{China} Day 4

 01.08.13

Tuesday started off a little slower. We were worn out from our HongKong Disneyland adventure and the time change, and jet lag didn't help either!

Dad was up and gone before we woke up. He had some stuff do at work. We slowly made our way to the shopping village that Dad had taken us to on the first day. Jenny and Katie got shoes (they had blisters from all the walking the day before) and we looked around a little until Dad met up with us and the day's journey begun.

Kind of like a maze, going through all the buildings. I couldn't help but think of all my photographer friends and how they would love all the buildings and streets!

 We made our way across the island to where most of the casinos are located on Macau (One of three islands connected with bridges that make up Macau).

We had lunch in the Grand Lisboa at the Noodle and Congee Corner. It was pretty good, always a little scary! Most of the time you just point to pictures to order!

My Dad ordered A Thousand Year Old Egg because he likes it. I had NO intention of trying it. Jenny decided she would try it and just ate it no problem. So I figured I would at least try it. I guess I made the mistake of smelling it first. But my gag reflex kicked in and I could not swallow! And that was the extent of trying "weird" food in China!

Macau is full of tunnels and alleys and different ways to get places. Everywhere has courtyards, gardens, and parks. Sometimes I wondered who they were for because nobody was there and they were totally out of sight. Like this big glass structure is a parking garage that goes down at least 5 levels with passage ways to lots of places.

Inside the parking garage. Moped city!

And I have no clue how they read their signs!

the elevators in the middle of the parking structure which was empty.

after we finally came out on of the tunnels after going up and down a million and a half stairs!

The Wynn. Dad wanted to show us some fun designs in the casinos.

Funny story: When we were at Disneyland the photographer was taking our picture in front of the Mickey flowers and kept asking us to do different poses. He had us put our fists on our head and said, "Mickey family!", put our hands out together and act surprised, "Tinkerbell!", and then hands out and growl. Not sure what it was for, but it made for good laughs!

The Chinese years at the Wynn. I was born the year of the pig.

 

They had lots of Christmas decorations EVERYWHERE! 

It was still my birthday in America so we celebrated that too. Dad made sure I got to have a candle to make a wish. Lots of yummy desserts!! And after we finished these ones we tried some more at another candy/ dessert shop.

more of the Christmas decor at the MGM.

Dad and Katie 

With a husband and 3 brothers in Air Conditioning I had to take this picture.

Walking to dad's office

Dad had to do a few things at the office so we hung out and ate all the candy at the receptionist's desk.

We got the company car and went to Taipa (one of the 3 islands that makes up Macau) to see the Galaxy, have dinner, and meet up with my dad's friend for a movie.

One of the areas my dad designed.

an elevator he designed. a lot more goes into the design than we would think.

another are designed by my dad

We went to see Jack Reacher. It was in English with Chinese subtitles. Their movie theater had regular, chocolate and caramel popcorn. I had a mix and it was delicious! Still a good movie the second time.

 We had more dessert after the movie. Some had Red Mango and some had crepes. The crepe was so yummy! (No wonder I gained so much wait on my trip!) While we were having our treats my dad ran into a big guy from the Galaxy and told us he would get us a couple rooms for the next night. And to think if we hadn't stayed for dessert we wouldn't have seen him!

 Another late night. We keep staying out later and later! Back to Dad's office and then to walk home (there is no where to park the car at his apartment). 

{China} Day 3

January 7, 2013

( My Chinese 30th birthday)

 We never thought about going to HongKong Disneyland until Jeremy saw something for it on our flight over. Dad  had meetings all day Monday, and one in the afternoon in HongKong and he didn't really want to go to Disney, so it was the perfect time for us. 

Dad dropped us of at the ferry port in Macau and told us, "Good luck!". After we got to HongKong he sent us a text telling us to find the train station and buy an "octopus card". Easier said than done! After we finally found the train station we were pros. We even had to switch trains twice. But we finally made it to Disney at about noon.

Jenny and Jeremy insisted that I get a birthday button and all day long the Disney employees told me "Happy Birthday" and gave me lots of stickers and treats! All of our food was definitely an adventure in itself. We were never really sure about what we were ordering or about what we were going to get. 

They LOVE their pressed squid there! It is like our churros, everyone has them! We tried our best to avoid the stands and those who had them because they were very stinky! We did find honey mustard popcorn which I was nervous about, but it was quite tasty.

The characters there were SUPER friendly too. They danced with us and hugged and kissed us.

 The parade was fun! A lot of the old school movies are popular there. And Stitch and Pooh Bear are their favorites!

 We LOVED  Toy Story Land!  

 The R.C. Racer was our favorite ride!! We hung out at Disney until about 7 before we headed back on the train. We met up with Dad. The train station is connected to a mall which is connected to the ferry port. I got to pick dinner since it was my birthday. I picked Oliver's Super Sandwiches. We had orange chocolate instead of birthday cake. It was pretty good!

Then we made it just in time to take the 10 o'clock ferry and have a nice couple mile walk home.

A VERY FUN and LONG day!!

walking home- Dad likes to live on the edge

{China} Day 2

 01.06.13

 My dad's friend from work picked us up from the ferry port. We then carried all our luggage up 5 flights of stairs. After I struggled a bit, holding everyone else up, and causing some comic relief, my dad came to the rescue and carried my bags up for me. We set our stuff down and were off to find some lunch. We were starving, hadn't eaten since dinner at LAX.

On our journey to find lunch.

The streets of Macau.

Ruins of the St. Paul Catholic Church.

We were happy to see DQ even though we never actually went there.

Random animal parts. Shark fin.

RANDOM

This meat (jerky type) was sold everywhere. Most of the time out in the street, just out, no covering.

Mopeds GALORE! Everywhere!

We never found the restaurant that my dad was looking for. We were starving so we settled for this little place.
It ended up being vegetarian, which was fine, but it was not good. A little nervous about eating the west of the week after this.

Stopped to get a few groceries. We were trying to ask what this fruit was called and the lady thought we wanted to buy some. So we did. Tasted like perfume!

We had some Mochi ice on the way home to get ready for church. Different, but yummy!

After we all showered and got ready we headed  to church. Stopped at this beautiful little garden on the way.

Church was 5 o'clock in the evening. And after 30+ hours of traveling we were tired! They have Relief Society first and I fell asleep. So instead of going to Sunday school jenny, Katie, and I opted to go to Primary to help us stay awake. It was so tiny, but still fun. Jenny, Katie and I did a musical number!

I think all of us fell asleep during sacrament except Katie, but she was just so restless.
This is the outside of their building on our way home to go to sleep!

{China} Day 1

Really...it should be day 1, 2, AND 3!

We left my house at about 2 o'clock Friday (01.04.13) afternoon

and didn't get to my dad's apartment in Macau until Sunday (01.06.13) at noon (Macau time).

5 hours driving to LA

3 hours waiting at LAX

15 hour flight to Taipei, Taiwan

2 hour layover

2 hour flight to Hong Kong, China

1 hour ferry ride to Macau

1 hour at immigration and baggage 

20 minute ride to said apartment

But... now it is lunchtime and time to get started

Getting there was half the fun! My dad is the only seasoned traveler so everything was an adventure for us!

Driving to LAX. YES! Jeremy is driving on the freeway and Jenny had them pose for a picture!

I was already worn out before our plane even took off!

Airplane food= No good Chinese airplane food= NASTY
Congee, fish floss, and bean curd sheets

The airport in Taiwan had a lot of Hello Kitty going on. So we had fun taking pictures to waste some time!

{New Year's 2013}

 We spent the first day of the year up at Mt Charleston with friends. The kids had a blast, Aubrey liked it at times,but the 4 other kids would have stayed there all day if we would have let them.

Such a fun family tradition. Just wish 2007 didn't happen so we could all enjoy tubing in the snow as much as the kids!!

{Christmas 2012}

We did celebrate Christmas last month!

I can't believe that January is almost over already!! Better late than never, right??!!

Just like every other year Christmas snuck up on me and I felt really unprepared and behind. We didn't  get to do all the fun activities that I would have liked to. We had a couple of weeks of sickness at our house too which did not help the situation. We still managed to have a great Christmas and we were reminded of the true meaning of Christmas at the live Nativity that we attended as a family and also at our ward Christmas party where all the kids participated in a live nativity. 

Here are some of the highlights from December (or the stuff we have pictures from!).

Chloe danced at the Galleria Mall again this year. She missed the day before when her competition team danced because she had such a high fever. She was so sad to miss, so she pretended to feel better so I would let her dance. She didn't fool me, but I am such a sucker I let her go! She LOVES ballet and you can tell, she did AWESOME!!

 We had a gingerbread house party with some friends and a pizza night. Always a good time when we are together!

And then we managed to squeeze our family gingerbread house in before Christmas too!

 Christmas Eve was just like every other year. At my parents with all my family and WAY too much yummy food!

 We came home and put some cookies and milk out for Santa.

Christmas day was nice and mellow. We opened presents, went to open presents at my mom's and then back home to relax and play with toys. We made a steak dinner and Chris' dad came over. I think everyone was happy with what they got!