New Look

Yes, the blog has a new look...needed a change and for those that know me well...without the ability to paint my walls a different color, no power tools to be working on a construction project, scrapbooking stuff in storage...some change had to come somewhere!!!!

Sickness Abounds

Well, after hearing everyone here talk about how sick they were their first year in Hong Kong, it should have been no surprise to me that the Sandnesses would fall prey to some sort of sickness also. Since the moment we arrived in Hong Kong I have been focused on trying to get Tyson's drippy nose and mucous-filled chest under control, but right now he is the healthiest one of us.

The kids and I acquired a nasty cough about four weeks ago and we still have it. Unfortunately, Trey's became a little more serious when he spiked a fever about a week and a half ago. After about 4 days of fever he was put on an antibiotic that we thought was going to clear things up. The fever went away for 2 days and returned. So, we were sent to the hospital for a chest x-ray just the other day and confirmed that he now has pneumonia. He's looking a little frail and pale these days but we are hoping he's on the upswing. He'll have missed 2 weeks of school so far and that is assuming he'll be well enough to return next Monday. We'll see!

I am being treated for bronchitis and just last night Keely started coming down with a temperature...so, now she is on the antibiotics too! Kyra has the nasty cough still like the rest of us, but hoping she doesn't succumb to worse.

Luckily (or unluckily), Craig has been traveling quite a bit, so he hasn't been exposed to us very much so maybe he will escape it. We'll see...

Easter with Friends

Make a Smilebox slideshow

We are so blessed to have our friends, Mike and Seaneen, visiting us this week. I was able to celebrate my birthday with them and we had a special Easter lasagna on Sunday :) not quite the same as my mom's Easter ham, which WE ALL missed dearly!!! I'm pretty sure the ham here just can't measure up to the ham at the Locker Plant in Frederic...but we survived...and didn't starve.

We took our "Easter family photo" in front of one of the many figures down near Repulse Bay Beach, which is the beach across from where our apartment building is. Since I have several photos to share, I put them in a slideshow this time.

Our friends are in Beijing at the moment but will be returning on Friday...can't wait...it will be very hard to see them go!

Trip to Bangkok, Thailand

Over the break for Spring/Easter here last week, we were able to take a short trip to Bangkok, Thailand with the whole family. It was only for a few days to enjoy some place even a little warmer and to have some quality family time. Luckily, we headed back home to Hong Kong before the turmoil in Bangkok got out of hand. If you've seen the world news this past week, you will know that Bangkok declared a state of emergency due to rioting that was going on. As you can tell from our photo...the Sandness family was not directly effected by the "goings on" around us, but we realize that we are not immune to the turmoil around the world...we can say that even if we were living in the States. Perhaps it is just easier to ignore it when we are physically farther away from it.

Anyway, we had some great family time and, as you can see, the kids enjoyed the pool (as always). Craig and I went to the night market and bartered for some wares. Craig took the older kids to the market the next day so they could experience the bartering as well. I think they enjoyed it. We wanted them to at least experience something outside of the hotel. We really didn't have time for the tourist/sightseeing experience on this trip because it was quite quick.

We also ate at a Benihana restaurant where they cook the food on the big flat surface in front of you and Trey got to flip the egg up into the air and catch it again with the spatula thing...he did it without breaking the egg (and without burning himself)!!! We were all impressed, as was the rest of the restaurant that was staring at him :) and applauded him afterwards. Very fun!

It was a good family trip although very short...

First Family Hike

Here are the photos from our "Family Hike"...excluding Tyson and Keely...keeping in mind that someone had to take the pictures (me)...so I was up there also!! Kyra and Trey are in front of a set of stairs that we were heading up and the trail picture is one of where we had just been. This is only a small snippet of the trail/hike we did that day!

Hiking in Hong Kong

Well, we have learned that there are many opportunities for hiking in Hong Kong and basically in "our backyard." Craig took Trey and a couple of his friends hiking up the trails and the photo I've included is from them "above the clouds" feeling victorious for their journey.

Last weekend, we took a partial family hike (Tyson and Keely stayed home) and let Kyra guide which hike we took. She decided that we should try the one that happens to be the highest in our area. To put it in perspective...a little over half way down, after getting to the top, we noticed that the number 900 was painted on one of the steps...sure enough, after counting our way to the next marked step we realized that there were 900 steps back down to the road. Most of the hike up had cement stairs, but interspersed throughout the hike was more like walking where there used to be a stream of water coming down...much more interesting, but slippery (due to the moisture in the air) and steep. The kids did great and mom survived! We have many more trails to check out in the future.