My Shanghai sweetheart

Well Mike made it to Shanghai. Here are his pictures. His group keeps him busy, but they were finally able to go the "Bund" which is the famous European historical district. He told me this city has over 4,000 skyskrapers. AKA it is BIG.

Here are Mike's words.

8/30: "And check out these pics--this is why Shanghai is such a cool city. The one is the iconic shot from the Bund across the river to Pudong. The other two shots are of the Bund, that old set of buildings from the 19th centry that used to be western banks and is now restaurants and shops and hotels. Cool stuff."

8/29: "I just went to a pretty yummy dim sum place up the street from the hotel. Mmmm. I'll definitely be bringing you here when you and I get to come to Shanghai. This place is way cool, by the way. The vibe is MUCH cooler than Beijing--more like HK, NY, or Chitown. Way cool. BUT, really humid and still pretty hot. The weather ain't great, but I guess you gotta deal with it if you live here. Which we very well may be..."

Here's the update on Mike's trip

Mike and I talk usually once a day. He sounds like he is having a lot of fun in China, although he explains Beijing as: big, gray, full of big gray communist buildings, and millions of people everywhere. I think he is excited to leave Beijing and head to Shanghai. He has sent me a few pictures, and I promised you all (especially you Marianne) that I would share. He has been on his own, but will join with the GSB group tomorrow. I pasted portions of Mike's email to explain the pictures.

Thursday 8/23 - "So here are a couple of pics. The first one is my room, the second is the South gate of the Forbidden City w/the Great Helmsman's portrait, and the third is the street that runs between the Forbidden City and Tiananmen."

8/25 (Sat) - "Today I ran around Tiananmen again, then headed up to the big Lama Temple on the north side of the city, then caught the subway back around to the east side to check out the Beijing Underground City. Check this--so back in the 60s and 70s, China was paranoid of a nuke attack from the USSR (they weren't the best of friends) and so Mao wanted a whole series of underground tunnels built to hold, like, hundreds of thousands of people. They've opened a small section, like a half a mile or so, to tourists. I wandered around in there by myself and got a few pics (even though I wasn't supposed to), then joined up with some Germans and their English-speaking guide. Check out the pics."

Goodbye Mike

Mike's going to China for 1.5 weeks before school starts. He left this morning. We went to an early breakfast at the Bongo Room, and then I dropped him off at the train stop. I am going to miss you Mike...

The beach in Chicago

We decided to have a picnic along the beach for my lunch break. We packed up sammies and walked there. Here are some pictures for all those who have been wondering (like myself) what in the world a Chicago beach looks like...

We made it to Chicago!

Okay okay we made it! Mike and Luke made the long haul to Chicago in about two days. It was brutal, but they made it.

We've been here about a week and finally have our house unpacked. We secured the place without ever seeing it in person, so we are lucky it turned out to be as great as it is. Here is what our new house looks like. I'm not in much of a writing mood, so I'll just dump a bunch of pictures in here and hopefully you can figure out what is what. We've promised these pictures to many of you, so I apologize for taking so long to put them up. As you can tell, we've had our hands full!

We love you all and are so grateful for everyone who helped on this move--both in SLC and in Chi-town. Thank you!

The front room:

The kitchen:

The office:

(As you can tell, we still have a bit of unpacking to do...)

The master bedroom:

The walk-in closet (we've never had one of these before):

It's so big, Mike can lay across the whole thing. We don't have enough clothes to fill it up --- LOL

The view:

(they didn't tell us the EL runs by our place all hours of the day and night...)



We're so glad we're finally all settled in. Thank heavens! The last thing we have to do is head to Ikea to find Mike a desk for school...

More to come.

Last day of class

Monday was our last day of teaching Financial Literacy at the IRC. What a sad day! We have LOVED teaching our refugee friends every Monday. This month they were recently arrived from Burundi.

Every group of students seems to start at a different level, but with our last class we had to start with the basics--like "This is a nickel. Let's practice saying nickel." We also taught them about US banking, how to get a good credit score, etc, but I really think they were just a little overwhelmed.

We are going to miss teaching this class. The refugees are such a refreshing group to spend time with. They remind us to love life despite its obstacles, and to appreciate our blessings.

Hopefully we can find a similar place to volunteer in Chicago.

Ode to boxes

Yes, this is our home office.

You know, it's funny. Everyone that I tell we're packing up says the same thing: "Oh man, I hate moving." And I keep thinking, "okay, could at least try to be positive!" But the truth is, I've never done a real move before. I've moved a few boxes around while in college (I never really had that much stuff). And when we got married I just moved my few boxes into Mike's place. So I've never really done the "I have a lot of nice stuff that I don't want to get scratched" move. Until now. Mike and I are getting ready to move (Wednesday is the big day), and we are slowly realizing it will be a bit more painful than we originally imagined. Luckily, we have awesome people to help out (thanks all you that are helping). I just hope and pray that it all goes smoothly. Wish us luck! I'll post some sweet Chicago pictures soon (once we actually get there)...

CFA news

Mike spent all spring studying for the level 1 CFA test (Chartered Financial Analyst). He just found out today that he passed! Congrats to Mike! We just went to lunch to celebrate.

Happy Birthday Mike!

Since Mike is the most wonderfully perfect husband in the whole world, I took him rock climbing for his birthday. It was a blast. Although after 3 hours I was so sore that my arms felt like jello.

...and planned a superstar bithday dinner.

"Wow check out this sweet strawberry pie!"

I know it may sound funny to want a pie instead of birthday cake, but that's what Mike wanted. So attempted to make it for him. Keep in mind that it was the first time in my entire life I had ever made a strawberry rhubarb pie...growing up in California we didn't eat pies a whole lot. It was a fun adventure. Miraculously, it actually turned out pretty good!

Mike helped me plan the

dinner menu:

bruschetta

steamed asparagus with roasted garlic aioli

campanelli with asparagus, basil, and balsamic glaze

strawberry rhubarb pie, a la mode

And then...I took Mike to see Transformers.

You may be thinking (unless you're a guy): "Out of all the movies, that is the one movie he wanted to see most??" The answer is yes.

Surprisingly, I liked it too. I think it helped that he warned me that there probably wouldn't be much of a plot, just a lot of explosions.

Happy bithday Mike. I just adore you.

Vacation: Rafting the Salmon River

We're finally back from our week-long trip with the Featherstones rafting the main fork of the Salmon River. What a blast! It was my first time, and I made it back alive. Mike loved it since he hasn't been in 10 years.

The Featherstone cousins on the paddle boat. We went over some killer rapids! Good thing we had Jake and Josie guiding us. We never flipped--thanks heavens!

Mike and Erin at the beach. The last time Mike was on the river, he spent a whole summer rafting, hauling gear, and being a stunt double shooting the movie "The Same River Twice." Needless to say, he was very happy to be back. "It's been too long" he says.

Hannah, Joe, and Kate (Mike's sisters and dad). It was Hannah, Kate and my first time. And out of 18 people, we were the only three girls!

Mike, Erin, Kate and Hannah. It was so hot that we put our chairs in the water! We're waiting for the jet boat here.

Check out this rapid. This is right around where Louis and Clark (and Sacajawea) turned back, dubbing this river the "River of No Return." Lucky us--we had paddle boats instead of wooden canoes. Don't you love modern technology?

Mike and Erin loving life on the river.

We kept saying to each other, "I don't want to go back to real life yet..." The cool thing about the trip is the wilderness was so pristine and cleansing, you almost forget what real life is like...

There's Grandpa V watching the frisbee game. He was quite the swimmer on the trip! The water was never too cold for him.

Our favorite game: "body womping." We made a water slide by turning the paddle boat upside down. You get a running start, and then everyone holding the boat bounces you up at the last minute so you go flying. It was so much fun to watch!

Here's Jayma. We all wondered, "How can he sleep like that??!" Heh heh--so we had to capture it on camera.

Here we are on Neno's boat. What a fun trip.

We have to say thanks to Uncle Scotty and everyone who worked so hard to put this on. What a blast.

Also thanks to everyone that guided our boat safely through the toughest rapids. We rode with these guides: Neno, Sam, Joe, Uncle Scotty, and Jake/Josie. We never flipped once!