Sanya, China Christmas 2014

Happy New Year Everyone!! We just returned back from our first big exursion here in China and we had a great time. We decided even before leaving the US for China that we would travel over Christmas since this would be our first so far from home. We picked Sanya China because it is a pretty short flight and pretty easy to get too. It was beautiful. The weather was great in the high 70's low 80's with high humidity making it feel warmer than it was. This is the first year I have not been at my families house on Christmas morning with all of my siblings dressed in new matching pajamas and while it was tough and I missed them all terribly, this beautiful place made it a teeni bit better.

View from our rooms balcony..

The resort had your typical " American " style breakfast but also TONS and TONS of Asian dishes this one was my favorite.

Post nap lounge..bright lights

Dressed and ready to take on the beach.

His favorite spot to lounge while we had lunch 

Read Lena Dunhams book while we were there, it was funny and gross and weird all rolled into one

Come on Mom High 5!

Gorgeous Christmas tree in the lobby 

My favorite place to grab a mid day cocktail.. do you spy a little Kael trying to leave me?

Goodbye Gorgeous Beach! See you next time

Life Lately..

First I would like to start off by saying how AMAZING Andy Cohens new book is. I have been obsessively reading it all weekend. I read his last book and was kinda disappointed and almost didn't buy his new one.This time his book is a whole different format, kinda is based off the format of the Andy Warhol Diaries, where for a year of his life he writes down what he does and who he does it with. There are so many names dropped in this book in a not pretentious way, you get lots of housewife inside scoop. In short it is amazing. Our weekend was pretty low key Kael came down with a stomach bug Saturday night, we were all supposed to meet friends for Brunch Sunday morning but since I got about 2 hours of sleep and Kael was pretty sick Jay and Pippa went and me and Kael stayed in our pjs all day. There is this awesome delivery service here in Shanghai called Sherpa it is FREE delivery from a of a bunch of different popular restaurants in the city. Since yesterday was a super lazy day I decided to try out one of their Pho places. It was pretty good, next time I am going to be a little more adventurous and get something spicier. Since I am finally over the fact their are no more episodes of  Friday Night Lights.. "Clear Eyes Full Heart" ( SO INCREDIBLE not emotionally ready to talk about it yet ) we started watching the series Parenthood and I have already cried twice and only on episode 2. I can tell I am going to love this show also.

We've been checking out all the different parks in the city, I am surprised at how green Shanghai is and also how how mild the temperatures are here

 ( before the stomach bug came to town )

Shanghai you are kinda pretty 

We took the kids to meet their pediatrician today for the first time and I fell in love with the orange tree in front of the office and happily their new doctor is pretty awesome too

Kael was thrilled with the playrooom they had for the kids

 This is the street our doctors office is on I am in love with the trees in this area which is called the French Concession

After the doctors office we walked to this great grocery store in town called City Super I would compare to a Whole Foods in the US, it made me pretty happy. I may or may not have skipped a couple of times while strolling the aisles

I went out for a little alone time and some furniture browsing, we  wont be in our house for another two weeks ( in time for Christmas!! ) so I am just trying to get an idea of whats out there. I am fully in love with this store called the Chapin House so much goodness inside

New Normal

Hi guys sorry for the lack of updates since we moved to Shanghai. I have been a little overwhelmed trying to deal with this things we are calling " our new normal " I went from living in the suburbs to being thrown into the thick of one of the biggest cities in the world. So needless to say I have been giving my reflexes a nice workout. Happily we will only be in our temp apartment for another two weeks and then while we will still be in the city we will be in more a neighborhood and not downtown. The first week we were here just the thought of leaving our apartment alone with the kids seemed like too big of a task to handle. It was almost like those first few weeks with a new baby when you get so comfortable in your own little cocoon that the thought of going out just seems utterly ridiculous. Happily I am getting much more comfortable so we have been venturing out much more and recently I found that a breakfast place here called Mr. Pancake had opened a location near our apartment. So instead of eating breakfast here I got the kids dressed and we walked down the block to eat. It was a nice change of routine that me and the kids both really enjoyed not to mention the pancakes were pretty delicious also. After breakfast we decided to turn down a street we haven't gone before and found that water isnt too far from our apartment maybe a 8 minute walk. We were there early enough to see the fishermen pull out fish and throwing some back. Kael was speechless boats AND fish it was too much for his little three year old body to handle. While we are still adjusting to the large new place we are going to call home for 2 years we are finding little pockets of happiness each day to keep up going. Now that we are back on our normal nap schedule and routine I will be checking more often with updates. xox