Breadwinners vs. Sugar Mamas

Since we've been back in the country Mike has been an excellent husband going to school; working towards become the breadwinner.
But...for the time being I'm the sugar mama. The only problem with that was the challenge of finding a job in Lethbridge! But I've done it! I work for Four J Investments which sounds cooler than it is.

There are no temples in China. You may say, "Hong Kong has a temple, and it's in China."
It's not according to our Chinese visa. Food for thought.

Anyway, this weekend we were able to hang out with Michael's aunt and uncle in Cardston. The Sorpolds. We had a delicous dinner and as always such a good time with them. Unfortunatly they dominated us at rook again...we'll get you next time!

 Here are some pictures of what our lives have looked like since we've been back.

A special picture for Sophie

    

The hairbow is gonna be huge. I know it!

The Bridge

After arriving home, catching up with family, suddenly New Years Eve was upon us!
We had a great time bringing in the new year with some of Mike's family. Apparently I forgot to upload the pictures so more to come!

But for now check out the pics we took just a day before the city froze to -30!

I'm so happy in this photo because a coffee shop just offered me free tea and coffee! Too bad I don't drink the stuff.

It was freezing alluding to the impending freeze!

The colors were just gorgeous!

Welcome to Lethbridge!

Coming Home

This might sound crazy, but we didn't buy our tickets home from China until the day we left.

A couple months before we left, we looked into buying tickets home and they were a little (okay, a lot) more than we had planned on spending. So we decided to see what it would cost if we were to leave 3 days from then and the price was right.

So we decided to wait.

Two days before we planned to leave, the tickets for the next day were the right price but tickets for the day after were still quite high. But we had been checking all week and that was how the prices had been going. Plus, we wanted one more day.

But I had a nagging feeling we should leave then, as if it wouldn't be cheap the next day. It had been cheap the next day and not cheap the day after all week, so I figured it was just me being anxious to get home as quickly as possible. So we didn't buy the tickets.

The next day it still hadn't gone down, but we figured it most likely would by the time we got back from the wall.

It didn't.

The next morning, after a few prayers and a lot of searching in every travel site we could think of (even the chinese ones); we found some that weren't quite as cheap, but almost.
Ten minutes later we were on our way to the airport.

24 hours later we arrived in the Calgary Airport, tired but happy to be home!

In the Hong Kong airport

You're not a man until you've climbed the Great Wall

We did it. Our last day in China. The one thing we set out to do in China.
We climbed the Great Wall.
...and it was surprisingly steep and slippery. 
Luckily for us, it's the off season in China, so there wasn't too many people.
You also might be surprised to know that it's not as skinny as you thought it was. It really is just very long. And again with the stairs China!

Check it out.

The grand entrance

as convenient as gloves with a string on them are for not becoming lost,
they're not,
because the strings are to getting caught on things as iphone cords are to getting tangled

Chinese graffiti

Very Steep!

Oops, the wind ruined this one

I like this one a lot

Mike's a real man now. He has climbed the great wall!

I snuck into this family portrait :)

...and check out what this man is wearing!

After the Great Wall we went back to a place called the Pearl Market. The upper floors are dedicated to  pearls and other finery, but the bottom two floors are full of anything and everything that you don't need. 

We had a lot of fun in there. 

After sufficiently spending out money, we headed out for a quick dinner and then made our way to Mike's cousins, to stay the night. 

Yes, Mike has a cousin in Beijing.

Thanks so much Joshua and Ruth. We had so much fun kicken it with your kids and eating delicious pankcakes!

That's donkey we're eating!

...and yes, we thought it was delicous!