Next stop...

Hong Kong and then Bali!! I'm not sure how much I will be able to blog over the next two weeks. October 1st is a National Holiday here which is extended until October 7th. We are taking advantage of Danny being off of work and the kids out of school and heading south! We leave bright and early tomorrow morning for two days of fun at Hong Kong Disney, after that we will be on our way to Bali for 9 days of basking in the sun!

I will post pictures as soon as I can!!

Mr. Halloween!

I've decided that since the stores all have their Halloween decorations out that it is appropriate for us to put ours out too! Danny also brought almost an entire suitcase filled with Halloween goodies, decorations, and costumes for the kids from America, so it just made it harder to wait! Last week before we went to Qing Dao, we put up everything we have! Eens, of course, was so excited! He wore his witch hat all night while we did decorations. He has even declared that October is his favorite month, not May for his birthday or December for Christmas, but October for Halloween!! It is a bit ironic considering how scared he is of some of the costumes, but if it makes him happy, it makes me happy!! And it is impossible not to smile watching him get goofy!!
And, Cooper doesn't miss a beat! Within minutes of hearing that Halloween may be sometime in the near future, the boy was dressed up in one of his many costumes!!

Tsing Tao Brewery!

We finally reached the Tsing Tao Beer Museum and Brewery on Saturday afternoon. We all agreed that we couldn't go to Qing Dao without a visit to this well known place! Plus, we all have all had a few Tsing Tao's during our stay here in China so it was only appropriate that we see where it is made!
Coop and Eens couldn't wait for daddy to see all of the "beer" that was coming out of the fountain!

Of course, there were samples provided throughout the tour!

The kids were excited to finally get to the brewery part of the tour. They kept telling me, "look, there are real people down there!"
I guess you can't have a beer museum without a "drunken house"! When you walked in, you totally lost your balance. Unfortunately, the kids thought it was great fun - I'm not so sure they got the message that drinking too much makes you feel not so good!!


At the end of the tour there were more samples. We thought it was all you can drink, so we stayed until closing time(no worries, it was at 5:30!), only to find out that we were all supposed to get just one sample!! Thanks Tsing Tao for a really good time and the free beer!!

Polar Ocean World!

On Saturday morning we ventured to Polar Ocean World. My expectations were not high given that most animal exhibitions in China are poorly taken care of! I was pleasantly surprised by the cleanliness and the care that is given to the animals. Most exhibits were as close to the natural environment as possible. There were a few, of course, that need a bit of updating and the animals need more space, but overall, it did not leave me with that guilty feeling I usually have!! When we arrived we walked right into the dolphin show. We missed a few minutes of it, but what we saw was great! The kids loved watching the dolphins perform and so did Danny and I!!It took me a minute to realize that this man was fake. In the photo it looks more fake than it did in real life! We all got a pretty good giggle out of it!We all enjoyed watching the penguins waddle around. It was probably one of my favorite exhibits. They even put an ice sculpture of a penguin in the enclosure so we knew it was freezing in there!The kids all loved climbing all over this pirate ship! I was a bit concerned when I saw this sign! Of course, Coop and Lucy were standing right beside it!
And, it wouldn't be a Chinese aquarium if there were not amble opportunity to feed different animals! Here a lady paid to feed the whales!! I'm not so sure I would get that close to the tank!The big boys were very tolerant of our morning at the aquarium...they knew the next stop was the brewery!!

City by the Sea

On Friday we flew to Qing Dao on the Yellow Sea. This is one city I have been wanting to visit since we moved to China, but Danny always found somewhere else he wanted to go! We finally had a very good excuse to go explore when our dear friends moved there this summer rather unexpectedly. We know Qing Dao for the brewery that resides there, Tsing Tao, and also because the sailing events were held here during the Olympics. We had no idea what a fantastic city we would be visiting! By the end of the weekend, the boys had decided we would move there and live in a big hotel like our friends!!

The flight to get there is less than one hour from Tianjin, so we were there on Friday morning well before lunch! We checked into the Le Meridien (the beautiful hotel our friend is managing) and wandered around the shopping mall next door looking for lunch and wondering why Tianjin didn't have a nice "mall"! After lunch some of us went to the famous May 4th Square, where in 1919 protesters demanded sovereignty. It was granted, but in 1922 China began ruling again. The square is very close to the Olympics site and was a fantastic place to explore on a late summer day!

We browsed through the outdoor market and saw everything imaginable!! Even locals dressed up in quite scary costumes trying to make a few RMB by charging anyone who wanted a picture with them!

We enticed the kids to do more walking by bribing them with ice cream! At this point we were way out numbered...8 children to 4 adults so we allowed them to climb on anything and everything they could! The locals were definitely trying to figure out which child belonged to who!!

After ice cream the rest of our group arrived and we walked along the sea until late in the afternoon. We did manage to go into the sailing museum, only to completely infuriate the security guard. The kids had all ran intothe museum and went straight to a huge model of the city. Theguard was yelling at us to buy tickets, but we played ignorant because we knew we were only staying for a couple of minutes. He didn't know what to do, so he just watched with an unhappy look upon his face!

And you can't have a city by the sea without a Hooters, or should I say sHooters!! How funny is that? At least they acknowledge that they are completely copying off of the "real" restaurant!!

My feet were exhausted when we finally made it back to the hotel!! Now, looking back on all of these photos I am once again completely grateful for the wonderful friendships we have built in just 2 1/2 years!! We are extremely blessed!

More to come...

Precious Children!!

On Wednesday when I was feeling terrible, my wonderful children woke up early to make cards for me! They are truly the best and I am so thankful everyday that they are mine!!

I just ignore the part that says, "not Cooper". She eventually came to her senses and included him also!!

Vulnerable...

That pretty much sums up the word that comes to mind after our week that Danny was in the US. Last week, I blogged about our beautiful weekend in Beijing and I truly had high hopes that the week would sail right by and Danny would be home very quickly.

Unfortunately, those hopes were short lived! On Monday I was extremely tired and having lower back pain, but I just chalked it up to the fact that I was on my own (no Danny and no ayi) with three children to take care of!!

On Tuesday, the back pain was worse, but I went on my merry way and went to a friend's house for a home cooked Vietnamese meal. I ate a ton of food and felt fine after lunch. Within two hours of being home, I started getting really cold and shivering. I still had to help the kids with homework, piano, make dinner, and give baths, so I kept going. I finally got the kids to bed and checked my temperature and sure enough it was over 100. I took some Tylenol and fell asleep on the couch, unsure of what was wrong. I woke up a couple hours later and had uncontrollable shaking - almost to the point that I was scared that something bad could happen. Earlier in the evening I had written down our very close friends' phone numbers for Ellie to call in case I needed something. She was so precious and loving - all she wanted was to take care of me - I cried! I really didn't want to scare her, so I called my mom instead and asked her what to do! Her advice was to take more Tylenol and try to sleep! I carted myself off to bed and finally fell into a very fitful sleep.

The next morning I did my best to help the kids get ready for school, but Ellie honestly did everything. I went straight to the doctor after drop off. She was pretty quick to diagnose me with a UTI that had spread up to the kidneys. She gave me some strong antibiotics and sent me on my way! I took the pills, slept for a bit and I felt a little better. The kids came home from school and we played and I was starting to feel okay.

On Thursday I woke up and felt great! I went to a luncheon and did some shopping and just assumed that the worst was behind me and I was on my way to recovery!! It wasn't until about 11:30pm that I realized something was wrong - I couldn't sleep, my fever was back, my skin was bright red, and the toilet was my dear friend. It took a quick google search to figure out that I was having a bad reaction to the medication. Once again, I suffered through the night feeling terrible!!

I had some things that had to be done on Friday morning (watching El and Eens in their Moon Festival Assembly) before I could go back to the doctor and get a different medication. By the time I was called into the doctor's room, I could barely sit, I was in so much pain. He agreed right away that I was having a reaction to the medication and he also did an ultrasound of the kidneys to make sure there was not a blockage. Thankfully they were just swollen! He gave me new medication and a warning to rest!

On Saturday I did feel better, but still did not have an appetite. By this point I hadn't really eaten anything since the huge lunch I had on Tuesday. I was weak, but definitely feeling better. The kids just wanted to play at home, so that is what we did on Saturday and Sunday as we waited for Danny to get home. I was so thankful that they were happy doing crafts, building legos, and helping me bake a little!

When Danny finally arrived home on Sunday night, I just cried. I was so happy he was home. For the first time since we moved to China, I had felt extremely vulnerable. We are fortunate to have friends that would help in a moment's notice, but we all have the same difficulty with transportation and verbal communication. We all are also in the same boat with no extended family to help us. And, if there was a situation that we needed extra help from them, we would have to wait for visas to be processed and all of the other hassles that go with traveling overseas. This vulnerability is definitely one of the hardships of living in a country such as China. It takes a lot of praying for me to overcome this feeling, but I try really hard not to let it become an obsession!!

It is now Wednesday, and I am almost back to normal!! Just in time to start our fall traveling!

Weekend in the "Big" City!

As I mentioned before, since Danny had to fly off to the US on Saturday, the kids and I decided to spend the weekend in Beijing. The skies were so beautiful, we almost forgot where we were!! It is still very hot - 90 degrees, but much of the humidity is gone, so it is bearable to be outside again!!

We spent yesterday having lunch with friends, getting El’s makeover and my grey hairs covered (at what age is it no longer premature greying??!!)!! Our very dear friends watched the boys for most of the time while El and I were at the salon - it was very sweet of them!! We then had to shop a bit around Pinnacle Plaza, I can always find something I “need” at Jenny Lou’s! The kids spotted the bounce houses and lasted only about 20 minutes before they were in desperate need of drinks!! We treated ourselves to some yummy smoothies and then went off to check into our hotel!

Karen, John, and the girls were also up for the weekend! John was supposed to go to a conference, but he couldn’t quite pass up the opportunity to see what tai tai’s do in Beijing!! (I think he maybe is rethinking his decision to skip the conference - although he was a very good sport regardless of all the nonsense!) We met up with them at the hotel and went off to Yashow to find some tennis gear! The kids were great being pulled all over looking for tennis skirts (which they are not interested in at all!). The workers couldn’t quite figure out what was going on...a Western man with two women and five children!! I can only imagine what was going through their minds!!

Playing Ring around the Rosie at Yashow while the mommies tried on tennis skirts!!Playing school in Esprit where the mommies tried on clothes!Coop taking care of his "girl" - you must know, straight from Coop's mouth, "I've already fallen in love with her!"

After a semi-successful shopping trip we went to create utter chaos at Element Fresh. We had no reservations on a Saturday night and walked in begging for seating for 8. The poor manager scrambled around and within minutes pieced two tables together. The kids were starving by this time so we ordered smoothies and their food. The smoothies came, and after I messed up who got what, Eens spilled most of his while pushing it across the table and then Coop dumped his entire smoothie onto the chair!! I’m sure the manager was wondering why he had worked so hard to find us seating!! Thankfully our meals came quickly and satisfied all of the little tummies!

Whenever I am in Beijing, it is a necessity to get a foot massage. When we got back to the hotel I quickly booked three foot massages!! I had just enough time to get up to our room, clean the kids feet (they were filthy after being outside all day) and get back to Karen’s room where relaxation awaited!! Once again, what must the massage ladies have been thinking??

On Sunday, the kids and I woke to hear Danny’s voice in America (I’m always so thankful when he arrives!)!! We slowly got up and checked out of the hotel. I wanted to explore a bit and knew I had to choose kid friendly places to keep three lovely children happy! We went to a children’s museum called The Magic Bean. It was fantatic - just like the children’s museums at “home”. All the areas were completely hands on play. I foresee many trips here in the winter when we can’t be outside! My favorite area was the grocery store - it was all local foods you would find here!! Entire crabs, lobsters, and fish were wrapped up, along with bags of rice and seasonings one would use to cook Northern Chinese food!! We all had a great time and we would have stayed longer if another beautiful blue sky day wasn’t waiting for us!

After Coop filled his cart, he was too scared to pick out the lobster and crab - I don't blame him!!

Eens built a house and then pressed a button to see if it could stand through an earthquake.

Our next stop was Chaoyang Park which was directly across the road. We had visited this park before, but it was wintertime and too cold to do much exploring. We walked and walked! El road the log ride (Danny probably would have never allowed this!) and we all road in a dirty motorized boat that went 7 km an hour!! I loved every minute of it! The kids were so well behaved and I think just happy to be outside!! You would have never known we were in the middle of a huge city!!

We were starving by the time we finished our boat ride so we went to Fatburger (the best burgers in Beijing I must say!)!! El and Eens ate their entire burgers which were huge! Coop ate about half of his, but drank his entire Fanta!!

We then went for haircuts for the boys, a few groceries for me, and to pick up Mei from the kennel!! We were completely exhausted and totally rejuvenated to start a new week!!