Eat Your Heart Out

My youngest is turning out to be quite the charmer. He knows his smile melts my heart and he uses it to his advantage! Dimples and giggles this cute get him all the attention his little heart desires.







*since there's several comments about the blanket... it was made for Caleb by a friend, Glenda. She's a Jedi-Quilter and has made all three of our kids an incredible blanket. She wanted pictures of Caleb on it so I snapped them yesterday. He was in such a great mood for them that I felt they were blog-worthy. :)

Boring

The other day Brandon and I were watching an episode of The Amazing Race. Something about what they were doing made Brandon think. He turned to me and said, "Our life seems boring compared to this."
We sat and felt sorry for ourselves for about two seconds.

And then I reminded him that every morning he takes our daughter to Chinese preschool on the back of a motorcycle down streets with live chickens.



Turns out...maybe we're not so boring after all.

To the Capital and Back Again

Every now and then we make a trip to the Big Chicken's capital.
Sometimes it's for mere sanity. A big, fat, juicy cheeseburger can really do a lot for your emotional state!

Sometimes it's for furniture shopping at IKEA.

But this time it was for shots. Immunizations. Vaccinations. Whatever word floats your boat.
We threw in some time for cheeseburgers, subway sandwiches, shopping, and wayyyyy too many hours wandering the maze of IKEA...but the purpose of the trip was for Caleb to get up to date vaccinations, and flu shots for the rest of us.

We usually take the train up to the Capital, which can be an adventure in and of itself. This time around, it was thankfully without many stories to tell.


Blog reader, meet Chiner's countryside:


Vast stretches of farmland cover the land between our city and the Capital.

Now, blog reader, meet the exact opposite:


That was our view from our hotel down to the old train station on one of the most muggy/smoggy days I've seen since being here. The day before was gorgeous...which is a rarity around here. So don't let the picture completely fool you. Occasionally, it's a pretty place to live! But yeah, the crowds are the same, regardless of weather. :)

On the agenda was to visit the frighteningly crowded Silk Market to get the kids some new shoes and snow suits for bundling up during bike rides. Salem happened to be sleeping in the stroller during the purchasing of his snow suit. So for his sake (and our own) we didn't wake him up to try it on before buying.
oooops....


Oh well...at least it'll fit him next year, right?
He kept calling himself a fireman.


Eden's fits...though it may not fit next year.


And after our arms were all sore, our bellies were all happy, and new shoes had been bought...we got back on the train and came home. Have I mentioned that this train goes 191 mph? Oh yeah. I forgot that part. It makes a 5 hour car ride turn into a 1.5 hour train ride.


We had almost an entire train car to ourselves on the way home...


That kind of space in this part of the world is a rarity. We took full advantage of it.
Even giving mini-man his own space to stretch out.


All in all...another successful trip to the Capital and back again.