cozy season

It's crazy how listening to one Christmas song sends countless memories flooding into your mind.

The day after Thanksgiving we always hiked up into the Colorado mountains, hunting for the perfect Christmas tree. Snow always spilled down, transforming our little town.
Everything was magical.

But... guess what? I'm not in Colorado anymore and everything is still magical. And I'm so excited for this Christmas season! 

China loves their lights, so naturally they put up lots of Christmas lights and decorations. Sure they might be really big and tacky but I, at least, am thankful for them. 

Classical Christmas music has already been playing in shops and restaurants for about a month. Now we can actually enjoy and listen for it.

It will get bitterly cold too. The kind of humid cold that settles in your bones. Burrr.

I miss Colorado a lot right now but as you know I love where I live and I love that I will spend Christmas here! And this won't be the first or the last time. 

Last night I made myself a cup of tea, went up to my room with a candle and our Sara Groves Christmas Cd.

I turned off the lights. But then I kind of wanted to cry. Then Bethy showed me a picture of New Castle... So I decided to listen to the Cd as I went to sleep instead.

A couple of days ago we started listening to our Christmas music and decorating our home with the same, familiar decorations and in a few more days week and a half my brothers will be here... Yes, yes let me put some exclamation points in there---!!!

So here's to the month of December, which has yet to arrive, and to more Christmas posts on azalea blue. 

Shirt: Target (Brand new, brought over with my cousin!)
Tank Top: Target (brought over the Summer.)
Jeans: From a friend (they're used but I love them!)
Shoes: Hand-me-downs from my Mom and before that, my Aunt Judy.

All three photos taken by Becca.

Love, a

Give this song a listen,

and this one! We have too many favorites.

 Look at these shoes! (I don't know if I could wear these but I think they're really cute.)

Did you check this out???

New design! YAY! I guess the "cozy season" got to me.

p.s. To ALL my friends out there, I miss you guys. So much. <3

Photo's of the month~

Hey everybody! I am not back to China yet but I thought I would share a bunch of pictures of the last month! This last month has of course been AMAZING!!! There's gonna be plenty of story's to tell everybody when I get home!

Colorado is SUPER DUPER gorgeous!!! The sky was breath-taking most everyday!! 

Magical day! 

Mikayla's (She's in the purple) birthday at "Zheng" restaurant!!!! I'm in the Red and Becca is in the Yellow :)
(Taken by my sister, Beth Jones)

  Bubbles!!!! 

The AMAZING swing ride, up at the Glenwood caverns that takes you out over the canyon!!! I've been on it a total of 12 times now, counting when I lived here :)
Look it up on google!!!!

Love, A

I've been busy :)

Hey there friends!!! Please don't abandon me! I am on my vacation in America (since I live in China now) and it's my first time home, so I've been hanging out with all my friends, and doing everything! It has been SO amazing. The weather, seeing everybody again after nine months of being away from them, and being back to amazing, ol' Colorado!! The weather has been beautiful blue sky's and our mountain's have been so green and bold. I've enjoyed being here so much, although I do miss being in China.

Okay thats it for now, since I only have my little camera and I haven't uploaded most of the pictures to our computer yet, I'll just put up a picture I did on Polaroid (or is it Poladroid?.)
I love you all!!!

                                                                            Love, A

*My New Castle city* (It's really a town)

I LOVE NEW CASTLE! I can't wait to go back and see every aspect of it again, including all my friends who live in it and around it. We will be leaving China on June 19th, flying to California, spending two weeks there visiting all our old friends and family and having a jolly time! Then we will head to Colorado for Four weeks!!! We arrive on July 3rd. The next day we will see most everybody at our annual Fourth of July celebration!!! So exciting!!! So if you can't tell, I'm really excited.

Colorado is so beautiful. The Sky is so naturally blue. The air is so fresh and beautiful. The grass is very green although the climate is dry. You can swim in the water there, making the Summer's more bearable!
I'm not bashing China, because I love China :)

The feelings you get in New Castle around the Holidays are so special. We had such lovely traditions there, as we will and do have here, but different (Obviously?). I had and always will have GREAT friends there. I miss seeing them all the time and saying "Hey do you want to come over and spend the night?" Or "Let's go to Glenwood together." Ahhh. Glenwood was so nice too. There's more of a buzz there since it's a city, and the little shops and places to eat are lovely. I am so looking forward to doing everything. I know I can't do everything but not living there but still having it my home I want to enjoy it. It's confusing. :)
Anyway, I'll be there soon. I love you all and really WILL see you soon!!! Oh and here's the Chinese for that... Cong lui yue shi jiu hao dao ba yue wu hao wo men hui mei gua! Translation: "From June 19th to August 5th, we will go back to America!"

This picture was supposed to be of our Van driving away but I guess it was another one! So sad, but beautiful!

                                                             Colorado here I come!!!!!


                                                                        Love, A

Yesterday... Today

It is incredibly warm today! It smells like California and the sun is shining down making the air probably about 60 degrees. I can't wait to wear shorts and glasses and everything! A couple days ago you would walk out the door and feel cold air rush at you (slowly rushing) Yesterday I walked out and felt nothing but warmth and sunshine. There's still pollution in the air like always making it misty. But I actually got hot sitting on my front porch doing math! Its amazing! But the China summer is coming and it is boiling hot...

Oh well were in Colorado for most of it :) haha. So I hope wherever you are (and if you want it to)

get's warm and sunny in the next few days! Here is some more on weather and hopefully you enjoy reading it and imagining in your mind. One more thing. I just went outside again and that hot feeling is already going away. The Sun goes down so fast in a way.



I love the seasons! I was talking with my family about how every season in Colorado is sooo special.
The Spring starts and it is all fresh and the air is so beautiful and warm. The sky is sometimes very clear and blue. And sometimes it's rainy and thunder cracks which is so great! the rain makes everything shine with dew drops and leaves that beautiful rain smell behind~ Spring also brings my birthday, April 21st, which just sounds like spring! Spring gives you such a special feeling too! Not to mention Easter!
Then Summer rolls around and the sound of people mowing there lawns is exciting! The sky is super blue (like all seasons) and the sun shines so brightly and intensely especially at around 3:30 pm and on. We will eat outside on our back porch at the wooden table in our green, green, yard. After that we would sometimes go down to our frisbee field and play for a while in the last of the Sun, we all got good at frisbee (if you don't mind me saying). On Sunday's after church we would head down with al our great friends and play ultimate frisbee for a long time, getting hot with all the running. We would run down to the river and swim and cool off. Wearing shorts and a shirt is so nice too! Not having to bundle yourself right up to the top is relieving and fun.
Autumn would come and the leaves would turn slowly into those perfect autumn colors like always. The sky is crystal clear and it is still warm for the first part. Then it starts to get crispy cold and a little windy and the leaves fall to the ever dying grass and wait for the snow to cover there color with whiteness. Then comes Winter and the Snow all around is Beautiful! The white is so brilliant and the sun reflects off the snow making it so bright and, if untouched, perfect. One night, a couple weeks before Christmas, we went on a walk. The snow hadn't been plowed and so it was about two feet deep all over the road and no one had tramped through it yet. The Christmas lights were all shining on everybody's houses and they made it so festive and so special. Ben put us on the sleds and would run down the hill, it was so much fun! The light that night was so settled and kind of a cold, yet warm light.

Very dark and still, but with the snow falling and lights up and everything, everywhere was beautiful!

Then comes Spring...

Gearing up to say goodbye

This was a glorious photo shoot! We ran through the grass with bare feet and in the river. The sun was so bright like it always is, come 4:00 pm. The Summer air was so nice and down next to the river there was sand and, everywhere, big rocks. The sky was blue and clear! Mikayla, us three girls best friend did it all with us (of course!) It was about a month before we would be moving to China and it sounded fun to take 200 plus pictures of us mainly just to have fun but also to make a photo book out of and always have pictures of us together that night. My camera has never been that good but we were going to do the photo shoot with it so... All the pictures that night came out great!!! And very clear and pretty.
The weather was soooooo beautiful just like Colorado~

You can't even see most of the blue sky! 

Oh yeah! 

I like all the glasses :) 

The river was so pretty 

One, two, three ON A BIG ROCK 

Right over those rocks is the field we played many games of frisbee on every sunday!!!  So much fun!!!!

Mikayla got in a more comfy position! 

Even though I live in China and it is my home now (and you know I love Suzhou!), Colorado/USA (of course USA!!!!!!!!)will always be there and it will always be my "home". and I love it that way!
Love you Mikayla!

Colorado to Suzhou. 3 thousand to 6 million!

My blog is going to be quite a combination. I will have some of my music on it, at least the lyrics. Pictures and lots and lots about Suzhou (of course, hence the name.) Random fun pictures and writing's and really anything I want! I'll start with leaving home (New Castle) and coming to Suzhou, China and starting my somewhat new life.

Our goodbye party done by our church was amazing!!! It started at church, where they prayed for us, showed a slideshow and before we left they formed two big lines which stretched a long way.

We walked/ran through the lines. It was SO sad but the feeling it gave me was so cool! I ran through hugging and slapping hands and crying. The music they had playing was also very emotional so that added to the sadness. It was all great! Then was the party, which was beautiful! We enjoyed it SOO much and will always remember it. 

Then came the day we would leave. For the past seven years we have lived in Riverbend, and the beginning of the road to our neighborhood was what we (including lots of our friends) called "The end of the road" So for the last time we met some of our closest friends there and said goodbye. We drove off on the freeway, watching as New Castle became further and further away, and then, we said goodbye.

Then came Suzhou! We arrived in Suzhou sometime around the 6th of October and moved into our "Five Story House!" Several people were waiting for us at our new home. These people have become our good friends and have been so kind and helpful the past three months! We lived in Suzhou now! China!

                              

                                                           Colorado view from our house.

                                                   Suzhou view from our house.