Underneath the Yellow Umbrella

This is a shout-out to quite possibly the best noodle & rice restaurant in the whole Eastern Hemisphere...the Yellow Umbrella!Our friends there invited us to come on a little tour of the kitchen! We got to learn how they make (in bulk) the really delicious noodles...how they keep the rice cooking (the rice cooker was the size of a deep freeze)...and how to serve all the fixings!!!Then we got to practice making speical dumplings....and we can all testify that they're more tricky to make than they look!After stuffing them with meat and folding them up, we let them boil for a few minutes...and then out comes the yummy snack that is sort of like wanton soup!And Joy practicing her cashier skills...our morning at the Yellow Umbrella=priceless!!!

Lantern Festival

We just celebrated Lantern Festival, which marks the first full moon of the Lunar New Year! To celebrate, the people here hang up lots of colorful lanterns, eat special rice balls, and shoot off fireworks from dusk until wee hours of the night! One of our teachers invited us over to teach us how to make what people here call tang yuan, which are gooey rice balls stuffed with red bean or peanut-buttery goodness. When I first had these, I didn't like them at all. (I think that was because the first one I ever ate was rather large, and instead of trying to eat it in small bites, I just put the whole thing in my mouth at one time and nearly choked on all the goo! haha) But now I think they're pretty tasty!That afternoon, we headed downtown with our teacher and as we were roaming around we came across the original gate to the city. This was the place that not too long ago everyone and everything had to pass through to get inside the walls of the city. What a stronghold!
Lift up your heads, O gates!
And be lifted up, O ancient doors,
that the King of glory may come in.

Later that night we decided to head out with the masses to watch fireworks!Whew-wee...there were lots of people! Thankfully we only experienced brief moments of clostrophobia! But the fireworks were truly spectacular!There were even fireworks that shot out little lanterns which would just float through the air!

Cheeseburger in Paradise

Vacation time was SO wonderful! It was by far the most beautiful and yet laid back place I've ever been!

I'll share 2 of the biggest highlights of the trip! The first one...we went snorkeling! This was my first time to snorkel outside of my own backyard swimming pool! :) But thanks to that previous practice, I was able to get to see lots of amazing things under the water! We went to several different islands and snorkeled along the shorelines, and even got to get out in the middle of the ocean to snorkel around a coral reef. Now I've been to an aquarium or two, but this experience was like no other! The Creator is so spectacular!And highlight two...I got to watch the sunrise and set, all in the same day!!!

As I watched both I felt so overwhelmed by the splendor of it all! And reminded that this same miracle that happens day after day shows us the Maker's faithfulness!

And I'll end this one with a lyric from one of my fav. bands,

"oh the glory of it all is, he came here..."