Estes Park Camping Trip

What a Weekend!

We had a wonderful past few days. Let's see . . .

Thursday (07/24/08), Yiying and the other students went into Denver for the day. They toured the capitol building, went to the Colorado History Museum, and did some shopping at the 16th street mall. When she got off the bus at the end of the day, she said she was tired but very excited! She bought a beautiful new handbag and a few other small things.

Then, on Friday (07/25/08), we kept her out of school for the days so that we could go to the Denver Mint as a family. We awoke early and headed to Denver, catching a 9:00 a.m. tour of the building. It was about 1/2 an hour long, and very interesting. Unfortunately, our tour guide spoke very fast and made a lot of jokes, which made it difficult for Yiying to understand her. I tried to explain as much as I could and I think she enjoyed herself. She bought a postcard as a souvenir. After the tour, we came back home and packed up the trailer for our camping trip, leaving the house at about 1:30 p.m.

The next couple of days were spent in Estes Park, Colorado. She really loved the camping trip. Sarah's horse show wasn't until Sunday, so we had some time to drive through Rocky Mountain National Park and enjoy the campground. On Saturday, two large male elk came within about 50 yards of our trailer! The drive through the park was wonderful, with many herds of mama elk and their babies throughout. The mountains are spectacular. I taught her the word 'elevation,' and she enjoyed tracking how high we were getting as we drove to the Alpine Visitors Center, which sits above the treeline. We enjoyed lunch at the visitors center and bought some souvenirs. On Sunday, most of the afternoon was spent at the Stanley Park Fairgrounds, preparing to watch Sarah show in Copper Penny. She participated in three classes, taking 2nd place out of three competitors in one, 5th place out of 17, and not placing in the third class that had 40 participants. She was pleased with her effort and we think she did a wonderful job. Her horse behaved, which was a nice change from last year's attempt.

The only glitch to our weekend was that, about five minutes after we arrived at the campground, I fell off the steps going into the trailer, and thought I had a broken ankle or foot. Dave took me to the E.R. and, to my pleasant surprise, I had just a bad sprain. So, I spent the rest of the weekend either in bed, with my foot propped up on a pillow in the car, or hobbling around on crutches! It is feeling significantly better now, so I can be up on it but limp quite a bit. Oh well. If that was the worst that happened, I consider it a good weekend!

Yiying is back at classes today. She will spend the afternoon at the CU Student Recreation Center, where she will have the chance to play sports, swim, and ice skate! She was looking forward to the skating. I am going to venture out this afternoon to do some birthday shopping for Sarah. Tomorrow, she turns 15 and we will go to get her learner's permit! Wow. What a milestone. It still seems like she is my little girl!

I'll check back in a couple of days and give another update.

Welcome Picnic

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Today was Yiying's first day of classes. But, let me tell you about yesterday, first!

We had a relaxing day. Yiying slept until almost 11:00 a.m. We lounged around the house, played with the dogs, and met Sarah and Brian's grandmother, Gloria, at her work - the library!

When she got off work, we went with her to a local Chinese restaurant called Wah Wok. Yiying had vegetable fried rice. The portions were so large! We all had leftovers to bring home. After lunch, we tried to find an Asian market so that Yiying could buy the ingredients she needed to make her special recipe for us. It was too small, though, and she could not find what she wanted. So, we headed back home to relax for a few hours.

That evening, we went to the Louisville Community Park for a Welcome Picnic hosted by the Compass USA group. All of the host families were there, along with their 27 students. (Check out the slideshow coming tomorrow!) It was a lot of fun. Yiying had fun connecting again with her friends from school. We came back home at about 8:00 p.m. and had an early-to-bed night, since Yiying started school the next morning!

So . . . that leads us to today! Yiying and I got up at about 5:30 a.m. and got ready to go to the bus stop. After a breakfast of a bagel with jam, we headed for Longmont to catch her bus to Boulder and the University of Colorado campus. She caught the bus with six other girls from this area at 6:56 a.m., and had an hour ride. They went to class from 8 - 12:30, then went to a local mall for lunch and shopping. The bus brought them back, and I picked her up at 6:00 p.m. What a long day! She was "very tired but excited." We ran a few errands, including going to Blockbuster to rent a movie. To my surprise, she chose a horror film, "The Eyes"! She was so excited when she saw the box for 'Saw III'! I would never have guessed. At home, we had chicken enchiladas, chips & queso dip, and grilled pineapple for dinner. After letting their dinner settle, Sarah and Yiying went downstairs and ran on the treadmill for a little while. It's just after 10 p.m. now and they are going up to bed, finally!

Tomorrow's schedule will be slightly different. All of the girls will meet in Boulder, rather than taking the bus to the campus, and will go into Denver for the day. We'll let you know how that goes!

Yiying's Arrival

She's on her way!

For the next couple of weeks, our blog will be dedicated to our homestay guest, Yiying! We'll keep you up to date with what she, and we, are doing, and put pictures & video often as possible!

This morning at about 2 a.m. Firestone, CO time (4:55 p.m. Tokyo time), Yiying boarded a plane at the Tokyo International Airport for Seattle, Washington. She will arrive there at about 10 a.m., Seattle time (11 a.m. Firestone, CO time), have about an hour layover, then hop on another jet bound for Denver! The group of about 25 girls will be greeted by our program's coordinator, Kristy Shine, and will ride a bus to the Flatirons Crossing Mall, where all of the host families will be waiting with our welcome signs.

We are so excited to meet and get to know Yiying. Sharon has been emailing with Yiying's father, Mr. Wang, so we have had a little bit of communication. The kids are very excited. They have been helping get the house all ready for our guest, including the guest room which is decorated in Americana.

Tonight, after her arrival, we will come back home for dinner and to just relax after her long day of travel. Tomorrow, nothing is on the schedule until 6:00 p.m., when we will join the other host families and students at a welcome picnic. That will be very fun. They will be taking a picture of the families together with their students for a project the girls will be doing in their classes.

I'll post again tomorrow with pictures of the arrival!

Host Family Orientation

Tonight we are going to our Host Family Orientation, the next step in preparing to host our foreign exchange student! Yiying Wang is a "China girl living Japan," in her own words. She is 13, and arrives on July 21, to stay for three weeks. Tonight we will find out all about the schedule during the three weeks and meet other families in our area who are participating so that we can set up some carpools. The girls from the program will be going to English classes on Monday, Wednesday & Friday mornings, then will have educational field trips those afternoons, and fun, touristy activities on Tuesdays & Thursdays. We can go to any of their activities with them. In addition, I have tickets to take my kids and Yiying to the Denver Mint while she is here, and Sarah will be celebrating her 15th birthday, so Yiying will get to 'hang out with the girls,' while Sarah & friends go to the mall and out to dinner.

Florida Trip - Part 2

All new to me!

I'm trying out the slideshow feature. These are some photos from our trip last spring to Walt Disney World. Enjoy!

2007 Florida Trip - Part 1

Here We Go!

Thanks to the inspiration of Flee, here's our family blog! I'll do my best to keep it up to date, but not get obsessive! It will take me a while of playing with it to figure it all out, so check back as I'm sure it will become more wonderful and interesting over time.