Summer Vacation - Part 1

Our 2 month summer vacation began with a wonderful surprise - a group of our dear friends meet us at the ferry terminal to say goodbye, give us hugs and kisses and a bag full of goodies to take on the ferry and airplane rides.  What a bunch of sweethearts!  We embarked on our long trip overwhelmed by the love and kindness of good friends.  We'll miss them all!    

While waiting to board our plane at the Hong Kong airport, Ian pulled out his tooth.  

He was a little concerned the Tooth Fairy wouldn't find him and wondered what kind of money she'd leave for him - would it be MOP, HKD, EURO, or USD?  Who knew the tooth fairy had to have such a wide range of world currency.

Our first stop - Paris and Amiens, France

Our 3-day visit to France was amazing!  There is way too much to see and do and taste and experience in a few days but we packed our time full of sightseeing, history, food, and shopping.

On a rainy day, we visited the Eiffel Tower but

returned in better weather so we could go to the top.

 

A big hug to Abby for overcoming some fears so we could be together on the Eiffel Tower to fulfill Ian's and Mommy's wishes.  Thanks Abs!

We circled the Arc de Triomphe, an impressive and inspiring monument, a number of times as we maneuvered through the massive roundabout surrounding it. 

We visited The Louvre,

housed in an incredible fortress,

and saw countless works of art

including the Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo.  

Jet lag, closing time, and the sheer size of this museum made it impossible to see everything but it was still a fantastic visit, especially for our young art lover, Cade.

We walked along the Seine River and

ate a delicious hot chocolate and croissant breakfast outside a cafe overlooking the river.

We met up with Kyle's friend/boss who gave us a personal tour of Notre Dame and shared some interesting facts about this 850 year old cathedral that took almost 200 years to build and the destruction it suffered during the French Revolution.

We learned about flying buttresses and the real purpose of gargoyles and why they're so ugly.  A spout inside a gargoyle spews rainwater from the roof away from the building to avoid running down the masonry walls and eroding the mortar.  The grotesqueness of gargoyles is believed to help scare away evil spirits.

We also learned that the green statues around the steeple represent the 12 Apostles.  The statues are in groups of 3 on the 4 sides of the steeple and face away from the steeple overlooking the city except for one.  The statue turned towards the steeple with his arm shielding his face (the far right in the picture above) represents "Doubting Thomas".

Plus, we found Quasimodo, the Hunchback of Notre Dame.

 The interior architecture and stained glass windows are absolutely beautiful.

To add to the inspiring spirit in the cathedral, an all-men's choir sang sacred hymns and chants as we walked around.

In Paris, we stayed at a quaint hotel (located on the right side of the street)

with the most DELICIOUS bakery we've ever been to across the street.

After 2 days in Paris, we drove through the vibrantly colored French country side,

with the bright yellow colza fields (made into cooking oil)

and often tree-lined roads to visit Amiens.

On the way, we noticed the road signs really do look like the card game, Mille Bornes.

Amiens is located on the Somme River and

  
is home to the tallest Gothic cathedral in France.

Walking the streets of Amiens on Sunday morning, we were greeted by many friendly people carrying baguettes and saying "bonjour".  It was so funny, we felt like we were in the movie "Beauty and the Beast".

There are a large number of war memorials from the 1st and 2nd World Wars in the surrounding area.  We visited one of the largest, the Thiepval Memorial, dedicated to over 72,000 British forces who died in the Battles of the Somme during WWI.  

The adjoining cemetery contains graves for 300 British and 300 French soldiers from a 1916 battle.  The rectangular headstones on the left are British and the crosses on the right are French.  

Many of the headstones are for unknown soldiers and read "A Soldier of the Great War, Known unto God".

This was a very sacred place.  Our eyes were wet and our hearts full of love and gratitude for the ultimate sacrifices made and memorialized here.  Abby expressed our thoughts beautifully in the guest registry, "may there never be again wars like this and let peace run throughout the land."

Our visit to France was short but we got a taste and a flavor of this beautiful, historical place and would love to return to see and experience more someday.  Au revoir!

Busy few weeks

The final weeks before our big, long vacation were super busy.  Not only were we packing and cleaning and prepping our apartment but we also had a piano recital, some friend outings, and lots of dinner dates.

Piano Recital

Cade and Abby showed off their piano skills at the piano recital a few days before we left.  Cade played Minuet in G by Bach and Abby played Book of Mormon Stories.  This was Abby's first recital and she was super, super nervous.  In fact, they skipped her number because she was so scared but she found some courage at the end of the program and played her piece.  She got an ovation for getting up and another one after playing her song so well.   

One of the highlights of the recital was this cute, 80 year old, Chinese woman named Go Mama who just recently started learning how to play the piano.  She sang while she played - it was awesome!

Cade and Abby's piano teacher, Sister Welling, also ended the recital by playing "Flight of the Bumble Bee".  It was a fun recital. 

Friend Outings
The kids wanted to spend some extra time with friends before leaving for 2 months.  Cade went bowling with a few of his buddies,

Abby and her friend went swimming,

and Ian played at a kids zone with his best buds.
 
It's been such a blessing that each of the kids have made good friends here in Macau.  But special friendships like these make long summer vacation goodbyes very emotional.  Thank goodness for technology today - the kids can keep in contact with their friends half way around the world.

As a family, we visited our good friends, the Titus family, who just had a new baby.


Baby Emily is a doll and my kids loved holding her and examining all her tiny body parts, especially her fingers and toes.  Now, the kids want a new baby in our house.  But according to Ian, we have to have a baby girl AND a baby boy because we can't make the girl/boy ratio in our family uneven.


Dinner Dates
It's always fun to have dinner with friends and leaving for a few months is a great excuse to get together.  We wish we could have gotten together with all the wonderful people who have made our time in Macau so memorable to thank them and express our love to them; unfortunately, that didn't happen.  But, we did have a few dinner dates with some fabulous people.  We had a great dinner with Kyle's co-worker Ioannis and his wife Amanda,

a fun dinner with the sister missionaries,

 a traditional hot pot dinner with the Knowlers,

and a pizza dinner with the Haddaways.

We love all our Macau friends!

We're looking forward to busy summer vacation with lots of fun activities with family and friends.  I'll continue to post highlights from our summer adventures and our return to Macau.

Macau Skyline

Kyle and I are casual photographers taking more pictures in the last year than ever before to document and share our Asian adventures.  We don't have a super, snazzy, high tech camera so many of our pictures are not always the best quality or very clear but they do help us capture and tell our Macau story.

On an unusually clear night, Kyle had an urge to capture the Macau skyline.  He took the camera to the top of Taipa Grande and Taipa Pequena, experimented with different settings and speeds, and got a collection of different skyline shots.  

This picture, looking across the bridge to the Macau peninsula, is the MGM on the right with the Wynn mostly hidden behind it, to the left of the MGM is One Central (high-end residential and luxury shopping), at the end of the bridge is the Grand Lisboa with the original Lisboa (the small pink cupcake looking building to the right built in 1970), to the left of the Grand Lisboa is the Bank of China, and the bright building in the back ground on the far left is the Emperor Palace.  

The next 2 pictures show the skyline along the Cotai Strip which is located on the island side of Macau.

Here is the Galaxy (which we can see from our bedroom window),

City of Dreams is on the far left, Sands Cotai Central is the 3 buildings just left of center, a clock tower is in the middle, and the largest casino in the world to date is the Venetian on the right.

School Play

The School of the Nations performed
Pinocchio

the classic story with a few modern twists.

The 4th-6th graders acted, danced, and sang while the high school students did the behind the scene jobs, including making costumes and doing the lights and sounds.  All the students did a fantastic job and seemed to really enjoy participating in the play.  Even Cade, who would rather have his nose in a book or be playing on a soccer field, had a fun time in his theatrical debut.  He even hinted he might like to be in another play someday.

The play began in Gepetto's workshop where he wishes his special wooden puppet, Pinocchio, would be a real boy.  Mother Fairy appears with 2 in-training fairies to grant Gepetto's wish.  Pinocchio awakes and is granted a trial period to show he can be a "real boy".  The Mother Fairy puts Jiminy Cricket in charge of helping Pinocchio learn to make good choices. 

On the way to school the next day, Pinocchio gets distracted by Honest John and joins Stromboli's Circus. He performs a puppet dance and is then forced into a cage.  One of the in-training fairies appears to help but curses him with a nose-growing spell when he lies to her.

Pinnochio escapes from the circus, but while racing Jiminy home, gets caught by Honest John and joins  rival gangs on their way to Pleasure Island.  Excited to go, the 2 gangs stop fighting and dance "Go to Pleasure Isle" to the tune of Gangnam Style.

Pleasure Island is the laboratory of a mad scientist trying to transform bad kids into "good children".  After being hypnotized by video games, the kids one by one walk into Dr. Gazza's invention and get zapped into donkeys.  Fortunately, the machine overheats when Pinocchio enters so he doesn't turn into a donkey and is able to escape.

After searching for Gepetto, Pinocchio and Jiminy discover he's been swallowed by a whale and go to rescue him.  Inside the whale's belly, glow-in-the-dark sea creatures, including fish, seahorses, jellyfish, a starfish, and a mermaid, dance to Moves Like Fishes (tune of Moves Like Jagger).  Pinocchio and Gepetto start a fire, make the whale sneeze, and are thrown out of the whale's belly.

Once on land, Mother Fairy and her 2 apprentices try to turn Pinocchio into a real boy.  Having some trouble, they search an electronic device which tells them the youngest fairy has the knowledge and power.  She struggles with the powerful wand for a time but eventually calls on the help of everyone.

All the actors return to stage singing "A Real Boy".  Pinocchio awakens and is a real boy!

The play was awesome!  We were so impressed with the entire production!  Big cheers to all who participated and helped make it such great production.

And cheers to the lead seahorse!

A re-al boy,

a li-ving boy...

Pinocchio!!!!