Friday, February 18, 2011

starting to get excited

Our trip to China is coming up soon and we just received our final itinerary (i took out specific dates and things in case i have any crazy stalkers) ;). It finally is becoming a little more real -- and I am actually getting pretty excited. Before whenever I thought about it I'd just have panic attacks -- I'm scared to fly that far and I hate the thought of both parents being away from the kids at the same time - that far away. But I can do this - and I WILL have fun. I may need some meds to get me there - but whatever it takes. :)


**take note that all our hotels are 5 star hotels!! i think the highest star i've stayed in is a 3 - and I thought that was cool!!


CHAMBER MISSION TO CHINA, 2011



Day 1 Seattle/Beijing

Board a convenient charter bus in the morning, and travel to Airport for an afternoon flight to Beijing. Your adventure begins as you fly aboard a wide cabin jetliner. Cross the International Dateline.


Day 2 Beijing(Crowne Plaza Sun Palace/5star)

Arrive in Beijing, the Capital of China at 4:00pm. You will be met by your local tour guide at the airport. Transfer to the hotel after dinner.

Day 3 Beijing

Sightseeing includes Visit the Tian An Men Square, the largest square in the world. The Palace Museum, also known as the Forbidden City, home of 24 emperors with a total space of 9,999 rooms, Visit the Pearl Market. The Summer Palace, known for many significance such as the Long Corridor with painted gallery, Kunming Lake and Longevity Hill, Seventeen- Arch Bridge and Marble Boat.. Peking Roast Duck dinner is arranged.

Optional tour:

Kungfu Show $25/pp,

Peking Opera: $20/pp, $40/pp for VIP seats


Day 4 Beijing

Visit the 2008 Beijing Olympic venues for the outside views of National Stadium the Bird’s Nest and the National Aquatic Center. Continue the tour to the Great Wall. En route visit the Jade Factory. The Great Wall, the 4,000- mile long and 2,000 years old construction is said to be the only man-made structure visible by naked eye from the moon. Visit one of the Ming tombs, one of 13 Ming Emperors’ Tombs is fully excavated and open for exploration. Have a business conference with local government.


Day 5 Beijing

Morning sightseeing to the Temple of Heaven, built in 1420 A.D., where the emperors prayed to the heaven for a good harvest. Afternoon visit to the Lama Temple of the religion of Lamaism.

Optional Tour: Hutong Tour: $35/pp



Day 6 Beijing/Shanghai/Suzhou(Grand

Metropark Hotel Suzhou/5tar)

Morning flight to Shanghai HU7605 8:40am/10:50am or HU7601 3:10pm/5:20pm, then take a bus riding to Suzhou. Afternoon sightseeing to the Tiger Hill.

Optional Tour :

Grand Canal Boat Ride: $25/pp


Day 7 Suzhou/Hangzhou(Crowne Plaza Hotel Hangzhou Grand Canal/5star)

Morning visit the Suzhou Silk factory. Continue the tour with the centuries old Lingering Garden. Afternoon visit to the National Embroidery Institute to see silk embroidery, an important local craft with 1,000 years history. Take a bus riding to Hangzhou after dinner.


Day 8 Hangzhou/Shanghai(Renaissance Shanghai Zhongshan Park Hotel/5star)

Morning boat cruise on West Lake with relaxing stopover at jewel-like pagodas. Visit the Longjing Green Tea Plantation. Visit to the centuries old Lingyin Temple, with the main feature of the 64.3 ft-high camphor-wood carved Buddha. Continue the bus journey to Shanghai.


Day 9 Shanghai

The Bund, a famous waterfront park. Visit the Shanghai Silk Rug Factory. Afternoon enjoy the Yu Garden, a maze of marvelous pavilions, ponds, rocky works and over arching trees. Free time exploration of the old town bazaar. Business visit to the Pudong economic development zone.

Optional Tour:

Era Show: $35/pp

Mag-lev Train: Single way trip: $15/pp

Round way trip: $25/pp


Day 10 Shanghai/Seattle



Wednesday, February 16, 2011

mini vacation

Last week we went up to Washington to The Great Wolf Lodge. Sam's brothers family lives up in Washington and went with us there. It was a ton of fun. The best part is - the water park is indoors and heated to 84 degrees. It was so nice and warm. Great break from the cold and rain. The hotel was huge and nice and had lots of fun things for families to do - we mostly just did the water slides because that is what we paid for -- but they also had some other free stuff for the kids -- like story time where they could meet Wylie Wolf. It was a fun trip - the kids got to get out of school for a couple of days, we got to be together plus be with cousins and we got to play in warm water. :)


Jackson was not tall enough to go on any of the big slides - so we hung out in the kiddie area a lot. He still had lots of fun.
love Gwen's face in this.

The wave pool (the waves were on a break in this picture) was probably all the kids favorite thing. Those waves can get pretty wild!!
Can you see how the water parted perfectly around Gwen's face?!?! I'd like to think it's my great photography skills and fast finger. ;)
Here is Sam with the girls waiting for this HUGE bucket of water that sits up on top of a play structure to dump on their heads. You can see it starting to come in the back ground......
and then it hit........... Addie wasn't the biggest fan of this. :)
Fun trip!!

Monday, February 7, 2011

makes me smile...... and hurt

I've been watching a lot of old home videos of the kids lately. I love watching them but it also brings actual physical pain to me to see them so little. I love them so much and enjoy every age - but looking back and realizing I'll never have that little baby again hurts!!
Anyways -- this little clip is of Gwenny when she was probably about 18 months old. Try not to smile. :)


"what the...."

Violin lessons have begun

Addie is loving it. Kelly is so good with her -- and Addie has really surprised me - she is picking it up way faster then I thought she would. She memorized the notes of the strings almost instantly. I was very impressed.

doesn't she look cute holding it?!?!?
she caught me :) ................
and I just thought this picture was cute -- Jackson LOVES his Addie.

pantRy

Notice I didn't forget to put the "r" in pantry this time - embarrassing myself again. :)

Anyways -- my pantry is nice and organized now and so pretty. And every time I go to get something out of it - I smile and admire it.
Wish I would have taken some real "before" pictures of it -- because the one I have is nothing compared to what it was. I had a bunch of food storage piled up in there - so you couldn't even walk in it. By the time I remembered to take a picuture I had already taken all of that out - plus cleared the top shelf which holds my cereal which is cereal from Costco - so it's huge and tall - too tall to stand upright on the shelf, so I had them turned sideways. Not pretty.
Anyways -- at least you can see from this picture - it was not looking good in there. No order and just a ton of junk everywhere.

Before....
Cleared out and scrubbed down. I vacuumed out at least 20 daddy long-legs out of here. I am not exaggerating because that is so disgusting that I would not try to brag about that. :)
Our water heater is inside our pantry - so there are pipes coming in with small spaces around - allowing spiders to make there way in. We have to vacuum them out too often - it's gross.
food -- everywhere......
put in some cute contact paper (yes this is the same contact paper I used as the background on the bulletin boards in Primary at church - in case you noticed ) .......
put the stuff away....... already so much better
and finally - I bought a shelf thing from Costco - this way I will have a little extra room plus my KitchenAid has a home!!
Ta - DA!!!!!