mothers

The P52 theme this week is mother, which worked out perfectly as my mom was in town for a couple of weeks visiting us.  This meant that I was actually able to get some newer shots of us together.  She left just before Mother's Day, so we celebrated a few days earlier by going out to eat and going on a boat ride around the harbor.  It was a fun evening with good food and great company!

Mom & I

We had dinner on the 21st floor at WOOLOOMOOLOO.  The food was fabulous and the view was absolutely stunning! I had the beef wellington with a side of buttery mashed potatoes and enjoyed every single bite.  Yum!

View of the massive park down below.

I do love this view.

My mom at the TST waterfront looking out at the Central skyline.

My mom is one amazing woman.  She's the rock of our family.  She is an extremely intelligent, giving, generous, and helpful woman.  She's a wonderful lady whom I respect, admire, appreciate, and love.  It's interesting to look back at our relationship through the years and see how it has evolved.  Where we are now is a great place to be as we enjoy each other's company and have lots of fun together.

Here I am (finally)!

The Aqua Luna!

The red is off in the sails as my night shooting is still a work in progress. 

Dramatic

Love the reflections in the water.

Matt & I

I love you Mom! Happy Mother's Day! 

(Linking up with This or That Thursday, Fabulous Friday Challenge, Photo Friday, and Catch Your Self.)

Matt = 35

A big Happy 35th Birthday to my wonderful husband.  

I love you. A Lot.
I'm so thankful that I get to share life with YOU.

Our most recent photo from the week before.

I wanted to write about how fabulous Matt is, but it's been one of those weeks for both of us.  I'm pretty sure y'all know that I think he is the BEST, so it's all good! Matt's birthday fell during production week in the Middle School, so he's been busy singing and dancing all.day.long.  In order to not let him crash and burn too hard, I kept things fairly low key.  We celebrated Matt by going to watch the Avengers (finally) and eating out (no cooking...yay!).  It was simple, easy, and perfect!  

Matt driving us around Koh Samui.   

(Linking up with Sweet Shot Tuesday, Tuesdays Around the World, Our World Tuesday, and Catch Your Self.)

still life

The P52 theme this week is still life.  My life has NOT been still lately, so when I thought of the words still life, my mind immediately jumped to the possibility of having life stand still for just a few moments.  The thought of slowing down and stopping life for a while sounds absolutely fabulous right now.  I know that this is not what a still life shoot is about, but for me, the image I have of being able to be outside with everything frozen in time so that I can simply look around and enjoy the moment and appreciate life as it currently stands sounds just right.

Today we went on a hike (ok, so maybe it was more like a walk) with our friends the Frederiksens.  It was wonderful to get outside and be somewhere different.  We headed over to Lamma Island and walked from one side to the other.  It was pretty easy as even I (girl who never exercises) even managed it without dying.  The boys headed out ahead of us and the two of us girls had a fun time catching up and chatting about life.  When it was over, we enjoyed a delicious lunch by the water as a reward and might have ordered too much for us to eat! It was fun and a great way to spend the day.

Here are some pictures from our day out.  Please enjoy!

Hong Kong Island...it was stormy when we left.

Lamma Island...thankfully wasn't raining.  What a different setting from where we left, right?

Contrast between the small house boats and the skyscrapers in the background.

Islands in the distance....

The beach.

Rows of bikes and lanterns.

Roots

Finally a still life for the P52 theme this week!

(Linking up with This or That Thursday, Fabulous Friday Challenge, and Photo Friday.)

sonya's visit

It has been busy, busy, BUSY over here and things are finally slowing down.  Yay! It is now just the two of us in our space and we are totally enjoying being home alone (don't tell my mom!).  We can be bums on the sofa, stay in and be homebodies, and catch up on all our favorite shows! :)

One of the highlights last week though was seeing my friend Sonya for the first time in person in about eight years! Sonya and I met at University (go Biola!) and I have some wonderful memories from that time of my life.  She got me my first job ever at Starbucks, introduced me to shopping at Nordstroms, and of course there are all the dance parties, basketball games, and trips we shared.

Our first picture together at the restaurant where we sat for hours catching up!

It was so crazy to see her here in MY side of the world.  It was quite surreal actually.  I'd always hoped friends would come for a visit, but I think a part of me never believed it would actually happen as it is expensive and life happens.  This visit just made me feel so loved and special as she made a huge effort to get a layover in Hong Kong just to see ME!

In the taxi trying to see some of Hong Kong at 11pm!

We only had a a few hours together, but we made them count with lots of catching up and seeing some of the sites around town in a taxi.  It was SUPER and I'm so thankful for the visit Sonya! 

We saw the waterfront and even took the ferry before it closed for the night!

(Linking up with Sweet Shot Tuesday, Tuesdays Around the World, and Our World Tuesday.)

siesta or fiesta

The P52 theme is siesta or fiesta.  This week has been a doozy of a week and has left me completely knackered (tired)! Life has been one crazy ride lately and I'm ready for it to slow down a bit.  My mom is still here with us, my dad stopped by for a quick visit, work continues and never ends, and I've been fighting a cold and not winning the battle.  Sadly to say, I did not manage to get very many shots for this theme this week.

I've been feeling so out of it lately...not feeling like myself, being super tired, and lacking energy.  If it were possible, I'd totally sleep all.day.long.  I'm going to blame the weather as it is getting hotter and hotter and becoming more and more humid.  You know it is bad when you start sweating as soon as you wake up.  Yuck!

People sleeping in public...something I'm not sure I could do.

To make matters worse, I've started coughing up a storm and it sounds (and feels) terrible.  It's been about a month since I last got sick, so it appears to be time again.  Ha! I know I should head over to see a doctor, but I try to avoid going as they tend to prescribe a lot of medication.  I've been told to boil coke with ginger and lemon as it is supposed to help with coughs, so maybe I'll have to finally give it a try. 

Yup...eight different types of meds for a upper respiratory infection!

Enough about the woe is me part of this post as that is just not fun to read about.  Thanks for humoring me though and letting me vent for a bit.  :) On Friday, our Elementary School had our Sports Day Event.  The kids were super excited for it and it felt like one big party (see how I slipped in the fiesta portion of the blog)! We were all sweating like crazy, exhausted, but completely happy that the day was a success.

My cute kids having tons of fun on Sports Day!

Finally here are also some fun musicians I saw in front of a mall while out this past week.  They look to be part of a fiesta, don't you think? :)

 Love the colorful instruments!

(Linking up with This or That Thursday, Fabulous Friday Challenge, and Photo Friday.)

dim sum

My mom's visiting us right now and we have been keeping busy.  We've done A LOT of shopping, played a bunch of hands of Shanghai Rummy (sadly I've not won yet), eaten way too much food (thanks to my mom for some delicious home cooking), and have just enjoyed each others company.  

Yesterday we had the day off and enjoyed some Dim Sum.  I love going out and eating Dim Sum and will definitely miss this when we leave Hong Kong.  Luckily we still have 9 weeks left here (not that I'm counting down or anything), and hopefully will have more chances to enjoy Dim Sum.

For those of you who don't know, Dim Sum is a style of Chinese cuisine.  It involves eating a variety of different types of dumplings, steamed foods, and even some deep fried goodness.  The portions are small and are usually served in steamer baskets.  There are all kinds of options for everyone to enjoy!

Dim Sum at City Hall in Central.  I love being served via the carts!

Taro Dumplings - Wu Gok

Shanghai Soup Dumplings - Siu Long Bau

You need to be careful when eating this as there is soup inside the dumpling!

Pan-Fried Radish Paste with Minced Dried Sausage - Law Buck Go

Steamed Vegetable Dumpling - So Fun Gor

Pork/Prawn Dumpling - Siu Mai

BBQ Pork Bun - Char Siu Bau

Fried Sesame Balls with Lotus Seed Paste Filling - Leen Yung Gin Dui

This is a yummy dessert!

We ate a lot!

(Linking up with Sweet Shot Tuesday, Tuesdays Around the World, and Our World Tuesday.)

green

The P52 theme this week is green.  I decided to simply try to capture anything (and everything) I saw that had the color green in it and see what kind of collection I'd end up with.  The thing I've begun noticing about this P52 project is that when these themes come up, either everything works out perfectly with plenty to capture or there is absolutely nothing around to fit with the theme.  This week was one of the better ones as I was able to spot the color green a fair bit.  Sadly I let way too many opportunities go by, thinking to myself, "oh, I'll just capture that later," which as we all know, never came.

Thankfully over the weekend we headed to Central for brunch with our lovely friends the Frederiksens (I spelled it right A&M!).  It took us about 40 minutes to get out there, so there was plenty of time to observe the happenings around town.  This set of pictures all came from that morning/afternoon of observing the goings on in Central.  I like that what I captured depicts the everyday life out here as I'm sure I'll miss these now normal sights when we leave.  Sadly, we didn't get a group shot and I didn't get a shot of my English breakfast, but there hopefully will be a next time, right? :)

Sometimes the color green is dominant in the photos below and sometimes you have to search for it.  So let's play a little game of "I spy with my little eye.....something that is green!"

Hanging laundry outside.  Ours became dusty, so we gave that up quickly.

Long outdoor escalator in Central.  Before 10 am, the escalators go down for the people heading to work.  After 10 am, the escalators go up for the people heading up for some fun!

A lone tree over in Central.  Do you see the sign for "The Flying Pan" restaurant? Fun name!

The helpers finding a space for themselves on Sunday.  

Click HERE to read more about this occurrence.

Yes! You can find greenery in Hong Kong!

A man out back working on cutting some vegetables.

I hope it is not for one of the restaurants we go eat out at! 

The next two photos are for a weekly self-portrait photo club called Catch yourself over at The Salad Day with Sarah.  I really love this idea as I've been terrible at taking pictures of Matt and I around town.  I take pictures of places we visit, things I see, and even strangers, but don't often take ones of us just doing the ordinary things in life.  Hopefully by joining Sarah, I will have some pictures of us to look back on in the future.  Can't wait to see the evolution of my self-portrait! :)

Our first shot...blurry.

25 shots later...Matt is done.

(Linking up with This or That Thursday, Fabulous Friday Challenge, and Photo Friday.)