Memories

It's wonderful to be home, although I really was having a wonderful time (besides the heat and smells), I wasn't really anxious to get home, I guess having my meals, bed and laundry done and visiting wonderful places was really a vacation for me. In addition, I had Simon, Rachel and now Sarah with me so it was a great trip.

Now we're trying to get over the jet lag which is a bit of a bummer. The girls have been waking up the last 2 nights at 2:00 and then we've been taking a super long nap, actually I think some of the times of sleeping have been a very deep sleep. Not good if you're trying to get back on CA time.

So after a bit of a nap this morning and keeping the girls busy with a visit to the library, shoe shopping, and the pool, Sarah feel asleep at dinner. After I woke her up and tried to walk her upstairs to get her into bed, (she's way too heavy to carry), she started crying. (like what is this crazy lady doing, one minute I'm eating, and haven't finished and now she's dragging me upstairs. So I took her back down the stairs and Rachel and I showed her the video and pictures we had taken when she had falled asleep while eating and when she sees the pictures and video, she got the biggest smile on her face and then went back to eating. Aaaaah memories.

Wish I had a picture to show you, but that willl have to come later when Simon comes back from his visit to England to attend Pete's graduation. Way to go Pete, so sorry we'll miss the celebration. Would love to have seen you graduate!

So instead of today's picture I have put some pictures that didn't originally make the cut but thought they were worth putting in Sarah's book as a memory, girls doing a puzzle and Sarah taking a picture, Rachel with friend Sophia, also in China to get a little sister. (very sweet, always had a camera, taking pictures), Simon in the pool with the girls (we had to wear swim caps). notice I didn't put a picture of myself because I thought this one was way cuter. Couldn't remember the last time I wore a swim cap, must have been when I was a kid. (Oh those memories). Simon and Rachel at site of Bejing 2008 Olympics, Sarah trying to take control of the microphone from our guide Amy. There is also a photo of an apartment on the way to Hong Kong from Guangzhou with clothes hanging in almost every porch. (I think I recognized one of my shirts hanging there from sending out our laundry).

Well that's it for the day. I'm going to bed so if the girls are still on China time tomorrow, I'll be ready.
Debbie

It's a small world

We are finally (home, home), as Rachel would put it. It still feels quite unreal to think just 3 weeks ago we left CA travelled over 6000 miles to Beijing, then to Shanghai, Guangzhou, took a bus to Hong Kong, went to Disney and then back to CA again. I am still amazed that there is now another little mini in our lives, and we are forever changed and changing.

Our trip to Disney was fun, hot, with no lines, or princesses. That’s right, no princesses. Be forewarned, though this could be a good thing, but at Disney Hong Kong, (unlike Anaheim, CA) where everywhere we looked it seemed to be about you know who, we found none, except Alice in Wonderland in front on the tea cup rides. We did see Minnie & Mickey Mouse, Goofy (tallest one I’ve ever seen), Pluto and Pooh. The lines to see the characters were 5 to 10 minutes long (amazing) or no wait at all, which made even in the heat at Disney Hong Kong, “the happiest place on earth”. And of course, my favorite was “It’s a small world after all”. I can still hear and see the girls holding hands on the way out of the ride and singing, “It’s a small world”. SWEET! Sarah’s favorite ride was “Dumbo”.

The trip back was pretty uneventful, we went through customs, all bags arrived and Sarah became a U.S. citizen. YEAH! When the plane was touching down, Rachel told Sarah we were in America.and then gave each other the biggest hug. Sarah surprised us when we first met her by standing on the bed, with one arm raised up and the other arm on her hip. (we assume someone had told her about America by posing as the Statue of Liberty). So whenever she sees a flag she does her “America pose”. Too cute. Rachel and Sarah didn’t let go of each other hands all the way through the airport. Some things you would love to just store up and bottle and remind them of how special and sweet they are to each other, because it doesn’t last. So I remind myself to keep snapshots of the sweet precious moments during the moments when they are not sweet to one another. Aaahhh, sisterhood.

We had amazing curb service at San Francisco Airport which picked us up at the airport, helped us with the bags and drove us home safely. What a blessing! Thank you so much, John for all you did for us when we were gone.

It was very nice to be back home and in our own beds. Unfortunately, the girl’s body clocks were still on China time. Why I was under the illusion that flying over night and getting into CA time and keeping as much normalcy, going to bed around the normal night time would have them sleeping through the night is pretty funny to think about now but not so when I heard a knock on the door this morning and heard “Mama”. What a great sound, but not so great at 12:00 PM, 1:00 AM, 1:30 AM and finally at 2:00, Rachel was awake and said “but I’m not tired”. This brought back déjà vu moments from 2003 when we returned from China with 9 month old Rachel and Simon and I tagged teamed on staying up with her for way too many nights as he watched James Bond movies and I watched all my supply of “chick flick” movies so we could stay awake.

So after trying to convince the girls, it’s too early to get up we went downstairs with pillows, blankets, gave them each a bowl of cheerios and put a movie on for them to watch. Sarah has taken to Molly (our dog) right away. Not sure how many dogs she has actually been around but watching how sweet Molly is with her and how Sarah just sits and looks for Molly, watching Molly eat, watching Molly drink, and watching Molly sleep. She would probably feed Molly the whole box of dog treats, if we let her. I’m sure Molly wouldn’t mind it either. I’m not sure what Sarah said (due to the fact, it was all in Chinese), but I suspect from the intensity and tone of her voice that Molly greeted her in one of those ways that dogs do because Sarah was huffing something about Molly and she did a sniff to show me that Molly was greeting her in ways Sarah did not like much. Pretty hard to convince a 4 year old that’s how dogs greet people and dogs, they sniff. Too funny! I just think Molly was checking to make sure Sarah was one of the family and was ok to join the pack.

Simon went dog walking and since the girls were up anyway they joined him, when they got back we had breakfast. One of the reasons, Rachel said she was glad to be home was my bacon, egg and cheese on an English muffin, which she said she missed a lot when we were gone. We got dressed and got ready for church, were about to walk out the door and Sarah announced she’s tired and plops down on the couch and falls asleep. Simon went to church alone and the girls and I went back to bed for a very longgggg nap.

In the afternoon, we went to the pool with friends, ordered pizza. The girls played dress up (many times) and now they are in bed fast asleep and my hope is they stay that way until a normal CA waking up time. (7:00 PM would be nice).

Here are some pictures from our time in Hong Kong, Disney our trip back to CA and after we have been home.

We're Home (home home in CA)

Just got in after spending this morning (clock/calendar time) at Hong Kong Disneyland! Pictures and text to follow.

Hong Kong

Today we said good-bye to the rest of the families who had travelled to Hong Kong with us. We had decided to take an extra day or so to see some of the sights in Hong Kong that we hadn’t seen on our last trip. So today we took a train from our airport hotel into Hong Kong "Central" (the heart of the city on the island). We then made our way to the Peak Tram which is one of Hong Kong’s landmarks.

The tram rises to more than (1,299 ft.) above sea level in just seven minutes up a 45 degree slope in places, very steep. At the top there are shops, restaurants and a viewing platform with a 360 degree panoramic view. One of the restaurants at the top was Bumba Gump. Since this is Rachel’s favorite place to have lunch in Monterey we had lunch up on top of the Peak overlooking the view of Hong Kong at Bubba Gump's. (Go figure, a franchised Southern restaurant on top of a mountain in HK - gotta love globalization)!

The Peak was marvelous for picture taking so Simon was in his element. I was busy watching the girls and not exactly loving how high up we were. (I’m not particularly fond of heights), but have to agree the view was spectacular. I was very happy to sit on the bench away from the glass railings and was glad when we finally reached the bottom of the peak.

Next we took a ferry acros the harbor to Kowloon (more amazing views of the famous HK skyline) and did some window shopping while Simon looked deals on electronics on Nathan Road.

After all this, the highlight of the day for the girls was ice cream and the pool when we got back to the hotel. Sarah managed to get my ice cream in addition to her own.

Tomorrow we have decided to take the girls to Disneyland Hong Kong which is about 20 minutes away from our hotel and then we leave for CA in the afternoon. The next time we post will probably be at the airport on in California!