Skating Queen!

On Sunday morning Ellie and I woke up to another beautiful blue sky day. She had been begging and pleading all weekend to go ice skating, so we decided that today would be the day (it had to be because we were leaving at noon!!). We found out that there was an ice skating rink within walking distance so we got all wrapped up and set out. It was truly bitter on this particular morning - one of those days when your nose hairs freeze with your first breath, but El was quite the sport and walked the whole way there!!

Once we were at the rink, which was of course just a frozen pond, we paid too much for ice skates, watched a man cook his breakfast over the open fire, and then slid our way to the ice!! It was probably very funny watching El and I! I am not that confident on the ice and Ellie apparently forgot the lessons she had a few years ago in the states!!

Even though we were not the most graceful, we had a ball giggling around the circle!! I love spending time with Ellie. She has the most fascinating spirit. When I'm with her, I can't help but smile and enjoy myself. I love all of our "talks" we have when it is just the girls! And I am so thankful that my 8 year old will still give me tons of hugs and kisses!!

We had a very fun weekend which I'm sure will be one of our best memories of China!

I know what's in there!!

I rarely see Chinese children flying with us on planes. This is most likely due to the expense. I thought it would be much cheaper to fly domestically here, but it is very similar if not more than flying throughout the US. It probably also has to do with the fact that many families live together, therefore eliminating the need to travel to visit family members. It most likely also has to do with the fact that most locals prefer bus or train travel. One can get almost anywhere in China on a bus or a train if they are willing to sit patiently for days. They are in the process of building the fast train to connect major cities, which will help to make train travel less painful!

I do have a point here!! On our trip to Harbin we had a few small children on our plane. The first thing I noticed was that they had on slit pants. Seeing as we were all going to be on the plane together for the next hour and 45 minutes, I started to panic. Where in the world was that baby going to urinate and perhaps poop?? In my heart I was hoping it was not on the floor or the seat (as I looked at my own seat, I did notice some stains!). Let's just say I was a bit disgusted, but thankful when I watched one mommy carry back a bucket to the toilet. I'm not sure how she "knew" the baby was about to go, but she must have caught it!!

Harbin, China (about as far north as you can go!)

This past weekend Ellie and I traveled to Harbin, China for one of the world's largest snow and ice festivals!! Danny decided that practically going to Siberia would not be fun for him, so he kept the boys for a "boys" weekend! El and I flew up on Friday and began our getaway at Zhaolin Park which was filled with all things Disney in ice and snow. The sculptures truly took my breath away - they were amazing. Of course, I had hundreds of questions about how they can actually make these huge scultptures in time for the festival, which runs from late December until early February, but then I remembered that, when in China, all things are possible!!

Harbin is typically very, very cold (obviously) but we lucked out and our weather throughout the weekend was actually warmer than our dear friends in Bettendorf and Chicago were experiencing! We were very thankful for that because I'm sure it helped make the experience so much better than if we were freezing!!
It was still cold enough to freeze these poor hawberries that had been dipped in sugar!
Ellie was on a gigantic swing with a beautiful ice house behind her! This is Sleeping Beauty in all of her snowy glory!
One of our favorite parts on this night were all of the ice slides that were scattered throughout the park! This particular park was the smaller of the three, so it was not very busy at all (by China standards). The kids got to go up and down as many times as they wanted on the slides. I have to admit, I'm pretty sure I had just as much fun as Ellie!! The only thing troubling was the fact that there appear to be no safety standards in China, so we made sure to watch people go down the slide first to see if it was safe!! The biggest safety issue for me turned out to be my Uggs - apparently the traction is awful on ice because I fell numerous times!!
I think I may have beat El down this slide!! After all of the sliding, we needed to relax in these wonderful ice chairs!!
I have many more pictures to share, but I am experiencing a bit of technical difficulty with my computer, so hopefully tomorrow it will fix itself!! Stay warm and enjoy this last bit of winter!!

Snow and Ice World

On Saturday night we ventured out to the Snow and Ice World. We left the hotel close to sunset so we would get a glimpse of the sculptures in the daylight and at nighttime! As you can see below, it was starting to get cold!! I think when we left the temperature was getting close to 0 degrees!

Snow and Ice World opened in 1999 to welcome 2000. It continues to grow every year. This year it encompasses 400 thousand square meters. The artists use over 120,000 cubic meters of ice and 100,000 cubic meters of snow. The structures were AMAZING - nearly all of them were life sized or over sized!! When the lights came on it was truly magical!

Of course, there was plenty of fruit dipped in sugar everywhere we looked! And Ellie went straight for the slides. However, this park was extremely crowded, so we had to watch the locals who most of the time forget how to que. Ellie is not nearly as pushy as her mommy, so I ended up standing guard while she went down the slides!!

The lights were just beginning to come on in this photo! Isn't the size just amazing?!
We wouldn't feel at home if there weren't some sort of animal being exploited for money! Thankfully Ellie was not interested in anything that had to do with the poor animals.


The Forbidden City in ice!

Here is one of the Terra Cotta Warriors...

It's starting to get dark now, just in time for our final tube ride of the night!! This one was pretty scary, but we all made it down safely!

Words truly cannot describe how beautiful this was at night! I have never experienced China in such a magical, transformed state!

Harbin by Day!

On Saturday morning we woke up to a breathtaking blue sky (these are rare for us, so we never take them for granted!)!! Like I said before, the weather was mild for us midwesterners, now for our dear Brits, it may been a bit chilly!

We spent several hours at a park called Sun Island. The sculptures here were all made from snow. They were enormous as you can tell from some of the pictures with people in them. I can only imagine that creating these beautiful pieces of art had to be a painstakingly slow process! The details on each and every one of the sculptures was amazing!
This was about 1/3 of a sculpture of the Great Wall.
I thought these were beautiful ladies. You cannot tell in this picture, but I'm sure they were well over 25 feet tall.

This was one of my favorite sculptures because of the hats. It was in a series of approximately 10 sculptures on folk dancing.
Because the weather was a bit warmer, we did see many workers freshening up some of the sculptures on exhibit!

I have always longed for a "street" sweet potato, so I finally gave in while we were checking out the Temple of Heaven sculpture. It was nice and hot, perfect for a winter day!
Ellie opted for the bananas dipped in sugar instead!! Big surprise!!
El and Sophie in front of Mr. Carnival! It gives you an idea of how large these sculptures were!
Down another slide, except at this park they actually cost us money. El and I both went down one slide and it cost almost $7.50 - obviously they were counting on a lot of foreigners to pay this price!!
This giant buddha sat in the middle of a large lake! I decided if the lake could hold this monstrous structure, it could surely hold El and I!!
Here we are getting ripped off once again! I kept trying to ask the gentleman how long the dog sled ride would be because I didn't want the rest of our group to have to wait. In my best Chinese I asked if it would be 5 minutes, "oh no", 10 minutes, "oh no", and on and on. Ellie begged and pleaded enough, so I finally agreed. Less than 3 minutes later and out $7.50, we had made our little journey in one very small circle!!

After our day of fun in the snow, we headed back to the hotel to rest up before our big night adventure!

Ahoy Matey!

This afternoon the boys and I enjoyed a beautiful winter day outside. Ellie went to a friend's house, so I got alone time with just the boys! We haven't been able to spend much time outside since we moved because it has been too cold! Today we hit the mid 40's, not exactly beach weather, but perfect for some fun at the park! We walked to the park closest to our house and I have to admit I was thrilled to see quite a few expats out and about!! I DO HAVE NEIGHBORS - yippee!! I was beginning to wonder if they existed!

The boys played and played on their "pirate ship"! Then, they decided they wanted ice cream, so we walked to the convenience store, which is also close to our house!

This is our newest landmark...a zebra in someone's yard. We use this house to tell people they are getting close to our house since street signs are basically non-existent!!

Seeing Red

We're getting closer and closer to the big Chinese New Year celebration as evidenced by the extremely loud fireworks and the red lanterns all over!! This year the festival begins on February 13th and we will enter into the Year of the Tiger!!