Thursday, January 12, 2012

Our First Year of Marriage! 2009-2010


We had so many amazing experiences in our first year of marriage! I've been picking away at this photo book for a loooong time (it's safe to say years!), and I'm happy to say that it's finally being published and we'll have another photo album to add to our collection on our coffee table! Now I can start to pick away at our second year photo album!

Feel free to get a sneak-peak of our photo album here!
You can see photos of us setting up our home in Shanghai, as well as "join" us on our many travels to Korea, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Beijing, Sanya, Hangzhou, and more! Our first year of marriage was amazing, and WORTH re-living. :D

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Our Merry Little Christmas Part 3



Merry Christmas!!! This post is about our Christmas week spent in Lijiang, with Ivy! She is my Chinese sister who I have appreciated so much! When she moved to Lijiang we really missed her, so we had to plan a trip out to visit her to see how she was doing! :)
Pictured above, we are with some of Ivy's friends, singing Christmas carols around a campfire. Well, it was a camp fire until a local lady came in, convinced these dumb foreigners didn't know anything about this sort of thing and showed us how to make a "real" fire! She reduced our first to coals, and threw a bunch of sweet potatoes on top! So much for our marshmallows and hotdogs, but it was good for a laugh...and who said you need marshmallows? :D She even joined us for some carol-singing! :)


 Although Ivy works at a 5-Star resort as the manager of their spa, we chose to save some money and stay at a guest house in the Old Town. This is where we spent most of our time, anyway! A great place for vacationing with a baby where we can easily go back to our hotel to let him nap, and Joe could study and I could work. We then could easily go out walking again! 
Most of these photos are snapped from within the Old Town, where we stayed.





We enjoyed several meals of hot pot. However, we learned that eating hot pot is not the ideal restaurant choice with an increasingly active child!


 







They made scarves there by hand! I bought a bunch of them to give away as gifts. Maybe you'll be lucky and get one!!! ;)


Wes, of course, was a hit with the tourists. 









our guest house


enjoying some Yunan coffee in a local coffee shop!  




Nica enjoying yak yogurt!


The view from our restaurant on Christmas night!

 our Christmas Dinner! yum! :D

 our guest house at night. hard to have a photo do justice. It was so pretty!


 Exploring the area around Ivy's resort right before Ivy and Nica hit the spa. beautiful!




In Ivy's spa...after Nica's treatment. It was amazing!!








a gingerbread masterpiece in Ivy's restaurant!


the beautiful sunset in the resort

 have you ever seen a ceasar salad like this??? yum!


exploring the Old Town at night












being a mom and making sure Wes keeps his hat on!



haha, Wes had a bit of a cold and could do this cool trick with his nose! 



Wes learned how to sit by himself while we were in Lijiang




ew. nuf said. Joe made sure we got a picture.

going out for breakfast at a cool cafe in the Old Town! There were so many interesting places, we had a hard time choosing! But we loooved this place. 
 All of a sudden Wes became confident in his sitting! Must have been the clean Lijiang air...

People washing their clothes and brushing their teeth in the mountain streams that run through the Old Town.



The more we walked, the more interesting things we saw! We enjoyed discovering this HUGE market. We had been wondering where the locals do their shopping! 

 We also discovered this amazing mansion that belonged to the Mu family during the Qing dynasty. It's been maintained and used for tourist purposes, but we really enjoyed its beauty, as well as the quietness of the area. Since you had to pay to get in, there were significantly less people! haha





Within the grounds of the Mu Mansion there was someone offering traditional Naxi clothing for us to dress up! Nica & Wes couldn't resist!





haha, Wes loved my hat



That was the last day of our trip, and these photos will hopefully give you an idea of our amazing 2011 Christmas! Unlike any other before. ;)

Our next big trip coming up starts in just a few days! Yep, we're heading back to North America! We'll be enjoying wedding festivities with Joey's family soon! Congratulations, Miriam & Lauren!! And my mom is saving the Christmas tree, Christmas goodies, and gifts for us, so that she can still enjoy baby's first Christmas--even though it will be a month late. ;)

Lots of excitement in store! Hoping our little boy will do okay on the looooong flight, as well as with jetlag. We'll keep you posted!


 Hope you enjoyed Part 3 of 3. 
Again, Merry Christmas to you all! See you soon!
Joe, Nica, & Wes