To the Ends of the Earth

About 5 weeks ago, Jenny gave birth to the beautiful Geneva Lynne Swem, and I was blessed with the opportunity to meet her (and spend time with her wonderful parents and sisters) about the time she turned a month old!  It still amazes me that my twin sister lives on the other side of the globe... especially when it feels like no time has passed when we see other about once every year to year and a half.  Skype, webcam, email, China phonecards, and texting do help, but it is always so much better to spend time together on the same side of the world!  :)  It was even better being on Jenny's turf, since it's been 7 years since I've been to China (before I was even married) and even then I never got to spend time where she lived.  It was also really nice to be there for Jenny and the family with Geneva still being so little... I definitely enjoyed holding Geneva as much as possible or playing with Wendy & Vera when they needed it!

I had the absolute best time being there with the Swem family!!!  Thanks for hosting me!  :)  Jenny and I got to catch up on sisterly stuff while I got to be the fun aunt playing with my nieces.  I'll post a few pictures on here to help tell about my trip and I'll put more in my Picasa album (can click on the link on the right to view them).  I also put more on Facebook (including some of the general China pictures that our family has seen/taken often... I took a lot less of those on this trip!).  I took a lot of pictures so if you want to see more, just ask when I see you at Christmas or whenever we get together!  I do also want to thank again my amazing husband for encouraging me to go and supporting me through the whole time!  He did a great job while I was gone and I was glad to get back to him and my own children!

The first day I was there, Jenny and I took the girls to the mall play area with some friends of theirs and they played for hours while we chatted and started catching up.

Geneva hated baths, but was so adorable afterwards!  There's a cute picture in my Picasa album of Wendy giving her baby doll a bath in the tub right after Geneva's.  Jenny said that Wendy's been copying everything she does with Geneva with her baby doll!

We made a gingerbread house together!  The girls had a great time eating the sprinkles and decorations almost more than making the house!

Wendy and Vera love their new sister!

On the first day that it wasn't completely raining (at the end of the week), we took the girls out on their bikes to the courtyard of the apartment complex.

Wendy takes ballet at the mall and I got to see her at her class!  She was adorable!  She is very flexible and I got some more really cute pictures (on Picasa) of her doing some of her ballet exercises with her teacher.  This was at the end when they were practicing a dance.  After that they did a bumblebee dance and it reminded me of Jenny and I doing our Swan dance when we were that age!

We really had a good time together and can't wait to get together again!  I miss the girls already and told Josiah we'd visit China again (he was really wanting to go with me on this trip)!