West Family Reunion

Saturday Activities:

Water-gun fight.

Run Michael Run!

Going on the "big hike" up Hobble Creek Canyon.

Dad getting ready to "show us how the piggies eat"

Making Sa'mores out of Jumbo marshmallows.

We also enjoyed water balloons, Frisbee, marshmallow guns, golfing, 5k run, and a wonderful silent auction and raffle with many of the gifts made by Mary (Ralph's daughter)

Friday night dinner at Franklin & Kathleen's home.

June: Moving from Norfolk, VA to Stoughton, MA

Timothy graduated from medical school and accepted a residency up in the Boston area. On June 18 we drove from Raleigh up to Norfolk to help with the move. On Friday we helped finish loading the truck. On Saturday we began the long trek up to Massachusetts. Timothy drove the truck, George drove one of the Toyota's and Ruth, Elizabeth, James, Gillian and Eleanor drove the other Toyota up to Stoughton. It was a long, arduous trip but we all survived nicely.

This is Tim and Buff's new home.

Friendly's: A West Family Favorite

With no food in the house dinning out is a must!

Backyard Fun:

Gillian

Eleanor

James

At a nearby playground:

Eleanor climbing up.

James testing his strength on the monkey-bars.

Eleanor, James and Gillian in their new China clothes.

Taking advantage of an empty room and an air mattress.

James is having too much fun.
Look! Gillian can have fun too!

June: Quick Trip to Raliegh

Grandchildren are marvelously fun!

Chauncey, Jackson and Kate eating strawberries in their new

summertime China pajamas that we bought in Beijing.

So very cute!

Yonghe Lamasery

Yonghe Lamasery has 7 courtyards and six major halls. We like the upwardslant of the roof and the small animals on the corner edge of the roof.

"A Prayer Wheel "

Buddhist believers will rotate the column in clockwise and with each rotation they will recite a scripture. In this way they can be purified and accumulate merit.

A copper lion.

Spring in Beijing

Spring is beautiful. We love flowers.

Ruth is in the courtyard of our apartment building.

Beihai Park

Beihai Park is near the Forbidden City. It is a classical Imperial garden with a history of about 1000 years. We spent about 3 hours walking around and only saw a few of the monuments. It was a beautiful, but cloudy day. Family were enjoying the park and boating on the lake. Beijing is very family friendly.

George at the Nine-Dragon Screen.
Ruth at Zhizhu Dian--The Hall of Wisdom.

White Dagoba, originally built in 1651.

Hong Kong April 2010

We are in Hong Kong! Wow! We stayed at the Regent Hotel on Hong Kong Island. This is Time Square Mall near our Hotel, it has 11 floors. We thought the escalators worth a picture. You can't tell, but I'm one of the people going down the escalator. The bottom floor was an entrance to the MTR (subway/metro) and just before you get to the MTR there was an incredible bakery with amazing pastries. Truthfully, we bought pastries everyday.
Following our airplane trip and settling in our hotel, we made our way up to Victory Peak via the Peak Tram. We took a 2 mile walk around the top of the peak enjoying nature and various outlook points overlooking the bay and the impressive Hong Kong skyline.

This is an anvil-shaped mall that the tour books call ugly. Ugly or not the tip top allowed a great view of the Hong Kong skyline. We at dinner at Cafe Deco with a window view.

Sunday we walked to Church. I was worried we wouln't find it because here in Beijing our branch meets on the 4th floor of a perfectly normal looking building. We were surprised to see that this building looks very much like any Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints meeting house anywhere in the States, only several stories higher. A most pleasing detail is that the chapels have stained glass windows.

Monday we went to "Monkey Mountain", a park that has a huge population of monkeys roaming wherever mokeys want to roam. We walked along Wilson's trail. The trees were impressive..........

The monkeys were more impressive! Monkeys everywhere, on the stairs, in the trees, following us along the trail. One monkey hissed at me...I was intimidated.

These two monkeys have been swimming in a pool. Seriously, monkeys are a barrel of fun. Or is it a barrel of laughs? There was a tree branch over hanging a pool of water. The monkeys would climb up into the tree, walk along the branch, sit there until they were ready and then jump into the water, swim across the pool, get out, run around to the tree, climb up, jump off, swim to the side, get out, run, climb, jump, swim....... what fun!

Swimming Monkey

On Sundays (this picture is out of order) the Filipino and Indonesian domestic workers enjoy their day off by having an all day picnic occupying every bit of public space they can. These women are lunching on an above ground covered walkway. There was a cold wind blowing so some of them constructed walls for windbreaks out of cardboard boxes.

Tuesday was Temple Day. The Hong Kong Temple is on the Kaloon side of Hong Kong which is attached to main land China. It is a beautiful space. Peaceful. Joyful. Full of hope and great promises.

Temple

Even though the Temple garden was small, it was peaceful and serene. The grounds are 'set apart' from the clamoring chaos of day to day life.

Hong Kong is full of exotic sights.

Each night at 8:00 pm there is a lazar light show. On Tuesday we took the Star Ferry over to the Kowloon side and watched the show.

Wednesday we took a ferry over to Macau. This is the Ruinas de Sao Paulo. The front facade and part of the floor are all that remain. It was a Jesuit-designed Catheral and the largest Christian

Monument in the East.

Thursday we rode a cable car up to the Po Lin Monastery and the Big Buddha

The cable car had a glass floor so we could see the view from all sides.

More than 260 steps

Daddy's Lenovo Team

A Monk carrying a stone on his head....

Presentation is everything!