Hong Kong!

So, I had the opportunity to go to Hong Kong in April with Noteworthy, the a cappella group I have been in for two years at BYU. This was my first time out of the country and it was such a cool experience! We spent the week there performing and experiencing the culture and shopping... boy did we shop!

We were invited by the Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups to perform in a Festival there. We had to miss the last week of winter semester classes... again. We had to miss the last week of fall semester classes because of The Sing Off. That's another post for another day.

It's been a long time coming, but I wanted to post some pictures from our trip to Hong Kong! We left on a Tuesday morning and flew to San Fransisco. I was almost stuck in the airport because of some issues with my ticket. It was issued using my maiden name, but my passport had my married name on it. Luckily, we were able to get it fixed with a monstrous fee for the name change. We were able to make it to San Fran and then we left for our 14 hour flight to Hong Kong. We arrived on Tuesday morning. Weird, I know. The jet lag was aweful!

This was my way of communicating with Alec. I love Skype. :) It was a lot harder leaving him than I thought it would be!

This is the view from our hostel. We were on the 12th floor. Every building in Hong Kong is huge!! The area of the island isn't very big so they just build up.

These are some of the girls who hung out with us and showed us around during our free time. You can kind of see the lobby of the hostel in the background. The hostel was amazing!! We had a huge room with 6 beds (which were hard as a rock) and a wall that was just a huge window! There were 7 of us there so Amy and I ended up having to share a bed. We didn't mind because we were always so tired we just crashed as soon as we laid down.



Here's the group with Kenneth. He is awesome! He was the one who originally contacted us about coming to Hong Kong.


Notice my hair in this picture? This was my hairstyle the ENTIRE week. It is extremely humid in Hong Kong, so my hair did not survive when it was down. The last few mornings in Hong Kong, I went out in the lobby and the painted concrete floors were covered in a thick layer of dew. Our floor had an open deck so we could feel the humidity as soon as we left the room.



We went shopping in this outdoor market place and parts of it was a little bit creepy. This is an ally way outside one of the shops.



For some weird reason, a bunch of clothing makers in China felt that cats and music go together. I found so many shirts and purses and little toys that had cats and music notes on them!

You don't want to know what was in this store...

All of the scaffolding in Hong Kong is made out of bamboo. I think it's a lot prettier than the scaffolding they have in the states. Our tour guide said that it is extremely strong too.

We were walking down the street and we passed by this lady walking with her little son. He was so cute and the lady saw us looking at him. She was really nice and she spoke English. She stopped and talked to us for a while. She told us his name was Fong Fong. I know it must have seemed a little creepy but I HAD to take a picture!



On Sunday, we went to a church building to try to go to sacrament meeting, but we found out it was General Conference that day. Since Hong Kong is half a day ahead of the America, they show general conference in the church buildings the week after. We went to a session and then we went to the Hong Kong temple. It is such a cool temple! The property is not very big so they built the temple straight up. Our tour guide had to go across the street to get a picture of the whole temple.

This says The church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints Hong Kong Temple.

I have to say, I was pretty proud of these temple pictures. Alec usually makes fun of my pictures because they're either not centered or out of focus.

My guess is that this means Holiness to the Lord the House of the Lord...

This is one of our amazing tour guides. She is the one that took us around on Sunday. She was so sweet and we had so much fun with her!

We had such and amazing time and were able to perform for so many people. I was excited to get home to my hubby and get my sleeping schedule in check, but I definitely missed all of the great people!

HOT!!

BYU Broadcasting is building a new, big, beautiful, building on campus which will be completed in November. Until then, we are stuck in the old building which has had it's better days... actually I'm not sure if it's days were ever better. Anyway, the thermostat in the building likes to over-compensate. It is just confused about appropriate temperatures. When it's summer, I feel like an icicle and when it's winter, I feel like I'm in an oven. This presents a problem when choosing what to wear to work especially when I have class that day as well.

I usually welcome the warm summer air when I walk outside after a day at work, but yesterday my reaction to the "warm" summer air was a little bit different. After a long day at work in the lovely old building, I walked outside feeling like an icicle. The moment the outside air touched my skin, I was shocked! It was so hot! By the time I got to my car, I was sweating. Then I opened my car door and took a deep breath because I new it would be the last comfortable one I would be able to take for a few minutes.

I turned on my car and the thermometer on my dashboard read 99 degrees. That was the outside temperature. My car is not known for having good air conditioning, so I rolled down the windows, but somehow a 99 degree breeze doesn't help cool you down when you're in an oven that looks like a car.

Luckily, it was nice and cool at home. Living in the basement apartment definitely has its benefits! I have learned that I would not survive in countries by the equator. I love feeling warm and I love the sun on my skin, but I don't like intense heat. I especially don't like intense heat inside my car. I think it may be time to buy one of those fancy sun reflectors for the windshield...

Independence Day!

I love the 4th of July. I always feel so proud to live in America, and the time off of work is great too. Every year, Provo is transformed for the 4th of July. There are parades and fairs and races and everyone puts their American flags out. There is also the Stadium of Fire at the BYU Stadium. This year, Carrie Underwood was the headliner! Alec and I wanted to go so bad, but the cheap tickets were sold out by the time we decided to go, and the other tickets were WAY too expensive. So, we decided to sit outside the stadium instead. I know it's a little desperate, but I really wanted to at least hear Carrie Underwood!

Here is our view of the stage... If we stood up and she was on the far right side of the stage, we could see her profile... sort of.

The fireworks show was pretty good! It was so loud though!! We were closer to the fireworks than the crowd was.

Here's the view of the fireworks from our front lawn!

We hope you all had a wonderful Independence Day!

Memorial Day Beach Trip

Alec and I went down to California to visit for Memorial Day. We had so much fun visiting family! We only wished we could have stayed longer. We were able to go to the beach with the Pratt side of the family. Cameron (Alec's brother) is undergoing chemotherapy (don't worry he's doing great and his prognosis is really good) so Donne (Alec's mom) offered to take Caleb (Cameron's son) to the beach. Alec and I rode down with his mom and dad so we entertained him in the car and hung out with him at the beach. We had a such a blast, even though the water was a little bit too cold to swim in.

Caleb LOVED the sand and did not fail to get completely covered in sand by the end of the day.

Regan was really good at playing catch...

A lot better than me...

Alec was a lot better than me too... Don't tell him I said that.

Aubrey got a little messy in the sand.

The beach is not the beach without a game of football.

I miss the beach so much! Don't be fooled by my pasty white skin. I really do love the beach and I used to go quite often when I lived in California. We had so much fun, and we can't wait to go down to visit again.

New Apartment!

So we moved into a new apartment at the end of May! It is a basement apartment near the stadium. It's within walking distance of both BYU campus and the temple. We LOVE it and I wanted to share some pictures!

I love our living room! It is so much bigger than our old apartment.

You see that door over there? It is a... laundry room. Yes I said laundry room, with a real live washer and dryer!! This was definitely a big selling point of the apartment.

We have 2 bedrooms now! Woo!! Not that we really need 2 yet, but it's nice to have the extra space.

The kitchen. It is about 3 times bigger than our old kitchen. Enough said.

Our land lady is the nicest widow named Millie! She is the best land lady ever! She doesn't charge utilities, she has Alec mow the lawn every week instead. We were so lucky to find such a great apartment when we did! I have learned, however, how much I HATE moving. We moved in right before we went to California to visit family, so our unpacking was postponed. It was not fun coming home to a huge mess, but we eventually emerged from the sea of boxes and got everything organized. I love living here and have decided that we will not be moving anytime soon.

Busy Busy Busy!

Well, it's already July! I can't even believe it! Alec and I have just been busy bees this summer. Here are some of the things we have done since the end of Winter Semester.

• Work
• Trip to California to visit family memorial weekend.
• Work
• Dinner with friends
  
• Work
• Moved into a new apartment
• Work
  
• Was a bridesmaid in my friend Alyssa's wedding.
• Work
  
• Listened to Carrie Underwood at the Stadium of Fire
• Watched the fireworks
  
• BBQ
  
• Work

As you can see, we have been doing a lot of working this summer. I work for BYU Broadcasting and Alec works for First Support Solutions, and we both work 8 to 5 Monday through Friday. We've tried to squeeze some fun in there too this summer. Here are some things we have planned for the rest of the summer.

• Vacation in Island Park with the Raps Family
• Go to the lake with the Pratt Family
• Go see Tarzan at the Tuacahn in St. George
• And of course... Work

We're also trying to plan a trip to serve as our honeymoon since we didn't get to go on one. That's another story for another post. :)