Monday, March 19, 2012

Thailand!








This is what happens when I put Dad on sunscreen duty!
Fae absolutely hated the sand- she desperately tried not to let her feet touch. Ila was grabbing it by the handfuls and eating it.



It looks like we're glowing--we are a pretty fair skinned bunch!

There were awesome lizards everywhere! I love lizards!





Finally starting to get better at this whole traveling thing--if you travel a lot an i-pad is a must!
After it was all over they were pretty worn  out- don't worry the booger sucker is clean! I think.


We needed a break-----BAD. Any one who has spent a significant amount of time in China knows what I mean, the gray polluted sky, hoards of people, constant noise, and strange food (my “food” homesickness set in about a month ago) wears on ya after a while. Since we’re still in the process of getting our residency visas and had to leave anyway…….we decided to go to a place where there was sure to be blue sky and sun, Phuket, Thailand!

While we waited 4 hours at the Nanning airport for our delayed flight we met a cute Taiwanese lady who spoke English, When we told her that we were from Utah she said she had been to our square (temple square), she said that it was very beautiful, she also told us about the missionaries she sees in Taiwan she said “they are always smiling and riding bikes, they’re very friendly.” 

Another lady we met was from Nanning, but had moved to New York and was just in Nanning visiting her family. She came over to talk to us and brought a few friends with her, when one of them reached to touch Fae, she quickly pulled her hand away and said “Americans don’t like it when you touch their babies.” Ha Ha. I like her.

Both of these Ladies were really concerned about us living in Nanning, and obviously thought we were crazy to be living here. I’m like “don’t worry I am already fully aware of how crazy we are.”

We flew into Hong Kong stayed the night and planned to fly to Phuket the next day. While waiting for our plane to Phuket we chose a back corner to sit and relax....until………they found us. It started with two girls asking to take our picture and ended up with 15 people snapping photos for twenty minutes. No Joke! It was so awkward especially since they only really wanted pictures of the girls. Let me just sit here and try and act normal, like this isn’t making me totally uncomfortable while all 15 of you photograph us from every angle.

What I really want to know is what these people are going to do with our family photo, hang em on their wall?? It didn't help that the girls were giving them huge smiles, they were totally possing for the camera!

The flight to Phuket wasn’t too bad until the apple juice remedy we used to clear up some constipation worked all too well about half way through the plane ride-(I’m talking about the girls here, not Ezra)  I wondered if we had made the right choice flying to Thailand. Especially when we walked out of the airport and were ambushed by 500 taxi drivers.

But I’m so glad we did! It was absolutely amazing. We got to spend some good quality time as a family just having fun—(we’re still trying to catch up with the quality time we missed while Ezra was in China). We stayed at a resort that was simply unreal. The sky was blue, the beach was beautiful, the food was amazing, beautiful flowers grew everywhere, and butterflies were fluttering all over the place. I’ve never experienced anything like it before. To top it all off we even got to see a baby elephant walking down the street. 

Ezra and I love Thai people, I don’t know what it is about them but they are just so warm, friendly, and genuine. In China our girls get their hands and faces touched, in Thailand they get full on kisses.  We were sad to leave, we felt like we were leaving friends. One of the good things about traveling so much is that we get to meet awesome people from all over the world. This trip we made friends with Australians, Italians, Indians, and Slovakians.

On the way home our flight to Nanning got canceled so we ended up having to fly into Guangzhou first. The Guangzhou airport is huge and like a million times nicer than Nanning, but they were much more strict with security. When they found all my water bottles and baby bottles the girl at the counter kept trying to tell me something—I looked at Ezra like “are you getting any of this?” and he says, “She wants you to drink it.” So I take a swig of both water bottles. (I should have started convulsing—that would have been funny!) I looked at her like “is that good?” and that’s when she lifts up the bottle of formula that’s been sitting in my bag for who knows how long—I look at Ezra like “really?” and proceed to take off the lid.

I started to put it to my lips and…….I couldn’t do it……so I held it out to the lady like “you drink it , crazy” she sniffed it and put it down. That’s when I remembered all the baby medicine in my bag, I was like “oh man, I’m going to have to down that too!” But luckily they let it slide and finally let us go. Apparently we are one dangerous lookin bunch. Ha.

While we were gone Nanning went from cold and mildly humid to hot and mega-moist. Now we are a sweaty lookin bunch!

Thursday, March 8, 2012

Hong Kong Revisited!






I always feel like I’m racing against the clock when we go to Walmart, Ezra and I have learned from experience that if we dilly dally….if that stroller is not moving faster than 25 miles an hour…..a crowd of curious, hand, face, and hair touching spectators will gather faster than you can say chop-sticks.

We thought when we headed for a weekend trip to Hong Kong that we would get a break from all the attention………and then the maid asked to take our picture in the hotel elevator.  Ha

Ezra and I were definitely a sight to behold, packin our two little munchkins all over Hong Kong. They rode in a bus, taxi, mtr, and ferryboat. I also feel it fitting to include elevator, we were on the 80th floor of the hotel, and it felt like that thing was traveling at the speed of light, our ears popped on the way up!

Hong Kong is always a nice get a way for us, we watch a little National Geographic (our favorite channel in Hong Kong), see a few sites, drink a little milk, and pack our suitcases full of things like red vines. Mmmm

On the way home all the weekend travelers from Nanning got to watch Ezra show off all his little baby stunts as we waited for our delayed flight. It was a really full plane so we made quite a few friends.

Our funnest friend was a quirky old guy from India that ended up sitting right behind us on our way “home.” I will call him Ahmed.

Ila was  quite interested in the whole "this is how you put on your life vest" spiel the flight attendant was performing.

Ahmed was watching Ila and said, (imagine the Indian accent for me now) “she is very observant.”

Ila kept Ahmed quite entertained the whole flight, he told me that she was very intelligent (which of course I already knew ; ) he said,  “my son was just like her, he walked at 9 months…….what is her sign?”

At first I had no idea what he was talking about……her sign?  Finally it dawned on me…..her astrological sign!

“I don’t know....she was born in August?”  

Between Ahmed and the cute little chinese girl that sat behind us, Ila stayed quite content. Towards the end of the flight Ahmed says, “she is great…just great!......."

“She looks like a boy.”

Really?......She looks like a boy???? What does a daughters mother say to such a comment?…..thanks?

Oh Ahmed, I was really starting to like you, you complimented my babies intelligence, you didn’t break any personal space bubbles, and you kept her happy the entire flight.

Why did you have to go and blow it like that?…we could have been friends Ahmed……we could have been friends. Lol 

It’s funny how matter of fact people can be. One time Ezra was showing a Chinese co-worker a picture of the girls. He pointed at the picture and stated, “this one is pretty, and this one is fat.” Awww so funny. I love it!—it makes me laugh every time I think about it.

The girls sign is Leo—like Leo the Lion. And it’s a good thing Leo’s like adventure.

Let me paint this picture for you: tiny taxi, Ezra in the front seat eating his knees so that I can fit Ila’s car seat on my lap in the back seat, Fae is next to me in her car seat, and our double stroller is crammed next to us. Needless to say- it was a tight fit. 

After only about 10 min of driving we slow down and realize we are in a huge line of backed up traffic, the girls start fussing,….and I start singing show tunes in the back seat (I’m sure the taxi driver thought I was nuts).

When we get to the front of the line we see that there has been an accident, the roads all blocked up, I’m thinking “oh no, we can’t get through.” And the next thing I know we are between two trees, half way on the side walk, and half way in someone’s garden. “We’re in a taxi here…not a hummer!”  After a few minutes of four-wheeling "plunk!" we go off the curb back onto the road.  Holy Cow! This was definitely a- close my eyes and pray- Chinese moment! (Mom, please don’t read this).