Great Weekend!!

This weekend we had a District Conference for our church.  We were lucky and blessed enough to have 2 general authorities present.  We had Elder Todd D.  Christofferson of the Quorum of the 12 and Elder Kent D. Watson of the 2nd Quorum of the Seventy.  On Saturday we had a leadership meeting where we were broken up into 2 groups.  The sisters and the brethren.  The sisters were able to hear from their sweet wives and I don't know what went on in the brethren meeting.  Then there was an adult session after.  On Sunday there was a youth meeting and a general meeting.  I was definitely uplifted and I feel rejuvenated and ready to work harder in doing what I am supposed to do.  Everyone but Eric got to meet them and shake their hands.  (Eric was home, sick with a cold)  Elder Christofferson told Emma that he loved her red hair and that his wife's hair was the same color when they got married.  Elder Watson asked Emm a why she wore glasses because she was too young to have to wear glasses.  She replied that she had a lazy eye and Elder Watson told her to not be lazy.  All the girls were excited to get to meet an apostle and talk to him. They both along with their wives told great stories and wonderful messages.  Sister Christofferson assured us that they were just ordinary people.  She still went to the grocery store and cleaned toilets, washed dishes, vacuumed etc.  And that Elder Christofferson mowed the lawn every week, helped with the dishes, and took out the trash.  I know that sometimes I feel that they are just some type of celebrity in the church but they are just ordinary.  Elder Christofferson told a story of a fireside he was going to speak at in Minnesota and when they got to the church there was police directing traffic and it was crazy.  One of his daughters said they couldn't believe there was all this hoopla because it wasn't like they were going to here Elder Holland or anything.  He said that comment helps keep him humble. I just totally felt the spirit and was so grateful to have gotten to go and be uplifted.  We have had some great opportunities living in China.  I wouldn't trade this time here for anything!!!

Singapore the final days

After going, going and going we decided to have some low key days.  Our first stop was the Borders bookstore where we were surrounded by thousands of books in English.  Meagan and I were able to get the 4th and final installment of the Twilight series.  We were so excited.  The kids also had a great time swimming in the hotel pool.

 On Sunday we took the subway to church and then met a family that was visiting from Colorado Springs that new my parents.  What a small world!!!!

On our last day there we took the bus and subway and went to a place called Bukit Temah.  David says that there are tons of monkeys in the trees that you can see out in the wild.  We were excited to see the monkeys but alas it was a hot day and all the monkeys were sleeping.  

We did find a cool ride to play on and as we were leaving the ride area we saw alarge lizard.

 We were told it was a monitor lizard and it was only about 2 feet away from me.  We didn't get to see monkeys but we still got to see wildlife.  It was way cool!!!!!

After that we went and tried out some of the fresh fruit juice stands.  We had lime juice, mixed fruit juice, sugar cane juice, mango juice and sour sop juice.  My favorite was sour sop.  Every where we went in China there is always statues of the olympics mascots.

 

The kids always loved getting their picture taken with them.  A little trivia about them is their names.  BeiBei, JingJing, HuanHuan, YingYing, Nini. Which when separated is Beijing huan ying ni which means Biejing Welcomes You.  Pretty cool, huh? When we got back to Hong Kong we took the train back to Guangzhou to catch our plane back to Shanghai.

 David splurged and got us first class tickets on the train.  The kids love taking the train and so we are going to do it again in October.  We have so much fun trying out new forms of transportation for our family and exploring Asia.  

Durian!!!

Here in Asia they have the most foul smelling fruit (if you can call it that) called Durian.  I know we don't have it in America because nobody would stand to be around the nasty smell.  We went out to dinner at a buffet that had a durian section OUTSIDE!!  David convinced the girls to go out with him and try it.  Here is their reactions to the taste!!!!

Singapore Flyer

A few of David's friends went with us to the Singapore Flyer.  It is the largest Ferris Wheel in the world (for now).  We went at the perfect time.  It was still light when we started but it was dark when we finished.

 Apparently, some people even get married on the Flyer.  We saw several brides and grooms coming out of the rooms they were in.

Merlion Part 1

Here we are on top of the Merlion. There was a little show that described and told about the legend of the merlion.  The kids loved taking their picture with all the sea creatures.

 When we went in we were given a gold coin.  Then we were to put our coin in the merlion mouth and received a prize.  We all got a fan!!!  They were very nice to have with it being such a hot day.

Dolphins!!!!

As many of you know, Meagan loves dolphins.  At Sentosa they have pink dolphins.  We took the little bus to the dophin show and watched them do tricks with the people and try to raise our hands high enough to give Meagan a try to swim and be in the water with the dolphins.  Unfortunately, they didn't pick her but after the show you can pay a little money and get in the water next to the dolphin and get your picture taken.  We splurged and let Meagan fulfill part of a dream to swim with the dolphins.  She really only got to pet the dolphin but hey, it's a start.

Singapore Part 2

On Friday we got up early to be picked up by a friend of David's. He was taking us to the entrance of Sentosa in his car. When we got there we had to take a sky tram over to the island. We loved the view and seeing everything.


We could see the giant Merlion, which Heidi has wanted to see for a long time. (Well, ever since she did a school report on Singapore.)



When we got to the island we got tickets that pretty much let us do all the activities. First we went to the aquarium. It had a fun touch pool with fish and with stingrays. Emma the ever fearless one had her hands in the water immediately. Eric always watched close by and sometimes trying to touch the fish.



Heidi also would see what they felt like but Meagan stayed far enough back so she would never have to touch anything. The aquarium had a few things that we hadn't seen in Shanghai but overall the Shanghai aquarium is the best one we have ever been to. After that we took the bus to go to the "Pirate" 4-D show. We were all excited to wear our 3-D glasses and see the movie about pirates. It was a comedy and we enjoyed it a lot. Well, almost all of us. Eric didn't like the bats and the crabs and things blowing in his face and touching his legs, so he just cried and asked "what number until it is over?" After that we went to the simulated log ride. Eric was still a little freaked out and he didn't want to go to a place that was dark. We sat in our seats and watched a log from it being cut down to going down a river through a saw mill to the end while our seats moved forward and backward like we were sitting on the log. He was glad when we were done with that. By this time we saw that they were having a dolphin show with pink dolphins. We all know how much Meagan loves, loves, loves dolphins so we went to see the show. After the show you could pay a few dollars to get into the water next to the dolphin and get your picture taken touching it. All the kids did it and a little part of one of Meagan's dream came true. Now she wants to go swimming with one.
After that we went on the luge ride. The kids would have loved to do that several more times. All of us had a great time.





We went on the skytower which takes up high in the air and rotates us in a circle so we can see a gorgeous view of Sentosa and of Singapore,




then we went to the insect museum and saw more insects and then last but not least we went into the Merlion. We went to the top and we also got our picture taken while standing in the mouth. We had a great day but had to hurry to meet David's friends again. We went with them on the Singapore Flyer. It is the largest Ferris Wheel in the world. We got there at the most perfect time. We started when it was light but when we finished it was dark. The lights of the city were so pretty. We also got to see them practicing for their National Day Program for the next day. Then we went to a nice buffet dinner. Again we fell into our beds after having a great day!!!!

Singapore Part 1

We slept in until 10am and then got ready to go to the Jurong Bird Park.  We had a great time looking at the birds.  We all commented that Aunt Alicia would have loved seeing the Flamingoes

 We went to some fun bird shows.  But the funnest part was feeding the Lorry Birds.

 At first Meagan was scared to even be near the birds but later she had them on her and wasn't even flinching.

 Eric wasn't sure he liked them touching him but he could do it with mom.

 Mom was a little startled when many of the birds landed on her back.  

Emma the ever adventurer never flinched and loved it the most.

 

Then we went to the night safari.  We got there and went on a little tram ride in the dark where we saw elephants, giraffes, hyenas, deer, hippos, rhinos, lions, tigers and much more.

 I would love to show pictures but they said that the flash on pictures would startle the animals.  One man didn't believe the tour guide and kept takeing pictures.  I thought they were going to throw him off because he wasn't listening but they didn't.  After the tram ride we got in line to watch an animal show when the weather changed.  It poured buckets and buckets and the show was cancelled.  Our next dillemma was how to get home in the pouring rain with no umbrella and not knowing for sure which bus to take.  David the ever leader found the right bus and we all got home hardly wet at all.  We had a great first day in Singapore.  It is really clean and everything was in English.  The only weird part that the rest of us didn't know was that they drive on the left side of the road.  

Hong Kong

We had an amazing view of the lights of Hong Kong Island from our Hotel.

We took the famous Star Ferry over to Hong Kong Island. This ferry has been running for over a hundred years.

We also got to ride in this double decker bus. As soon as the kids saw it they wanted to be on the top but we didn't stay the whole trip because it started to rain.

We took the tram up to Victoria's peak. We couldn't believe how steep the tracks were to take us up. Here is David trying to stand up straight. He was at about a 60 degree angle.

The view was just gorgeous up here, even though it was cloudy.

We walked back to our hotel and the way we walked on the Chinese Walk of Stars. We had fun trying to locate famous Chinese actors that we knew. We were surprised that we found some.

The kids saw the Olympic Medal Podium and all had a great time getting the GOLD!!!

The next day we were going to get up early and go to another amusement park before we went to the airport for our flight to Singapore. Unfortunately we woke up to a Typhoon warning.

We had to check out of the hotel by noon, but our flight wasn't until 8 pm. What were we to do? We decided that we could walk around and maybe find a museum or something. Unfortunately, because of the typhoon warning, most things were closed. We took the subway to "The Hard Rock Cafe" Hong Kong. After that, we thought maybe we would take a trip to find the Hong Kong Temple. We did but it was also closed. We took a picture of our whole family outside the temple and then went into the little terrace to get out of the rain. We sang "I Love to See the Temple" outside. Even though we couldn't go inside we all felt a wonderful spirit and knew that we were standing in a sacred place.

Eventually we made it back to the hotel and grabbed a shuttle to the airport. Our flight was delayed by a few hours but was still taking off. The kids loved hanging out in the United's Lounge. We even met a woman there from the States and had a great time visiting with her. We finally arrived in Singapore at 2AM. We were so tired!!!!