King's Adventure - growing up together with the kids

Monday, January 01, 2007

The 17 ladies at SEP bonded quickly. We spent weekends taking trips together and also supported each other throughout the program. Kim was the class president and YY was the big sister who always had a camara on her!

Beautiful Campus at Stanford. This would be home for the summer of 2006 for the SEP program. I've learned so much and met nice people from all over the world. Definitely a life changing experience I'll treasure for the rest of my years.

Ahmed and I were the emcees at the SEP 2006 Asia Party. It was by far the best party. We sang and dance until the wee hours. Everything was family friendly (unlike the European party which was wild!).

At the Charity Auction. Our class (SEP 2006) raised money to build an aids orphanage in Kericho, Kenya. It was an worthy cause and brough the entire class closer together. I auctioned off our home over xmas to Oltmann and a week at the city apartment over the 2008 Beijing Olympics to Jim.

At the dog park with my two girls - Dee Dee and Emily. We spent the day with the Smulders, the Munshi's, Eileen and Steve at the Italian Farm. The other dogs there were Twister, Oosie, and Wally. The weather was great an

d we had pizza while the kids and the dogs ran wild.

Coaching soccer was one of many weekend activities I looked forward to. After coaching the U-12 boys at Beijing Sports, I switched to coach the 97's so Emily can get a chance to play. Our team was called the wolves

and we ended the season with a 5-3-1 record. Not bad!

Thanksgiving at home. We baked a huge chicken and Beverly also prepared vegetables, mashed potatoes with gravey while Ah-Hua made pancakes.

Grade 4 performs "The Sky is the Limit"

Emily's performing art show at WAB. Bill came specifically for this and was able to see the giraff and the show.

We met Veronica and Candace for dinner at Macoroni

Grill and then did some shopping together.

Posing with the amazing xmas trees in the lobby of the Taipei Grand Hyatt. The hotel was centrally located and Emily's favorite thing was visiting the Build-a-bear workshop. Derek went around looking for Le Bron James' new Nike basketball shoes. None was in his favorite color - black and red.

On top of Taipei 101, the tallest building in the world! It was really cold, however, we were in great spirit. After the photo, the kids ran around the building in slow motion and tried to let the wind carry them. We also saw a video of the 2005 new years fireworks from Taipei 101. Very impressive!

Derek and his old friends since kindergarten. Here they are, Alisdair is over 6 ft tall already and in boarding school in Scotland. Callum, Derek and Mathew are about same heighth.

With Emily's best friends Isabella and Sophie at the airport express. We had breakfast together before heading off to Sanya.

Gift opening was everyone's favorite part - Emily loved the ipod and Derek the PSP games and the iHome.

Beautiful hotel and we love the breakfast! Nothing beats a huge buffet breakfast with fresh squeezed juices, waffles, eggs, croissants and fruits! We ate and ate, played tennis and at the beach. Derek beat the goalkeeper a few times and won us free drinks from the Lala Bar.

Can't believe we ran into Oltmann's family near the pool at Hilton. They were supposed to be staying in our home in Beijing. As it turned out, Mariette has had a bad cold for 8 days and it was so cold in Beijing she didn't leave the house. They were looking for a warm place to go and they were only able to get flights and hotels to Sanya! What a coincidence! They've really turned into accidental tourists.

Hoseback riding at Sanya

Emily met Theresa, a 10 year old girl from Hamburg who has been riding for 7 years! They got along great and went riding a couple of days. The two girls went for long rides on the beach. I was worried for a while, however, Emily's horse followed Theresa's very well and the two girls had a great time! What an incredible experience. We've invited Theresa's family to a tennis match on Dec 30 and then to visit us in Beijing on Jan 5.