Hong Kong Vacation

Our week long vacation was to Hong Kong to spend time with some friends. We were very blessed to be able to get an affordable flight that goes directly to Hong Kong from here, without having to go to Bangkok first. However, the flight did leave at night and Keely wasn't able to sleep much on the plane. So, it did make it a very late night for her.

A couple interesting things about our flight was 1) there were only 25 passengers on a Boeing 737! They did skip the middle seat unless it was a family of 3 traveling, but they put us all up in the front together! 2) They gave us a baby seat belt to attach to ours for Keely. She fell asleep in the middle of the flight and then they put the seat belt sign on because supposedly we were going to experience turbulence (we didn't). So, I help Jacob get his belt on (he was holding Keely), but we didn't worry about Keely's. Then the flight attendants come up and stand there until I get hers on...so I had to undo Jacob's, attach the baby seat belt to his and then hook her in it. Keely let out a nice little scream protesting the interruption of her sleep, though she did go back to sleep!

The first day we all hung out together, but then Alan needed to go to Macau for work, so Jacob went with him leaving us ladies with the 3 kids for 2 days! I definitely got to experience what it is like living in Hong Kong with kids! The first day we went to the park. It was a great park, complete with birds and flamingos! To get there we took the bus and I'm pretty sure it was a hilarious scene watching us get on and off the bus with 3 kids, 2 strollers and 2 diaper bags! We were going to go to Toys R Us that day as well, but after the park and lunch we abdanoned that idea and went home for naps. The next day we went to the market to shop for clothes for the kids. Jason was very concerned we were going to forget to go eat lunch and after every shop asked if we were going to go eat and when we told him a few more shops first he was say, "Remember, eat lunch." Thursday we went to Toys R Us when Jacob was with us and I'm glad he was there! Melissa had to go feed Danny, so Jacob went around Toys R Us with Jason looking for buttons to push and I pushed Keely while looking and feeding her Cheerios (she was hungry and didn't want to be in the stroller). Then we went to lunch where we had really great milkshakes. I decided to get blueberry and Keely decided to help me drink it! She's been working on sucking out of the straw, but hadn't been able to get it to come all the way up because the straw is too long. That is one determined little girl! There is ice cream in a cup and mom is offering it to you, then figuring out how to get it up the straw is very important. And she figured it out!

She also liked playing with the straw!

Yum!
(Keely does make a sound that sounds like yum and she was making it that day!)

Friday we went to the great recreation center that has a pool with an indoor and outdoor area. Half of the pool was a kiddie pool complete with play area with slide and rope swings! We put Keely in her float and she was able to walk and run all around by herself. She LOVED it! That evening we went to dinner with some friends and then walked along the harbor.

The next day we went to Stanley market and went shopping. Then we took the scenic route back home. Can you believe such a populous city can have such beautiful scenic spots?

(This one was taken through the window)

The trip wouldn't have been complete without excitement while we were trying to leave! That afternoon we looked online and saw our flight had been delayed by 2 hours. So, we decided to not leave as early and then Keely could take a nap. Keely had been having trouble napping all week, so she fell asleep on our bed and I put pillows around her (knowing that wouldn't contain her long, but hoping we would hear her when she woke up). Well, when she woke up, she was familiar with where she was (unlike a few days earlier when she cried immediately after waking up). So, she decided to go find mom and dad and crawled off the bed! She's fine, but that started our line of adventures for the afternoon. We were going to take the train to the airport, but our friends decided to go with us and eat at a restaurant that is not nearby where they live. On the way there, our tire blew out! We finally got to the airport and go to check-in and we can't find out check-in counter. We go to ask and we are informed that they closed check-in at the time as if our flight was on time. After some phone calls, they finally let us check in. We all go to eat dinner and Jacob and I don't have watches (I did find my yesterday though!) and Alan tells us we should get going pretty soon. As we are going, we realize we haven't ever gotten pictures of the kids and had to take a couple pictures!

Can you tell they are all exhausted?

So, we finally get to immigration and Jacob looks at his phone to see what time it is and it is 6:35. We are suppose to board at 6:35 and the ticket agents even told Jacob to be there at 6:35 and not to be late! And they close the gate 20 minutes before the flight leaves, so we have 20 minutes to get there. Well, we seem to get in the wrong line to go through immigration and when we are finally through we see that the line is SO long at security! It snaked 4 times (very long snakes)! So, we have 5 minutes to get there now. The gate was nearby but we had to go down 2 escalators! Jacob is carrying his backpack, the video camera, a bag of foam tiles and Keely and I'm carrying two bags, the computer (there wasn't time to put it back in the bag) and the stroller! We run up to the gate and find out the plane hasn't even arrived yet! Whew! That flight almost seemed not meant to be!!

Can you tell we had a good time, though?