Happy Birthday, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!

It was big birthday year last year - it's not every year you get to celebrate your birthday on 11-11-11!  I decided for this special occasion we would go with the "11" theme and have an 11th birthday party.  I turned 11 in 1990 - so I told everyone to dress in their best late-80's clothes.

I bought a bunch of glow stick necklaces and bracelets.

And we had a bunch of old school treats. 

 

Like Pop Rocks

We played "Girl Talk" 

Then I had music videos of all the hit songs from 1990 projected on a screen in our basement and we had a little dance party. 

And yes, in true 11-year old fashion - it was an all girls party - not much has changed in that regard in the last 20 or so years haha.

After my trip to China, the one thing I wanted for Christmas was a new camera - one that would zoom without being blurry!  I got an awesome camera with all sorts of fun features - I had fun playing with it all day!

                                      

                                               

                                     

Just for fun :)  

Dad was working as a concierge up at the Canyons during the winter season and he had to work the late shift on New Years Eve and the early shift New Years Day, he was able to arrange for us to have a condo for New Years Eve so he didn't have to drive down the canyon and back.  

We braved the cold and went out to watch the firework show.  

The next day we took a gondola ride up the mountain 

None of us are skiers - so we just rode up walked around for a minute, and then walked back down - pretty exciting right!  

                                  

It was a beautiful day and a beautiful view.  A great start to the new year.

Happy Birthday Mumsie!!

After going to the Trick or Treat party in Disneyland last Halloween, my siblings really wanted to go again this year.  When I found out my flight back from China stopped in LA, we decided it really would be perfect to meet up and spend the weekend in Disneyland before I had to go back work.  That weekend also happened to be my mom's birthday.  She had some VERY difficult kids in her class and it was already a rough school year (1 month in) so it wasn't too hard to convince her that she needed a break and to get her and Dad to come with us.  I got in to LAX around 10 am and took a shuttle to our hotel and tried really hard to not sleep while I waited for the rest of the family to get there.

The next morning we were up bright and early and ready for a birthday celebration in Disneyland!

We had to get a picture of Mumsie with her birthday button!

That night was the Halloween party.  We decided to go with a theme for our costumes this year, so we dressed up as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.  And, well, since what else are you supposed to do but brag on a blog - I have to say, I made the costumes. I think I did pretty good! :)  

We had Snow White, Sleepy (obviously that was me with jet lag), Doc, Sneezy, Grumpy, Bashful, and the evil Queen. 

Dad had a blast playing the evil queen, he was loving going around to all of the little kids and offering them some of his apple.  It was hilarious!

 The Halloween Party is always so much fun!

The next day we raced over to Midway Mania so we could get on before the line got to long,

and then introduced Mumsie to the "It's Tough to Be a Bug" show.  
 

Apparently we were big on 3-D glasses that day! 

We got our favorite rice bowls for lunch,

Dad wasn't quite sure how to use the chopsticks!

Then Mom and Dad danced to the Mariachi band.

Lauren was thrilled to see her favorite ride (the canoes) were open!

To end our trip we got some chocolate birthday cake for mom and enjoyed Fantasmic!

It was a great birthday celebration - and I only fell asleep on one ride!

China - The Finale!

Our last day in China was spent at the Forbidden City.  That place is huge!  It took us at least two hours to just walk from one end to the other.



One of the interesting things about the buildings there - the number of animal statues that are on the edges of the roof would show that status of the person living in that building.

Again, it would have been nice to go in some of the buildings, that is something that I really missed, actually seeing the rooms and how the buildings looked on the inside.  But we were able to peek around the crowds of people and see in a couple of the rooms.

The one building we could go into was a bathroom, a four-star facility! Once I heard even four-stars don't mean anything more than a hole in the ground, I decided to stay outside! 

After the Forbidden City we had some lunch and had some last minute shopping before heading home to pack up.  We had to get a picture with Maggie, our tour guide before we left.

And I had to get a picture of the gas masks that were so thoughtfully provided in our hotel room!

The next morning we were up super early to drive to the airport, after sitting around forever at the airport, we were finally let through security (I'm not sure what the hold up was) and on our way home! It was a wonderful trip - we had such a fun group, and I was honestly a little sad to leave them in LA instead of flying all the way to Salt Lake with them - although not enough to give up my next adventure - Disneyland with JETLAG!! :)

China Part VI

Our next day was finally the day we went to see the Great Wall of China.  I think this was what I was most excited for on this trip.  But before we could get there, we had to make a couple of stops.  First up, the jade factory, I love seeing how things are made -

- so it was fun to see how they turn this block of jade...

...into this ball, with three smaller balls inside - all from one large block. 

                                    

Our next stop was the Sacred Way, I'm not sure that we got to see all that we were supposed to on this trip because we spent about an hour sitting in traffic trying to get there.  Our driver finally just pulled into a smaller parking area - so I think we started in the middle of way - but it was still beautiful.  

                                     

The emperor who had this area constructed had each animal built once standing and one sitting, so that it looked like they were alive and moving.  

  

                                     

Finally, it was time for the Great Wall.  Again, traffic was kind-of a nightmare, I was so excited when I could finally see a part of the wall from the bus!

                                   

 The first set of stairs we had to climb were SO steep! For someone like me who hates heights - this was just a bit of a problem! I just kept telling myself this was a once in a lifetime opportunity and I was going to make it up those stairs if it killed me!!

By the time we got off the wall my hands were a nice brownish red color from gripping the rusty handrails so tightly!

I loved the signs that they had up all over the wall - some of them didn't even make any sense.  You would think someone in China should know enough English to at least translate complete sentences. 

                                     

After climbing, and climbing and climbing some more, we finally made it to the top of the wall!

At this point the section we had been climbing ended and you could look out and see the ruins of the next section that hasn't been repaired.

On the way down I had to get a picture looking back up at where we had been!  I am still amazed at how high up the wall goes - I was not expecting to climb a mountain!

That night we decided we were in need of some real American food, so we took a taxi to the Hard Rock Cafe.

You haven't lived until you are in China, listening to a Filipino band play Beatles songs!  It was a great ending to our day!