A Sneak to Seattle

I just had a delightful little visit with my favorite niece! She's so cute! I think most of these pictures speak for themselves. . .




. . .except for this one. Don't her eyes look BEAUTIFUL in this color?!! And notice her shirt!
I ended my visit by meeting Ben for a quick treat before he went back to work, and I got on the bus to head to the airport. Turns out he is less than one block away from where I transfer on the bus.
And, just for teasers, here's a little chat I had with Chiara while I was there. Enjoy!

Church in California!

We had the wonderful experience of having church outside at a nearby park, and it was so great that I thought I'd put some pictures up of the beautiful day!! And I even got a sunburn!
This is my good friend, Becky, who I used to work with at BFA, and now goes to the same church I do. God is good!

First trip to HKG

After a long, 13 hour flight, I finally made it to Hong Kong!! One of the first sights I saw was this bridge connecting the island the airport is on to the island of Hong Kong City.I waited in line a little extra long for a "harbour view room". This is what I saw when I entered my room!!!Then I met my crewmembers and we went out for noodles! And dragonfruit juice, which wasn't my favorite.
When I woke up the next morning to this beautiful view!
I met my crewmember again, then headed across the harbour to look at the view from that side. Our hotel is the building right in front of the philips sign.
Then we found an olympic set up!!

The equestrian events for the Olympics were in Hong Kong. It was great to be in China during the olympics of 2008! We posed a lot with Olympic stuff.
Then we got on a bus. . .
. . .and went shopping!!!
And what would a trip be without an authenic chinese meal? This was taken at a "hole-in-the-wall" place where we sat at communal tables, and people around me were cheering at a ping-pong olympic match on TV!When we got back to the hotel, the sun was setting.
This was the panorama before it got dark.
The next day we found out our flight was delayed 32 hours while we waited out a tropical storm, which ended up being a category 9 when all was said and done.

This is what it was like outside when it was still all beginning, but they had declared the category 8 by this time.




This is what I looked like at the end of this walkway!

After this, I went up to my room and took this from my window. The beautiful view I had from the day before was gone. Very soon after that, the tropical storm became a category 9.






But then it was beautifully clear by the next morning.
The bridge we started out our trip on, only now it was daylight.
And the airport. Good-bye, HKG!!!

Meeting GG

Being a flight attendant, I have to share the picture taken on Chiara's first airplane trip ever! I wasn't with her, but she was a little trooper, and slept basically the whole way.
The journey ended (after a long drive) at Great Grandma's (GG's) house in Luseland, SK. She finally got to meet her latest addition to the great grandchildren!
Another joy. . .Omi was able to fly over from Germany and join the party. . . .
. . .as well as some very special cousins. All-in-all, it turned out to be quite the party! I know, we're all so very attractive!
Chandra brought her girls, Jalena and Kianna, and they were quite the entertainment! We had many activities planned for our visit. One of the days was spent at the local pool downtown Luseland. We were about half the crowd!

Kianna enjoyed the swimming pool eventually. She just didn't like being away from her mommy!
Chiara liked the water, too, and she looked so stylin' in her little kerchief!
Even I got to swim with her!
She loves her mommy!
It was such a joy for all of us to be there, and a special joy to have mom come from Germany! It was definitely a once-in-a-lifetime weekend.
CoCo did so well with all the activity! She's such a smiley girl now!

One of the highlights. . .we got all dolled up to have a teaparty, and had it all, even the scones and cucumber sandwhiches!
The kids loved their own little table and party dishes.
I have such stunningly good-lookin' relatives!
Auntie Frieda had a wonderful collection of red hats (and other colors). It was great!
And, for a final greeting, big kisses out to everyone!