Family Vacay in Branson!

We met Joel and Denise in Branso MO...rode around to all our touristY places in the 15 passenger church van...

enjoyed the butterfly palace day and night! 

the Dinosaur mini golf was a big hit...except the erupting volcano and chomping T-rex which was in fact a little scary for the 3 and 4 year old! 

Evie Joy and Josiah really loved spending time with Denise and Joel! 

 baby girls loving putt putt!

 love this one of Denise and the kids!

 mommy and all the kiddos!  Denise 27, Josiah 4 1/2 and Evie Joy 3

 Daddy at the butterfly palace with the kiddos...and Evie Joy below is 3!

We also had some fun times with paddle boats and swimming and the Ripley's Believe it or Not museum!

Fountains of Fun at Coolidge Park!

 I love these pictures of Jo with the soccer ball and EJ with the frisbee- they look so BIG! 

 One thing that is GREAT about Chattanooga is when school starts it is still warm enough to enjoy the fountains while it's not so crowded!  so that we did! 

My sparky little EJ opted to wear Jo's old swim trunks!  She is so funny! 

Love my JO!

These are EJ's blue toes!  She wanted blue toes so MiMi bought her blue toe polish!

Fun Water Play-dates with Lily Grace!

 Our sweet friend Lily came over a few times to play with us and oh, how much fun we had...splashing and playing and eating popsicles! 

 I have no idea what they are doing here but it's a funny picture!

 Josiah was really enjoying the water hitting his butt :) ha!

they crack me up chatting away!

well rounded kids!

 Crazy Hat night at Cubbie Bears!  We love Cubbie Bears!  WE did get in a little trouble for having to use too many motions for our memory verses :) Oh Americans sometimes!  :)

 All dressed up in our Miao Chinese Outfits to show the Prime(Old) timers :)

Evie Joy had dress up like what you want to be when you grow up- She was a Mommy (baby in sling) who drives (wearing Lightning McQueen shirt from movie Cars).  Josiah didn't have the same day for class but just for picture taking sake wanted to be a fire engine- not fireman, but the actual engine :)  love these kids and their fun little personalities!  Grandma always says you gotta have personality :) 

Preschool in America!

This is a picture from our first day attending Preschool in America!  We are going to our church's Preschool- Silverdale Baptist!  Evie Joy's teacher is "Aunt Rebeca" and Josiah has Ms. Tami!  Our of the first 4 classes, Evie Joy spit on, bit and kicked her teacher- she is a regular at the front desk.  Josiah, on the other hand, when working on a homework assignment said his favorite thing to do is give hugs and kisses! Ms. Tami says he is eager to please :)  He is just working on space issues (of course coming from China!)

3 years old!!!!!

Evie Joy loves Ni Hao Kai Lan so we had a Ni Hao Kai Lan/Chinese Birthday party with water fun!  WE had noodles to eat because in China you eat noodles on your birthday for a long life! 

We had a lot of Popsicles to eat!  yummy!

 We had some water balloons-

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We had water balloons- Daddy told all the kids to throw them on their parents!

We kept throwing them on Mommy (but they'd bounce off and break on the ground ha!)

This is after Evie Joy got MiMi!

 More Popsicles!

We were loving hanging out with Randy mid-party! ha! love it!

an attempt to blow out my 3 candles :)

Everyone sang Happy Birthday in Chinese and English!

 lots of cupcakes!

 Ni Hao Kai Lan fun!  Hot weather, water toys, friends, presents!  My very first American Happy Birthday Party!  Mator was one of my favorite presents!