A Chinese Carnival!

We are very fortunate where we live as they always have events on the weekends that are catered to the young kids.  And of course, thank you to Takila for translating the signs and letting us know what is going on!  :). We were even lucky enough to have her join us on this day with another family that lives here in Palm Springs.  The first thing we did was try some Chinese cotton candy...Takila's treat! Ellen would not try it, so I ate it and believe it or not, it tasted just like any other cotton candy I have eaten!  

 Here Ellen, Takila and I wait in line to throw darts and pop balloons.  Poor Ellen could not throw a 

dart and could you say...dangerous!  Another game was shooting a BB gun to pop balloons!  Ellen 

actually did better at that.  The line for the ring toss was too long, but my child could have won 

anything from a tube of toothpaste to a bottle of wine!  Classic!

This was probably my favorite part of the day!  There was a man their doing self-portrait drawings and I was fortunate enough to have Ellen get one done!  She even sat still the entire time.  He framed it for me and now I have a great memory from our time here in China. 

A stroll through the park!

Winding down our week in Hong Kong, we wanted to do some sightseeing, but keep it low-key.  From the suggestion of a friendly patron we met one afternoon, we went to the this free park in the city of Hong Kong.  As soon as we walked in, Ellen was hooked as there were statutes of monkeys.  The best part was that we got to see real monkeys by the end of the visit!

 Cheers!  Grandma and grandpa were hooked as they sold ice cold beer!  It was a hot day and we actually ended up walking a while to find the park.  Here they were able to find a comfortable seat in the shade and have an ice cold beverage!

Ellen and I enjoyed the beautiful day with a nice ride on the swing!  We haven't done this since we left our gorgeous apartment in Michigan!

Back to Disneyland!

I never imagined we would travel to Disneyland in Hong Kong, but instead we have been there twice now.  We tried to do some of the other rides we did not do during our first visit.  Here Ellen wanted to pretend like she was in jail.  At times, she is so naughty, mom would like to threaten jail!  :). 

 Unfortunately grandpa Steve did not make the trip to Disneyland as he was back in the hotel sick.  Instead, grandma got the pleasure of riding all the rides with Ellen.  Here they are riding "Slinky" from the Toy Story.

Here Ellen is driving a car (which we did before), but this time I got to ride with her and I don't think I have laughed so hard.  This girl had soo much fun......but needs a lot of practice driving before she turns 16!  

The happy and not-so happy tourists

Here are two happy tourists enjoying the beautiful views overlooking Hong Kong city and Kowloon.    They are thankful we changed our trip from freezing cold, air polluted Beijing and came here instead.  

Here is the not-so happy tourist in Beijing that would not let us take her picture.  This was her second time to this viewing area and I have yet to get a good picture of her.  The first time she slept the entire time.  This time she was being a stinker and wanted to eat her goldfish in peace! 

Grandma, Casey & Ellen

Three generations!  Can you tell they are related or what!  

The fish and bird market

 As most of you know, Ellen is crazy about animals....any animal.  So when we mentioned we were going to the fish and bird market she was sooo excited.  Little did she know that these animals were going to be bagged up and hanging from the wall.

Or, stacked in cages ready to be bought.  Thank goodness she didn't ask to take any home with us!  She just enjoyed looking at them for the day!

Chinese New Year Parade

Since we were in Hong Kong over the Chinese New Year, there were a lot of activities going on.  We decided to stop and eat before we went to watch a parade.  Lets just say, good thing we ate because we could not see the parade because it was so busy.  This is a picture of what we could see!