Meet Lily's entourage: Pinky, her pink bear; Bear, her other pink bear; Bat, her pink lamb (named Bat because of the 'baa' sound that lambs make); Kitty, her pink kitty from Cincinatti; Baby, her little doll. She also sleeps with a pillow and anywhere from 3 to 6 blankets.

This picture of Griffy waiting to have his diaper changed is pretty funny. It's all just part of the routine.

They got a little rocking horse toy earlier this year. As you can see, it initially posed them a few problems.

Clearly the rocking horse was even better than Lily's wildest dreams.

The kids have been pretty fun for football season this year. They love their little Utah jackets. Griff says "Go Utes!" whenever he says a letter U.

Aunt Linda was very kind to our kids this year. She gave each a present on the other's birthday. Lily just opened her present from Griff's birthday. She kind of understands how birthday presents work and I think she was worried that she had opened one of Griff's presents. Or, she's worried that she got caught. I'm sure she would've have opened them all given 5 or 10 minutes alone.

We often come into Griffin's room to find that he has positioned his bears like so. It actually scares me a little. If he starts mutilating the neighborhood pets I'm going to be very upset.

Griff is kind of funny about some stuff. Whenever a group of people start laughing Griff immediately assumes that they are laughing at him. This makes him cry. When he quits crying he shuts his eyes, as shown in the picture above. I think he is trying to somehow kill everyone with his mind. He has not succeeded in his task, yet.

Just a couple of pirates.

A few of the trick-or-treaters had costumes that were just a little too scary for Lily.

Pirate Griffy, bringing the cheddar.

CHINA

I am finally posting about the trip to China that I went on at the end of October for the MBA program. It was a really great trip. As a part of the class I had to write a short paper talking about my experience in China. I'm including excerpts from that paper here.

Summary

The MBA trip to China was a tremendous experience for me. I’ve had a difficult time answering the question so often put to me since our return, “What was your favorite part of the trip?” The truth is that I really can’t isolate any one thing. For me, the trip was one great experience. I enjoyed meeting Chinese people. I liked it that there was a language barrier at times, and that we had to improvise in order to understand one another. I enjoyed getting to know my Westminster MBA comrades better. I loved traveling to a country that is so rich with history and culture. I really just loved the experience of being in a country so much different from my own.

Cultural and Social Impressions
I thought that the Chinese people were somewhat reluctant to interact with us. That may have been because we were a pretty big group and somewhat intimidating, but it was difficult to get a true social or cultural sense. It seemed to me the Chinese people were very reserved and polite (unless I was waiting in line at McDonald’s). The women actually seemed to be a little more outgoing than the men. I thought the men were stand-offish at times, unless we could really convince them that we didn’t mean any harm.

At the same time, I was blown away by how prevalent prostitution is in China. It just seemed to be a part of everyday life. In fact, it seemed that most people just accepted it and didn’t think much of it one way or the other. To have a 15 or 16 year old boy trying to hustle us into a massage parlor, or to be propositioned by a 17 or 18 year old girl was heartbreaking to me. I really didn’t like seeing that at all.

One aspect of the people in China that I found interesting was their attitude toward the government there. Things in China appear to be quite different when compared to the Soviet Union, but the people that we talked to really didn’t seem to have any problem with the government. While I do think that things are better there than compared to what I know of other countries that are/were under communist rule, there were still things that I didn’t like. It seemed to me, though, that people had largely been placated because of the economic possibilities. Why aren’t more people upset that only one party controls the government? Why don’t they get more upset about the restrictions against the press, or the internet censorship? I didn’t realize until this trip how important those things are to me. To see “listeners” gathering inside the gates of the Forbidden City as they prepared to mingle among the people in order to spy on them was one of the most surreal things I’ve ever witnessed.

Despite what’s been said above, my overall impression of people in China is that they are a very hard-working and humble people. They were respectful and polite. The people that I was able to enter into conversations with struck me as very normal. They seemed basically the same as us in all the things that were important.

Business and Economic Impressions
In Hong Kong it was impossible not to be impressed with shipping areas. The sheer volume of cargo was incredible. It was an amazing sight. I also noticed that there were a lot people emptying garbage cans in the city and sweeping streets. It seems like everyone who wants a job can have one.

It’s hard to say, based on our short visit, what aspect of China’s economy is most significant in relation to the global economy. The biggest thing is probably just how much it is growing. It’s just so big that it’s impossible to ignore. The consumption is huge and the capacity to produce, given the lower than average labor costs, is something that will keep China involved in the global market for years.

The thing that I really took away was that China is a lot like the United States. If a person wants to start a business and be an entrepreneur it is possible. I was surprised that the government wasn’t more involved than it seemed to be. Like the United States, it seems like it is basically up to the individual to choose their own path.

Business and Cultural Visits
My favorite visit was to Westminster's MBA partner school in Shanghia, Donghua University. It was really fun to meet the students there and to listen to their stories. It was a pleasure to talk to them about their plans and the possibility of them coming to Utah. It was a really good experience just to get to know people from the other side of the world.

International Relationship and Cooperation
It’s hard to form an accurate picture of the relationship between the U.S. and China having only been there for a week and a half. Right now it seems like the relationship is mutually beneficial. Certainly as a supplier China is a good partner for the United States.

I suppose that this is also a divisive point from a different perspective. Many people here in the U.S. don’t seem to appreciate the fact that the relationship is all one way. Once China makes it easier for the U.S. to export to China I think that the relationship will be better. I also imagine that it is frustrating for the entertainment industries that there is such a piracy problem in China.

Final Thoughts

I think that the trip was beneficial from an overall perspective. It’s always valuable to learn about new cultures and to see what life is like for other groups of people. I also got a lot out of traveling with this group. It was great fun to get to know people better. For a group as big as ours I thought things went incredibly smooth. Everything was well planned and executed.

COMMUNIST CHINA
For the most part, the fact that China is a communist country isn't very noticeable. I just wanted to put in a couple of photos that reminded me that I was actually in a country with a communist government.

This is right outside of Chairman Mao's tomb, in Tiananmen Square.

These are the "listeners" that I described above. Our guide told us who they were and explained to us what they do.These soldiers dressed in everyday clothes and then mingled in the Forbidden City just to listen to people.

BEIJING The Bird's Nest. Most of you are probably familiar with the Olympic stadium in Beijing. This was actually a lot cooler than I thought it was going to be. It was an impressive building.

The Great Wall.

Inside the Forbidden City.

This is the entrance to the Forbidden City. Note the picture of Chairman Mao. Crazy.

SHANGHAI This is the telephone/power line setup in Shanghai. Nice, isn't it. If you look on the pole on the left you can see a guy in there working on something. Good luck, dude.

This was a really impressive garden area in the middle of the main shopping/commerce area in Shanghai. It was absolutely beautiful here.

Another picture of the garden area.

This is one of the tallest buildings in the world. This is also not fog. It is smog.

XI'AN This is a picture from atop the city wall. On the left you can see the moat that runs around the city center that is enclosed by the wall. It was really impressive. Xi'an was very hazy. According to the guides, 90% of the haze was due to pollution. This picture doesn't even do it justice because it had been raining so much that day when I took this picture. The day before you would not have been able to see the buildings in the background.

This is on top of the city wall, which runs around the main city center in Xi'an.

Traffic in Xi'an is indescribable. It is simply a free-for-all. The weird thing is that it kind of works. People didn't seem to get upset with each other at all. They just drove crazy, but they never got mad. I rode in several cabs in this city and it felt about like riding the wild mouse at Lagoon.

The Terracotta Army in Xi'an. This was very interesting. I would say it was one of the major highlights of the trip for me. I won't go into detail here, but if you want to know what this is you can check out this link: http://www.travelchinaguide.com/attraction/shaanxi/xian/terra_cotta_army/

These are replicas of the terracotta warriors shown above. (These are about 6 inches high.)

HONG KONG

I ran into a couple of missionaries in Hong Kong. It was cool to watch them as they worked at street contacting and just trying to spread their message in China.

One of the coolest things about this trip was getting to know so many of my school mates so much better. This was the international crew. Mark from Utah, Joe from Africa, myself, and Plarent from Albania. We were enjoying ourselves in a Bavarian themed restaraunt/pub on the Kowloon side of Hong Kong.

This is the floating city in one of the bays in Hong Kong. It was crazy. People literally lived their entire lives on these boats. The tour guide told us that some never ever leave the boats, despite being so close to the land.

This is where we went on the first night in Hong Kong. A group of us just wanted to check out the city. We saw all of these bright lights and thought that this would be a cool street to check out. Whoops. Red light district. Truly a sight to behold.

Griffin is now 2 years old. (Yes, he has been 2 for 2 months. So I'm a little behind.) Below you can see some pictures of him opening his presents. He is just a wonderful little boy. He is very sweet and kind. He is always very concerned about Lily when she is sad. He loves to laugh and play. He is really strong and really fast. I am so grateful that he is in our family.

If you can imagine, Griff really enjoyed his birthday cake. Melissa made another very cute cake.
Uncle Bill and Griffy. Their birthdays are only a couple of days apart.

Melissa positioned the candles in order to make sure that it was impossible to blow them out.

Griff got to help make his birthday cake. He was pretty happy about it. He loved licking the bowl.