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..."

Love is in the air... :)

Joy was in for a big surprise when her best friend and lil sister came to visit a few weeks ago! Ryan proposed on a famous tower overlooking the city...precious!!! That's right...she's engaged!!! They'll be getting married later this year.

Love is patient, love is kind.

It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.

It is not rude, it is not self seeking,

it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.

Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.

It always protects, always trusts,

always hopes, always PERSEVERES...

love never fails!

And speaking of love, Val's teacher, Judie, got married last weekend.

After Judie saw the cake Val made for my birthday, she asked Val to make her wedding cake...and once again Val did a fabulous job!The wedding party!
Wedding food...always special. If you look closely at the center dish, you'll notice it resembles a turtle...b/c that's what it is :)

Cheers! Judie in her traditional wedding gown.Now cakes at weddings here are few and far between, so Val went and got it and started passing a few slices out to guests. And since nobody really cared if they got a peice or not, we dug into it with our chopsticks!!!

We were also a little surprised when Judie called us the day after the wedding inviting us over to "play" (that's the word that's said here instead of "hang out"). So we headed over to see their new house, eat dinner, and play games. That was definitely the first time I've hung out with newlyweds on their honeymoon! And they sent us home that night with lots of leftover drinks and snacks from the wedding...fun!

Happy New Year!!!

Happy New Year!!! The girls and I had a little photo shoot with Sarah before she left...these are some of our favorites... I've learned so much through these 3 girls the past year! Thank you 3 for being friends that love at all times...the Hobbits :)

Sweet Reunion!!!

Ahhh...my family came to visit just a few weeks ago! These next 3 posts are some play-by-plays of wonderful times we shared together!!! While I was dying of anticipation waiting for them to arrive (above), my poor family was suffering through the stressful journey of traveling half-way around the world (below)! Somehow Ross captured this little moment on camera...hahaha...this one's a keeper!!!
But after a couple of days of traveling were over, we finally experienced the moment we'd all been waiting for...our reunion!!! (This is for you Mama... ooxxOOxx hug hug kiss kiss BIG hug leetle kiss)

Exactly 1 year from the day that we'd last seen each other! Oh how I thank you Father!!!

We stayed up super late after they arrived the first night just talking away and enjoying being with each other, and we when we finally got up the next morning we got to share Christmas presents with each other!

One of the things that we love to do together as a family is watch old home movies, so as we were out and about each day my sweet Daddy made sure to capture it all on video...just like he's been doing for the past 24 years!!! :)

We had the best time exploring around the city, and it was awesome getting to watch them take it all in! We all felt like our week together was the best quality time we've ever spent together as a family. Since Val was outta town with her parents, the whole family got to live with me while they were here!

After the first couple of days of being together my heart was overwhelmed with love, thankfulness, and awe at how Father's moved in our lives...I couldn't believe we still had a few more to go!!!

East to West

Thanks for introducing that song to me Daddy! After a couple of days of completely immersing the family into the culture, we took a day of REST and celebrated Mama's birthday! Here's a shoutout to my Mama: So Mama was really craving McDonalds after I'd given them nothing but Asian food...so we started trying to figure out how we could get some without us all having to go out...and Sarah ended up discovering that the McDonalds in our district will deliver to our apartment!!! What what!!! Go Mama!

That night Joy cooked lasagna, and Sarah and I tag teamed on a red-velvet cake!

Ross and I were really enjoying the statues throughout the city!

And the people were really enjoying Ross and Daddy! :)

Nice tights!

Somehow I ended up getting us into one of the busiest districts of town on one of the most crowded nights of the year, New Year's Eve...but they handled it great!!! And we ended up getting to share Pizza and lots of laughs for dinner!!!

Such PRECIOUS times together!!!