Ni Hao!

Greetings from Shanghai.  I guess the blog could be over now because we completed our trip from Stratton to Shanghai.  In reality, it is only beginning.  So much has happened in the last four days its already overwhelming to think about all that we should be sharing on the blog.  The blogger site is actually blocked by the Great Fire Wall (China's Firewall) so it took us a couple days to even log on.  I'll try to recap the trip pictorially.

Friday and Saturday we were lucky to spend time with friends and family.  This picture was taken after some pretty serious piggy back rides around the house.  Shortly after this picture Kinsleigh was getting her shoes on to leave and she said, "Bye Mah. Bye Bwi".  This was the first time that I'd heard her say our names and it was pretty emotional with everything else going on.  Our trip is nothing like military duty but it gave me a whole new perspective and respect for soldiers leaving families at home.

After waking up at 2am we were out the door at 3am.  A quick stop at IHOP for breakfast and we were off to the airport.  I asked the waiter to hurry with our order because we were on our way to China.  As we were leaving he said, " Have fun in China.  Whatever that means".  Then someone in our group told him we were actually on our way and he was quite shocked.  Our packing was very efficient.  We knew our checked bag allowance was 200 pounds without fees.  At the big weigh-in at DIA we had 198.7 pounds of the 200 pounds, so there is room for improvement but we thought we did well for our first time. 

 Let's just say I had a lot of time to myself on the plane. 

After a two hour drive to Denver, 18 hours and 7,000 miles in the air, about another hour in Shanghai traffic we finally arrived at our humble abode.  We Skyped some parents and went for a bite to eat at a popular expat restaurant right up the road that was recommended to us by the administrator who picked us up at the airport.  Finally, 30 hours after we had left Stratton it was time for bed.

Click here if you want to see some more pictures from our last week in the states and trip to Shanghai.

We have so much to share about our first week and we'll try to get consistent on the blogging.  Thanks for following us and wish us luck for our first typhoon that is predicted to hit tomorrow (Sunday).