Day 3

Day 3- Singapore

After the absolute WORST night's sleep in the world we arrived in Singapore. We got a bite to eat at Burger King at the airport. Rhett was super excited because they had Milo. Milo is like hot chocolate in Australia. He took a huge drink and scalded the heck out of his mouth. I felt so bad. He had like 50 pores in his tongue that were completly sticking up in protest. It hurts so bad to burn your mouth and then it feels funny for days. Poor kid! After dropping off the luggage at the luggage locker we were off to explore. We didn't have a hotel room for the day because our flight for Bali was leaving that night at 2:00 a.m. We bought tickets to the hippo tour bus for all day so that we could hop on and off as we pleased. We started the morning by heading over to little India. We had fun walking through their little shops and Fabi and I even got a henna tattoo together. :)

Rhett was teasing me so I made the lady add his initials. lol. 

We got back on the bus and listened to all the fun facts about Singapore and learned several cool things. One thing you may not know about Singapore is that it is illegal to chew gum there. It is also one of the CLEANEST places I have ever been. They have very strict laws on the buildings and they have to be redone every so many years to make sure it looks brand new. It is also very expensive to be a car owner there. They only allow cars that are 5 years old or newer. They send all their older cars to Japan. Interesting, huh? Singapore is also home to the world's largest ferris wheel. 

After being on the bus for an hour or so we headed courtesy of James to the Raffles hotel. The home of the Singapore Sling. It is an alcoholic drink. It was really important for us to stop so that James could get one. They seated us and me and Fabi starting chowing down on the peanuts. They brought us a menu and James almost died at the price. It was $26 for one Singapore Sling. We quickly looked over the menu hoping to find something we could actually afford, maybe a coke or something. ;) They had nothing so after weighing our options we left $5 for the peanuts and quickly snuck out just praying that our waiter wouldn't come back in time to see us.

We went back to the bus and rode over to the botanical garden. It was so gorgeous. We walked around for a few minutes, but it was later in the afternoon and we were all dragging. No hotel was pretty brutal. We found this beautiful gazebo with a few benches down by the pond. We sat to rest for a bit and immediately feel asleep. I'm pretty sure we slept for about 2 hours. We woke up to a landscaper sweeping the gazebo. I was a little embarrassed, but he didn't seem too mad about our little rest. 

We headed over to this little Thai restaurant to have dinner. It was so good, but I have NEVER had anything so spicy in my life. Rhett thought his mouth was on fire. It was funny because we all ordered it mild and the staff thought we were hilarious as we drank gallons of water with every bite of curry! 

We split up after dinner so the boys could check out  this world famous 5 story electronics store. The girls went to check out clothes and other stuff like that. We just had a place to meet back in an hour. 

After we got back together we headed back to the airport. 

We hung around the airport for several hours trying to sleep on the benches before boarding the plane for another HORRIBLE flight! Thankfully it was only a an hour and a half to Bali. Which was good! We were starting to really get to know each other well at this point with no sleep and crazy food schedules. We learned that Fabi and Rhett are ruled by their stomaches. If they started to get mad we knew it was feeding time. :)

On the hippo tour bus. Look how tired we look! lol. It was a double decker bus and we loved sitting up on the top for the breeze and the view! It was a fun experience. It told you about every area before it would stop so you could see all the cool attractions when it dropped you off.

This is Fabi's tattoo. I got mine on my lower belly. I did not realize that you had to wait 20 minutes for it to dry. I looked AWESOME with my shirt tied up high. I was so embarrassed! :)

The largest ferris wheel in the world.

The Raffles Hotel- Home of the Singapore Sling.

Me and Rhett at the clock in front of the botanical garden.

Fun fact- Singapore is one of the only cities to have a tropical rainforest within it's city limits.

Everything was just so green! It really was a very beautiful city. Very expensive though!

It's funny to look at this picture. I have to say that honestly I slept better right here than I did on the plane coming to Singapore. Poor Rhett though. That does NOT look comfortable!

Day 2

Day 2- Shanghai

We woke up the next morning and got everything all packed up and ready to go. We checked out of the hotel and left our luggage with the baggage claim for the day. Our flight wasn't leaving until midnight and we didn't want to have to carry it around with us.

We got a taxi over to the Bund, or historical part of Shanghai, again and decided to do a little shopping. We started by going down a couple rows of street shopping. They had all the normal junk from Mexico and MORE. :) We had a blast trying to barter and get them to come down to our price. It surprised me how into Angry Birds every store was. They had clothes, backpacks, toys, pens, magnets, and school supplies. We walked along and picked up a couple toys for the kids. Rhett bought a watch from someone carrying it in his little briefcase. This is still a sore subject because not only is the watch crap, but when he gave us our change he gave us Russian money which no one takes or exchanges. Little con artist. His lazy eye was so distracting that when he switched us our Yuan for Russian money we didn't even notice! :)

We had bought fruit smoothies on the way over to the shopping and let me tell you- Chinese do NOT know how to make a fruit smoothie. It was more like water with a mango aftertaste. Poor Fabi had ordered pineapple and papaya and learned that they have two names for pineapple. If you just say pineapple it means you want pear, but if you say puu then you want pineapple?!? Hmm, that sounds like a scam if I have ever heard one. Anyway the water juice was pretty gross so we were all starving. We saw a KFC and got totally excited for lunch. There was a guy that James had been talking to so when me and Fabi walked in the store he touched my arm and said, "I'll wait right here for you." "Okay, whatever!" It would have made more sense if we had known James had been talking to him. We just thought he was a little creepy! :)

We ordered a box of chicken. It came with 3 cokes, and a small roll. No sides though. It was sort of weird to be eating JUST CHICKEN! It tasted so good though. Nothing like something familiar when you are starving. 

On the way out there was this lady holding her unconscious baby that broke my heart. She was begging for money and it just tore me up seeing this poor baby that we all donated to the cause.   

After that the same guy was still outside waiting for us. He took us around to all these fun hidden shops. He went to show the guys some stuff for iphones and then he had Fabi and I come with him. As we were walking down a tiny little alley going deeper and farther from the guys we started to get a little nervous. He was right there to assure us in his broken English, "It okay. You safe wit me." Yikes! Now that I look back that could have been a really scary situation. He seemed nice enough though. I mean he had waited for us to finish eating. :)

Anyway, we ended up in a store full of designer purses and watches. We each picked out a new coach purse and he assured us countlessly, "It's real." Yeah, real fake! :) It is a fun, pretty little thing though and as long as nobody else thinks it's fake I'm good, right?

After that, the boys bought new head phones and Rhett bought a really great North Face coat. Me and Fabi also had fun buying hair extensions and outfits for the kids. :)

After all that shopping we headed over to the beautiful Yuyuan Gardens. We loved walking and seeing the cool architecture of the buildings. We made our way up to this old tea house. This tea house was 180 years old and people from all across the world come to do the tea ceremony. It is said to bring you luck through your lifetime. Fabi and James love tea so we obviously had to do the ceremony. It was fun to watch as they made us 13 different types of tea. They were all herbal and had different uses and meanings. We don't drink tea normally nor do we like it, but it was cool to see James and Fabi enjoying the different flavors so much.

After the tea ceremony we headed back over to the Huangpu River for the tour we had missed the night before. It was relaxing and by this time I was very much in need of a chair to sit and chill for a little bit. The tour got a little boring towards the end so Rhett made up this fun game where he would pick out somebody on the shore and we would all wave to them until they waved back. Every single person waved back to us EXCEPT one. He knew it was him that we were waving to, but just wouldn't do it. Several other people on the ship joined in on the fun and waved right along with us.

Side Note- I am going to stereotype the Chinese people for just a second. Please don't take this personally anyone... this was just my own observation. Chinese people are rude! I am so used to the Japanese that are overly kind and would slam on their breaks on the freeway to let someone in. Chinese people at least in Shanghai were rude. They have no concept of what a line is and they push a lot. I think this may be do to the crazy population and they just have to fend for themselves, but seriously they need to learn some manners. I'll throw out just a few examples even though I could go on and on about this subject. First, I was waiting in front of a stall in the restroom for my turn to go. Two ladies ran right around me to get in when it opened it. I mean come one. Wait your turn. Second, we all were waiting for an elevator and we were directly in front of it having learned our lessons earlier in the day. They shoved me as it opened up just to run and get in. Third, when we were at KFC and even though there were four registers open there were no lines. It was just a mosh of people clawing to get to the front. There were at least 12 people standing right at the front bar just hoping to order next. It was mass chaos. Grr... I am a person that likes my personal space and Shanghai was not the place to get it!

Back to the day- After we did the boat tour we headed to the French Colonial part of the city and had dinner at this AMAZING Greek restaurant. It was so good! This side of the city was absolutely gorgeous and you could really tell that they cared about presentation. I wish we had spent more time in this area. It was so great! The food was amazing. The restaurant was on the second floor overlooking a road and the weather was perfect for outside dining!

We then headed back to the hotel to grab our luggage. After being out in the heat and humidity all day we were all in dire need of a shower. We begged the front desk to let us run up to the spa showers and they obliged. It was nice to get a quick shower in before heading to the airport. It was a fun filled day and we were all tired. Our plane left at midnight heading to Singapore.

This was in the hotel lobby. This is the largest single piece jade carving in the world! It took 10 full years to carve it.

A view of the strip from the bund in Shanghai.

Right after our water juice! Yum yum!

The Yuyuan Gardens. Lots of bamboo, but not a lot of kung fu pandas.

This was a guy that tried to slap Rhett for taking his picture. lol.

Rhett bartering for some headphones.

This guy was out sharpening his knife for one of the kitchens. 

The 180 year old tea ceremony!

My handsome husband-

This is what I picture when I think of China. It didn't disappoint!

The Huangpu River tour.

The Greek Restaurant we ate at!

This is how we all felt waiting for our flight!

Again, please pardon the typos. I really need to do this earlier in the day when my mind hasn't completely turned to mush!

Day 1

Day 1 of our totally awesome, kid-less, vacation together!

I guess I really need to start with a few weeks prior to the trip. 

Rhett and James planned this whole trip and I felt really out of the loop. I couldn't really even tell you where we were going or when the plane would drop us back in Okinawa. It made me feel very panicky and I felt like something was going to go wrong. I asked Rhett about 15 times if he had made sure to do ALL the paperwork and if there was anything else we needed to do to go. He assured me that he and James had everything all worked out.

Fast forward to the evening before we are to leave. Our neighbor Chris came over to wish us a good trip. While visiting with him he casually asked me if we had made sure to get our passports stamped?!? I immediately went to grab Rhett to ask. The answer was NO. Chris said that they had missed their flight because they didn't get theirs stamped before they left. We called James and he immediately apologized for forgetting to tell us this was a must. Then we ran to the AMC terminal praying they had a space A flight going out. We got lucky and the terminal was open. The stars must have aligned for us to get those dang passports signed. 

Okay now on to the first day-

We started by waking up early and getting everything packed up. We had packed the kids earlier and just had to throw the last few items into our suitcases. We put everything out into the car just hoping and praying that we didn't forget anything too important. Next, I headed to the babysitters and dropped off the kids and the van. Rhett picked me up downstairs and we were off! Rhett had grabbed the other couple, James and Fabiola, and we all headed to the Naha airport. 

After arriving at the airport we had a car service pick up Rhett's car where they would detail it and be there to pick us up in 9 glorious days!

We waited in the LONG LONG lines and made it through to our gate. I was seriously so excited. A little nervous for the babysitter watching our children, but excited to be with Rhett. Rhett was pretty sure that either the babysitter, her husband, or one of the kids would be dead before we made it home! :) We were headed to Shanghai, China. Here we are at the Naha airport in Okinawa.

It made me smile because as we were checking in they saw Rhett and immediately asked if we wanted the emergency row on the plane because he was so tall and it had more leg room.  People in Asian tend to be a little on the shorter side so everywhere we went it was super easy to find Rhett. He was about a head taller than everyone else around us.

The flight was about an hour and a half so we got to Shanghai right around 4:00 p.m. We grabbed our luggage and headed to the FASTEST train in the WORLD! The Maglev. It was wild to watch out the window as the cars on the freeway looked as though they were standing still. It was fun to watch the numbers go up as we went faster and faster. We got across the city in about 20 minutes versus the hour taxi ride. It was cool.

Here we are sitting on the train chairs. I got some video of the outside of the train, but no pictures. :( You'll just have to trust me that we were indeed on a train!

That's right... we were going 431 km/h. Sorry folks, but we are in the land of kilometers and meters. I can't actually decipher how fast that is to you folks at home, but it was quick. Rhett was a little nervous that we would just fly off the tracks while I was hoping for a loop de loop. :)

Famous bridge to which the name has escaped me. I will have to look it up and get back on to post the name, but for now... just enjoy the beautiful view!

We got to the Radisson Hotel and were shown to our rooms. The hotel was absolutely beautiful. We decided to take showers and change into dressier clothes before hitting the town. Our night plans were to head to The Pearl Tower and take a boat tour along the Huangpu River.

We jumped in the taxi and talked as the driver drove us around. A fun fact about Shanghai is that they put the little kids in chaps and they just poop right on the street. Pretty gross, huh? There are also about 20 million people in the city of Shanghai. It is crazy populated and it's not just the kids that poop on the street! As we drove around the city James started to get worried. He knew that we were headed in the wrong direction and tried to tell the cab driver. Actually he had Rhett. The conversation went a little like this-

James from the back of the cab yells up to Rhett, "Hey Rhett, tell him that we are going the wrong way. We need to go to the Pearl Tower."

Rhett looks over at the driver and says, "Hey sir, we are going the wrong way... We want to go to Pearl Tower." It was hilarious because all he did was say the exact same thing that James said. Not that it did any good because the guy spoke NO english.

Twenty minutes later we are clear out of the city and he is trying to drop us off at a ferry! Maybe he just wanted us out of his country. :) We kept speaking to the driver and letting him know we were going the wrong way. James kept getting mad at Rhett because he wasn't talking to the driver and telling him where we needed to go. Rhett just looked back and said, "Dude, the driver doesn't speak any English and I only know Nihao ma." Finally, James gets out of the car and the driver gets out. They both climb back in after several minutes and we asked James if he had cleared everything up. James says, "No, we just got out and stared at each other." We all busted up laughing. Best quote of the trip!! Finally, James pulls out some paper and draws a picture of the Pearl Tower and we got going in the right direction. I felt the theme of this trip was turning into "Lost in Translation."

 

We got to the Pearl Tower, but than had a fun little argument about paying full price for the taxi ride around the city. We didn't want to pay the full price because the crazy guy led us everywhere BUT the place we wanted to go. He wanted the full price! He stopped at a hotel next the the pearl tower to clear things up with someone who spoke English.

After about 20 additional minutes of everyone arguing with the cab driver. One lady that was on our side took the money we had to offer and just stuck it in his hand. She then told us that we could leave. 

This is a picture of the Pearl Tower! We walked all over the place that night and I found myself thinking back and feeling sorry for all the girls that wear heels on the strip in Las Vegas. My toes were extremely pissed at me that night. I vowed to wear flip flops the rest of the trip! :) 

This city definitely has a night life. It was close to midnight and we still saw lots of parents with children up. I couldn't even imagine keeping my kids up that late. They would not be happy campers.

We made our way over to the Grand Hyatt Shanghai. It is the 2nd tallest building in Shanghai.

We went to a place called cloud 9 on the second tallest floor. We had a couple drinks and an appetizer and would have bought food, but it was a little out of our price. After our little snack we headed back down to the street to get some real food. We were all starving and opted for a little French Bistro that was still open. Rhett got some Thai inspired chicken and rice while I stuck with the good ol' club sandwich. I was way to hungary to try something I may not like. Rhett said the food was definitely not Thai nor was it inspiring. :)

After we ate we headed back to the hotel for some much needed sleep. I asked Rhett if he wanted to push our twin beds together to which he lovingly replied, "Heck no. Lets actually get a good nights sleep for once." That proves that this was not a honeymoon. We have been married 8 years now! Little twerp. I did sleep really well though! The first day was a success. We had a really great time.

Let me just apologize for all the typos. I am really tired typing this-- Hopefully I will get a chance to go back and fix all the errors, but for now just cut me some slack! :)

Update needed!

Sorry we have been a little absent lately on the blogging front. We got back from our trip a few days ago and I have been going through pictures in the hope of showing off our wonderful vacation together. I plan on updating the first day of the trip today so keep checking back and hopefully I can get it done soon!

Sorry to family that it has taken so long. I have been busy getting back into the routine of having 4 little boys. I forgot how hard my job is. I feel as though I can't quite keep up with them. ;)

Bubble Cake

I thought I needed to throw a couple pictures of the cake that our neighbor Julie made for the kids. They told her they wanted a bubble birthday cake and she totally delivered. We had to cancel the party due to the typhoon, but the neighbor's still came over and sang to the kids with us and had some cake and ice cream. We had several bubble blowers blowing bubbles all over the dining room. I have mopped 3 times since the party and still feel like I'm sticking to the floor, but it was worth it because for those 30 minutes... I was an awesome Mom!

We threw all the balloons up in there room and made a big tent out of their bunk beds. It was such a highlight of the day. Bubbles and balloons- I think YES! :)

Typhoon Muifa

We had planned the "Bubble Birthday Party" for the weekend and were all set for some fun. We had invited a few families over to help us celebrate surviving three years with twins. It is quite the accomplishment if I say so myself. Well, on Thursday typhoon Muifa decided to ruin our party. We went into TCCOR 1C (Caution) on Thursday and were actually kind of excited for Rhett to be able to come home from work. We went into TCCOR 1E (Emergency) or what we like to call "LOCK DOWN" a few hours later. We went to the shoppette while we were in TCCOR 1C and grabbed a couple SAD movies. The selection was a little low by the time we got there, but hey we were just excited to have a couple days off work. That excitement wore off real FAST. 

It was suppose to hit us dead on and go right over us. You can see from the pictures where Okinawa is and the typhoon. This thing was BIG! Rumors were that is was suppose to be the biggest typhoon they have had here for the last 12 years!

Well, day one was kind of nice. We had stocked up on food and water, flipped the tramp, and brought everything inside to keep it from getting blown away. We ate a nice meal and put the kids to bed than settled in to watch "Red Riding Hood" and "Paranormal Activity 2." I have to give the storm credit... you made that movie a lot scarier than it would have been. ;) Anyway, it was a great day off.

Day 2- Getting kind of old. We still had power unlike many friends. I almost felt guilty as we played on facebook, watched cartoons, and played nintendo with the kids. We watched it blowing and raining out of control outside, but inside we were all just fine. No problems with the house... no leaking. 

Day 3- Saturday we were still in TCCOR 1E. The kids were starting to drive me insane and Rhett was ready to sacrifice himself to the typhoon just for the chance to get away for a few minutes/hours/lifetime.  Again, I feel so guilty saying this because we still had power. We talked to so many people who lost power that first night and lost water the next day. Here I am complaining about my kids bugging me when people were in their "Leaking Homes" with no power and no water. That mean no AC and let me tell you it is HOT here! About 48 hours after they called TCCOR 1E they called TCCOR 1R (Recovery) A few hours later we were FREE! They called the Storm Watch and let me tell you we were the first ones out the door. 

We had very little damage. We had a couple trees fall over and lots of branches break off, but that was all for us. The only side effects we had from the storm was the lizard and 4-5 spiders that somehow managed to get into the van and ride out the storm there. I hate finding little crawlies on me when I'm driving and have found a TON since the typhoon, but I certainly can't fault them for trying to stay alive. I feel bad EVERY time I have to kill one! :) Anyway, we got 41 inches of rain in 2 days and the trees seems to take the worst of the damage. That and a lot of FLOODING and leaking houses.

Here are a couple of pictures people posted during the typhoon!

 Angry waves at the beach!

Quite a bit of flooded areas and check out this poor little car! ;)

We got a little worried about the trampoline so we sent Rhett out to save it a few times. :) I needed to zoom out a little so you could see how hard the wind was blowing. It was pretty insane, but more than it being a strong typhoon it was LONG! We are so glad that we were all safe and that we kept power and water! It was a great "Mandatory Family Time."

Happy Birthday Hunter and Ryker

At the beginning on August the babies had their birthday. They turned 3 this year and were so excited about the entire "Party" thing. I had asked them a couple months back what kind of birthday party they wanted and they both immediately shouted that they wanted a "Bubble Birthday Party." Okay! That's easy enough.

I went to the toy store to see what kind of fun stuff I could find and was stoked when they had bubble makers and bubbles on clearance. I think I bought about 7 bubble makers and TONS of bubbles. We were really going to make this a fun party. We planned on setting up the slip n slide and filling up the pool with bubbles. We also have the tramp that we had planned on playing on.

The babies were so excited for their bubble birthday party. We asked our neighbor Julie to make the cake since she plays around with fondant. She whole heartedly agreed and went right to work to make something bubble themed. 

Well, meanwhile on their ACTUAL birthday I went to the store and picked up a couple small cakes and balloons and we had a little family party. They are very into BIRTHDAY CAKE and they were so thrilled. They opened their presents and were so happy to have new clothes, new toys, and even some money from great Grandma Sundberg. Daddy completed the perfect evening by making them smoothies. What a fun day for two beautiful boys. We are so happy to have you in our family! These pictures are from the family party we had. I'll post the "Bubble Birthday Party" in another post!

I let them pick out their own colors for the cake and the candles. Ryker picked out a chocolate cake and Hunter picked out a vanilla with white and blue frosting! Both were pretty gross, but the kids liked them!

Hunter is a little more TAME than Ryker... but soon joined in the messy fun of birthdays!

Taylor and Carter have been really in Bakugan lately and picked out these creepy fun little masks at the party store. They can be seen jumping on the tramp, running around the house, and even sleeping with these babies on. To say that they LOVE them is a bit of an understatement! When I see the boys wearing them it cracks me up big time. Especially Taylor because the hair matches. They are too funny lately.

That blue frosting was AWESOME! A little messy, but totally cool!

Yummy! Daddy makes the BEST smoothies for us to eat.