Hong Kong Christmas Trip

We decided this year to not go anywhere out of China for the Christmas break but we did spend three days in Hong Kong. We left early Tuesday morning to go get more visa pages for our passports since we are running out of pages and don't want to get stuck somewhere. We took a ferry over to Central and they had this Santa on the window. We thought it was funny to see a bald Santa.

After our appointments at the U.S. Consulate for our visa pages we met the Galicia's at the ferry terminal to start our three days of fun. We first went to lunch at a Mexican restaurant up in Soho then headed on over to check into the hotel. We then took the metro to the cable cars that took you up the mountain to the Big Buddha.
This the gang starting out our adventure.
The Metro was so crowded when we first got on. We had to transfer once and it took us about an hour to get to the cable cars.

After an hour of sitting, standing on the Metro, Rachel and Jonny had enough.
We finally made it to the cable cars and loaded up for our trip up the mountain.

We were REALLY high above the bay but it was a beautiful view.

We finally made it to the top and you can see the Big Buddha behind us. They have a small village up here for tourists and then we walked up to the Buddha.

It was quite impressive to see.

Ocean Park Hong Kong

The second day in Hong Kong we went to an amusement park called Ocean Park. Ocean Park is a mix of Sea World, Magic Mountain, and the zoo. All with an awesome view of the ocean. Half of the park is set up on the side of a mountain in Hong Kong.
My goofy girls posing while the boys just try to look cool.
They were trying to train these seals to keep the Santa hats on. This one did pretty good.
The Dragon ride was one of the bumpiest rides we have ever been on. We all got off with headaches and back pains.
Vika loves the ferris wheel.

The dolphin show wasn't quite as good as the one at Sea World but you can't beat this view.
Gavin and Vika look quite tiny in this Shark mouth.
They had this huge reef aquarium. It was one of the highlights of the day.
We felt like we were right there in the water with the fish. Of course, we still want to experience the real thing.

Vika had to get a picture with this mermaid.
One section of the park had tons of tanks with jelly fish in them. They were beautiful but I wouldn't want to meet them face to face.
Vika on her first real thrill ride by herself.
The park had a Panda reserve which had about 6 or 7 Panda's in it. They are just the cutest things to watch.

Disneyland Hong Kong Christmas Eve

We decided to spend Christmas Eve Day at Disneyland in Hong Kong. We felt that this would be the closest we could get to home. We had to ride the Metro taking several different lines to get there and it took us over an hour. The last Metro we got on was only for the Disneyland Resort and of course it was all decked out Disney style. They even had the handles hanging from the center in the shape of Mickey Mouse.
The whole gang posing before we entered the park. Notice Mickey surfing in the background.

Vika had her first driving experience on Autopia. She kept swerving and crashing but had a blast. Nicole and Chelsea climbing space mountain.

It was the perfect day to spend at Disneyland. Everything was decorated for Christmas.


They even had snow falling on Main Street. It was fake snow but it really added to the Christmas feeling. It really made us miss Utah and the real stuff.

Of course we had to go on "It's a Small World" They always decorate it up for Christmas.
Rachel, Jonny, Nicole, and Vika at Tarzan's Tree House.

Vika loves to pose and found these little penguins to pose with.

Random Things

A few weeks ago I went out to the Artist Village and got these really cool calligraphy brushes with a stand to display them. To me they themselves are a piece of art but I guess people really use these brushes. Some have bone handles and chicken feathers as brushes. I think they are really cool and interesting.
We've been watching this cute little dog for some friends of ours during the Christmas break. She is so much like Mele our dog we used to have. We really miss having a dog in our lives. We may just break down and get a dog here. People ship them all over the world with them so I guess we could too. It would have to be just the right dog. Believe me if the people who owned this dog ever wanted to give it up, we would take her in a heart beat. She is very well trained and so much fun.

Christmas in China

Each year they seem to change things in Seaworld. This year Santa has a turkey. Where did they get that idea? That's supposed to be Thanksgiving not Christmas.
In the center of the plaza they have one Santa holding a Turkey leg and the other holding a glass of wine. Santa is supposed to be jolly not drunk and he's fat but it's not from eating a turkey leg.

Just some cool decorations down in the plaza at Seaworld.
Notice the birthday cake decoration in the back? What is that? Maybe they had heard Christmas was celebrating the birth of Jesus so they felt a birthday cake would be appropriate.
Rachel and Niki being our cute girls.
Vika loves her ride on Daddy's shoulders.
Enjoying all the decorations for Christmas near our house.