A lot of Firsts...

First free day and once we got the Crusher tuned up, we programed the beach into our GPS and set off to find our summer hang out! I have the best pals to hang with in the summer! They are always up for something and are SO much fun to be around!

Cranes Beach

Ipswich, MA

Gorgeous drive down through various New England towns… we spotted these curious contraptions on the marshes…

It wasn’t until we arrived at Crane’s beach, paid for our parking pass for the year and read through the pamphlet they handed us that we found out what these black contraptions actually housed…

The Green-head Fly

Mid July these females lay their eggs and set off out of their minds, hungry — for blood. (Ironically the males don’t bite) These buggers make it difficult to relax at the beach for a few weeks in July. Unlike the mosquito, that draws your blood like a syringe, the green-heads cut several capillaries when taking a huge chunk with their scissor like mouth making for pesky beach day. Skin so soft seems to help… but in the end, these nasty flies put a huge damper on our beach visits during mid-July.

Our first guests!! The Kowal's!

West Bloomfield, Michigan

Our teams joined forces the first year we arrived in Shanghai and our friendship was instantaneous. Never in our wildest dreams did we think we would travel halfway around the world to find them! A couple of weeks after arriving in MA, we were lucky enough to score a weekend with the Kowal's… the weekend was not long enough… but a great way to kick off our new life here!

First trip to Fenway!

Well technically it is Jordan’s second time to Fenway — we brought her to her first game in 2005 when she was three.

But this time, she was determined to not leave without a souvenir!!!

Our family has grown considerably since then… and this was our first taste of American ball done right!

Jake Arrives!

Charleston, South Carolina

First family guest!!! My sisters oldest and my first nephew & God son… Jake! I surprised the kids, making believe I was lost (easy to do) — picking him up at the airport. They were so so so excited he was with us.

Not sure how it happened, but Froggy, Logan’s night time pal, got packed in our storage shipment when we were leaving for China. It was a long three years! He came out of one of our first boxes we opened from Florida. Welcome back Froggy!!!

First trip into Boston …

Boston Harbor

Faneuil Hall

Jake and Ayden tied for biggest shopper…

Couldn’t resist the Chinese jump!

Samuel Adams… and his posers.

I had forgotten how amazing Boston is… tremendous history and culture at our fingertips. Sure wish I had paid more attention in social studies!

Paul Revere’s Ride…

Making dinner a night… Everyone had a job. The boys made a Chinese recipe we learned from Ayi Fang. Chicken fried rice. Have to admit… their dish rocked!!!

We definitely love living closer to our family…

The MOVE... Our Florida shipment arrives first.

Not the way you want to open your storage box… I guess anytime you use a company with rat in its name, you should know better!! It wasn’t like “Christmas” the way we thought it would be after not seeing our stuff for three long years. Instead, we stood at the threshold of the storage container wondering if this was in fact our stuff.

It was really touch and go wondering if the LIVE plant they packed was going to make it the three years… Really???

Jordan was very eager to have her bike and stash of balls out of the truck… She stood by each of the trucks they unloaded waiting for her stuff.

We basically spent three months “camping” at our house… Spending most days here and sleeping at our temporary condo at night. Makes you realize what makes a home… we grew to realize — it isn’t the “stuff” that goes into a house that make it a home… but a sofa would be nice!

While we waited for our toys to arrive… the kids got creative! This is the highly coveted new iPhone — with all modern conveniences such as this encrypted key pad. It can fit conveniently in Ayden’s helmet or shoe.

Slowly but surely we are exploring our new town, meeting neighbors and settling in… Looking forward to our new adventures to come here.

The Journey Home...

It officially feels like summer when we pull the Crusher out of its storage unit in Charleston. Without even a slight hiccup, it always starts without a hitch and the rev of engine signals… summer!! Only this summer when we pulled the Crusher out of its small storage unit, it was for good. It was going to make the journey home … and kick off our next adventure — taking us to our new home in Massachusetts.

While adventures are most often fun and rewarding… some do not come without complications. About 5 hours into the first leg of our trip up the coast, we lost a tire. We had never used the spare and after sitting in storage for the past three years, we were a bit unsure of its stability. It sure was handy having our private engineer along for all those repairs along the way. My own personal pit crew.

With a two day drive, we finally landed in our new town…

I am not going to lie, ahead of finding a good gym here, I was the most excited to get a COSTCO membership. It took us 24 hours before we found ourselves sporting our first official membership in our new town.

The second membership we got was to the local library. Other than the fantastic library at the kids school… it was very hard getting used to the fact that there wasn’t a town we had at our finger tips that allowed us to go in and get lost.

So today was a great day… getting our own personal library cards.

Our new home…. Yard needs a bit of work, but we are so happy to call Boxford our new home… and thrilled to as always… be together!

No doubt… One of my biggest luxuries is owning a car. But I didn’t realize this luxury came with a high cost of spending time in the department of motor vehicles. More then a dozen times while waiting in line did my driver, Mr. Zhu cross my mind… After the two hour wait and being “served” by the woman with an excessive amount of facial hair, I came out with a new license plate and for the first time in my life, it read… Massachusetts!

Time to explore our new town… and after getting a town map, we realized we lived in a town with several lakes. I grew up spending summers on a lake and loved the fact that I was going to share this experience with my children. It didn’t take us long to find Stiles Pond… with a nominal fee, we became members and found our piece of paradise.

There were so many kids there, I knew our week long “look-see” was tough being jet lagged, but somehow we seem to follow our gut and things fall into place. It didn’t take long for the kids to meet other kids their ages and the pond turned out to be our hang out after hitting the beach all day or spending the morning unpacking.

I think we are going to like this next adventure in our life….