The Burrs In Our Saddles

I realized not too long ago that it has been way too long since I have gone through and backed up my photos. So I just went through a whole bunch of pictures and found this one that I absolutely love, and thought I'd share with everyone. Back in August, the girls decided they wanted to do Mutton Bustin' at the rodeo. For those of you who don't know what that is, (I didn't until I met The Father) kids ride on the back of a sheep for as long as they can. Yes, that's all, but apparently it is a lot more difficult than it looks. I think the thing was rigged. My girls got sheep that ran into the shute (the big yellow fence behind them) and didn't get a re-ride. Lame. They had a blast, though and both got participation trophies. I love participation trophies...Make everyone feel good about themselves...(can you hear my sarcasm?)

The Blue Dog The shrine to the deceased. M1 and M2 in front of a statue at the Montestery. The Father and M3. The craziness at the top of the hill outside the temple. You thought I was kidding when I said there were more than 10,000 Buddhas. This is a picture of M1 in the temple at the Montestery. You may think that there is a really bad wallpaper job, but those are all individual Buddhas. About the size of M1s head. Everywhere. Floor to ceiling, which by the way is still 3 rows above where I cut off the picture. I mean 10 zillion Buddhas. M2 with a few of the Buddhas. This little man was repainting all the lips on the Buddhas. What a job. Bright red. The Father waiting at the top of the hill. Montestery in the background.

Wednesday morning (or was it Tuesday at Noon? [that's what time it was where we came from]) we all got up and hopped on the bus. Where was the destination this time? Monkey Mountain. On the way, though, we had a small (few hour) detour. We got to the bus station where we had to change busses, and decided to go and see the 10,000 Buddhas. Who would want to see that many buddhas? you may ask. I tell you what--I surely didn't get tired of looking at buddhas. (Are you supposed to capitalize Buddha each time you spell it?) And I'm pretty sure there were way more than that. Stark contrast to the Angel Moroni we could barely see driving up one of the hills. Let me back up just a little. When we decided to go to Monkey Mountain, we were instructed to bring nothing. No snacks. No drinks. Nothing. Or the monkeys might attack you. After all, my MIL was with someone who bent down to take a picture of a cute little monkey, the monkey saw the corner of a bag of something in her purse, an...

Ok, see? It has been weeks, at least, since I last posted. Now Halloween has come and gone, and I still haven't updated. Kind of like my scrapbooking attempts--I am so far behind I don't know whether I should just start where I am and work backwards, or go from where I stopped and come forward, never catching up. I think I'll go from where I am. So Halloween--Adventures in Hong Kong will return at a later date, because believe me, there were many more adventures. M1 decided that she wanted to be a 50's girl. So we went together to choose her pink felt and pre-made poodle (I wasn't about to try to put that one together myself). M2 was a witch. The same witch M1 was a couple years ago. I realized when sending emails to family with pictures I don't have one of M1 by herself in her costume. Loser Mom. Oh well. M3 was an elephant for most of the day. At one point (no picture to prove it) she was a BYU Cheerleader. Again, elephant and Cheerleader that M1 was a few yea...

So our second day we woke up and the weather was fairly decent. We could see for a ways and decided to go to The Peak. It is a big building with observation decks and you can see all of Hong Kong. We spent quite a while at The Peak taking pictures and looking. Kind of funny, but pretty. We came down back to ground level and walked around a very skinny windy road to go to the spot where Hong Kong was dedicated for missionary work. I have a picture of The Father pointing at the date (7/14/1949) but won't post it for lack of interest. We walked back up to The Peak and ate lunch at Burger King. Nothing like good old American fast food. It tasted so good for some reason. And it's funny because it even tasted the same as Burger King in America. I thought maybe the sauces would be different, but no. All the same. They did have extra things on the menu like spicy sandwiches and stuff, but for the most part, the same. When we came down from the peak, we went to the apartment to regroup....

Last night I had a dream that made me wake up crying. I find it amazing that my emotions in my dreams, which seem so wierd so much of the time, are so real. So the dream went like this. I got up to play a performance; for those of you that don't remember or know, I play violin. So I "played" this beautiful piece with my violin and a spoon, not a bow. How did I make noise? you might ask. I sang it. Someone that was listening said, "That was terrible! No, that was worse than terrible." And I woke up crying. After I dried my tears, I was lying awake and had the greatest things to say for this post. Thoughts so great that almost couldn't have been mine. Now I can't remember them. Apparently, they weren't mine.

After my first unsuccessful post of pictures of my family, I'm attempting a picture of M3. So you can all see just how adorable she is. It's a good thing or with the way she has been acting lately, she may not have survived :-).