Naughty and Nice

I had a photo session Saturday with a newborn and I couldn't resist taking some of Samara. Five minutes later and the promise of a pink donut for cooperating and we had a few cute shots.

I put these two together for my website and put it as my desktop wallpaper. Samara came into our room the next morning and I asked her, "Who is the cute little girl in these pictures?" She replied, "That's me, mommy. That one (pointing to the left) is naughty and that girl right there (pointing to the right pic) is nice." Hey, at least she admits it....and so do we for that matter, but we wouldn't have it any other way.

The Canadian Matchmaker

Meet Jody, aka Rosie, aka Canadian Matchmaker. She and Ben have been pals since they were in diapers fighting over the same toy in nursery. I met her when we were crazy singles working at Deer Valley. She and my cousin became best pals, which meant we quickly became friends too. After we got to know each other Jody insisted I had to marry her friend, Benji, who was serving an LDS mission in Russia at the time. So, she is responsible for the Ben and Cheryl show. Jody is truly one of the most delightful people you will ever meet. I adore her. My dad was a big fan too. He told every single (meaning not married) person who came to my parents' home about 'the Canadian Matchmaker.' He'd even give out her contact information.


Meet Dano, aka Samara's new BFF. He's Jody's husband of 10 years and he's awesome too. They came to visit us the last two weeks of October for their anniversary. They suffered no jet lag. You see, they have 5 kids, the youngest being a set of 20-month old twins. They got 6 hours of undisturbed sleep on the plane over and that was enough to put them in a whole new time zone. I overheard Jody's dad telling her while they were skyping, "Enjoy your vacation. This is the only one you are going to get." They were welcomed home with everyone catching the flu. They definitely lived it up while they were here though and went nonstop seeing and doing everything. They are our kind of travelers. It was neat to experience some of it with them--both old and new places...


...like this sweet cat forever glorified in bronze at the Peranakan museum. (Is this hilarious to anyone else?) We hadn't been to that part of the city yet and this was the perfect excuse to go there. The first picture in this post is in front of the museum. There is beautiful and unique architecture in the area.


The museum is great too for kids. You get to make stamps and seals throughout the museum. Peranakans are descendants of the foreign traders who married locals and assimilated into local culture by adopting nusantara customs (whatever that means). We'll definitely be returning to the area again as it was very interesting.

We also made it to the tree-top walk, which we attempted one time before but got totally lost and didn't make it to the suspension bridge. We went a different long way this time but they were good sports. Ben says he's never going hiking with me again.


See how the humidity gives us a nice healthy glow and makes Samara say, "I want to go home." the entire way.

We also spent a very rainy day at Sentosa. Who says rain has to ruin a day at the beach?! Well, the lifeguard did when he made us get out of the water. Samara loved it and was not happy when the lifeguard kicked us out.

I am just going to copy what Jody said about this picture because it's much funnier than how I'd put it. "When it started to rain Cheryl and I made sure everything was well covered... We left Samara to keep an eye on the progress. That is the defeted sholder slump of Dano after he put his first castle on the well manicured foundation and Samara knew that it was then her turn to SMASH it......Cheryl went running while yelling Samara NOOOO. I laughed really hard and took a picture"

Jody told me at least 29 times when Samara was, well, acting like a two-year old, "That's so much funnier when it's not one of my kids." Thanks, Jod! :)

Jody and Dano are foodies too, so we enjoyed trying some new foods with them. Above was our spread when we ate at the Food Republic (a food court in the mall but better than mall food courts back home). I think we got something from almost every stall. They are much more adventurous eaters than we are though--they even ate snails.

We also took an evening river cruise of the downtown and hadn't done that before. It was lovely. As you can see we even have that lovely humid glow at night.







Jody and Dano, we miss you!! Thanks for visiting and celebrating your anniversary here. They tell us our bunk beds are the perfect way to celebrate your 10th or any other special occasion, for that matter.
We even give our guests cold cereal for breakfast--no oatmeal for our visitors. Who wants to come next?

Capture Photography

In case the mass amounts of photos on the blog don't give it away, I rather enjoy snapping away with the old camera. It is something I have loved since I was a teenager. I meddled with doing it for others some before we moved from Utah. Then we had a very hectic few years and a non-functioning camera and it got put on the back burner. One of the biggest blessings of moving to Singapore has been renewing this interest. I have learned heaps since I bought my new camera in May but am constantly amazed how much more there is to learn.

I worked on a photography website over the summer and recently created a photography blog. It's kept me up late at night and very busy, which is good--keeps my mind off the barren womb. I've meant to make a post about the site/blog for a while. I've started having a few sessions and am going to be able to do the photos for Samara's Kindermusik and basically trade the service for the fees. This is a great blessing. Hopefully, I'll earn enough for swim lessons and pre-school too then the rest goes to traveling. :) I've already started enjoying taxi rides to church and I'll never go back. One hour vs. fifteen minutes. Wonderful.

Carnival Fun

Every six weeks or so on the field in front of the mall, they set up this big white tent. Inside the tent is a market of food and cheap stuff and outside are some old crusty rides. It stays for about a month then they take it all down and replant the grass. Once the grass is re grown its time to set it back up again. Amazing how stuff grows here. Not super efficient but I suppose they are taking advantage of the cheap labor. Ben always gets excited when they are setting it up. I asked him why he was so excited this last time since we never really go buy anything and the food is smelly and swimming in grease. He didn't really have a reply so there must just be something about fairs and markets that simply imbues excitement.

It sure did for this little one anyway. Seeing as Samara is up to date on her tetanus shots, we decided to hit the rides one evening when she'd had a late nap. She loved it. The swings were first.


Then it was on to the train.


I could kiss those cheeks all day long and will as long as she lets me.

Last was the hot air balloon ride, which she also loved. At $3/ride (you'd think they had these suckers paid for a long time ago) we were out of change at that point. It was all she talked about for the next few days whenever we'd have to go across the street so, thankfully, it was time for the market to come down a week later.

Happy Halloween!!

We went to the largest Halloween trick-or-treat that we will probably ever go to, which is ironic since we live in a country that doesn't even celebrate Halloween. The neighborhood near the American school blocks off the streets and hosts a huge trick-or-treat. Our friends invited us to a fun dinner beforehand. I tried to get a picture of Samara with her cute little skeleton friend who hosted the party but she didn't recognize him in his costume and got scared. Homes give out 3,000 plus pieces of candy! Seriously, is that not insane? It was a nice evening and the weather was even a little windy and a tad bit cooler.


Samara with the Smiths' kids. Are little trick-or-treaters the cutest thing ever?


So terribly cute in her bangles and bindi!


"Hey, mom I didn't get that piece. We are so going back to that house."


Clark Kent and Superman.


This picture is fuzzy but hilarious. We had her stand by the wall. She put on her blank stare, which surfaces when the camera comes out, and said, "CheeseIhavetogopotty!" Speaking of cheese, when we told Samara about trick or treating she asked me if anyone would be giving out 'cheese treats'. She is a girl who loves her cheese.


Boo! Happy Halloween!!!
We can't wait to see pictures of all your ghosts and goblins.

Arnotts Mint Slices

This cookie alone had improved my quality of life by at least 7%. Not since Deer Valley's double chocolate chip deliticious masterpiece has a cookie affected me so profoundly. If you like girl scout thin mint cookies then you will LOVE these. They are Australian but check your grocery store as it may carry them. Try one. I promise you will thank me.

Hong Kong 411

We loved Hong Kong. Here is some information for those of you planning a trip there.

We loved:
-Chi Lin Nunnery
-Wong Tai Sin Temple
-Escalators
-Trams
-Golden mile
-Victoria Peak—see the post about where to go for the best view
-The Markets: temple street night market, lady’s market, jade market
-Night light show
-Macau
-Star ferry ride

Read about or was recommended but didn't get a chance to do:
-Bank of China: You can get an awesome view of skyline but you NEED your PASSPORT and we didn’t have ours with us so we couldn’t go to the viewing area
-Big Buddha and Lantau island
-Monastery of 10,000 Buddahs
-Stanley Market and area
-Rickshaws—there are only like seven operating. You can’t ride in them because the dudes are too old but you can pay to take a picture. I thought it would be cool to see because they may be gone in 10 years.
-Food. We didn’t try much because we were always in a hurry and it was mostly in Chinese.

Transportation:
-The MTR is nice and easy to use
-Taxis are affordable, maybe even a little cheaper than Singapore but you have to pay a surcharge per bag if you have luggage
-Airport express train is super nice, clean, fast, and cheap. There are free shuttles from the stops to most hotels. You get a discount for multiple tickets so don’t buy at the automatic machine but at the counter.
-Octopus card is like an MRT card here. It can be returned when you leave. You can get all your money back less a $7 HKD deposit. You can use this card to pay for almost everything.

Accommodations:
We stayed at the Cityview hotel. It wasn’t fancy but was affordable ($65/night) and in a great location. It was near all the markets, close to the temple, right by an MRT, and close to walk of stars and HK island.

Metropark was also recommended to us.

We had intended to stay at the YMCA but didn’t get it booked in time. We’ve heard amazing things about it and it’s good value for what you get especially for a family suite.