The Crew

8 years later

2020-04-15T17:47:00.000-07:00

It has been 8 years since I blogged. Life got busy. I didnt know my password and so. Was reading thru my old blogs and just wondered if I could even get on here. I did, so I'm gonna try and post something just for fun. All my kids have grown up so much. I'm not going to write a lot because I'm not sure it will work so I won't waste to much time. I'll attach a picture for fun do you can all see how much the kids have grown.

I'm back and Talking about Spring Break 2012

2012-04-02T15:59:00.011-07:00

It has been one year and 2 months since I last blogged. I have no idea how life and living got away with me but I am back and decided that would jump on here because my sister wanted to see pictures of everything I have been telling her about for the last year. So I am going to do that today.

We just got back from Victoria Island in British Columbia Canada where we stayed a week for Spring Break at the Stunning Pacific Shores Resort and Spa.

We had to take a ferry from the US to the Island, here is a picture of the whole family on the boat over.

Our resort was an amazing place and even had free Kayaking that we took full advantage of as well as swimming daily in the wonderful pool. We even got to watch them feed the fish in their enormous fish tank.

We also got to go to Miniature world in Victoria which is super cool Here is some video and Pictures from that adventure.

We also went to a bug Zoo and all the kids got to hold many different kinds of bugs here are just a few of the 65 videos we took.

We hit most of the Tourist attractions all over the island but my favorite turned out to be playing with all the baby goats at Beacon Hill Park and Petting Zoo.

Later in the week we went to Tiger Lilly Farms and We got to milk goats then bottle feed baby goats. We hung out with baby cows, and Jerika fell in love with the baby chickens and spent much of her time inside their cage playing with them. The kids also got to go on Pony rides at Tiger Lilly Farm.

We also visited Parliament and the amazing Empress Hotel as well.

We hit the farmers market "goats on the roof" which has goats eating the eco roofs and took tons of pictures at the statues there.

We took over 600 pictures but I gave you a little taste of this really fun filled vacation. I hope you liked it and I also hope it takes me less than a year to get back in and write on my blog.

We did it.

2011-03-01T09:36:00.000-08:00

February is now over and we get to shop again. I'm heading out soon, as I have lots of things to buy.

It was an adventure not spending money. I still am amazed that we did not prepare for it at all and all we spent was 12 dollars for eggs and butter the whole month. We saved so much money by baking and using food that probably would have been ignored and gone bad. So we are thrilled with our adventures in frugalness. But now I am just dying to shop again.

Also, I am glad that we accidentally picked the shortest month of the year to do this. How lucky.

Snow day 2011

2011-02-25T13:43:00.000-08:00

It snowed yesterday and I was thrilled. I have been dying for it to snow this year. School was canceled and Joe stayed home to work. We played on sleds, drank Hot cocoa, made snowmen, and then cuddled up in blankets afterwards.

The kids and I headed out at around 9am to play, which turned out good since it was all melted by noon. I didn't even get pictures of the snowmen the kids made before they melted. Oh well at least we had one morning of snow. Here is a short video of the kids sledding down our front lawn.

Feb 16th to the 23th

2011-02-25T09:42:00.000-08:00

Feb 16th- Joseph has been sick this week and so he stayed home a couple of days, luckily he is able to work from home, he sat on that couch all day but lunchtime, working his little heart out, my poor sick guy-

Feb 17th-Joe's dad, has two toy poodles that he recently bread. Here are their puppies. They are all sold and gone now but before they left we went over to play with them. They are so cute and bark a lot. Trenton and Jennedy would not hold them but the rest of us enjoyed their cuteness.
Feb 18th-Little tiny body parts amaze me. Maybe it is weird, but I love Trenton's tiny wrists, they seem so fragile to me and remind me how small my children really are. I decided to take a picture, because it is something I think about a lot when I cuddle with him. I think about how small he used to be and how he gets bigger every day. I love those tiny wrists and know that they will get bigger and he will get stronger and he someday he wont be my little boy anymore. I will miss these tiny wrists. Boo Hoo.
Feb 19th-Some french bread I made. It was amazingly yummy.Feb 20th-Jennedy and Trenton found some chapstick, put a ton on, then kissed the mirror a bunch. I laughed so hard when I saw it. Funny kids.
Feb 21-Trenton's disasters are legendary. Here is a small one, where he put books all down the halls. See below for his explanation of why he did it.

Feb 22- I did not take a picture this day so instead I will give you a video of Trenton's explanation of the picture above.

Feb 23-Trenton likes to hide his food when he is done with it, I think he worries I will make him eat it or something. I find food hidden under sinks, behind the furnace and under beds. This day I said "when everyone eats their lunch we can have hot cocoa." I should have waited with that bit of info until later because Trenton snuck out of the room and later came in saying, "I ate all my food, can I have cocoa." I'm not dumb, so I had him show me where he hid his food, Here he is after showing me his macaroni and cheese he hid under the pac and play. Look at those sad eyes.

Spending update and Feb 13 to the 15th

2011-02-16T19:45:00.000-08:00

You may be wondering how we are doing in our NON-SPENDING MONTH of February. Well it is hard, dang hard, but really cool in many ways too. Like how we stay at home with each other more, playing games and enjoying just being together. We cook more together too. Also my picky eater, Trenton is actually trying new foods.

We have had a few problems though.

We ran out of butter the first day I made bread and that was a bummer, you can't eat yummy bread right out of the oven without butter. We were so sad. So Joe and I decided that we had to have butter, so we made an exception. We spent six dollars.

Then we ran out of Ketchup, that was weird. We usually have several bottles always in food storage. Guess we didn't stock up well enough. After discussing the situation Joe and I decided that we could do without Ketchup for a month and we were not gonna buy it.

Then I decided to make my own ketchup and that was awesome.

Then on the 14th we ran out of eggs. Everything you bake uses eggs and we don't have any powdered eggs or anything in our food storage, so after some discussion, Joe and I decided that we would get eggs, we spent 6 dollars and bought a ton to get us through the month.

That is it. We have done so well. We have spent 12 dollars for half a month and feel like we can get through the rest of the month. I will keep you posted.

Feb 13- I made Ketchup. It turned out so yummy too. So today you get 3 pictures of this experiment.
Feb 14th-Valentines was fun, the kids made us crafty valentines that were so cute. Joe brought me breakfast in bed, and I decided to make a heart cake for each of my little, and one big Valentine.

Then I made a yummy dinner with Tri-tip beef, rolls, green beans, and stuffing.
You get two pictures today too.

Feb 15th-I decided I wanted Krispy Kreme doughnuts. So I looked up the recipe online and we made them. Our shaping of them was far from the perfection you get at Krispy Kreme after all I let the kids cut them out too. But the taste was perfection.

Feb 7th to Feb 12th

2011-02-16T10:59:00.000-08:00

Feb 7th-I did not take a picture for this day so I am going to show you a video of the kids showing me their robot persona's instead.

Feb 8th-I have been baking up a storm, here is Jennedy eating scones I made for snacks this day. Since we are not purchasing items we no longer have fruit snacks, fish crackers, graham crackers, chips, or any of that snack food we all take for granted. So we are having fun seeing what I can make to have for after school snacks. The scones were a big hit for the kids. Feb 9th- I have been sprouting wheat to increase the nutritional value even more in my wheat bread. We soak it for 12 hours, let it sprout, then dry it, then grind it. And there you have it, super healthy, full of nutrients bread, and its Yummy too. Feb 10th- There is always some type of bread rising in my kitchen each day. Here are some delicious wheat rolls just rising, waiting to hit the oven. My friend brought her kids over this day and we had rolls for snack time. They loved them, in fact they ate them all and wanted the bread I had cooked too. It made me feel really great that everyone loves my "snacks" so much.

Feb 11th-Here is Trenton painting, isn't painting fun? I joined in the painting this day and did some adorable pictures of Dora. Having young Children really keep me feeling like a kid at heart.

Feb 12th- Here is another day and batch of delicious wheat rolls cooked and ready for dinner.

Feb 2nd to Feb 7th

2011-02-16T10:36:00.000-08:00

Feb 2-
I have been doing preschool for my little ones at home. They love it and so do I. I got them these chalk boards at the dollar store to practice writing our letters on and they love them. They make the cutest pictures Here is one of Jennedy and her drawing of a happy sun. Notice it is wearing a coconut top and a grass skirt. You will see Trenton's below.

Feb 3- Trenton's picture of a sun. Feb 4-
I have started baking a lot now that we are not spending money this month. These are the homemade hamburger buns I made for our veggies burgers. Oh my were they tasty. Why bother buying buns when making them is so easy and way yummier.
Feb 5-I caught the kids playing robots, here is their creative robot costumes. They used a letter puzzle we have to make them. It was so funny to hear them talk like robots. I love that I get to laugh so much being a mom.

Feb 6-I borrowed my friends wheat grinder so that I could grind my food storage wheat to use in bread making. Here is Joe helping to grind the wheat. Not spending money has really made me bake so much more just so we have food to eat and it has actually been so much fun. I feel like Holly Homemaker. We decided that we need to buy a grinder when we get to spend money again, so I can continue to bake yummy wheat breads.
Feb 7- For the treat for Family Home evening Jennedy wanted to roast marshmallows. We have tons of the caramel flavored ones so we roasted them over our stove on skewers. Fun stuff.

Feb 1st and Jan 30th

2011-02-16T10:28:00.000-08:00

Feb 1st
Here is Jennedy playing the Kids guitar. We love music in our family. I kinda play the guitar, and the kids love for me to entertain them on my guitar, so we got them this one. Actually it was a gift from Emma, my sister Tammy's, daughter.
Jan 30th-
We love when Daddy makes Chocolate Chip pancakes. I think we even had the missionaries over this day to eat them with us. Thanks daddy you are the best.

Can we do it? Probably not but were gonna try.

2011-01-31T11:29:00.000-08:00

So my husband and I had a discussion last night about money. Money, we really like it, we collect it and guess what?!?! We also like to spend it. Im sure you get that.

Well in our discussion we decided it might be fun, and helpful to our bank account, if we did not spend money.

How does one live without spending money? I'm thinking that they don't, they die of hunger, or exposure to the elements or something.

Well we don't want to die, but we wondered if we could do it...Not buy anything for the whole month of February. Could you do it?

We have to pay bills, so that is spending, but we decided bills do not count, so we are gonna pay those, we don't wanna lose our house, or be without electricity or gas.

But we set a goal to not do any shopping and spend any money in February.

I am sure you may be worried that we might just starve. Do not worry because we are collectors of food, not only do we have lots of food storage in our garage, but we have tons of food crammed in our cabinets, pantry, fridge, freezer, and our outside freezer. Sometimes we find things at the bottom of our freezer we should have eaten years earlier.

So on the food front, we are gonna be creative and try to use up most if not all of the food we have had hanging around for way too long. We are actually thinking this might be fun. Creative meals are always fun, dont you think.

So now that we have this new goal, all I think about is shopping. I wanna buy, buy, buy.

In fact I just thought...What about Valentines? I have to get my kids and husband valentines...My kids need the ones to bring to school too. I guess we are gonna have to do hand made, home made things. Sounds like a lot of work. Hmmm. Wish me luck.

Pictures from the last two weeks.

2011-01-29T15:44:00.000-08:00

Jan 13th- Here we have a picture of the home made bread bowls I made this night and melted brie in. Oh my goodness were they delicious!!!
Jan 14th- Here is our van door. The handle has been snapped off by me. boo hoo
Jan 15th- This Saturday, Joe and I set out to replace our handle on our car. Joe broke it with his amazing muscles last summer. We have lived with it for awhile, since we could still open the door. Finally the week before this I snapped the whole thing off. So we ordered a new one and researched online how to put it in, and that is what we did on Saturday. It took us about 4 hours, but we had a great time. We love doing projects together and we laughed a lot as we sat in our van and fogged up the windows, while putting in our new handle.
Jan 16th- Here is a picture of Trenton at bedtime, he is sporting a crown that his big sister Jerika made for him. He is really our little prince. Jan 17th- We have a great friendship with our Girls Birth mom and visit with her frequently. I love this so much because I get to see Jonathan our foster Son who was in care with us for the first 11 months of his life. It is great to see him. On this day we picked Jonathan and the Birth mother up and took them to McDonalds to eat and play. I took some pictures, in this one I am amazed at how much Jennedy looks like her brother.Jan 18th- Laundry day. With a family of six we have a lot of laundry, I do it all one day a week. My kids help a lot, each child has a basket and we fold their laundry and put it in each basket. We also have a sock basket, and two pajama baskets for each room. Here is what the house looks like on this laundry day.
Jan 19th- I like to take Trenton and Jennedy to the Mall, they have a fun indoor play area and when it gets stormy, which is very often in Portland, we have to have some place great to go.
Jan 20th- My husband turned 33 this day. I made him brownies and put a recess peanut butter cup recipe filling I had on file, on the top of the brownies, I also dropped chocolate chips on top, Lets just say it was an amazing melt in your mouth taste explosion of yumminess. Jan 21th- Grandma Darling and Pop Pop (what my kids call my parents) sent books to my children. It was such a wonderful surprise. The kids loved the books. They are avid readers.
Don't you love how Trenton is dressed up like a princess, you can tell he is growing up in house full of girly girls.
Jan 22-We went out with our friends for Joes birthday doing our traditional restaurant hopping/ Progressive dinner. We did breakfast and lunch and went to places from the show on food network called "Diners, drive in's and Dives." We watch that show and our mouths water, so we looked for all the ones in Portland and hit them for the signature dish we saw on the show. Here we are at the Arleta Library Cafe and Bakery. Wow, we had their Biscuits and Gravy and it was so so amazing. We are going there again for sure. You can see Joe as a shadow in the picture.
Jan 23-Joseph and Jerika doing her homework. She brings home weekly math homework that requires an adult playing some type of math game with her. Joe enjoys playing these with her and she loves the daddy daughter time. Jan 24- My girls now all have Nintendo DS's and here they are on the couch playing them. Trenton has my new smart phone, the Droid X, which I love BTW. He likes to play all the games. They are truly the electronic generation.

Jan 25- Since I did not take a picture for this day, Yes I got busy. I'm trying ok. So I will put in a picture from this week, one from McDonalds with Jonathan and his sisters.

Jan 26-Here is Trenton again, this time sporting the Barbie sun glasses.Jan 27- Oh my, Jennedy can open her mouth so big. When she asks me to feed her something she opens her mouth wide. I crack up every time. So I decided to capture her amazing mouth. Here it is. Jan 28- I didn't take a picture for this day. So here is the one from our Progressive dinner for Joes birthday. Me and one of my very best friends, Dawn.
Jan 29-I didn't take a picture for this day. So here is another one from our Progressive dinner for Joes birthday. It is of my hot husband and his best friend Micheal.

Weekly Pictures

2011-01-12T14:49:00.000-08:00

As I stated last post I am trying to take a picture everyday and blog about it, so here is the latest pictures.

Jan 7- It was bedtime and my adorable husband Joe and I had spent the evening watching Harry Potter, he got the latest two for Christmas. I snapped this photo of him relaxing. I am glad that he gets to relax, he works so hard to provide for our big family and he does so well, I love that I have him and get to cuddle up next to him at night and watch a good movie. Life is wonderful. Jan 8-
The kids have really been into making me breakfast in bed lately. On this Saturday they even brought food down for Joe too as he was still in bed. The funny thing was that they made that orange Juice by themselves and added way more water than you are supposed to so it tasted like water downed OJ. It was still precious. Jerika said she knows how to make it right but added more water so there would be enough for everybody, including the kids. Sweet!Jan 9- I hadn't taken the picture for today and the kids were asleep so I ran in and took a photo of Trenton sleeping. I love looking at sleeping Children they are just angels when they are sound asleep. He is sleeping on the pillow case that his grandma made for him of superman. He is my little Super boy. And that little dog stuffed animal he sleeps with he got one when he got stitches at the hospital, he likes to sleep with it and also a stuffed dolphin. He calls it Goggie, since he couldn't say doggie at the time and the name has just stuck. Jan 10- I read... a LOT. This coffee table is where I keep the books I am reading. I think I read about a 3-7 books a week. It's True! I bet you are asking where do I find the time, hmm. I don't know, I read very very fast, and often times find my self up at two in the morning reading. Currently I am reading way too many vampire and fantasy books because that it what friends are recommending, but I will read anything and everything if it captures my attention.

Jan 11- Here are Trenton and Jennedy doing ballet for me. I woke to find them dressed in these outfits this morning and they said they had a show for me. So then Jennedy picked up Trenton and twirled him around. What made me really fall on the floor laughing was how he bent one leg and did a cute little pose with his leg as she swung him around. These two crack me up daily.Jan 12- The kids after their bath today. When ever I get them out of the bath and wrap them in a towel they say "wrap me like baby Jesus mom" which means they want to be swaddled in their towels, so I do. They walk around like that until I make them get dressed, if it falls off they ask me again to "wrap me like baby Jesus."

Back at it

2011-01-06T16:57:00.000-08:00

Boy or Boy the Holidays were great and very time consuming, so I have been gone as you might have noticed. But I am back and have an idea I am going to try. So my goal is to take one picture a day all of 2011 and blog about them when I have the time. So today you get to see the pictures from this week.

Jan 1,
My girls.
I adore them, they are getting so big, so fast. I wish they would stay small forever but I also enjoy the changes in them as I see them grow up.

Jan 2
I got the girls some nail art stamping stuff for Christmas and after doing my nails I and took a picture to send to my friends phone while in my mini van. It is super fun to do these nail stamps with nail polish and my girls love to have me do their nails.
Jan 3
My two Children who stay at home with me, non school age love the computer. There is a computer right next to mine and they sit there and play online. I have them put on the cute pink headsets we got them in China so as not to disturb me. They are pretty good at sharing but there is often arguing when they are playing.

Jan 4
Our washing machine broke at the end of the year, so we got a new one. I love it, it is so big that I am able to get so much laundry done in a shorter amount of time. It also plays a cute little melody to signal when the load is done which I really like.

Jan 5
Jerika loves to get drawing books from School, she makes us all learn to draw with her, it is fun to see how each persons picture is the same and different even with the same instructions. Here is Joe with his girls working on some monster pictures.

Jan 6
Jacqueline had been growing her hair out to donate to locks of love and today she came down and told me that she was ready for me to cut her hair and donate. So we did, she looks adorable with her new short hair cut.

New Years

2011-01-02T13:15:00.000-08:00

This year we stayed home with our kids for New Years Eve, Usually we get a sitter and go out just Joe and I with friends. This year we wanted to be with our kids. We had a great time playing games, making 50 egg rolls, and making New Years hats and crowns. Trenton and Jennedy did not last until midnight, but Jerika and Jacqueline loved watching the new year come in with mom and dad and our friends who happened to drop by.

Christmas was wonderful

2010-12-30T17:21:00.000-08:00

I was way to busy to blog about Christmas so you get to simply see some pictures of the blessed event. We also did the Nativity as usual on Christmas eve, but this time there were too few kids so the adults got to take part. The first pic is the two shepherds acting afraid of the angel. LOL

Joseph and Mary (Cole and Jennedy)
The angel speaking to Mary
The whole crew. We had three wise women, as their were no wise men around. Trenton said he wanted to be a horse, we told him he was the donkey and he did not like that, so Mary got to ride a horse to Bethlehem.

Melakalikimaka

2010-12-23T13:35:00.000-08:00

For our ward Christmas party we had a Hawaiian themed party and it was amazing and the food was delicious, they even did a pig, yummy. Well our girls were asked to learn and perform a hula dance and they loved it. Here are some pictures of their performance and a video of the cute dance. I made the skirts for all the girls and worked on their cute flowers for their hair. I have not sewn in so long that the next day my whole arm hurt and I had some tendinitis in my rotator cup. It was worth it though to see my little darlings up on stage.

For our ward Christmas party we had a Hawaiian themed party and it was amazing and the food was delicous, they even did a pig, yummy. Well our girls were asked to learn and perform a hula dance and they loved it. Here are some pictures of their performance and a video of the cute dance.

Thanks giving

2010-11-30T16:59:00.000-08:00

I did not blog about this so I am gonna drop in some pictures so you know we did celebrate and enjoy ourselves with our wonderful friends and the missionaries. We also made sugar cookies shaped like turkeys for FHE one night, the kids loved it.

First try at family pictures

2010-11-11T09:37:00.000-08:00

We went out this weekend to get our yearly family picture for our wall and Christmas Cards. Unfortunately we did not do very well. It started to rain and we had to stop before we got "the perfect one" But I thought I would share all the best ones. Even though they are not the ones we will use and that I can not see on my wall for the next 50 years. They are fun and of our cute little family.

Some people have asked who takes are pictures and truth is, no one. We just head out to a location I choose with our tripod, I set it all up, push the timer, run to get in place and tell the kids to smile at the camera. I am amazed at how we get such great pictures.

Then I edit them and make them look somewhat professional. Did you know that I love photo editing? I do, it is one of my favorite things to do. I even have friends who send me their pics so I can edit them for them, just because I like to do it.

One on One

2010-11-10T09:22:00.000-08:00

I miss my seven year old daughters who go to school daily. I feel like I don't get enough alone time with them. So this week I took an evening to be with each of them alone out of the house and found it is something that I want and really need to do more often.

Jerika, my oldest is growing up so quickly, she is quiet, emotional and she says she is shy. Talking to her was a struggle, she only answered my questions with short statements with no elaboration. It is so different than me so, I am always wondering what is going on in that blond little head. She is precious, full of many strong emotions but oh so loving, I wish that I she talked to me so I could understand her more.
Jacqueline is getting taller and smarter every day. Our trip together was non stop talking by her. I did not have to ask any questions, she had so much to say. When she ran out of things to say she started telling me about songs she learned at school to learn her alphabet and sang through the whole alphabet and numbers. She is so vibrant and full of energy and happiness. And did I mention that she is a talker. She always reminds me that she is like me, "We are both Chatter boxes mom." she says. I feel so blessed to have these two wonderful seven year old daughters but wish I had more one on one time with them, they are growing up too fast and I feel like I am missing so much of it because they are at school.... Maybe I will home school.... Yeah right LOL.

The good old Halloween blog.

2010-11-02T15:41:00.000-07:00

We had a wonderful Halloween week, we had lots of party's and then spent actual Sunday night, Halloween at grandmas. Trenton was Superman, Jerika was Cinderella, Jennedy was a princess and Jacqueline was Belle. Here are the pictures you are just dying to see.

Today im bugged a bit, but I have a cute son so im gonna make it.

2010-11-02T12:32:00.000-07:00

Last night while I took my older girls to a movie my husband decided to build some fires, one in our fireplace downstairs and one in the stove upstairs. And guess what happened He blew out the glass in the fireplace, and guess what?!??! He left it there, all the rest of the evening and into the next day, for all the kids to touch and knock out more and get cut and make my day difficult. Isn't that sweet.
On a cute note, my son got this cute little hat from his grandma in China. He loves it. He wears it all the time, everywhere and looks simply adorable, don't you think?

Get out and Vote

2010-10-31T16:55:00.001-07:00

So my awesome friend and one of my favorite bloggers ever, you know Crash test dummies? Well she is trying to get a job blogging for Sam-e.

She is so sweet and funny, and used to baby sit me when I was a small person. So could you do me a favor please? Could you vote for her on every computer you have every day for the next ten days? You can vote once a day from each computer.
Lets see if we can get her to the finals!!!

Good Mood Gig from SAM-e

Rock band

2010-10-28T16:06:00.000-07:00

We had a fun couples get together with some of our freinds last weekend, It was a total blast. We had a Rock Band Gig, and I brought all my wigs so we could all dress up like the avitars on the screen. We sang, played instruments and totally rocked the house. I have the funnest friends ever!!

We also ate yummy food, Heather brought these amazing carmel, chocolate, and peanut butter cups. They were amazing, we also had fondue with fun stuff to dip. Well we ate and Rocked and had a wonderful night.

Adventures in China

2010-10-24T12:03:00.000-07:00

I have another interesting tidbit about China.

The electrical system in china is Hilarius, there are electrical wires hung everywhere, but not hooked up to poles, they lay in trees, on houses, in house gutters and they even grow vegetables on their power lines. There must not be a regulating government body that makes sure things are safe for people. But hey at least they have electricity...Here is an example.

Memories of China

2010-10-24T10:06:00.000-07:00

I thought I would write more about China, since I don't want to forget and all.
So here goes...

1. It smells in China, horrible smells, from strange cooking smells to toilets and urine, I had to cover my mouth as I walked down the street often. It was a strange experience to have my nose be accosted so often walking down a narrow alley.

2. The first moments in China, we were heading to our hotel and got off the bus where people told us was the right place to get off, and we were so lost. We had a map with a dot on it where it said where are hotel was. I said we needed to got the opposite way in which we were walking, but we didn't, eventually we just got a cab to take us there, but it would not go down the alley where our hotel was because it was so narrow, so we got out and walked again, still walking and walking, eventually asking a nice girl if she could take us there, and she did, we turned around and walked back the way we came, down another alley and finally found it, all the while pulling our luggage behind us. Well not me, Joe and my Dad pulled our luggage. What sweet fellas.

3. The open market was amazing, it reminded me of my days in Italy at the open market with food on the ground and non refrigerated meat laying out. But in China there was even more strange meats, fish, bugs and such.

I have much more to show you and discuss, So be prepared for some more interesting tidbits about my Trip to China coming to soon to a blog near you.