CHINA TRIP 2009

My Caly kids have been anxiously waiting for me to post my China trip, so after a month of no posts I finally have a minute! We were busy with Johns parents, his dad was in and out of the hospital and in the process we had to move his mom up to our old home in Sandy, from Ephraim. It was hard for them but the doctors insisted that they needed to be close to family and the doctors. While I was away on my trip, surprisingly Grandpa improved quiet a bit, he and John's mother are now both settled into the home here in Sandy. He is still very unstable, but his memory is much better.

ON TO THE CHINA TRIP!

Wednesday, October 14th

My sisters, in St George sing with the Southern Utah Heritage Choir, they invited me to go with them on their China tour. What fun! We even got to room together. The trip started out in Shanghai, then on to Xi'an and we finished in Beijing.

SHANGHAI CHINA

Friday, October 16th

The first day we arrived in the afternoon. We visited the Huangpu River front, had dinner and took a walking tour to Nanjing Road from Peoples Square. (this is a very popular shopping area, departments stores as well as small shops) All this area including the river is called the "Bund."
Saturday, October 17th
At our hotel in Shanghai, this will be the only Panda we will see.
SHANGHAI MINHAND GRAND THEATER

Saturday, October 17th

The choir practiced morning and night, this is a picture of the finally with all the other choirs who performed at this live television program. It was the Opening ceremony of this theater. Performers and audience members all received a beautiful gift (ornament).

SHANGHAI MUSEUM

Saturday, October 17th

While the choir practiced during the day, the non-singers got to visit the Shanghai Museum, go to lunch and visit the French Concession(popular hangout with lots of eating places and shops, more European looking).
THE MUSEUM
Just one of the many beautiful pieces in the museum, furniture, Calligraphy, art pieces, porcelain, Jade and other fine stones from centuries ago.
SHANGHAI CONCERT HALL
Sunday, October 18th

The choir having a photo shoot before their live radio performance in the Concert Hall

JADE BUDA TEMPLE

Sunday, October 18th

The non-singers visited the Jade Buda Temple while the choir practiced at the concert hall.

YU GARDEN MARKET AREA

Sunday, October 18th

Shopping at the Yu Garden Market Place, Jean and Gloria found ice cream!

LEAVING SHANGHAI

Monday, October 19th

On our way to the airport to fly to Xi'an, we spotted a traveler having difficulties. Bikes like this with heavy loads were very common. Traffic flowed most anywhere it wanted.

XI'AN CHINA
FAMOUS DUMPLING DINNER
Monday evening, October 19th

Don't ask what you are eating, note everything was shaped as it's contents, what do you suppose these dumplings were with those beady eyes?

BELL TOWER/ANCIENT CITY A short walk inside the ancient city, beautiful gardens, bell tower etc.
TERRA COTTA WARRIORS

Tuesday, October 20th

Hundreds of these life size clay soldiers and horses were unearthed, buried by an Emperor who wanted to take his army with him to the after life.

THE NOODLE FACTORY

Tuesday, October 20th

Chef demonstrating making the noodles by hand. We had lunch here.

THE GREAT MOSQUE
Tuesday, October 20th

A Chinese mosque, still very active with it's Muslim followers. The choir performed at a Christian Church. We were very lucky to have this opportunity. We were not allowed to discuss religion with anyone and we could not take pictures!

HOT POT DINNER

Tuesday Evening, October 20th We cooked our own dinner, then used the remains of the water for our soup.

BEIJING CHINA

TEMPLE OF HEAVEN

Wednesday, October 21st
This used to be the spiritual center of the ancient Chinese Empire
FAMOUS BEIJING DUCK DINNER

Wednesday evening, October 21st

Dead ducks on display, note head and all was roasted
Watching the waiter cutting up the duck, they had a special way to eat the duck. There was a small dish with dipping sauce (similar to soy sauce) and small cut up onions. You take a very thin wrap, dip the duck into the sauce put it and the onions onto the wrap then you fold it up and eat it. Very yummy!

TIAN'ANMEN SQUARE

Thursday, October 22nd

Only a few days before they held a huge festival in honor of the many different cultures that exist in China

THE FORBIDDEN CITY

Thursday, October 22nd
We walked for miles, but well worth it. This is the palace (a city within) from which the entire Chinese empire was ruled for centuries.

RICKSHAW RIDE

Thursday, October 22nd
While the choir practiced at the Forbidden City Concert Hall the non-singers got to go on a ride to a small village where we were invited to go inside one of the homes.
That evening we watched the choir perform.....by the way they were awesome at all their concerts!

THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA

Friday, October 23rd

Very humbling experience, Jean and Gloria climbed a good distance. We wouldn't let Jean climb too high because of her health and Gloria didn't think it wise to go too far as she had already fainted at the second concert and the fourth concert she felt a little weak (we think because of dehydration). So I ventured off by myself, I tried to reach the very top only to miss the last gate as I had to turn around to get to the bus on time. I didn't want to be left behind! I was half way to the top when this picture was taken......pretty awesome! The stairs were tricky, they were never the same size, sometimes very small, sometimes very large!

Autumn time at the Great Wall

OLYMPIC VENUES

Friday, October 23rd
The tour guide let us drive by the Olympic site before we did our last shopping at the Hongqiao Pear Market. See the Birds Nest and Olympic Flame.

RED THEATER

Friday Night October 23rdWe skipped dinner to go to this performance. It was the story of Kung Fu. It was amazing! Our tour guide Long, said it was about Marsha Watts.......we asked who? He said, "You know, Marsha Watts"....Oh! We said, "You mean Martial Arts!" Yes Yes.
SOME CHOIR PEOPLE ARE STILL BARTERING EVEN AS WE ARE LEAVING THE HOTEL FOR THE AIRPORT AND HOME

Saturday, October 24th WE MADE IT HOME !

Saturday, October 24th WE ARRIVED HOME 5 HOURS BEFORE THE TIME WE LEFT KOREA.......GO FIGURE!

THE GARDEN

The Gardener's Morning

The robin's song at daybreak Is a clarion call to me. Get up and get out in the garden, For the morning hours flee. I cannot resist the summons, What earnest gardener could? For the golden hours of morning Get into the gardener's blood. The magic spell is upon me, I'm glad that I did not wait; For life's at its best in the morning, As you pass through the garden gate.- Howard Dolf

It has been fun taking care of our beautiful garden. The tomatoes are just starting to look good, we think the late spring early summer storms took a tole on them. The Butternut Squash the Zucchini Squash, & Spaghetti Squash, along with the Red Peppers, Ivory Peppers and Green Bell peppers are all growing strong. We even have an Egg Plant! Our freezer is already full and I'm giving away a lot of zucchini bread and brownies. We are also enjoying our Spagehetti squash with our spaghetti dinners. Life is good, I'm loving it!

P.S. Cherry Tomatoes are coming out of our ears!

Collin's Baptism

Saturday, September 12th, family and friends gathered around to see Collin's baptism and confirmation. Grandpa John baptized Collin, Great Grandpa Bill and Uncle Larry were the witnesses. The children gathered close to the baptismal font and watched as Papa John said the prayer and gently laid Collin into the warm water. After the baptism, Papa John, Grandpa Bill, Larry and Bishop Smart laid their hands on Collins head and Papa confirmed Collin. It was a beautiful day for a baptism. The talks were very good, not too complicated for our young ones to understand. Our family went out for lunch afterwards. Collin received cards and gifts from family members and we all enjoyed each others company. I had to laugh with Jay, when he said he didn't know he was going to a Bar mitzvah.

We are so blessed to have such a wonderful grandson like Collin. He is such a good boy and smart.....wow is he smart! He has a tender heart too.....what a great kid!

THANK YOU RACHEL

I'm late in posting this, but I still wanted to write about our fun time with Rachel and Robin. August has come and gone, but I still wanted to blog about our great visit with them in August, so here I am at 4:15 am trying to put my thoughts into words. After Young Women's camp I came home to our visitors from Texas.

I was fixing dinner for the family and our guests when Rachel said she remembered how I didn't like using paper plates etc. this was when Robin and Paul were only babies. She didn't know that I was about to pull out the paper plates and plastic cusps. So she helped me set the table with a nice table cloth, china and glasses. If I would have had time I would have taken off the stickers of the beautiful Chrystal glasses John brought back from Germany, but we still used nice glasses. I can't believe how I have changed. Maybe because I have little grand kids running around, (but I had little children running around and I still managed to have nice plates on the table with real glasses years ago). Rachel reminded me of how I didn't like people washing their plastic cups and using them again, that just defeats the whole purpose of using disposable items! But there in my dishwasher were plastic cups. What happened to me along the way? I always loved to go the extra mile and make a dinner not only tasty, but the table setting inviting to look at also. Thank you Rachel for reminding me that it is important to make a great presentation, it shows how much I love my family and guests. Next time my grand kids come to dinner, their grandma is going to have a beautiful setting (even if the meal is only spaghetti), I can't promise that I wont still use paper products, but maybe a little less. I want to make my dinners more inviting and heck this way I'm helping out the whole environmental problem, can't beat that.

YOUNG WOMEN'S CAMP

Theme: "Know Your Heart"

So I was one of those big babies that didn't want to go to Young Women's camp. Reason's why? Legitimate? YES! I'm old, I have pain in my right hip when I lay down, I have to go to the bathroom at least 3 times at night. I'm afraid to walk to the bathroom even with a flashlight all by myself. {BIG SIGN POSTED, BEWARE OF BEARS}! And I snore (although at camp I was told that I do not snore, yeah! Maybe loosing 100 pounds will do that to you)! Anyway I had a really bad attitude about going. I knew I was going to be okay in the day time, I love being with the leaders and the girls, but I dreaded night time. The first night there we were unprepared for how cold it can get. I shivered half the night. Finally Kim got up at 5:00 am to leave to go to work. She was our go-for girl back and forth several times an hour and 1/2 each way. She walked down to the bathroom with me. She threw her blanket on Vanessa who was on the ground rolled up into a ball. Vanessa was very grateful! Kim stayed only the first night, but came up every night to bring things to us. The second night I took a couple of Tylenol Pm's just to take the rough edges off the night. It was warmer and lucky me, I slept the whole night! I haven't done that for several years! I was hoping our third and last night would be the same, but it rained and left us all soggy and cold. The night was cold, but bearable and I only had to walk down to the bathroom once that night, I went by myself..saying, "I can do this, I can do this)! Any of the leaders would have gone with me, but I didn't want to disturb them. Come to find out Kaylin, our camp director didn't sleep very well any of those nights so she was pretty exhausted by the end of camp. We were very proud of ourselves for sticking it out. The girls never complained and I was very proud of them. I had a blast with the leaders and Young Women. I would do it again ....... only this time with a warmer sleeping bag, extra blankets and a really good sleeping pill ..... any suggestions?

Kaylin (camp director) Vanessa (assistant)

Laura (YW President)

Samantha, Vanessa and me

Myself and Kim (our wonderful go-for girl) Kaylin had so many fun activities for the girls and leaders
Kaylin and Vanessa did a fantastic job! Our Priesthood leaders for camp

We had wonderful devotionals by the Youth leaders and Young Women leaders. We had mail buckets hanging up so the girls and leaders could put love notes into each others boxes. We had secret sisters, thank you Laura for all my great gifts. We made beautiful journals and we also made a book about camp that kept our notes, devotionals, and pictures. We had fun making necklaces etc. The girls hiked, zip lined into the lake, canoed and had water fights. Laura our trusty YW pres. fished.....some of the girls learned to love that too! It was a fun and very spiritual time and even with all of us (including the Bishopric) cramped into one tent during the rain storm and testimony meeting it was awesome. I love being in Young Womens, I love my girls!