New Member of The Family

This is Chunk the Chinchilla.  I like to call him Chico because his ancestors are from South America.  He is from the pet store though.  Isn't he just the cutest little thing?  When we first got him, he was scared of people.  Now he loves us.  When we scratch his little chin he raises his little arms up so we can scratch his belly.  He even lets us hold him.

Yes, we really are animal people!  All of us.  Sean and I were felt very lonely when all the animals were send to the kennel before our flight to Thailand.  We were only alone for four hours but we missed them already.

            
This winter has been the coldest in Shanghai in 30 years!  Casey doesn't like the snow.  It has snowed a hand full of times this year and it's a nice change.  Everyone loves building snowmen.  Snow ball fights are great also!
                                                                                                       

More Fun in Thailand

Our cool shark dive in the Bahamas

The diving wasn't fabulous in Thailand.  Last year they had lots of coral die because they haven't had enough tsunamis.  Go figure.  The tsunamis bring cold water up from the depths of the ocean.  But we still had some fun.

Please note the size of the man behind Sean.

We dove with a German dive company and they brought new emphasis to the term "German efficiency".  Everything ran on schedule to the second.  It was a little scary while on vacation to have to keep on a tight schedule.  But they had great food and the kids could come on the boat for free.  Ryan even got to drive!

We didn't see tons of fish, but we did see a Manta Ray.  We dove and swam for an hour looking for some Manta Rays but didn't find any before we started running out of air.  We had to surface is discouragement.  Everyone but me (Lisa) took off their masks.  I was just gonna keep it on so I didn't jab a Jelly Fish.  There was a two meter in diameter Manta Ray about two meters under Sean.  So we did get our Manta Ray viewing for the day!  He was really cool!

Thailand

Thailand was FABULOUS!  We just aren't lazy enough to fully appreciate the lifestyle.  It was rough.  Everyday we would get up late and stroll to the buffet.  Then swim at the pool and watch the kids on the water slide.  Around noon we would mosey across the street to the beach.  The kids would be screaming "We don't want to go to the beach, again".

Europeans as far as the eye can see!

At the beach things get really lazy.  You set your butt down on the chair and stick your hand up when you want a beer.  A little man runs and gets it and it only costs $2.  When you get hungry, you roll over to the restaurant ten meters away and order fabulous Thai food for $5.  The food is simply amazing, at every shack!  Next you roll over to the massage table where $10 buys you an hour of massage.  Then back to the chair to read.  We even got Ryan a massage!  He thought it was a little creepy.

                                                                                                           


Of course, Linds needed the island hair do!






My illegal pic from the camera I smuggled in!

                                                         
 We did stay up late one night to go to the Fantasea show.  We were just expecting a couple elephants to parade around on stage.  But the show was AMAZING!  The people who put on this production, dumped millions of dollars into this little elephant show!  It was like Elton John meets Michael Jackson's Neverland.  The show even had chickens, goats and doves that were trained to run in a certain direction in unison.

Dad always get hurt on vacation!

Yes, the white tigers have a hot tub!  We could even play with the baby elephants.  Lindsey and I want a baby elephant!  Do you think they would cost much to feed in Arizona?  We really want one!

This monkey was cool!  He kept grabbing my fingers to play with me but I was afraid he could bite.  I didn't want to get a rabies shot.  That could ruin a vacation.         

Our hotel was just up the hill from the show and we could hear the elephants trumpeting after the show.  We could also hear the crazy bird that the farmer next door has as a pet- all night long.  Every ten minutes.  The hotel has so many complaints about the bird that they want to buy it from the farmer.  But they are afraid that if they pay him a lot, he will but many more birds to keep the guests up all night.  It worked out for us because they had to upgrade us to a three bedroom apartment to keep Sean happy.

Another Day At The Lake

Many of you remember our boat that Tom Bugg is babysitting.  The beautiful Sea Ray that we have been buying Christmas presents for every year to improve.  Well, in China we can have a day on the lake also.  It's just not quite like on our boat in beautiful Arizona.

This is the kind of boat that you get to take to the lake here.  The great thing is that we don't have to wipe down the boat when it comes out of the water.  Look closely and you may notice that this boat has never been cleaned or waxed.  And those aren't pin stripes they are stripes from other boats hitting it at the slow electric speed that they cruise at.

Just like at Lake Pleasant, the traffic can get heavy at times!  But couldn't find a cove like Humbugg to tie to other boats and hangout.

Similar to the lakes at home, the boats come in all different shapes and sizes! 

Everyone always needs to take turns driving!

There is always fishing at the lake but this is different!

The Fish Market

The kids and I went on one of our crazy adventures to the Live Fish Market!  Ya hoo!  I have been dying to have some crab legs lately so we had check this out.  The Chinese have different way of treating their food.  At home we like to think that our food is virgin and untouched by dirty hands or floors.  Here we all know that is not the case and we try not to think about where our food was before we brought it home to our clean kitchen.

Yes, that is dinner on the sidewalk!  Where people walk and spit.  The shrimp are not actually touching the concrete but they are close enough for me!

 This isn't the greatest picture but it shows how most the the seafood for 20 million people is distributed to all the restaurants and stores.  Ryan and Lindsey were a little freaked out by being behind the scenes but I had to grab a couple pics. 

Now all the seafood is distributed with BIKES!  Each one of these boxes is filled with ice and the fish are snug as a bug in a rug in the ice.  At least there is ice!

There are hundreds of little shops like this.  It was REALLY cold in here and some of the shops have little ladders leading up to the sleeping area.  I was surprised that it didn't smell much.  Yippee!

This was pretty cool.  This guy got in my way so you can't see that there is a guy with a Skill Saw cutting up these fish.  Please notice the fish on the concrete.  Yummy!  The kids were ecstatic when I told them we could leave!
I now understand why the Chinese prefer to purchase their fish alive.

A Fun Sunday

We had a fun outing this weekend.  We get lazy and spend a lot of weekends hanging around the house but there are so many fun places to go!  We didn't feel like planning anything ahead of time so we went to a big park not too far from the house.  We found all kinds of crazy stuff!


This car has fish inside it!

Next we wandered over to the Aquarium.  This is an amazing aquarium that was built by the Discovery Channel and then was given over to the Chinese.  These fish are eight feet long!  Don't tell Uncle TJ where the big fish are located.  Ssshhh.

Next we have the typical deal in China.  We always wonder, who thought that would be a good idea and why?  That is actually a sidewalk up to the top of the tree.  Huh?                                                                                                     

                    

                                                                    


More huh?

  We went to the Beluga Whale show and that was fun but they are so big that it is difficult for them to get out of the water.  The elephant show we went to a couple months ago was shut down because of the animal rights issue.  So who knows if the Beluga show is next.                                                                                                                                                                                                       
                                           

I was about to go postal when the kids wanted to go on the rides but I couldn't seem to purchase enough tickets for them to get on the rides.  So I kept buying more tickets and after I spend about $20 USD on tickets the rides only needed 2 tickets each.  Then a man took a ticket for me to join Linds on the ride but I couldn't understand what he wanted.  He also wouldn't start the ride.  So I called our Management Office to translate but no one answered.  Ugh.

After a long day we were ready to get a taxi home but we had to walk through the ghetto to get one.  It was a safe area but very economically challenged.  This man here is loading a washing machine onto his scooter because that is what they do.  We also looked into a Dentist's office that was about 10 square feet inside.  Sean noticed that some of the dental tools were on the floor.  I am guessing that new end pieces are not opened from that wrapping like at home.  I think I will wait until we go home and see Dr. Johnson!

What are Ryan and Lindsey up to?

                                                                               

Lindsey talked me into being her Girl Scout Leader and that is super time consuming for me.  Everyone was wondering what I was going to do with myself without work but the kids keep me really busy. 

Each of the kids received awards at the assembly at school last month.  Ryan looked pretty nervous on stage but he got over that.  Neither one knew that they were going to be on stage.                                                                          

 Both Ryan and Lindsey are making friends and having fun at school.  They have always been great at the social part of school! 

Everyone was pleasantly surprised that the Americans here organize Trick or Treating at Halloween.  Ryan was convinced that the Chinese people were going to give out fruit instead of candy.  They pulled in lots of candy, but one lady wasn't prepared and gave out rice cakes.  Those immediately went in the trash!



Ryan is the red and black Ninja

          


Our new activity is ice skating!  Sean and I thought that we could just take the kids and show them how to ice skate.  Just after Mom fell on Lindsey and I was thinking that she would be leaving the rink on a back board we signed them up for lessons.  Ryan is a fast little guy on ice!  He loves it but Linds is tolerating it.  This is only the second time on skates!  Dad is hoping for a hockey player!