Fun at the arcade!

Karen's birthday celebrations!

We spent a couple of days celebrating Karen's 27th birthday.  We started on Friday afternoon with an all girls luncheon while the men were at work.  We ended on Saturday night with a trip to Papa Johns, Karen's favorite!

The car accident!

I never knew a car accident could cause so much damage after the fact!

We were truly very lucky that we did not get hit in any other spot as the other guy was going about 40 kph and we were only going about 10 kph.  (Jacky was already a cautious driver before this even happened!).  Ellen was buckled in, so was safe no matter what!  Car seats are not required by law here, but we require Ellen be in one and buckled up!  Now, here we are three weeks later and are on our second temporary driver because Jacky is having a hard time dealing with this accident and the fender bender he was in on his own.   I knew Jacky was upset at the scene of the accident as he was talking to me in Chinese.  I had to remind him that I could not speak Chinese, I took Ellen's stroller out of the trunk and we walked back to the apartment.

What would you do for 100RMB?

How much money is that you ask?  Not enough to eat the eyes of the fish like Carson did!  While at dinner his sister Stephanie bet him that if he ate the eyes she would give him the money.  Apparently this was the second time this week he did it!  (100RMB = $15.00). So not worth it!  Other than watching Carson eat fish eyes, our dinner at this Thai restaurant was amazing.  Probably one of my favorites thus far!

Renovation time!

The apartment below us has been being renovated for several months.  We have had to live through constant banging, pounding and sawing on a daily basis.  Who would have known we would have been so lucky to get a free laundry room renovation along with it!  Apparently there is a leak and our laundry room is the only place they felt they could fix it from.   Or is it?  After two weeks of working and letting the new pipe settle and cement dry, they realized they have not fixed the leak.  I have been fortunate and have been able to use my washing machine up until this point.  Now, I get to be without one as they need to completely tear up the entire laundry room.  I have asked that they wait until after Casey's parents leave as I do not want them to have to deal with this mess.  They have agreed, but in the mean time I have a giant hole in my laundry room floor!  

I really hope this solves the problem.  If not, I am sure they will just keep tearing things up and make a bigger mess!  

Peak Tram ride with amazing views!

If you want to see a beautiful view of Hong Kong, this was the way to do it!  By buying the tickets for the Big Bus Tour, we got to get in line right away for the tram.  In China, most people have no respect for others when it comes to getting what they want.  They will cut you off, push you out of the way and even get into a verbal altercation if needed.  As a matter of fact, we witnessed all three of these things while in line for the tram.  It made us giggle because they section you off into groups to get onto the tram.  So everyone in our section was going to get on  the same tram.  Maybe you weren't first in line, but we were all getting on together.  Thank goodness the views made up for the crazy ride to the top!  Besides from great views, there was great stores and restaurants.  I even spent over 200 HK dollars on candy!  And I enjoyed every bit of it!  Nerds, gobstoppers, laffy taffy....oh how I have missed you!

Big Bus Tour

This reminded me of New York City, so we decided to do it.  (Aimee, do you remember when we did this in New York?  I mean, it was only a few years ago....right?). It was actually a beautiful day and a great way to get around Hong Kong.  Included in the tour was a peak tram ride, a ferry ride across the river to Kowloon and a fishing charter boat ride.  We did everything except the fishing boat!

Christmas crackers?

Thanks to Karen Mullen, I was introduced to something new.....Christmas crackers.  I guess it is tradition to open at the Christmas dinner rabble or at parties around the holidays.  We found them at a supermarket and got them to open when we got back to the hotel on New Year's Eve.  As you can see we had fun playing with what we discovered inside!

 Here is a link about Christmas crackers...pretty interesting...and a new tradition for us!  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_cracker

New Year's Eve

Who would have thought we would be at Disneyland in Hong Kong celebrating the new year?  After waiting so long to get to China, I never thought it would happen.  So glad it did as we are seeing and experiencing so much of the world!  The fireworks show was at 9:00pm, so not too late, but it was a amazing show!  I think what topped it off though, was when we were leaving the park they had fake snow falling from the sky!  It gave me goose bumps and made me feel like I was at home in Michigan!  Looking forward to 2013!

Ellen and Minnie Mouse!

I was so excited when we saw that Ellen could get her picture taken with one of the Disney characters.  When I asked her who she wanted to see, she said Minnie Mouse.  Normally she is so shy, I did not think she would approach her by herself, but she did and she was so excited!   This was even after being there for eight hours, so I was so proud of her!

Having fun on the rides!

Sometimes it was hard to decide who was having more fun....Ellen or was it really us?

Merry Go Round

Disney would not be complete without a Merry Go Round ride!  As you can see, everyone enjoyed it!  Cheese!

Ellen's first ride!

It was such an exciting day for Ellen and full of first experiences.  This was her first ride and it was in Toy Story land.  It was like we were the little green soldiers from the movie.  She was so excited the entire time we waited, but got a little nervous once on the ride.  By the time it was over, she was ready for more!

The Lion King

The first thing we did at Disneyland was go to a show.  It was "The Lion King" and it was amazing.  It was about 35 minutes long and was very entertaining.  The singing, dancing and props were fantastic.  One of our highlights from the day!

Hong Kong Disneyland!

I was so glad we took the time to go to Hong Kong Disneyland!  Not only was it Ellen's first time, but it was a beautiful day and a beautiful park!  We went on New Year's Eve and had a great day!  

Ellen, taking care of the boys!

After a long day of walking around the city, Ellen made sure to hold Joes's hand and to comfort daddy because he was sleepy!  Too precious!

Hard Rock Cafe, Hong Kong

Hong Kong was great, but what made it even better was that we could get Western food anywhere.  It was expensive, but so worth it!

Pearl River

Here we are down by the piers along the Pearl River in Hong Kong.  Here is a link so you can read more about a Hong Kong. It really is an amazing place!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hong_Kong

Train ride to the city

It was a thirty minute ride from our hotel to downtown Hong Kong.  We spent our second day walking around and touring the city on our own.  There was an expo center connected to our hotel, so we just had to walk through it to get on the train.

Ferrari's galore!

On our first morning in Hong Kong we woke up to all of these Ferrari's in our hotel parking lot.  It was crazy, but they were pretty sweet!  Casey had to have his picture taken by one!