Fun with the Kester's

Since coming to China, Eric and I have been able to find many "kindred spirits" among the expats (I've beenwatching Anne of Green Gables this week). We are so grateful for our amazing friends. They've kept me sane in this country, and have been there during the good and bad times. Thus far we've introduced you to a few of our friends: the Warrs, the Nashs, and a couple others. But today you get to meet the Kester family! We first met Brenden/Alicia/kids at church, and got to know them a lot better when I started helping Alicia with her home-schooling adventures.  I also teach her kids piano. Eric and I have since spent a lot of days and evenings with this fantastic family. They have some of the cutest, most well-behaved children we have ever met. And they have 5 of them! Eric and I are constantly taking mental parenting notes when we're around. We love hanging out with them! After 6 months of practically living at their house, we've essentially  become adopted into the family. When I went to Hong Kong Disney with them a while back, one chinese lady asked if I was a daughter in this family! I don't think that made Alicia feel very happy ;) as she's only a couple years older than me. The kids love to retell that story though. 

Last month, we went bike-riding at the Shenzhen Bay Park. We had great weather, it was even a smidgen cool. I love this park. When it's not very busy and the weather is nice, you can almost imagine that you're not in China any more. The first time we went riding, Eric and I rented a tandem bike. Never again... it was a miserable failure. Apparently Eric and I are good at cooperating with most things, but riding a bike is not one of them. I think my balance and coordination must just be really bad. So this particular day, we got our own bikes ;) and we had a great time!

Here's the whole group

With the big girls

The gang in front of the "view". The sky and the water
are about the same color. It was a little disorienting looking into the horizon.

We also went with the Kester's to Guangzhou, the neighboring "town" of 13 million people, to visit the zoo. This spring was very nice and mild, so we tried to take advantage of the weather and get outside. It was a pretty standard zoo, not unlike the one in Shenzhen. We didn't have tigers to feed though :( Instead we got to feed the giraffes, and that was way fun. Plus we saw our very first pandas! All this time in China and we hadn't seen a panda. We thought it was important to do that before we left.

Here's the group, minus Eric

Eric feeding the giraffes

We fed them eucalyptus leaves, they have very long tongues 

They were strong, you had to hold on with both hands
or them would rip the branch right out. 

The kids loved it

Going on the "safari", any excuse to ride the train

Look at these eyes, awwww.

Our first panda, he was pretty boring.

A red panda, more like a raccoon than anything else.

Gotta love the koalas, I would be okay with one of these for a pet