Tour of Xinjiang, and it's a Will Day!

Adding "Will" to the window in honor of "Will" day.

June fit right in at school.

It's a "Will" day at school. He shared a treat, and a favorite story with his school.

Taylor spent last week at a 5 day stage race with his team. It was a 5 hour flight to Urumuqi, and then an 8 hr train ride to Northwest China, nearly to the border of Kazakhstan. He actually did take a short drive there one of the days.  The terrain there is more like Nevada, or parts of Utah.

Lookin' good in red. Team uniform.

getting a proper bike fit.

At the tour. Lookin' good and strong! And professional!

TP at the front pulling his team-doing all the dirty work. He was a 'worker' at this race for another strong rider on his team. He's basically protecting the blue and yellow jersey, and protecting the other strong riders on his team behind the blue and yellow jersey. I think they were very thankful for him. He has an amazing ability to suffer at all costs for his team. It's really quite amazing.

At the front, again. He spent most of the race pulling the entire peloton. 

Any guess on which team won the entire 5 day stage race, and grabbed the yellow jersey, and all the other colored jerseys you can win?

Will with friends at a birthday party. Will especially liked the magic show.

June and friend, Ford. Aren't they cute.

Will can tri!

Will has been watching Taylor and me race in bike races and now triathlons, so naturally Will has been itching to have a go. There was a kids tri put on by one of the international schools here, so we registered Will. When we asked Will if he wanted to do a tri race he said, "Ya, but you have to let me win!" 

25 meter swim, 400 m bike, and 350 m run. We talked a lot about what would happen in the race, just to prep him, and he made clear to me on one specific point--I had to pump my fist in the air and shout, "GO WILL! GO WILL!" over and over and over throughout the race.

I also had to make sure he understood that not everyone can win, and that's ok! This is something to do for FUN! He was like, "NO, that's not how it works. If you don't win, you lose."

He's very competitive, and often gets super upset if he doesn't win games he's playing, bike rides, races up the stairs, you name it. He doesn't take a loss very well. I tried to explain to him that not being the first in something doesn't always mean a loss. I also explained to him that there were older kids in the race, with longer legs, and bigger bikes, and that he might not cross the line first.

I didn't know if he got the point. So I was a little bit worried about how he'd take it. 

 Getting ready for GO time.

 They ran the 4-6 year olds, and 7-8 year olds at the same time (7-8 year olds were in the next lane), so I was never sure his actual placement on the bike and run.

 Just chillin' with his kick board,

 checking out his placement.

 They wouldn't let parents in the transition area to help. Seriously??? He's 4!  However, they did have volunteer helpers who did a great job.

 passing a fellow friend on the bike. Will is on the red bike.

 Passed the friend.

 He's looking back to rub it in.

 In transition...

 To the run. 

 "I'm going to catch all you suckers!"

 He caught all of them in that pack.

 Good form!

 This kid has determination

 and grit! "GO WILL! GO WILL!"

It was hard for me to continuously yell out, "GO WILL!" over and over because I was trying to take photos, and because I kept getting choked up about it all. I was so proud of him for wanting to do this. A couple days before the race he wanted to leave the house earlier for school so he could have time to "practice" biking before the actual bike ride to school.

On another day he wanted to practice and had me hold a mock bike and run race. I was impressed with his desire and efforts. We have been talking to him about 'practice'. If you want to be good at something you have to work for it.

 FINISH LINE!

 When they gave him a medal he was happy, but also confused, "They gave everyone the gold medal?!"

Is it good to give out finishers medals to everyone? Or just top 3? I don't want him to learn that he can always get 'the gold medal' even if he doesn't win. Does that teach that no matter the effort, however great or small, you will be rewarded? Does this promote mediocrity? Sometimes I over analyze.

He was super happy with his medal, and at the end asked to do it again because he forgot to put up both his arms as he crossed the finish line…

Will, you're one awesome kid!

Moganshan Tri

This weekend I was able to compete in the Moganshan Triathlon. It was stunning. It had been rainy, and was drizzly the day of, which meant slick roads, and mud! for the trail run. Awesome.

When we started everyone took off in the swim. They took off fast. I couldn't figure out how everyone was going so fast! Especially since I was feeling so good in the water. We had to do 4 laps in the reservoir pictured below (1500 m). Isn't it beautiful though? The misty mountains I just love.

I got out of the water 2nd to last! Super bummer, but I just had to chuckle because that's oh so typical.

The bike was 2 loops (40Km)  in the mountains. Lots of uphill, lots of downhill. Dodging dogs, triathletes, cars, and bamboo in the road. I felt so strong. I was passing everyone like they were walking! I felt amazing. I passed all the women, and many men. 

The run was off road (10Km). Isn't it beautiful? I loved just letting it all go in the rain and mud. There was a major climb we had to do twice, and two deep descents that was hard on the body. There was one stretch through a village that was spectacular. Through cobblestones, past rivers, in hidden alleyways, through a few people's backyards, over fallen bamboo, over bridges...stunning. I felt pretty good here too. I passed many men like they were standing still. At one point on single track I caught up to two men and had to bite at their heels to let me pass. I thought they would try and keep up with me but they didn't even attempt. 

I felt on fire, and had a blast doing so. At one point I remembered a Nickelodeon show I had seen a LONG time ago where they were filming a summer camp. They were doing races in the mountains in the US somewhere. The one who dominated was a girl who was flying through the trails. I thought then, "WOW, I want to do that!" I thought of that as I was running through these mountains and thought, "I am living out my dreams! I am doing what I want to do!"

It was a beautiful day, and a beautiful race. My friend and her husband did the sprint the whole way together. She did absolutely fantastic. She is so strong! As I was running I could hear her loud cheer voice echoing through the mountains. She is great.

I think I need to work on my swim!!! 

Taylor raced today in Hangzhou. It was a 30 Km team Time Trial. They took the win!

I'll say it was a good weekend all around!

 "V" for Victory!

 Tay was able to cheer me on and ran with me for a bit. That was fun.

CNY, HK, daily life, and a field trip

 June's first ballet lesson. She loves going here especially since her good friend, Miriam, also is in the same class.

 Will insisted on wearing these while riding his bike one day. He said it was a mask to protect him from the "bad air". Haha! It actually was a pretty good Air Quality day, but funny that he's observed he should wear a mask on bad air days.

 Monkey June.

 One of Will's art pieces at school.

They had been learning about Antarctica and the penguins, and they actually got to make a penguin too. Very clever.

 June and her crew. We pulled out the pool and put it on our back balcony when the air became summery hot this past week.

 After the kids at school made their penguins this is what we found at pick up... It was pretty funny to see a yard full of penguins. 

 School photo. This is his art backdrop that he painted. More on that later.

 June with Will's backdrop.

 We got to go to Disneyland for CNY. Best CNY ever! We met up with good friends from China. They now live in CA. When kids were in bed she and I met up at the park and had 3 hours of really great fun! Love this lady! We had a blast.

 June with Mickey! 

 On the new Cars Land ride.

 June's favorite ride. Thanks for taking out the binkie for the photo!

 Will and June both were really happy to see these Disney characters from afar. We thankfully didn't have to wait in any lines to get individual photos from most of them. We did wait for Mickey and Minnie though.

 San Diego Zoo. June connected with this baby polar bear. She really has a special part in her heart for the babies of the world. Baby animals, baby humans, anything small.

 In the polar bear cave they have a speaker with a growling bear. When it growled at her she thought it was a real bear cave and one was after her. Terrified!

 baboon Will

 Monsters Inc. Door. 

 SD Zoo. 

 Will and friends after school at the park. These are happy kids.

 Will's school took a field trip to one of the neighborhoods in Shanghai that's being ripped apart to make way for modern construction. Most of the families have been moved to new and better apartments, so this neighborhood was pretty much vacant, but not completely. The kids were able to pick a spot on any wall to paint and write a message of what they wanted to leave behind. It was very special. Will drew a flower and said he wanted to leave behind a flower because they make people happy. This flower was a beautiful pink until he added black. But it is a flower. Then he wrote his name on the wall. I loved that he chose a door to paint on. We picked a door and some neighbors were like, "Ya, that's okay you can paint there no one lives there."

During this same field trip the kids were the ones who were supposed to take the pictures of these old neighborhoods. So Will was photographer for the day. He loved the underwear hanging out to dry and took numerous photos of these. Then on his choosing, they printed it out large, and painted over it for their school photo back drops, which is what you saw earlier. Amazing, isn't it. It took weeks for their backdrops to be complete. They really worked hard on them. They are all very fantastic.

His teacher then put together and bound a beautiful book titled, "Writing on the Wall". She compiled everyone's painting and message from the wall, and then quoted them on what they chose to leave behind, and why. Perfect.

 Completed painting and message. Can you believe this was someone's home only months ago?

 Our lovely friends who moved on to Singapore. We are so happy they are still in Asia. We adore this sweet family. Gus is a fantastic athlete and his wife is one of the neatest ladies I know.

 Another friend's farewell dinner with friends. We miss them tons! 

 June and K. are best buds. We are sad to see her go! But super excited to see them this summer!

 Writing on the Wall field trip. Boo!

 Will's flower.

 Women's Conference in HK. Jaime was able to join. It  made it so so so much more better to have my sister there. She reminds me of myself in so many ways. But the better version of myself. 

We know what each other is thinking. We can read each other's minds like it's the same brain! Love her.

 Shanghai sisters in HK.

 Beautiful, Will!

 Will took this photo. Pretty good job. This was the basis for his back drop painting.

 field trip photo. Someone's kitchen and utility closet right outside.

Exploring HK by foot, tram, subway, bus, taxi...