China

Because our time in China was so limited, we planned on seeing what we thought were the obvious sights not to be missed - The Great Wall, Tianamen Square, the Forbidden city and of course, some markets. Unfortunately we ran out of time to see the forbidden city but managed to do everything else - which we absolutely LOVED!!!!

The wall itself is really something quite spectacular, especially when you consider the history of this man made wonder. Much like the iconic dragon that represents China with its power and great strength, the wall weaves up and down the mountains for almost 9000km, and really is a sight to behold.

We caught a cable car up to the wall and by doing so, were exposed to the breathtaking scenery that would likely be missed if you chose to hike up. Beautiful greenery surrounds the wall with splashes of Autumn trees glowing in their rustic glory. Add to that the morning son peaking over the mountains and it was quite the picturesque scene! If I wasn't slightly afraid of open air cable cars I would have taken about 100 more pictures :)

We visited a section of the wall called Mutianya. Not the most popular section (which means less tourists) but we LOVED it and loved that we weren't drowning in a sea of people. It's also the only section of the wall that has a metal toboggan you can ride down from the wall which was an experience in its own right :)

this next pic makes me laugh :)

 

At the base of the wall at street level, markets line the path and while you can get everything at cheap prices, it's not without some serious bargaining first (and I mean serious bargaining :)

oh how our kids loved the little trinkets and Chinese paraphernalia we got them!

One of the things I love the most about traveling is people watching (I realise that sounds somewhat stalker-ish :) but I find it so fascinating watching people from different worlds live their lives and the highlights are always meeting 'locals' and hearing parts of their stories. 

Tiananmen square was somewhat disappointing in that there was NO sign of any memorial AT ALL to the lives lost there (not surprising.....) - but we didn't have a guide so we may have missed it....I hope (but doubt)! That being said, I still loved the amazing detail in which things were presented there, even down to the words formed out of beautifully growing flowers!

After the square we visited some markets that offered 'delicacies' in the way of creepy insects and all kinds of bugs etc.

Some of the options were a bit disturbing.......

Snail soup anyone.....

Or how about some hairy black spiders......

Or some gliders......

Despite all the delicacies on offer, It was the scorpians that brought us to these markets and exactly what Chad wanted to sample (please don't ask me why :) In an attempt to be adventurous I agreed to eat one (shudder) and when I asked the guy selling them if they were dangerous, he smiled and said in his chinese english accent "yes, ob course, bery dangerous! haha. I assume he thought I meant 'delicious'!! The creepiest part was that when we chose our skewer, they will still wriggling around on it......eewwww! In the end they didn't taste that bad, but it was still creepy putting it in my mouth!!!!!

 

All in all we loved our day in China and look forward to going back and spending more time there. It's also no understatement when I say it's a miracle that we survived the day! Our taxi driver who we met at the airport, wasn't in an official taxi, even though he assured us he was. When we got to his car (which was completely black including the windows) we questioned for a moment if he was actually going to take us to the great wall or if he was going to take us around the corner to a gang of  'ninjas' waiting for us :) luckily he turned out to be somewhat legit, even though I have NEVER experienced such a crazy ride. EVER. I nervously laughed for most of the trip and at one point, when our driver almost crashed the car (the nearest miss) even he laughed maniacally at how crazy it was! I have never seen so many pedestrians/cyclists jump out of the way of a moving vehicle nor have I heard so many horns blown!

After our day in China, we boarded a plane bound for dubai, before heading to Oman!

Adieu

And so it is that I bid you Adieu. Not forever, just for 18 days :)

Tomorrow Chad and I embark on a journey that will take us to places like THIS and THIS and THIS and THIS.

To say we are excited is a little understated. I've been meaning to blog about it for months but time has slipped away far quicker than I thought and now we're leaving!!!!!!!

I'm praying for my sweet Mother (bless her little heart :) that she will survive the whirlwind that can be 4 children and hope our bribes sticker charts help them be on their best behavior (which incidentally didn't work tonight and I almost cancelled the whole trip......OK not really, but kind of :)

And now I leave with you a song that makes me ridiculously excited for our travels every time I hear it!!!

Did I mention that I'm going to miss my babies? In fact, I already miss them just anticipating the separation!!

Love in the mountains

Ah young love (and old love for that matter ;) Such a wonderful exciting thing!!

Taken at our friends wedding in the Blue Mountains over the weekend. 

Heart Day

When Chad and I were in Japan a couple of years ago we noticed that generally couples are not very affectionate in public. (we also noticed that you hardly ever see pregnant woman......we saw about 7 total....but that's another story........)

One morning we were on a train during rush hour and were standing up hoping that eventually we would get a couple of seats cause we had a LONG way to go. While I was complaining we were talking about our hope to get a seat, the person sitting next to us stood up getting reading to leave.  ONE AVAILABLE SEAT. 

We knew if we didn't move quickly the seat would be taken.

So Chad sat down and I sat on his lap. 

We noticed people looking at us, and laughed thinking we were perhaps breaking some kind of 'public code of conduct'. But like I said, one seat. two people. traveling. tired. peak hour. We weren't planning on standing for the whole train ride so decided we were OK with the 'looks' and the possibility of breaking conduct codes.

On the floor next to us was a group of teenage girls sitting in a circle talking excitedly, putting on make-up and being typical young excited girls. (actually they were more excited than typical young girls :)

When I sat down on Chad's lap, after watching us for about 30 seconds this group of girls all started giggling and laughing and making love heart shapes with their hands to each other. One of them looked at me and said in her cute Japanese-English accent "you lub him" and held her hands up to us in a love heart shape. We laughed and they all continued to ooooooooooohhhhhhh and aaaaaaaahhhhhhh and giggle and say "you lub him" while holding up heart shapes to us.

Everytime I think about those cute Japanese girls it makes me laugh and I think to myself, they were right.

I do "lub" him.

Whether you celebrate or not. Happy heart day!!

Weekend surprises

It's kind of funny that my sister'n'law Alana is engaged, because I really do still think of her as 'little lani'. 

Then I see pictures like the ones below, and I am reminded that she's actually a Woman now. A beautiful, talented, successful Woman. And she's getting married!

  {these two pics are courtesy of Deep Grey photography. They are AMAZING. Really they are. If you haven't already seen their stuff you should absolutely go check out their photos....like right now ;}

For her engagement party on Saturday, Chad and I flew up to Brisbane (with Lil) to surprise her and Cam. It was very exciting :) Oh how I love surprises! (yay :) It was so fun rocking up and not telling them we were coming (I thought it was going to be more exciting for me (haha) but when we arrived there were squeals, hugs, tears and love. Just as we hoped it would be :) 

It was SO good spending the day with family and seeing how happy these two are! Ahhhh young love. So new and exciting!!!!

the 4:30 am (yes AM) train to the airport......Lil didn't even notice she was being dragged out of bed. Chad and I on the other hand......we must be getting old ;)

 

We stayed with my sister Anita and had a lovely brunch with all my other sisters before the engagement party too! I really love those girls!!! Ahh sigh, the time we spend in Brisbane is never long enough!!

Can't wait till Christmas to see all our family again!!!

ps) Cam you are a LUCKY man!! thanks for making Lani SO happy!!! I think she is going to burst :)

10 years......

I really can't believe that this week we celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary and in that time we've gone from this......

(ok this photo was actually taken last year in Japan but if I wait to upload a wedding picture from our pre-digital photo stash, this post may never be published :)

to this.....

10 years. A third of my life spent with this man :)

 I know. he's a spunk right ;)

He's also not one for 'public praise' so i'll save all the mushy stuff for him (but it is our anniversary so i'm sure it's OK if I say a few nice things about him on this public little space :)

As a surprise to celebrate, Chad flew his sister down to Sydney to watch our kids while he whisked us off to a spa retreat in the mountains. It was heavenly. HEAVENLY. Massages. Facials. Foot and hand treatments. Hair treatment. Reading. Sleeping. Dinner in bed. Sleeping in till 9am and eating breakfast with a gorgeous view.

Basically 24 hours of guilt free relaxing together. We loved it!

I'm so grateful for all the things Chad does for me (and for our family) on a daily basis. It kind of amazes me just how much he does and I feel very blessed that he's my hubby. Forever.

Love you Hun!!

WICKED-ness was never happiness....

Except on Friday night while watching this WICKED.......



OK OK - i know that was cheesy. BUT. it's true! The show was excellent!!




"Are people born wicked, or is wickedness thrust upon them"??


That was the major theme throughout the production - and I LOVE LOVE LOVED the way they answered/didn't answer that question.


The themes. The costumes. The performances (except perhaps Mills-ee (Rob Mills) who was slightly overrated), the SONGS, the dancers - loved them all!! Particularly Glinda and Elphaba. Their performances were incredible!!!


So in short, if you haven't seen it yet. You should go. You will not be disappointed :)


ps) thanks Chad for taking me! You know I've been dying to see it :) and I loved it!!!! even if I did arrive 2 hours late, and cause us to miss the dinner you had planned.......but if it's any consolation, the Thai place that was still serving dinner at midnight was delish!!

pss) not sure if wicked is going to Brisbane......but.....you're always welcome to come and stay with us for the weekend and see the show.....we'll even throw in some free baby sitting if you need it :)

Shirakawago.

Shirakawago was definitely one of the HIGHLIGHTS of our trip. It was A.M.A.Z.I.N.G.

The people live and work in this beautiful small 'world heritage' listed town Just as the photos depict. Surrounded by the remote Japanese mountains it was breathtaking. It really was like stepping back in "Japanese time" about 500 years and soaking up all that is the culture there. As dusk approached we saw most the tourists board their buses leaving the streets fairly 'abandoned' for us to walk around and take in the awe that surrounds this place. WE LOVED IT!





Yes......that giant is my husband....luckily Chad was about a foot taller than almost everybody. This probably saved us from loosing each other a number of times considering I stopped to take so many photos and there were so many people!




















We stayed in one of the traditional thatched-roof gassho-zukuri farm houses. The roofs are said to resemble hands praying and are built without a single nail. Ours was approximately 500 years old - like I said A.M.A.Z.I.N.G.



We LOVED the whole experience of traditonal eating and surprisingly we LOVED the food. I know I know that's a lot of love. The people we stayed with were from Kyoto and Hiroshima - and YES we loved them too!



After dinner our new friends invited us to the bath house (as you do with strangers) which was SO relaxingly uncomfortable if ya get what I mean! You can see how red my face is from the hot water!



our continued quest for self taken photos......



and some more exploring in the morning!






Right before we left we found these BEAUTIFUL FLOWERS! They honestly didn't look real they were so perfect and vibrant! aaaahhhhh Shirakawa-go we miss you!!!!