home (friend from SMC). The kids were kept very busy with their cousins (Andrew, Jonathan, Madeleine, and Samantha) and my friends' children. I got to catch up with my sisters, high school friends, roommates from college, friends from college, carpool buddies from Glenwood - it was a great summer. Seriously, wish I had more time to see everyone on my list. There are so many friends I haven't seen in a few years... there is never enough time. We also flew to PA for a week to see Tom's dad (Tom and Trish) at the farm. Evan finally got to meet Adam (Tom's brother) and they bonded right away! We were lucky to catch the Wayne County Fair (can't go to the USA without going to a fair). To end the trip we went back to Indiana for my cousin's wedding (Mr. and Mrs. Brian Benjamin - Katie is my cousin). The saddest part of our trip was my grandmother (mom's mother - Albina Mikulich) passed away. The boys and I visited her in early July and got to spend some time with her. She was 96 and beautiful. How great was it that we saw her shortly before God took her - everything happens on this earth for a reason - she went peacefully and is happy upstairs in Heaven :)
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| My parents - sisters' families - and me and the boys :) |
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| Riding on the big swing at the farm with Grandpa |
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| Evan and Uncle Adam - trouble! |
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| One of the last photos taken of Grandma Great (my grandmother) - visiting in July |
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| The boats at the Wayne County Fair were so much fun. |
End August & September:
We arrived back on August 11th with Mary and had a great week with her. The only difficult part was getting over the jet-lag. It was great having her here to help us with that. We dragged the kids around to various activities and tried to keep them up and busy during the day. One day Mary, Tom and I went on a great hike - Jardine's Lookout and had great weather (hot, but good) and had some beautiful shots of HK). Another fun day we spent at the beach with the kids. Evan is finally getting accustomed to sand - he doesn't love it, but will tolerate it. The day she left was Patrick's first day of preschool, year 2. He goes full day on M and W and just the mornings on T, Th, and F. In addition, he is in swimming and soccer and many playdates with friends. Again, his social calendar is awesome - he is a busy boy. Evan goes to 'My Gym' once a week and also started soccer once a week. We quickly got back into our Hong Kong life and have been busy. Tom has been traveling a lot with work. He was gone a lot but was able to spend much of September in Hong Kong. It's nice to have him around. I'm doing well. Back to my morning workouts, dance classes when I can squeeze them in, playdates with kids, and other mom stuff. Norlie is good - she stayed in HK over the summer when we were gone and had some of her family in town (her parents and her son). I pinch myself sometimes and thank God for matching her to us. She is our family - the boys missed her so much while we were in America. My favorite moment about returning was seeing the boys hug her!
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| Moma (Mary) is in Hong Kong - taking a hike! |
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| Having drinks at the Intercontinental after viewing the light show |
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| Norlie with Evan at a play-date. |
Over the summer, Tom got notice that his contract will be extended one more year!! That means our end date is September, 2015. We are thrilled to have the opportunity to stay another year in Hong Kong. More places to tick off on our bucket list and another year to fill with wonderful 'once in a lifetime' experiences. We are also very excited to be returning to Arkansas. The past two years have flown by so I know this last year will be super fast. I can’t wait to get back into the Arkansan way of life - - with a car and a Walmart less than a mile away. The shopping daily for groceries here and then having to carry them home still drives me mad. I can’t wait to buy in bulk!
Anyways, that's all I have for now. If you LOVE my updates and just want more.... don't worry - there is .... click on the link below if you'd like to see some more pictures of us out and about the last few months. There are some great shots of The Great Wall when we went and pictures of the kids enjoying the USA.
Click here:---->>>>>>> Pictures of Spring-Fall 2014
We just finished a trip to Indonesia and have some upcoming trips planned so stay tuned for another blog post soon. It's the final countdown...
Kathleen & boys - Tom, Patrick, and Evan
