One funny story from the holiday shopping season, of course involves Coleson. Coleson is a great older brother, he is always on his best behavior and very helpful during all of Ammon's doctors appointments, therapy sessions, etc. The point I'm trying to make is that Coleson usually has an extra ounce of patience and tolerance when it comes to Mommy or Ammon related activities that he has to attend, including shopping. Near the end of one day of shopping, Summer is making one last stop at the Quilted Bear (a craft store) to try to find materials for the tiles noted above. She figured that compared to a doctor's or therapist's office the Quilted Bear should at least be marginally more exciting for a five year old. About five minutes into the shopping experience Coleson lays down on the floor, smiles, and tongue in cheek says, "I can't do it, I just can't do it. Mom, this is sooo boring, this store is for old people like Mommies and Grandmas and Grandpas. I just can't do it." After a good laugh by everyone, Mom resigns and shopping for the day is gratefully done.
New Years Eve was a great time spent with neighbors and friends. I don't know about many of you, but when I was a kid I had a difficult time staying up past midnight until I was probably about 10. We actually stayed at the Phippen's home until about 2:30 a.m. (that's A.M. folks), and the most surprising part is that Coleson and all the other kids there stayed up until then as well (Ammon was up until midnight). It was a ton of fun, and I would highly recommend the game Zarahemla to any board game fan.
I've included below some more pictures from my Shanghai trip. Again, Shanghai was nothing that I expected. Granted we lived like the rich tourist over there, but Shanghai has to be one of the most impressive cities I've ever been too (and I've been to many of the large cities across the U.S.). There was simply skyscraper after skyscraper; it makes bustling downtown Salt Lake look like a simple rural village. In my opinion it even dwarfed New York and Chicago. We stayed in the tallest hotel in the world (Grand Hyatt Shanghai) and my room was on the 77 floor (I've included a couple pictures from my room). Right next door was the current tallest building in the world in the final phases of construction. From my hotel room window I still had too look straight up to see the top of the building next door. The people there were incredibly nice and accomodating. I was expecting something similar to Rocky 4 and our 80's view of communist China, with big posters and statues of Mao and other chinese leaders. There was none of that, and a whole lot of trendy shopping, commerce, and business.
Speaking of shopping we had the opportunity on the Saturday there to experience the full Shanghai shopping adventure. Our first reactions to the overall market scenes were, “our wives would love this and would never leave.” A mere 8 hours later of non-stop shopping we finally resigned ourselves to leave the markets due to exhaustion, hunger, and an incredible sense of purchasing satisfaction (we never stopped to eat while shopping, but look at the post below and you might understand). In every sense possible, we finally obtained an understanding of what some women feel when the shopping bug bites. Bargaining was by far the most exciting part of the entire day. We ended up buying custom fitted dress shirts, sport coats, and overcoats, with the local partner offering to ship them to us once they’re finished being sewn (the dress shirts all come with our initials engraved on the cuffs). I’m not used to this type of detail, most of my shirts are readily identified as belonging to me by the fraying collar and baby food stains on the shoulders. We also hit the "knock-off" markets and that was an experience. There are several pictures below of us boarding an elevator to be taken to a secret back room to look at watches, bags, and other expensive items. At one shop the owner opened a hidden door behind a set of shelves and we were in Prada, Rolex, and North Face heaven. Even in the secret shop the first fine watches we looked at were not that impressive, so we kept asking for "heavy" watches, "good quality" watches, and the owner pulled several suitcases out from under the counter and laid before our eyes the finest watches I've seen. As I said, haggling was a ton of fun and we had a great time getting great deals. A Prada bag is currently the new diaper bag at our house.
Despite some comments to contrary the food was excellent. We ate alot of sushi and other local favorites. Each night we had brownies and ice cream delivered to our rooms, and every morning we ate ham, salmon, made to order eggs, and the best tasting fruit I've had since my days down in Fiji. If I ever make it back to Shanghai again, Summer will definitely be coming with me. I loved every minute.
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