Overdue

Our days have been full and busy, but jet lag is finally ending and I've mustered up enough energy to post!This is the last picture that I have on my camera. This is our family, with all our luggage right outside of the SLC airport. Sadly, we haven't taken a single picture in Hong Kong. Our activities so far haven't really been picture worthy. Unless you want to see pictures of us setting up bank accounts, apartment hunting and sleeping.

We had two legs of our flight to Hong Kong. SLC to San Francisco and then SF to Hong Kong. When we checked in at SLC, they told us that they couldn't issue our boarding passes for our SF to HK flight. That we would need to go to the gate and that they would issue the passes there. We weren't all that concerned, but we did know that we only had an hour layover.

We arrived at SF and were misdirected to where we needed to go. Then, we were told that we had to go out of security, check in at the counter and go through security again. Ummm....are you kidding me? I almost gave up at this point. We had less than 45 minutes until our flight to HK was supposed to leave. Only because of Richard's encouragement and the good people at Cathay Pacific Airlines did we make our flight. We made it with 3 minutes until they closed the flight. Yuck! I never want to go through that again. It was incredibly frustrating and made me feel totally unprepared for the 13 1/2 hour flight ahead of us.

Thankfully, the children were angels and the flight attendants were amazing and we survived the flight! I only survived because of some delicious homemade cookies from Richard's sister Suzanne. She can make an amazing chocolate chip cookie. Nora survived because she got a big baggie full of Polly Pockets from her Grandma Carol Lee right before we left. Nora honestly played Polly Pockets for two straight hours of the flight. That is amazing for my 2 1/2 year old!

We arrived in Hong Kong at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday night, got to our hotel and attempted to put our children to bed. They slept from about 10 until 2 and then they were both up and ready for the day. Thankfully, I have the most amazing husband in the world and he hung out with the kids in the bathroom, watching episodes of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse while I slept. The next night was pretty similar, but thankfully they are both back on track and sleeping when they should be sleeping.

On Friday, we had a slow morning, even through it started really early. We got some breakfast, walked around the area where Richard is going to work (it is called Central) and then made our way to see some apartments in Kowloon (Kowloon is across the bay from Hong Kong. It is still part of Hong Kong, but isn't on the island). After viewing eight different apartments, Richard and I were feeling pretty overwhelmed and confused about what we were going to do. Our realtor dropped us off at our hotel and we collapsed.

My favorite part of being here so far is how much attention Calvin gets from everyone. People seem to love my baby. Old women, young people...Calvin is a favorite. He gets smiles and laughs and people stop us to touch his cute little feet. Calvin is taking it all in stride, but has gotten a bit overwhelmed. The first day we left our apartment, we walked out onto the busy street and Calvin just cried and cried! The streets of Hong Kong are just a little busier than those of Cleveland, Ohio :) I think he wasn't used to the sounds, smells and pace of the city. Nora on the other hand, is adjusting wonderfully. We just need to find where the toy stores are and she will be happy!

There is much more to report, but we are exhausted and need to get some sleep. More apartments to view tomorrow and I think we have figured out which one we are going to get! We will be sure to keep you all posted :)