Ella's First Hair Cut

There is no hiding it.  I am completely in love with Ella's hair.  It's blond, she has tons of it for her age, and most importantly, she has the most beautiful natural curls.  I'm not trying to brag here, but she seriously gets compliments wherever we go.  The biggest question I get is, "Is her hair naturally like that?!"  Yes, yes it is.  I never ever get tired of its beauty.

But then the little woman heard about this silly thing called "hair cuts" and wanted to know what that was all about.  I would quickly give a vague answer or change the subject because I wasn't emotionally ready for her to cut her hair.  But she persisted and would keep asking for haircuts.  After a few months I realized that her hair was getting so long it really was getting time to cut it.  After an incident when her hair fell in the toilet, I realized that chopping off a few inches may not be the end of the world.

So one day when Thad was being Thad and threw a ton of mulch in Ella's hair while they were playing in the backyard, I gave her a bath, got her redressed, and realized that I should just get the cut over with while her hair was wet.

So I plopped her on the island stool with Netflix playing in front of her, put Ben's Darth Vader apron on her backward, and got to work as quickly as possible before her wet hair started drying and curling.

This is a picture from our Thanksgiving trip in Pennsylvania.  It's amazing how much 4 inches takes away from someone so small.  The saddest part of the haircut for me was that it had some sort of Sampson effect.  Ever since then she has stopped being a mama's girl and only wants Ben.  It is beyond depressing for me but Ben is soaking it up.

She still looks completely adorable, but I won't mind growing it out again.  :)

Halloween

We were scheduled to go trick or treating about 36 hours after we flew home from Hong Kong.  It took me almost 2 weeks to get over my jet lag so you can imagine our exhaustion that day.  But we made it special and made sure the kids were pumped to celebrate Halloween.  

Lily was Elsa (again), Skyler was Spiderman, Thaddeo was Leonardo, and Ella was dressed up in the new Cinderella's wedding gown.  I remember last year when she was dressed up as Anna from Frozen and whenever people would ask, "Who are you?!" and she would look at them weird and say, "I'm Ella."  Well, this year that would have worked.  :)

Ben took the kids while I handed out candy.  He dropped Ella and Thad off after 45 minutes because Thaddeo had fallen asleep on Ben's shoulders and head.  Do they have to grow?!

I lost 3.5 pounds while we were in Hong Kong.  After putting all the kids' candy in a communal basket it didn't take long for me to gain all that weight back.  *sigh*

Hong Kong Oddities and Laughs

Here is just a random list of things I've noticed differ between Hong Kong and the U.S.

• Toddlers and young children are really well behaved.  Maybe it's because the expectations there are different, or maybe it's because people typically have one, maybe two kids, and so they're easier to control.  Also, parents never look at their children like they're a nuisance.  They always look at their children with love.  I only saw one toddler out of control on the whole trip.  ONE.

• Because you have to walk tons in HK, they make it easier for the blind by putting textured pathways along all the sidewalks and inside buildings for them to follow.
• Since it's closer to the equator, the sun sets much earlier.

• People really respect the elderly and those with small children and are encouraged to give their seats to them on public transportation.
• Toddlers and children don't have car seats or booster seats in their cars.
• You can talk to strangers and they are kind and friendly and open.
• They drive on the left side of the road and being in a bus is similar to being in the Knight Bus.  I'm impressed I didn't see anyone killed.  The roads there also make no sense, and that's saying something coming from someone native to Raleigh.
• They often wear backpacks on the front.  I have renamed them "frontpacks."

• Escalators are everywhere, inside and out -- yes, escalators outside.  I wouldn't have survived without them.  When we were trying to get to a certain restaurant one night we rode the world's longest escalator to get up the mountain.  Google or youtube it.
• When you eat at a restaurant, they don't bring everyone's food out at the same time.  They bring out one dish at a time -- whenever it's ready.  Also, they either don't have you tip or they include a 10% tip in your bill.

• People are on their feet all day.  You walk everywhere and if you're not walking, you're probably on a bus, ding ding, or subway standing, because there are rarely seats available.
• The Chinese believe that hot water is much healthier for you than cold and so if you order water at a restaurant, expect it to come out of a kettle.
• There is very very very little sugar or salt used in their food -- and hardly anyone is overweight. 

• Hong Kongers don't seem to know what dessert really is.  A lot of their desserts are made out of beans (hence the bean popsicles above).  I also loved the Dreyer's ice cream flavors: New York Style Blueberry Cheesecake and more particularly American Raspberry & Rose.  Rose???  Also, corn is a big dessert there.  It was very entertaining watching people buy their cup of corn from the dessert menu at McDonalds while we were at Ocean Park.  I can just imagine my kids' reactions -- "If you finish your whole dinner you can have a bowl of corn!"

Some pictures I took on the trip when something off caught my eye...

A spa in the mall across the street from Mum and Dad's apartment.

Yum?

#21

As opposed to the non-flying ones.

• I wish I had a picture of every hilarious English shirt I read in Hong Kong.  They don't wear shirts that read in any other language -- just English.  And unless it was a brand name printed on their shirts, odds were it was wrong.  One of my favorites said, "Lime your life.  Travel yourself."  I wonder how many Chinese people come to America horrified at all the wrong Chinese tattoos they see here.

Hong Kong Trip -- Ocean Park

For our last day in Hong Kong we decided to go to Ocean Park which is part theme park, part zoo, and part aquarium.  It was a lot of fun.  It was worth the trip for the zoo alone.

When I saw the panda I was so excited.  I am not going to hide the fact that I'm a total animal lover (as proven by my pink dolphin post).  When I saw the panda I started getting misty eyed and in my head I was thinking, Heather, get your act together!  It's a panda!

Then we walked over to the Australian animal exhibit.  They had this introductory video you had to watch before you went in and I told Ben that if they had koalas I was going to freak out (in a good way).  I was obsessed with koalas as a kid.  I can remember pulling out my parents' encyclopedia as a kid and writing a secret report about koalas.  For fun.  That is the level of my animal nerdiness -- it goes all the way back to my early years.  So when we walked in and saw the koala, there is no way I would have known what my reaction was going to be.

This is the first picture Ben snapped while I was still in the Oh my gosh I'm looking at a koala right now phase.  And then all of a sudden it all became so overwhelming that this happened:

To be fair, I'm pretty sure that exhaustion from the trip played a hand in it.  I had a good little cry right there in front of the koala.  I'm so glad he was asleep and wasn't able to witness it.  The other people around me on the other hand....

(So much for my goal of not being "that" American tourist)

(Also, you may be wondering why I even posted this embarrassing picture.  It's because Ben threatened that if I didn't post it, he would.  That's why).

While I was still dabbing my eyes Ben told me that after my reaction I absolutely had to have my picture taken with the koala.  This is me not looking like I just had a breakdown over fulfilling one of my childhood dreams.

We also got to see a kookaburra.

And wallabies.  They didn't have kangaroos.  Bummer.  Although, if I'm being truthful with myself, it was probably a good thing I didn't get to see kangaroos because I might have cried all over again...

Then we hopped on a gondola to take us to the other side of the mountains to the other half of the park.

So glad climbing these up the mountain isn't my job.

It went all along the ocean so we could look into the South China Sea.

Ben and I rode a couple of their roller coasters before I decided that I couldn't do anymore.  Theirs were really rough and choppy.  My head was banging in every direction and I couldn't handle it.  Although riding a roller coaster at the top of the mountain that takes you plummeting toward the ocean is its own type of thrill.

We went to a dolphin show.  Now, while I am not a fan of whales, I am a huge fan of dolphins. 

Let's just be honest.  I cried through the whole show.

(But I wore my sunglasses so nobody could judge me)

This taught me that I absolutely have to go to Sea World.

We got to see a sloth and in the video you can see that they're not quite as slow as you might guess.

P.S. I will never make fun of Kristen Bell's sloth video ever again after my reaction to the koala and dolphins.

A starfish for Ella.

The next day we flew home.  Flying to and from Hong Kong we flew East.  So now Ben and I can say that we have flown around the world.  In doing this I have learned that I never want to live in Greenland, Russia, or Mongolia thank you very much.  I also learned that your ankles can swell up on long plane rides and give you serious de ja vu to when you were last pregnant.  I also learned the joy of having your flight home delayed and getting stuck in the Toronto airport for hours just to get home at 2 AM.  I also learned that it takes us over a week to get over jet lag this serious.  Most importantly, I realized how wonderful home is.  As much as I loved the adventure of Hong Kong, it was so needed to come home and get back to the daily grind of homeschooling and going to work.  And I won't even mention how excited Ben and I were to eat our first American food after the trip.

Every single day of our trip was packed with activities and with all the walking we did each day, we were exhausted by the end of it.  But I'm so glad we did pack it in otherwise the trip wouldn't have been as worthwhile.  It was a great trip that we will remember forever.

Hong Kong Trip -- Temple Night

Ben and I were especially excited about (I feel like I say that about every single thing we did on the trip) visiting the Hong Kong temple.  It was my first time going to the temple outside of the US.  The Hong Kong temple is one that most of Asia uses and so Ben and I were crossing our fingers that the session wouldn't be in English and that we would have to wear headphones.  We had people from Hong Kong, Indonesia, Thailand, and India in our session (and there are only 40 seats if I remember correctly).  Since the majority were from India the session was in English.  We were a little bummed, but it was fine.  :)  If you are LDS, you would understand that I had quite the adventure at the end of the session when the man I was assigned to speak to only spoke Cantonese.  Apparently that was a glitch, but it made for a really unique experience.  Even though just going to a foreign temple itself was an amazing experience, my favorite part was that Mum and Dad were leading the session.  I can't even describe it, it was just amazing.

This entire family of 4 works in the temple.  I think that is just the coolest that every Tuesday night they go and work together at the temple.  #lifegoals

We went across the street so we could fit the temple into the picture.  The temple was actually smaller than I was expecting.  It has 2 endowment rooms and each are smaller than even the Raleigh temple rooms.  It was gorgeous on the inside and very Chinese.  

While we were out taking pictures we ran into the group of Indians who were in our session.  We got to talk to each other for a while about our families and ourselves.  It was such a weird experience because it was like we became instant friends -- only at the temple, y'all.  We were laughing and having a great time, and when we had to say bye one of the men looked back at us and said, "Well, we won't see each other again, so see you in the spirit world!"  Loved it.  :)  

That night we splurged on one of the famous Chinese cakes that we'd been eyeing at the entire trip.  It said Happy Birthday on it so we sang to Mum and Dad for no reason.  It was chocolate and yet it tasted really different from what we're used to because they hardly use sugar in China.  And we were surprised to find that one of the layers was jello.  It was fun to try.  It was even more fun to eat for breakfast the day we flew home...

Hong Kong Trip -- Flower, Bird, & Goldfish Markets

On Tuesday we went to visit the flower, bird, and goldfish markets since they're all relatively close to each other.  I mostly took pictures of flowers that were fairly unfamiliar to me as an American.

You can never go wrong with a huge variety of hydrangea!

I haven't seen a heather plant in so many years that when I finally found one I got really excited!  I called Ben over to look and when he did he joked, "That's not heather, it's Erica."  Since that was such a typical Ben joke I rolled my eyes. But then he pointed to the sign:

We had a good laugh about it.  But as it turns out, there are 2 types of Heather.  One is called Calluna and it grows in the Summer and Fall.  The other is called Erica and grows in the Winter and Spring.  So there you go.  Thank you, Hong Kong, for teaching me these things.

This little guy who is hanging upside down was my favorite of the day.  He stayed that way the whole time I was watching him.

I couldn't take many pictures in the goldfish market because a lot of owners hand strict no-camera policies.  As you can imagine, there were a lot of goldfish, koi, and turtles.  We knew these tiny turtles would melt our turtle-loving Ella's heart.

Obviously, Chinese food in the US is very different from Chinese food in China.  For the most part, I think I'll stick with the American version.  :)  But one thing I didn't expect were the Chinese bakeries.  They were easily one of the highlights of the trip.  They are all over the place and sell a variety of buns and cakes.  That day for lunch we went to a bakery and shared a variety of treats.  It was fun carb-loading.  As Mum so smartly put it, "It's a good thing your moms don't know that you're eating so many treats for lunch."  Yes, indeed, especially Ben's mum.  ;)  We had sponge cake and cheese cake (which is halfway between and American cake and cheesecake).  Let it be known that the Chinese don't put much sugar in their treats and so it really wasn't that bad for us...  But make no mistake, if they start selling coconut buns here, I'm going to double my weight.