The View from Down Here

When Will was born, he "gave" Charlotte a gift to thank her for being his big sister. This gift was something we had wanted to give Charlotte anyway, and we were able to use money she had recently received during Chinese New Year via lycee packets, which was good because it was kinda pricey.

The gift:  a kid's camera! We had passed down our old digital camera to her to use but it was quickly destroyed since it wasn't meant to be dropped and beaten up on by a 2 year old. So, while the kid's camera is kinda expensive and doesn't take the best quality pictures, we knew it would last a while because it is made to withstand being dropped and chewed on.

We definitely aren't into giving our kids lots of technology geared for children but this was one thing we thought would encourage her pretend play and imagination...plus could spark an interest in photography or capturing memories that continues throughout her life.

Now that Charlotte's been using the camera for a few months, we've realized that while the pictures may be a little blurry or at a weird angle, they are also a great view of Charlotte's perspective on her world. I can't think of a better way to document her life at this age. We hope to eventually put her pictures from this camera into a photobook.

Here are some things Charlotte has captured recently:

{a store window outside our apartment}



{her feet with the addition of some dropped ice cream!}



{Momma K visiting us in Hong Kong}

{Skype call with Papa & Popo}

{our friends April and Eric grilling at a birthday party}

{another Skype call with Uncle Boo and Marie}

{Mommy using the video camera}

{Mommy changing Will's diaper}



{Baby Bro!}

"One is none, but two is a ton"

"One is none, but two is a ton." Twice, someone shared that with me while we were expecting Will. One child seems like nothing once you have two. Wow, is that ever true! I'm currently wondering how parents manage more than two! (And really admire my mother-in-law who had 6 kids!)

Will turned 2 months old last week, and I am slowly but surely figuring out how to manage two kids at home everyday plus other household/life duties that need to be done (ie. take a shower). Actually, I take a shower at night once Brendan is home...that works for me. I also have to laugh at some of the things I thought were difficult when I was first home with Charlotte. Of course, those things really seemed difficult then - I was newly transitioning into being a full-time mommy - but now they kinda seem like a joke!

Obviously, with two children I can't devote all my time and attention to just one of them as I used to. So now I often find myself facing these sort of dilemmas:

• Continue nursing the infant OR change the toddler's dirty diaper?
• Console the crying infant OR stop to discipline the toddler?
• Nurse the infant OR kiss the toddler's boo-boo?

AND that's not even counting taking care of myself...like eating and such!

As I mentioned though, I am slowly getting the hang of taking care of two little ones, and I know they will not be this little and needy for long. My days are full and I truly enjoy it that way.

Will has started to smile and "coo" at us, which we love! Charlotte has already gotten down "Don't kick/hit me!", which normally happens when she invades his baby space (ie. play mat or bouncy chair) and Will touches her with his uncoordinated baby movements. :) Ah, I can only imagine what will happen when he really DOES know how to bother her! Charlotte is actually a wonderful big sister. She enjoys "helping" me change his diaper, burp him, and often runs to get her baby dolls to feed and put down for a nap whenever I'm feeding Will.

So, two is a ton, but totally worth it!

eat. sleep. play.

We're back after quite a long absence from this blog of ours. In our time away we managed to add another Kinne to our family - William Jack joined us on January 27th! (Pregnancy is my excuse for lack of writing.)

There has been subtle and not-so-subtle pressure applied to me (Anne) to post more frequently as a way to keep family and friends involved in our lives (especially since we live so far away from everyone). So, the other day, I looked at my two kids and said, "Wow, y'all have a great life! All you do is eat, sleep, and play." Then I thought, we'll rename our blog that - eat. sleep. play. - because that really is what our life is all about these days. Of course Brendan and I also have some adult responsibilities thrown in there, sometimes.

We hope you'll check back often to find out what the Hong Kong Kinnes are up to!

Just 1 Inch {Guest Post by Brendan}

There are many things that can be measured with precision and many others that can not. We all take the size of certain things for granted (say a Subway sandwich) and then with other things you settle with..."oh just a little"...like when getting your haircut. All haircuts start off the same exact way - you sit in the chair, they ask you how you doing, they cover you up with a robe of some sort and then position you directly in front of the mirror and say....."so what would you like me to do". You have thought about what you want before you show up and try to come up with an eloquent way of explaining it to them. Some people bring pictures or other details, but it really comes down to the fact that you are there to get your hair CUT.

Well today was one of those days, not for me, but rather Charlotte Grace. If you have seen pictures of her recently you know that she has a good amount of blond hair. Anne has been perfecting some little girl hairdos - pigtails, parts with hairclips and bows as well as a number of other ways to twist, turn and pull Charlotte's hair. Charlotte is not overly fond of this, always looking to use her favorite two words before you are even near completed with the styling...."all done"! She will move her head, squirm off in one direction or any other tactic that she learns in her close monitoring of other 'small people' that she is with. Regardless of this behavior, Anne has worked very hard to learn a thing or two and as Charlotte's hair keeps growing...it seemed more and more things could be done.




If I had not been with Anne, there is no way that I would believe that she only told the stylist to take off "just 1 inch". Granted this conversation was in English and not the lady's first language, but still Anne said 1 and she clearly understood that word. So 1 what....inch? That could be confusing for the lady as we are in a culture that uses the metric system and as such she may not know what the exact measurement of an inch is - but she did repeat the word after Anne and did not hesitate or ask for clarification. This led us to believe our desires would be followed and Little Girl would have a nice trim to even out her hair for further growth.

From the 'Before' and 'After' photos below, we will let you wager on how many inches were taken - but from my estimate it is close to 3 inches....2 more than expected when it all started. Anne is sadden by this result, but is recovering nicely during an afternoon nap and confident statement of....."it will grow back"!

BEFORE

AFTER

March {Month in Review}

Basketball

March in the Kinne household always means BASKETBALL!

From the time I was young, I can remember watching the NCAA college basketball tournament every March. I have wonderful family memories of those 3 special weekends, and am so glad that God provided me with a husband who shares in that excitement like I do!

Even though we have been away from the U.S. for March Madness last year and this year, we still find ways in stay in the action. I must confess that I almost didn't fill out my bracket this year (gasp!) but my husband gently guilted guided me into it. Oh yes, he's wonderful like that!

The great thing about our move to Hong Kong is that it actually offers us a much better time zone difference to communicate with family and friends in the U.S. - and to watch the NCAA tournament. So for the past 3 weekends, you could find us each morning eating breakfast while watching basketball games on our laptop. Charlotte really enjoys the commerials - especially the one with the baby driving his walker all over the country (I think it's a printer commercial) - she yells her favorite word, "Baby!"

And our brackets - well, those were busted pretty early on, even Brendan had no hope after the 2nd weekend of games. We really love watching good games and seeing underdogs be victorious, so it has been an awesome tournament to watch!

Charlotte & Brendan watching a game

Other Adventures

On the weekends, we started exploring some of the islands that surround Hong Kong. We only made it to one island - Lamma Island - but have many more on our list.

For our trip to Lamma, we packed up Charlotte's jogging stroller with snacks, drinks and layers of clothing and headed to Central Pier. Although the weather was overcast, it wasn't threatening rain and the temperature was great - a great chance to get outside in Hong Kong! On our way to the pier I remembered that there is a Subway there, so that was our lunch stop - exciting for us, maybe not so much for you who see Subway everyday. :)

Brendan on the beach in Lamma

The island itself is so different from Hong Kong...laid back, no skyscrapers, no cars! There are two small villages that begin and end an easy hiking trail, and a beach is located halfway through the trail. It was a really great day! We plan to spend much more time there while we are in Hong Kong - such a nice, quick escape from the crazy city.

During the week, Charlotte and I have been making friends at our new church, Island ECC, and with other moms and toddlers in our area of Hong Kong. I'm sure Charlotte doesn't appreciate these friendships nearly as much as I do, but over the next few months it will be great for her to have little friends as well.

Me & Charlotte at the playground with our local playgroup

Reading

In January, I posted my reading list for the year. It has helped me a lot to have a list to refer to when I finish one book and want to pick up another one. I didn't actually finish any reading in March. I continued - and am almost finished with - Ann Voskamp's One Thousand Gifts. This book is so full of weighty spiritual stuff, I just haven't wanted to race through it. I feel I've really needed to let certain chapters really soak in. (I've read from many others who have felt the same way.) I've just got one more chapter to go, so I should be wrapping it up in April.

Another book I started reading in March is The Mission of Motherhood by Sally Clarkson. I really wish I would have known about this book and taken the time to read it last year when I first became a mother. God used other things last year to help me begin to form a biblical understanding of motherhood, and now this book is really helping me build on that. It is encouraging and challenging and also full of stuff that I don't want to read too quickly through. I'm hoping to finish it this month.

I hit a point in the middle of March when I really wanted to read some fiction. My mind just needed a break from all the challenging, weighty stuff! :) I didn't have anything around, but have since started re-reading Pride & Prejudice because it was a free download on my Nook app for iPad. Oh, how I have enjoyed reading this again! I'm now on a Jane Austen (and similar genre) reading kick. Up next, I think, is Mansfield Park.

Gratitude

I'll wrap up this review of March by sharing some of my gratitude journal with you...enjoy!

646. morning trips to the playground
647. surprise! running into new friends at the playground
649. daughter helping me unload groceries
656. taped-up board books are like brand-new books to little one
658. neon cross out our kitchen window
659. nursery rhymes
660. little daugher learning to feed herself oatmeal
661. Big Mama learning to let go as oatmeal only sometimes makes it to little one's mouth
663. figuring out what "o-mang-o-mang" means after months of Charlotte saying it ("no more monkeys"...jumping on the bed!)
667. long, strong hug from my husband
671. pictures - reminders - of a short-lived home in a foreign land
672. British voice telling us to "mind the gap" on the MTR (subway)
683. sweet emails from friends
694. talking to my grandparents on Skype
695. good news that Daddy Jack is feeling stronger
697. "Uh-Ba" = Uncle Boo
700. husband offering to do the dishes so he can listen to his 28 minutes of Bible reading (You've Got the Time)
703. watching a ship come into the harbour on a clear morning
705. relaxing bus ride with Charlotte in my lap
709. calm, peaceful mornings together as a family since Brendan doesn't need to leave early for work
711. Brendan working so diligently, using his gifts for God's glory
715. view of the island mountain out our kitchen window

Let me introduce you to 675 square feet {Kitchen}

I'll start with the kitchen. :)

Kitchen in Hong Kong

675 sq. ft. is actually the size of our entire apartment, not just the kitchen. I'm not sure what portion of 675 sq. ft. the kitchen takes up, but it doesn't really matter - it's still small. To be fair, the space itself is not terrible by Hong Kong standards. It is actually much more similar to standard Madrid kitchens, however we were super-spoiled in Madrid with a huge kitchen.

I'm not exaggerating when I tell you that every person who came into our apartment in Madrid made a comment about how large the kitchen was.

Kitchen in Madrid

It was awesome! And now I regret speaking any harsh words against it. :)

I've decided that living abroad wouldn't be nearly as meaningful if I didn't really get stretched out of my comfort zone...even in my own home. Well, God is sure stretching my homemaking abilities here. Not just by the small size of the kitchen, but by what is missing from it.

The two big items missing from our kitchen - and most kitchens in Hong Kong - are a dishwasher and an oven.

After living here now for a few months, I am getting use to living without these appliances that I have taken for granted my entire life. I have learned - and am continuing to learn - to adapt my cooking to stove top and microwave dishes. We also have a little toaster oven which works pretty well despite it's small size.

And the dishwashing...my dad is probably laughing at the fact that I must wash all our dishes by hand everyday! Dishwashing has long been my most hated of household chores. Here's a view of my little dishwashing station...





I do have a nice little view out the window, don't I? I have done my fair share of grumbling and complaining about this dishwashing situation, but God is giving me contentment in it. Instead of dreading it, I am trying to view it as a normal part of my evening, an important way to serve my family, and to make it more enjoyable (listening to music, talking to Brendan, or just praying or thinking about something). I also have a wonderful husband who has known about my dislike for washing dishes since we got married. He likes to serve me on occasion by doing the dishes for me. He's pretty awesome!

I also hope that when we do have a dishwasher once again, I won't be nearly so bothered by washing a couple of pots & pans each day. We'll see. :)

I do need to be completely honest and share with you that our kitchen here in HKG does have something we missed in Spain - a dryer! Yay! It is a washer/dryer combo and it's great! Sometimes I kinda miss hanging our clothes out to dry...maybe we'll do that again someday by choice...but having a dryer again sure is nice.

Hope you enjoyed the view of our kitchen in Hong Kong. I'll introduce you to the rest of our apartment another day!

February {Month in Review}

I cannot believe that February is coming to a close, and yet, with it's 28 days, February always does seem to be a month that flies by.

As I've been making little (and big) changes to our blog recently, I've also been thinking about changes in what and how often I post. Since this blog is purely a personal blog about what God is doing in our little family, I know there will be dry times when I am not motivated to post or time is better spent on other things. Thankfully, there are also times when the opposite is true! I thought that a good way to balance that would be to do a {month in review} post just to highlight what has happened in the past month.

I've also decided not to post my gratitude journal weekly, but I wanted to find a way to include part of my gratitude list into my blog posts. So as I review a month in the life of our family, I think that's also the perfect time to share with you how God has been blessing me during that month.

So, February for the Kinne's looked something like this...

We experienced our first Chinese New Year. The "Year of the Rabbit" began at the beginning of February, and Brendan had a few days off work so we enjoyed some nice time together as a family. As the month progressed, we realized that Chinese New Year is actually celebrated for about 2 weeks. The decorations around Hong Kong were amazing. I was a little sad to see them taken down but it freed up LOTS of space...I couldn't believe the transformation in our local grocery store - I actually didn't feel claustrophobic while shopping in there!




During Chinese New Year, Charlotte received some lai see. These are red envelopes which are given to children, unmarried juniors, service people, and employees. We thought it was quite sweet when a lady on a bus gave a 'red packet' to Charlotte because Charlotte had been friendly to her. We equated the red packet tradition as similar to giving a generous tip at Christmas to your postman, newspaper carrier, hair stylist, etc.




During Chinese New Year the weather was great, but then we hit a spell of cold, wet weekends that didn't offer us much in the way of exploring Hong Kong. But last Saturday that changed and the weather was clear and warmer. We found ourselves hiking up the Peak with some friends. Yep, Brendan pushed Charlotte up the paved trail in her stroller! Too bad we weren't prepared with her jogging stroller. Instead she was in her lightweight umbrella stroller and it wasn't intended for use on a rugged, although paved, trail. Oh well! We were excited to get outside and see some new areas of Hong Kong, and now we're really motivated to set out exploring more outdoor areas around Hong Kong - hopefully we'll have that to share with you next month!

And what about our little family? How are we all growing together?

Charlotte is now 16 months old which means she is constantly testing us to see if we really are in charge or if we'll finally give in and let her run the house! :) As trying as this is, we know that if we stay the course of disciplining our child it will reap rewards for her and us later in life. Her language has finally taken off a little bit in the past week or so. So while "bow", "ball", "bowl", "box", and many other "B" words sound like the same word out of Charlotte's mouth, she is intentional about giving them a name rather than pointing and grunting (which was driving me crazy!). She also demands Brendan and I to sing nursery rhymes to her and her absolute favorite books right now are Mother Goose by Gyo Fujikawa (this book has the BEST illustrations!) and Dr. Suess' ABC's (which Charlotte will bring to us and say "A, B, D!").

"Not Getting What I Want" Face

God has also opened up a new level of communication between Brendan and I that has been very exciting for me! We often find ourselves discussing something we've been reading or listening to (Brendan has an hour or so everyday to listen to podcasts while he commutes to work) which in turn leads to us figuring out that it applies to our life today too. I have been reading a biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and sharing with Brendan some of what sticks out to me. He was excited one day when one of the podcasts he listens to was interviewing the author of this biography about the book! Brendan is not a big reader, but to listen to some of what the book was about was a great way for him to then be able to discuss it with me.

The other book I have been reading this month is One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp. Finding her blog a year ago is what lead me to begin my gratitude journal. I am only five chapters into the book but it is definitely helping me better understand my need for expressing gratitude to God and the role my gratitude journal plays in that. I highly recommend you pick this book up!

I hope you can rejoice in some of my gratitude over the past month:

624. an afternoon with new friends getting a foot massage
625. long holiday due to Chinese New Year
629. Pizza Express on the promenade at Stanley - yum!
630. blond-haired, blue-eyed girl in her red Chinese outfit
633. American friends coming over for lunch and games
634. online grocery shopping and delivery
635. routines developing
637. homemade cookies from friends - when you don't have an oven to make your own
642. making Valentine's Day cards with Charlotte
643. the Spirit giving me insight into my husband's heart/emotions/response

Blessings!

The Rain in Spain...oh wait, we're in Hong Kong now!

For the past week that's really felt like forever, it has been cold and rainy. During Chinese New Year the weather was beautiful and we were so spoiled. We had great ideas of going on outings to explore Hong Kong on the weekends, but there's not a whole lot to do when it's raining, so our plans changed.

Last weekend, we did venure out in the rain simply because we were all going a little stir crazy. But the only thing to do in Hong Kong when the weather's bad is shop...because Hong Kong is like one big shopping mall!

We live on Hong Kong Island, but decided to venture across the harbor to Kowloon to go to the appropriately named, MegaBox.



We had no other goal for shopping but to eat at IKEA for lunch...such yummy Swedish meatballs!

When we made it back to our apartment, some friends stopped by for games. We taught them (and Charlotte) how to play Skip-Bo.







These are the most exciting things we've found to do in Hong Kong when it rains - go shopping and play games.

Do you have any fun rainy day activities?

Be Blessed (Guest Post by Brendan)

If any of you know me (Brendan) well enough, you know that I struggle with the English language. I attempt to use "big" words when I do not even know the meaning, and that leads to it being out of context for the subject I am speaking of - or even better I may use the word correctly but it doesn't fit into the sentence very well as every other word would not score anything in a Scrabble game. I could blame this on a multitude of things, but I blame it on myself and my loathing of reading. It never really matter the type of book or what the cause was for, I have NEVER liked to read. Pizza Hut read-a-thons when I was a kid - I cheated to get the pizza at the end of the week. Book reports at any level of schooling - tried to rewrite the wording from the inside flap to pass as my own. Spanish class - what a joke - and we paid for that during our time in Spain.

So after traveling half way around the world and being in a location that readily has English available for me to read - my interest has sparked for Chinese. Not speaking it, as I have already learned my lesson with Spanish, but rather in reading it! It has to be one of the most foreign languages to that of English, but I am drawn to it by the numerous symbols that people tell me really do mean something. In my line of work there are a number of Chinese documents that pass through my desk and though I am years and years away from reading at a sufficient level, I still like to scan through to the document and look for the basic characters that I do know - mainly that an upside down Y is "people" and numbers 1,2,3 are horizontal lines that match their respective quantity. A couple other characters I can take a guess out and then after that I attempt to make it up based on what the symbol looks like. There is no alphabet to start with and I would guess that actually taking on the (insert big word here) would be way to much for me, especially because I have already admitted my loathing for reading. The only hope I have is that Chinese is made of pictures (characters) and I love looking at pictures to learn what they are about.

Take the title of this post - Be Blessed. The Chinese word for "blessed" is made up of four characters which describe the original blessedness of man. Wait, the original blessedness of which man - who could that even be referring to? Per the picture inserted below - one man in a garden, with the Divine!





I was shocked to learn the meaning of these characters. How is it possible? Adam was this man, created in the image of God and intended to enjoy an intimate relationship with Him - as a Christian this is an image of true blessedness, but to find it in a Chinese character has interested me greatly.

Through the past two weeks and our first Chinese New Year in Hong Kong, we experienced a lot of Chinese culture. This time of year is very important to them and many of the celebrations are in direct conflict with our beliefs. This new Chinese character that I learned was throughout the city on decorations and being shared amongst the people - though often times not based on the original intention of what it means to be Blessed.

The Best Fireworks We Never Saw

Hong Kong sits on a harbour - Victoria Harbor. Every night they have a light show in the harbour (which my sister-in-law, Erin, and I thought was nothing special) and HUGE fireworks displays on New Year's Eve and Chinese New Year.

We've heard that the fireworks for Chinese New Year actually out-do the ones done for "normal" New Year. Brendan and I thought we'd try to see the fireworks for Chinese New Year since they were scheduled for 8pm on Friday after New Year.

But...after Charlotte was not-at-all happy with the loud drums at the dragon dance, we decided that 23 minutes worth of extremely loud fireworks probably wasn't the best idea. Our apartment faces the opposite direction of the fireworks display, and we are on the eastern side of HKG island which is further away from the central part where the fireworks would take place...but Brendan ventured down the the 47th floor viewing deck to see if he could catch a glimpse of anything. He reported that nothing could be seen since a large hill was blocking the view.

Maybe we'll try to go down to the action and watch the fireworks next year. For now, we can enjoy some YouTube footage. Below is a clip of just the finale (~3 mins).

Our 1st Chinese New Year

Last week marked the beginning of the new lunar year, so we had the chance to experience our first Chinese New Year in Hong Kong.

My opinion is that the very best part of Chinese New Year is that last Thursday and Friday were public holidays! Yay! So, we had a nice long weekend with Brendan at home.

Our apartment complex has a large parking garage downstairs where they held a Chinese New Year festival with dragon dance (and other traditional blessing ceremonies that we are not at all familiar with). Since it was so close, we thought we might as well go down and check it out.

A sweet lady who Brendan works with blessed Charlotte with an adorable Chinese outfit, so we got Charlotte dressed up...

Then went downstairs to pose with the CNY decorations...

Then, to the parking garage for the festivities...

Some kind of blessing of the apartment building
was happening here

Dragon dancers getting ready

The group then proceeded to each tower to bless
each one for the coming year

We also found out that Charlotte has hit an age where loud noises and strange people dancing around in costume scare her...go figure! :) This was her response to our CNY experience...

There is much much more we would love to share with you all about Chinese New Year but will have to wait for future posts (which we really want to get around to doing!). Very intricate tradition is wrapped up in CNY that we only scratched the surface of this year.

It is by far the most unique cultural experience we've had in our past year living abroad.

Christmastime in Hong Kong

At the beginning of December, our little family "enjoyed" a 15-hour plane ride from New York to Hong Kong as we made our official move here. When our belongings were packed up in Spain, we expected to have them shortly after we arrived here...however, instead of an air shipment, our belongings are on a "slow boat to China". Quite literally. :)

So we are patiently awaiting the arrival of our "stuff" (including a bag of Christmas decor which will not make it here before Christmas) and enjoying Christmastime in Hong Kong.

Before we left the States, I think numerous people asked us how Christmas would be celebrated in Hong Kong. We - naively - answered that we didn't expect there to be much Christmas celebration at all. Instead we were greeted by Christmas music and decorations at the airport and amazing Christmas lights on skyscrapers around the harbor.


Lights along Victoria Harbor

Hong Kong is really like one big shopping mall, and every shopping center here has their own Christmas display.

We hear Christmas music in EVERY building we are in. The songs are often more religious than we'd likely hear in the U.S., maybe because they don't understand the words? :)

There are even REAL American Christmas trees for sell at IKEA!! We decided we didn't need one this year, especially since Charlotte would probably destroy it, but next year we are SO getting one!


Outwardly, Christmas in Hong Kong is much like it is in the U.S...or any other "Christian" country. We think much of this tradition is a holdover from the days of British rule. Hong Kong does have a very unique mixed culture of British and Chinese influences.

And maybe inwardly it is also the same as the way many people in the U.S. celebrate Christmas...shallow, commercial, consumer-minded, and not really about celebrating Jesus' birth at all.

For many reasons, this Christmas will be a very memorable one for us...maybe even moreso because that bag of decorations is stuck on a boat somewhere. :) Christmas really is all in the heart and all about Emmanuel, God with us!

Merry Christmas from Hong Kong!

Swarovski Crystal Christmas Tree

Madrid to Hong Kong...via Texas

I know...it's been TOO long since I've posted here. And so much has been happening in our lives!

Our biggest news...we're moving AGAIN! :) (That's actually a forced smiley face for me)

Our short, 6 week assignment in Hong Kong has turned into a one to two year assignment there for Brendan. We are excited about the possibilies for us. While we were there earlier this year, we had a chance to connect to a church - Island ECC - and are really excited about making it our church home while we live in Hong Kong!

There are many things we will miss about Spain...but of course there are things that we are happy to leave behind. :) What I'm most excited about in our move to Hong Kong - that will be different from Madrid - is the much larger English-speaking, expat community there. While the Asian culture isn't as interesting to me as European culture is, I'm really excited about forming relationships. Brendan and I both know that it will still take much intentionality on our part to surround ourselves with Christian community...but having so many more people that speak the same language we do will help! :)

Almost two weeks ago, Charlotte and I left Madrid and spent 2 days (and 4 flights) traveling to Texas to spend time with family. Brendan has to be in Hong Kong right now but still needs to travel back to Spain in November to close out our personal stuff there, then he'll join us here in Texas for Thanksgiving. We didn't want to subject Charlotte to all that back and forth flying so we just headed straight to the U.S! And we've been enjoying our time with my parents.

Charlotte & I on our flight from Madrid to New York
(notice the empty seat next to us...AWESOME!)

Brendan is definitely missing his baby girl...and probably me too. :) We talk to him on Skype as often as we can. Charlotte really recognizes his voice and face when he gets on the computer. It's too cute! She's even attempted blowing him kisses a few times. And, of course, her favorite thing is to wave "Hello" and "Good-bye".

Charlotte "drinking" a coke



Playing with potatoes

 Charlotte spent the first few days here running to me for everything. It took her a little time to warm up to her family who she hadn't seen in a while. In a way it was sweet that she would want her mommy, but I'm glad she's grown close to her Papa, Popo, Uncle Boo, Mommie Mop, & Daddy Jack.

Me & Charlotte and Maranda & Grant

Charlotte and I got to have a fun playdate with my friend, Maranda, and her son, Grant, who is about 3 weeks older than Charlotte. Maranda and I grew up together and our moms were close friends so it was fun to catch up with her and let our two little ones play "together".

I'm missing Brendan a lot, but am grateful that I am getting to spend time with my family before we move overseas - again. :)

Being a Tourist

Being a tourist is great. You get the fun of experiencing a new place without the commitment of packing up your belongings, moving there, and adjusting to culture shock. :) But even when you do pack up your belongings (or watch someone else do it) and move to a foreign country, you do - on occasion - get to be a tourist there as well.

Such has been our life for the past couple of weeks. Not that Brendan's taken a vacation from work...that's coming later this year...but we have still had our share of touring around Hong Kong and Madrid.

Here's what we've been up to...

{Visiting (but not worshipping :)) the Giant Buddha on Lantau Island in Hong Kong.}

{Brendan's sister, Erin, visited us in Hong Kong. Here they are with Mini Kinne riding the cable car up to see the Giant Buddha.}

{The cable cars disappearing into the fog.}

{Erin, Charlotte, and I went up to the Peak for some spectacular views of Hong Kong!}

{Back in Madrid...This past Saturday, Madrid was celebrating the re-opening of Calle Serrano, a main street & central area in the city. We had a great time enjoying all the festivities!}

{Pictures chronicling the history of Calle Serrano}

 {After walking down Serrano and visiting Parque Retiro, we hopped on a Metro over to the Palace to play in the playground nearby.}

{Ahhh, see the Palace in the background...isn't that great?!}

I had a couple other favorite photos lined up, but Blogger's photo downloading feature has changed and finds it necessary to turn my vertically-oriented photos horizontal. Ugh! :) Check out our Flickr photos for more pictures of our recent wanderings.

You might also be able to tell by our clothing, but the weather has been BEAUTIFUL here in Madrid! I've always wanted to experience fall in September and am finally getting to do so. It's my favorite time of year and while we're not seeing any fall foliage or spending Saturdays watching college football, the weather is making for a great Fall!

We also had the chance to meet up with some fellow tourists...these were REAL tourists though :)...who were traveling around Europe via Ryan Air's cheap-cheap tickets. My cousin, Ronnie, ran into my grandmother at a family function back in Texas and found out that I'm living here in Madrid. So, while he and his friend, Al, were here in the city, we met up with them for a little touring. It sure was great to meet/re-connect with distant family and chat with people from our "neck of the woods"!

This weekend should be another beautiful one, so we're planning to load up Charlotte's diaper bag with plenty of snacks and diapers (duh!) and explore more of Madrid. I'll report back next week with our adventures!