Japan, Thailand, Taiwan, Google

My flight back to Shanghai boards soon so I've got to be quick.  Today was very interesting.  My company was invited by Google to come and give a speech about how we utilize Google Maps with our products.  Since the show was in Japan by default I was the one to go.  There were only 750 in attendance for my Steve Jobs-like speech.  I had to speak through a translator and everyone in the audience had a headset to hear the simultaneous translation.  Since I've done my fair share of simultaneous translating myself I knew what things to avoid and how to speak so it would be easily translated.  The translator was grateful and she did a great job.  It was a bit nerve wracking but Steve Price would have been proud.  The other guest speakers were quite boring and went over time.  I was given 10 min to speak.  I got up there, did my things, gave an awesome speech if I do say so myself, and was off the stage in 9 minutes.  Immediately after one of the executives from Google came back stage to thank me for coming and say how happy they were with it.  The even coincided well with a product launch we are doing in Japan anyway so it was good for us to.  Enough about that.

This was the stage I spoke on with three big screens showing my presentation to the crowd.  

On a training ride awhile back in the mountains near Shanghai

Will is wearing is biking jersey and sitting down for a healthy-sized bowl of plain rice.  My kids do love their rice.  

Bath time with Cheeks.

Swimming in the tub.

couple of weeks ago I did a two day stage race on the East Coast of Taiwan.  This is me in the red on the left sprinting to the line at the end of a rain-soaked 170km stage.

My new bike.

The diet that Jen is trying hard to get us all to do.  

Jen and Will doing their morning Rip60 workout out on the covered balcony.

June very happy to get some ice cream.

Last week was a holiday in China so I had the chance to go to Thailand and do a 5 day stage race, like a mini Tour de France for amateurs, or so I thought.  The race was stacked with pros.  One guy had a lifetime ban from pro races for testing positive twice.  His finished 3rd overall in this race.  The guy that won the race was racing the world champion and tour de france champions just 12 months ago.  It was really cool to race people at such a high level but the race was super hard.  I could fill books to give the full race report but here is the basic summary.  Every day was about 105 degrees and 90% humidity.  We were doing about 6,000 feet of climbing per day and riding just over 100 miles per day.  I had three top ten finishes on the stages and was set to finish top ten overall until the final day when I got a flat tire 40 miles from the finish.  I was able to get another wheel from a friend fairly quickly but the peloton was gone and i was left to chase alone.  I was able to limit the damage but not able to rejoin the peloton to maintain my top ten GC (general classification) position and fell to 17th.  The race was epic and a bit of a breakthrough for me.  I was able to climb and hang in there with some very accomplished riders. 

Jen and the kids have been doing well.  Will passed his interview for school and will be starting in September.  The teacher asked Jen what she has been doing because it seemed like he had been in school for a year already.  Playing is the answer.  This school will allow him to do a lot more of that.  there are no desks in the school.

more later.

We don't get the chance to blog often, only when we're out of China, so I will take this opportunity to post some pictures of our trip this time and last time in October. This trip I came to resolve some kidney stones, get some dental work taken care of for Will, get June some immunizations, and have my hip checked out. It seemed as though every day was packed with at least one appointment, sometimes more. If I didn't have a dr. appointment, I scheduled a foot zone. My zoner, Jen, was so awesome and totally helped me work out the kidney stone. I swear by foot zoning, and loads of lemon water to detoxify. 

One day while I had an appointment Kristen took the kids to the zoo. She helped me out with my kids with every appointment I had. Words cannot express my thanks to her for helping me out. 

I just love Utah. I hold it dear to my heart. Last time we came to Utah Taylor and I were able to explore on foot while running the beautiful mountain trails in Cache Valley. When we were newlyweds living in Logan we would run together nearly every day in those beautiful mountains, so it was so fun to go do that again. H's house sits 400 meters from the best running trail in the state of Utah. You can run for hours and hours on dirt trails, and that's only one way. We also had a wonderful opportunity to stay in a friends cabin near Ogden Canyon and we were able to run and explore more trails. I ran in Deer Country right behind and below the cabin where deer were roaming so close by. We would look out the window every morning to deer sleeping right below 10 ft. away. 

Gotta love this smile.

June bug.

The B. fam.

Gotta love this smile too.

hiking in the majestic mountains of CV. 

Love this man of mine.

Will studying the Hogle Zoo map. When he got home from the zoo he ran up to me so excited, "Mom! I went to the zoo!" And he opened his pamphlet up and showed me all the animals he saw. His favorite was the giraffes. 

Will being eaten by a lion

Love this family of mine

June and Papa P.

This trip has been successful. I didn't take many photos I was so busy, but I was able to pass the kidney stone, get Will's teeth taken care of, get June's immunizations taken care of, had an MRI on my hip and one round of physical therapy, watched breathless sunrises and sunsets from a beautiful panoramic window view, played with  my kids outside in open, clean air, laughed with my family, baked some
biscottis with my mom (she did all the work, really. I just kept her company), spent 2 wonderful days with my sister (Red Barn is always a must, and cooking yummy food (she cooked, I just watched), visited my Grandma B, and my Villafane grandparents, ate Kristen's yummy chocolate chip cookies, went shopping with my mom, played cars with Will, and Will will say he enjoyed the cartoon network channels, and playing with his cousins for sure. He didn't want to leave the C's, he didn't want to leave my sisters, and when we left Lexie yesterday he said, "Where'd Lexi go?" "she went home, to go to bed, like we are", I said, and he replied, "but MOM! I need her!"
 and of course, I was able to go to the Logan Temple, and the Jordan River Temple. These were very special visits to me, like they always are.

And something funny-- one day Will was on the piano plunking out random keys, and singing, "All the single ladies, All the single ladies".

And June sure likes to dance. She's got rhythm like her dad. She can mimic Gangam Style really well, and also does her own version of break dancing. It's almost like a Jane Fonda leg lift, and she likes Beyonce.

The best part though, is that we get to return home to Taylor tomorrow. The kids are so excited to see him, and so am I. The first week we were here he was putting the heat on while road racing in Chengdu, and Taiwan. Both races went well for him. Him and his team ended up on the podium in Chengdu, despite a minor crash he had while coming into the final turn. He landed a few scrapes, and road rash on his left side, but is fine. I'm impressed he still was able to get up and pull off a 12th place finish. He just got his new black bike, looks pretty stealthy to me, so he's excited about that. Can't wait to return home and celebrate his birthday with him on Monday!

CNY 2013 - Philippines

The best part about Chinese New Year is leaving China.  Recently a friend moved to Shanghai and was really excited to be there for CNY and asked us what the most exciting part was.  Jen and I looked at each other, smiled, and then tried to come up with an answer that wouldn't crush their hopes.  CNY in China is one of those things that you should experience once, just once.  Been there done that and now we look forward to leaving.  This year we found a deal with frequent flyer miles to go to the Philippines.  It's warm and looked like fun so we booked it.  

Here is Will enjoying his in-flight entertainment and getting ready for his meal.  We flew on a Korean airline so the service was very good and Will was milking it.  Jen took June to the bathroom and she came back to find Will with a glass of chocolate milk.  How'd he get it??  He just told the flight attendant that he'd like some chocolate milk and that he was hungry.  This is what happens when a three year old is a Silver Medallion frequent flyer, yes he does have his own Silver card.  

Here is June at TGI Friday's eagerly awaiting her milk shake.  If this girl could drink all of her calories she would.  You'll notice that her curly mullet is getting ready to have its own website.

Since we were going somewhere warm with hills I decided to bring my bike along for some training.  I got up early and rode 4 hours each morning.  This is a random river somewhere outside of Subic Bay which is somewhere outside of Manila.  We had just ridden through a former Vietnamese refugee camp from the Vietnam war times.  They would process the refugees here before sending them on to the US. Subic Bay was a former US military base town.

Nice little tan lines from the first day's bike ride.  I actually ended up buying white arm sleeves and wearing those on the next days to protect my arms.  

June starting a chocolate milk shake...

June getting more involved with the milk shake...

June trying to get every last drop of the milk shake...

A very satisfied little girl.

This is Rambo.  He is a 21 yr old Filipino triathlete.  He is on the Philippines National team and is quite the athlete.  I rode with him on one of the days I was there.  It was very painful.  His 110lbs compared to my 158lbs made a big difference when going uphill. I was able to stay with him the whole time but I think he might have just been being nice.

This was a really old church we saw on one of the bike rides in the middle of some mountain villages.  The Philippines is predominantly Catholic.  Although the Philippines is in Asia it often feels more like South America.  

June downing a mango smoothy.  Philippines is famous for their mangos.

Will on his first ever horse back ride.  Not too many horses in Shanghai.  He thought this was pretty cool.  Later When June went for a turn together with Jen she looked at me and said "Baba, help me!" with outstretched arms.  She quickly got off the horse while Jen went for a solo ride.  

June always has a mouth full...

Overall the trip has been pretty good.  At the beach we were able to see a baby turtle hatch and crawl out to the sea for its first swim.  It was tiny and it felt like we were on the Discovery Channel.  We saw monkeys on the side of the road.  It wasn't all mangos and chocolate shakes though.  There were a few casualties along the way.  Jen got in a fight at the mall, I got food poisoning, June got eaten alive by mosquitos one night and broke my iPad, Will had growing pains in his legs and feet one night and spent the midnight hours crying.  But as Jen and I just reminded ourselves.  It's 90 degrees here and 30 degrees in Shanghai so we'll take the good with the bad.  We were able to spend a few days together as a family and that's what matters.  

I wanted to post a few more pictures from our October holiday Taiwan trip. We visited our close friends who used to live in SH, and then moved to Taiwan. I took some of these pictures from my friends blog.

June and Emma. June is very excited! Her and Emma had fun.

Will and Nathan. They are having fun together, if you can't tell by those big grins.

Tay and Ken. They had many long hours of biking fun.

Jen and Alli. We were excited to be kid free this one night. We painted the town red, went wild and crazy and bought late night slurpees while walking the night market. 

The beach was perfect. They stayed like this for a long time- hanging out floating in the water.

Will loved the train table. 

I also wanted to post more pictures from when my sister and mom came and visited us in the summer. It was such a blast to have them visit. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. 

cousins.

About to eat some really good Thai food.

Forbidden City. It was super hot and humid that day, but that didn't keep us from having a great time.

Temple of Heaven. Will was nick-named "The Boss". At one point he was walking through the forbidden city in his knickers. June was nick named "Ya Ya". All she would say that whole trip was "Ya Ya".

We tried to get a photo together. Only problem--no one to take the photo (my mom had left by then). This is the best we could do.

This is why I love China. Look closely. This man is sitting in his outdoor kitchen. This is pretty much all he owns. Look how happy he is.

I love these women! Thanks for a great visit Mom and Jaime. We laughed so hard. It was a great 10 days. Jaime took some really spectacular photos of the Wall. I need to get those from her. I have none.

"The Boss"

June turns 1! She is a beautiful little girl.

"I'm the boss!"