Mom and Dad visit and ski trip

It has been a busy last couple of months so here's the big update! My parents came for their first ever visit from mid-Nov to mid-Dec photos here. Every weekend was booked and during the week we did some touristy things (Stanley, Sai Kung, the Peak) 

and went out to eat and shop at markets, local stores and malls as well as the normal kids' after school activities (including Thurs evening gymnastics and dinner, too). I'm sure I'm forgetting some stuff we did, but here are some highlights... Over U.S. Thanksgiving weekend we went into China and drove around the whole Pearl River Delta from Shenzhen to Zhuhai. We went to where my father's ancestors are from - Tai Shan. 

We located the village and a cousin brought us to his grandfather's burial site. 

That is near where my mother's ancestors are from - Jiang Men, but we didn't go look for any relations there... On the way back to HK we went to the Splendid China attraction - famous sites in miniature from all over China. 

We found my father's grandmother's burial site in a local cemetery. On my mother's side, we got together with an uncle who lives in HK and ate at a restaurant he is part owner of for dim sum and dinner. That's all of the 'family' business we did. We went to Macau one Sunday and Paul took my folks through Sands while I took the kids around a new area called Fisherman's Wharf. After, we went to St Paul's ruins and a nearby fort. We walked through Leal Senado and ate at the Wynn before catching the ferry back. Long day! Maggie had her tap dance performance and school Christmas performance the same weekend and we went to Taipei together for our last weekend together before they returned home. Time flew by and then Christmas was fast approaching. School let out on the 22nd, had an all day fete the 23rd with lunch and gift exchange for some of Alex's friends and some families over for hotpot dinner. 24th for last minute shopping and packing and Christmas day we flew to Japan for the week to go skiing. 

We got back new year's eve and managed to stay awake to welcome 2007. Spent all this week recovering - washing clothes, etc and Maggie's friend came over for a sleepover and visited the whole next day. Christmas vacation almost over for the kids and then Chinese New Year right around the corner! Click icon to see more ski photos on  

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Originally uploaded by beckyleesu.

After a recent early release day at school, I took the kids and their best buddies to Wu Kai Sha, a little beach and bay just behind the hustle and bustle of Ma On Shan. We enjoyed strolling on the beach and looking at the little crabs and frozen treats afterward before heading back to civilization for dinner. Check out the photos online.

Chong Hing camp site (click for photos)

A group of us went camping over the weekend, some neophytes, some with previous outings... We set up our camp and had BBQ for dinner. The next morning we had to take down the tents by 8am - no sleeping in! Some went kayaking, climbed trees, played soccer, basketball and/or badminton and the older kids and adults tried archery. Went on a short hike/walk to a restored village house and headed to Sai Kung after where we ended our expedition with pizza!



Camping photos on a Shutterfly Share site

Walkathon was a success - the kids had a great time using their orienteering skills trying to find 'stamping stations' or 'countries' to get a stamp on their passport. The Fall Fair was chaotic as usual but also enjoyable with games, food and shopping for all. The end of the first term is tomorrow and the kids get their report cards. I'm a bit anxious about Alex's since he seems to be struggling a bit. Parent-teacher conferences next week. A couple Disney photos - they are celebrating their first anniversary. Also, some photos from Taipei dinner with relatives and from trampoline class. Each is trying to make the other 'pop' out of their cross-legged position. The game is called popcorn and great for quads and glutes as well as abs since they have to jump and push down to make the other pop up.

Sorry, time gets away from me - a quick update, photos later since I've heard you haven't always received them through the group email but have to click on the Blogger site instead.

Kids have school routine down pat. Received mid-term progress reports. Alex decided to join the trampoline class as well.

Trying to raise money for the new school building - the latest event is the Fall Fair and Walkathon on Oct 21. If you would like to sponsor the kids, please let me know soon. I'll pay first and collect later. Thanks for your support!

More info: The school has been in rented buildings and split into two campuses, Elementary and Secondary. The government awarded some land and a grant to build a basic school building, but we would like to have nicer than 'basic' facilities so are raising funds. Included in the upgrade is a second gymnasium (so we'll have one for Elementary and one for Secondary), performing arts hall and practice rooms (for the community to use as well), chapel, swimming pool and central air conditioning.

Went to Disneyland again to use our free second visit promo. Lots of people on the Sunday we went, so we had to wait in lines. Enjoyed the new ride - Autopia. Didn't stay in the park so long this time.

Went to Taipei for a couple of nights on a 3D/2N package when the kids had a couple extra days off school. Saw some relatives and ate lots of yummy food. Even though breakfast was included in our package, we still went out to eat breakfast on the streets. Favorites include glutinous rice rolls with shredded dried pork, pickled vegetables and 'yo-tiao' (like a crunchy doughnut) inside and egg with onion pancake... Lunch was beef stew noodles at Paul's two favorite places... Afternoon snacks included egg-shaped cakes, a type of gelatin with lemon syrup called 'ai-yu' and more noodles. For dinner we had all you can eat hotpot one night and the second dinner at another favorite place - dumplings, fried rice, clam soup, fried pork chop, beef with spring onion... We also hit the bookstore, local park/playground and walked around window shopping... Brought some snacks home - cookies, dried pork jerky, apple soda. Looking forward to another trip!

That's all for now.

Yesterday was the evening before Mid-Autumn Festival and after a lovely evening gazing at the moon, eating BBQ - just carousing with friends and their families, we headed home for the night... Sometime in the middle of the night after nature's call, I went to wash my hands and - huh? NO water... Hmmm, usually the management company puts up notices about water supply interruption but since it was the middle of the night I just used a wet wipe and went back to bed. Life with kids - always have wet wipes around for multitude of uses.

OK, morning now and after going to the kitchen to make coffee, alas, still no water; I gazed out the window and saw hubbub below - people with containers of all sorts. This was definitely not a temporary problem.














I brought an empty 18 liter water dispenser bottle down to the line and found out a water truck would arrive shortly so I went home. Indeed, after a while, we heard a ruckus and rumble as the truck pulled up to the curb. I grabbed my digital camera to document the details. There were a couple of newspaper and TV news people with cameras around. Too bad I don't speak Cantonese - I could have had a moment of fame!

It was all fairly efficient and I went to collect my water with the luggage cart I brought along. I thought of those poor countries where people have to do this every day and also of times of drought during my childhood in Northern California where we also had to collect water...





Ah, 18 liters of water - I washed my hair and rinsed - but ooh - chilly! Still plenty left to cook noodles for breakfast and wash the dishes. Will wait on the clothes. Saturday morning excitement...

Three weeks of school finished already! The kids seem to be settling into the routine of their six day cycle of classes. They have normal homeroom subjects - math, science, social studies, language and bible as well as their 'specials' - Mandarin, music, art, library, computer and P.E. They both have lots more homework this year and so far so good... Their after-school activities are starting - both in gymnastics, Maggie also in Mandarin, tap, trampoline and clay art class. She also has to practice clarinet daily for her school band class.

Maggie finally cut her hair, only 4 inches though, not enough for a http://www.locksoflove.org/ donation. They need a minimum of 10 inches. I've donated twice and Maggie once.

Alex's birthday was at the local bowling alley. We had four lanes with bumpers so no gutter balls thrown! Also had a cake for him at school during snack time.

I've been keeping busy volunteering at school and working on Parent Association stuff and I've started Pilates on the reformer with a friend twice a week.

Dinner with a friend from Hawaii at a local Thai restaurant, hence the photos with the elephants, Paul's parents came by for a couple of nights enroute to and from other places...

Where should I begin? It's been a few weeks since the last post... Vacation is over and school started today. The kids were excited to be back and happy to see friends. We made it back to Hong Kong just as a typhoon (signal 8) was leaving the area so were delayed about 5 hours at our transit airport in Taipei. After a couple of early mornings (up at 5am) we were back to normal and met up with friends for an afternoon of play and swimming, a day at our local amusement/theme park - Ocean Park and another afternoon at Deepwater Bay Beach. We watched a hazy sunset at the beach and had pizza delivered (to the beach!) for a picnic on the sand. The kids swam until dark and Maggie and friends made it to a floating pontoon about 100m off shore 4 times and back! Probably the longest distance she has ever swam. Can't really count the distance in the backyard pool since the kids don't swim laps, just spend all day in and out of the water.


Back to vacation - after leaving Northern California we headed East to Utah for a family reunion on my mother's side. Grandma Fong (Poa Poa to me) is 92 and still doing well. She has four children, 9 grandchildren and 6 great grandchildren. She has a little garden of vegies and walks around a bit with her walker. There were about 20 people there from the four generations, staying anywhere from 4 days to a week, and we had lots of fun going out to eat, having BBQ, bowling, alpine slide and golfing.
















During our last week in L.A. before heading back we hit the beach at Point Dume, near Malibu and after, filled our tummies with seafood. The kids spent a few more afternoons in the pool and played with cousins Catie and Anthony as well as the usual eating food a plenty!