Scott and I and the kids took a quick road trip to Boise, Idaho this weekend. I went to photograph our friends’ newborn baby.

Our last road trip to Idaho Falls was one of our kids favorite vacations ever! We left Friday afternoon and arrived in Boise about 10:30pm.

We got up and I headed over to do the photo shoot about 10:00am. Scott took the kids our to breakfast and then swimming while I took pictures. After that, we went out to lunch and then back into the car.

It was a lot of driving, but it was a fun little trip.

We took an impromptu trip to Idaho Falls this week. Scott had to go there for a business meeting. He couldn’t arrange flights that would work with his schedule, so he decided to drive. He planned to drive alone late at night. I thought it sounded like the perfect trip for the family to tag along. Scott wouldn’t have to drive up alone, and we could get to spend some family time together.

We drove up late Wednesday night. We rolled into Idaho Falls about 2:00am, exhausted. We got checked into our room and we all just crashed.

Scott got up early the next morning and went to his meetings at the hospital. I looked out the window of our hotel, and right in our backyard was a beautiful river with a walking path, complete with ducks and geese. I decided to take the kids out for a walk and to feel the ducks. It ended up being so much fun. The kids really enjoyed feeding the ducks. Emma and Ian were a little scared of the geese. Nora wasn’t until she got bit by one of the baby geese as she tried to feed it. It shocked her more than anything, but she was back to feeding them in no time.

After that we went back to the room and let Nora take a nap. While she napped I read the local paper and looked for something fun to do for the afternoon. I had heard of a place called Yellowstone Bear World. I read about it on a friend’s blog and I thought it sounded like a lot of fun. I found out that we were only about 20 miles away and I thought it sounded like the perfect afternoon activity.

At Yellowstone Bear World you drive your car through a park of free roaming wild animals. We started out seeing Elk, Bison, and Deer. But the highlight of the drive was the bear park. We saw Grizzlies and Black Bears. There were all ages, from 6 months on up. We had the best time watching the one year old Black Bears. They were so incredibly playful. They chased each other around and jumped and bit each other. They reminded me of puppies. The kids were laughing out loud as they watched. We just pulled over and sat in our car watching for a good half hour.

After the drive they had a petting zoo and some kiddie rides. I am so glad that we took the time to go. We all had such a great time and it was totally worth the cost.

The whole trip to Idaho ended up being a lot of fun. The kids were thrilled that we went and we all enjoyed spending the time together.

I have been waiting to get these photos from Bryan and Mary so I could write about our first adventure in China

Traveling to Shanghai from Salt Lake City takes A LONG time! We left Salt Lake City at 11:00am on Monday on a 12 hour non-stop flight to Tokyo, Japan. We arrived in Tokyo and had about a 2 hour layover. Next we took another 4 hour flight to Shanghai, China. We arrived in Shanghai at 9:55pm on Tuesday night. Needless to say, we were all very anxious to get off the plane get to our hotel rooms so we could go to sleep.

After the plane landed, we pulled up to the gate and we started getting all of our things together. We start unbuckling our seat belts and anticipate the plane doors opening. As we were doing that the captain of the plane made an announcement that Chinese Health Officials would be boarding the plane to take every passengers temperature as a screening measure against the H1N1 virus.

This is what we saw:

Some people we laughing and others were taking photos. But when we found out that the entire plane could be quarantined for up to 7 days, most people stopped laughing.

Apparently, if anyone had a fever or flu symptoms, all passengers and crew members would be immediately detained. Officials would then decide whether to give physical exams at the airport or to take everyone to a hospital or hotel, where they may quarantine them for up to seven days.

At this point, we were all crossing out fingers that everyone on our plane would pass the initial screening. As soon as they said our cabin was cleared, we got off the plane as quickly as we could, before they decided to change their minds. Not a very warm welcome, but we were so relieved to finally be on the ground and on our way to the hotel!

I got back yesterday from my annual girls trip to Las Vegas. This year it was just Vicky and I, but we had a great time. I had a much better trip this year–although last years trip was not hard to beat. Last year I ended up in a clinic with and I.V. and 3 liters of fluid. Then I flew home a day early. Not too hard to beat, huh?

We arrived on Sunday and stayed at the Bellagio again. We checked in and then decided to have lunch and do some shopping. The last time I was in Las Vegas I had seen an ad for a place called Stripburger and I wanted to try it. It was a cute little outdoor burger joint. I really enjoyed their signature burger–the blue cheese burger–and sweet potato fries. After we were both stuffed, we did a little shopping. Both Vicky and I found a few cute things. We walked like crazy and we were both ready to head back to the hotel after a few hours.

We both wanted to do some typical Vegas activities, so we got tickets to see Cher and then we scored opening night tickets to see The Lion King.

We saw Cher the first night and it was a lot of fun. She was very entertaining. She was hilarious and looked amazing for a woman in her sixties. She had some amazing costumes and I really enjoyed the music. I thought the show was thoroughly entertaining.

The next two days we parked ourselves at the pool and hardly moved. I read 2 books and totally enjoyed just relaxing all day.

The last night we went to see The Lion King. I love musicals and this one did not disappoint. It was amazing! The costumes were incredible and I loved the music.

Our whole trip was just perfect for me. I enjoyed Vicky’s company. We were perfect together because we both wanted to do the same thing the whole time. I can’t wait to do it again next year!

My mom and I spent the day shopping in Southern Pines today…..with all 3 kids. Normally I wouldn’t take the kids shopping anywhere, let alone there. Southern Pines is a really cute and small southern town. The buildings are all turn of the century brick buildings. Which also means that none of the entrances are stroller friendly. But now that I am down to a single stroller it is much more manageable. We didn’t really plan on shopping. We wanted to stop at one store to pick something up for my parents house, but we ended up spending most of the day there.

We took a little break outside while we waited for my mom to finish up in one of the stores. There was a cute little alley way between two of the stores. I looked down and saw a little patch of clover. I showed it to Emma and Ian. I wanted something to keep them busy, so I suggested they search for a four leaf clovers. I never in a million years thought they would find one….I just wanted something to keep them busy.

Emma kept yelling out “I found one!!!” but then it would turn out to be just a three leaf clover. She did find a two leaf clover, and a few 3 leaf clovers that she tore to make her own four leaf clover. Finally she yelled out “I really found one!!!” she came running over, and she really did have one. She was so excited she was jumping up and down. Luckily I had my phone with me and I snapped a photo of her.

She wanted to carry it around all day. I finally convinced her to give it to Nana, so that we could press it in a book to save it. I told her that we could take it home and get it laminated so she can make a bookmark out of it.

I was just looking for a way to pass the time. It turned out to be one of the the best parts of Emma’s day!

I slept in until almost noon today. NOON! I can’t remember the last time I did that. It had to be before I had kids. It was sooo nice.

Scott got up early and left at six am. I had the whole day to myself.

I just relaxed the whole day. I got a manicure and a pedicure. Then I went out and sat by the pool with my book for a while. It felt so nice to just sit outside. I have really been enjoying the weather. I sat by the pool and before I knew it Scott was back from the convention.

Tonight we are planning to eat at Delmonico for dinner. It is Emeril Lagasse’s steak house. It is supposed to be fantastic. We got a late reservation, so we are going to go enjoy the hot tub for a bit before we get ready for dinner. See you later!

Here are a few of my favorite shots from our trip to Germany. These are all from our vineyard tour along the Rhine River. It was raining and the conditions were less than ideal. I didn’t get many shots that I liked.

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We had a fun day of sightseeing in Germany. We started out in Frankfurt. We went by bus to the Rhine River Valley. Once we got there we started out by having lunch in a funny restaurant along the river. I felt like I was at Grandma Jean’s house. For those of you that don’t know Grandma Jean, that means that there were knick knacs EVERYWHERE. The walls were mural painted, there were statues everywhere. Even the toilet seats were painted. Scott said there was a soccer game in the urinal. You tried to score a goal by peeing on the balls to make them go into the nets! The food was good, and it was included in the tour. Here is the door to the restaurant.

After that we got on a boat to see some of the villages and castles along the river. Unfortunately the weather was terrible. It was cold and windy and rainy most of the day. I was so excited to go on this tour to try to get some neat photos. The conditions didn’t make for very good photography. But I think I was able to capture the day, anyway.

The scenery along the Rhine was really beautiful. I loved seeing all the little villages and the architecture of the buildings. There were so many small villages. Scott and I couldn’t help wondering what people did for work in those small towns. But the houses were really neat.

The Rhine Valley is known for it’s wines. There were vineyards all up and down the river. Some of them were even on the steep hillsides. It was crazy and hard to imagine how they pick the grapes on the mountains.

We got to sample some of the local wines. Ice wine is the specialty of the area. Germany apparently drink it for very special occasions. It was a very sweet white wine, but I really liked it. It is one of the most expensive wines, and once they explained how it was made, I understood why. They harvest the grapes when they are frozen. They must do it the first night that the temperature reaches 7 degrees. When it does they rush out to the vineyard and pick the grapes at night, while they are frozen. Then they press the grapes frozen and only use the few drops of grape juice that isn’t frozen solid. But all that work is worth it. It is a really delicious wine.

We had a really nice day. It was kind of a whirl wind trip, but it was fun to see some of the culture and learn something about this area. Tomorrow morning we head home. We will spend another long day on the plane. It has been a really fun trip and Scott and I had a great time just spending some time alone together.

Scott and I arrived in Frankfurt Germany at 7:30am local time. We flew all night from Atlanta Georgia. We were lucky enough to fly Business class! Scott is a frequent Delta flier. He had some special certificates that allowed us to upgrade to first class both ways. It was pure luxury!

Our seats were amazing. We sat in the last row, which was perfect. There was nobody behind us to turn on their lights or kick the seats while we were sleeping. They gave us full size down pillows and duvet covers. Our seat reclined to almost flat and had a foot rest to raise up your legs too.

They fed us like kings! We had three appetizers, including a crab salad and a delicious asparagus soup. The main course was a creamy shrimp with couscous. It was definitely the best airplane food I have ever had.

Despite the comfort in first class, neither of us got much sleep. The time change just made it too hard. It was like trying to go to sleep for the night at three o’clock in the afternoon. By the time it was our normal bed time, we were about ready to land. Still, I thoroughly enjoyed the comfortable seat on our nine hour flight.

Once we landed we met our driver and drove about 2 1/2 hours east of Frankfurt to Langewiesen. It was located in eastern Germany in the old socialist state. It was a small village located in the middle of a big meadow. While Scott went to his meeting, I spent some time with our driver, Klaus. We went off in search of a coffee shop or a restaurant. It was no easy task. The town had very little in the way of stores or restaurants. We finally found a coffee shop/pharmacy. The “coffee shop” looked much more like a grandmother’s living room than a coffee shop. There were tree mismatched tables. Each one had different lace table cloths on them. None of the dishes matched. The place was filled with knick nacks and old antique furniture. It was run my a middle aged woman and her elderly mother. She was extremely nice and friendly, though she didn’t speak any English. She served us coffee and some little sandwiches of lox and ham.

It was interesting to hear Klaus speak of the East Germans. There was definitely some contempt in his voice. He complained about the “ugly German” that they spoke. The first pastry shop we tried to go to had a short line out the door. He grumbled that it was “typical East German mentality” to make people wait outside. Then he wondered out loud why they were all at the bakery at 11:00am, rather than at work. It seemed that the East Germans felt a similar divide. They also distinguished themselves as “East Germans” and not just Germans.

Unfortunately, I didn’t take a single photo today. The weather here was dismal. It was cold and snowy most of the day. The visibility was terrible and I really didn’t have any chances to take any photos. Tomorrow we are going on a tour of the vineyards and castles along the Rhine river. Hopefully the weather will cooperate and I will have some nice photos to post.

Scott and I are off to Germany tomorrow for a couple of days. He has to go there for a meeting and my parents suggested that I go with him. They volunteered to watch the kids while Scott and I spend a few days together. I am soooo looking forward to it. I am taking my laptop, but I am not sure what the internet will be like. I’ll try to post while I am gone. If I can’t I’ll update you all when I get back. Tchau!