Long weekend in Sanya, Hainan Island

At the end of June, we took our second vacation since moving to Shanghai. There is an island in southern China called Hainan Island, and the resort area is called Sanya. It is known as the "Hawaii of China", and it was very beautiful! We travelled with a group of about 20 people from Dow Corning as a group tour arranged by DC.

We arrived on a sunny Wednesday at the Marriott Sanya. The greeting committee gave us each a shell necklace with a star-shaped emblem imprinted with "Marriott Sanya". We got all checked in to our room, and what a beautiful view we had of the greenery and the beach.


The boys got a little goofy after the travel, so we snapped a picture of them before we headed off to the beach and the 3-level pool (complete with 2 waterfalls).


The beach was spectacular! There was quite a nice breeze while we were there, which always makes for good wave-jumping. The waves kept trying to pull down Derek's trunks, but no loss of trunks or sneak-peeks of his backside (thank goodness!).





All around the grounds, they had these warrior statues. The boys humored Mom with a couple of pictures...


Most of the time was spent in the pool.


There were limited restaurants in the hotel (one Chinese, one Japanese, and one "Western" that wasn't so great), so we ventured out to a restaurant plaza about a mile from the hotel. The walk was quite warm (average temp while we were there was about 95!), but we found a good restaurant for pizza as well as a small grocery store to get some chips and pop for snacking throughout the day. Another visit found us at a Japanese restaurant getting noodles, shrimp tempura (which Alex LOVED and ate 3 plates of himself!), and soup. We always made sure to get dessert at a local ice cream parlor to keep us cool on the walk back to the hotel.

The only downer of the vacation was Derek getting sick on Saturday. Poor little dude was so worried about not making it to the bathroom that he curled up on the floor and slept!


Luckily, he only got sick a couple of times, slept for 14 hours straight, and woke up on Sunday morning feeling better than ever! Mark and Derek decided to do a little balcony dancing to celebrate feeling better on our last day at Sanya.


After a few last-minute pictures, we took off for home.


Sanya was beautiful...I can see why it's such a popular vacation place! With it only being about a 2-hour flight from Shanghai, it's highly possible that we might be repeat visitors in the future...

and the adventure continues...

Visiting friends in Midland...

In late July, we had our first home leave back to Midland. The boys (and the parents too) were so excited to see family and friends while we were back for our 2.5-week visit.

The day after we arrived, we were thrilled to go to a barbeque hosted by Jen and Tim Beach (THANKS SO MUCH!). We got a chance to catch up with Beachs, Gunns, Fordneys, Southmayds, McDonalds, and Beeckmans. Unfortunately, I was so busy talking and watching kids that I forgot to snap any pictures. Regardless, the kids had fun swimming until dark, followed by playing hide-and-seek after dark.

The funniest thing was, as we got ready to leave, Alex noticed the stars...and commented about how the big dipper was in the Beach's front yard. Jen's comment was, "I didn't know my front yard was THAT big!". The sad reality of it is, you don't really see many stars in Shanghai because of the smog and all the lights. We all made sure to make a wish on one of the stars.

On the first Monday back, we met up with some friends (Andrew, Jacob, G-ho for Alex, Ben for Derek) at the Plymouth Pool for an afternoon swim. It was great to stay cool and visit with even more friends...



Alex, Andrew, Jacob and G-Ho...


Ben and Derek hit the slides...


Staying cool on the side of the pool...


Derek takes a flying leap into the deep...


CANNONBALL!!!!!


Alex loves the water slides!

The boys were sad to have to leave, but they had such fun with their friends. Perhaps this will have to be an annual thing...

and the adventure continues...

Go-karts, archery, and other park fun...

For the first couple of weeks of the summer, the boys had a BLAST with Paul Bailey hanging out with them at the house. They were very sad to see Paul move back to Midland, but it gave Mom and Dad a chance to tag-team working from home and spending a bit of time with the boys before our home leave in late July.

Mark and the boys had one very fun-filled day. They found a park in Pudong that had lots of fun things for the kids (and adults) to do -- hand-crank boats for kids, archery, ballpit/slide/trampoline play area, mock exercise equipment, and more that they didn't have time to explore. We'll have to do another trip back for rock climbing, pirate ship playground, and go-karting.

Derek and Alex enjoyed hand paddling the boats...


Next, off to work on our muscles...not really, they were pretend, but the guys thought it was good practice for the real thing.



This was a cool outdoor play area with a trampoline around the outside, a slide and ball pit in the middle. Alex and Derek spent most of the time running laps around the trampoline.




All 3 guys took turns practicing archery. For a very cheap price, you could have someone show you the correct way to hold the bow, nock the arrow, and shoot at the targets. With only a few burns on the inside of their arms, they all had a good time shooting at the targets.




The next stop...indoor go-karts! Alex went to a birthday party earlier in the spring at this indoor go-karting place, and he'd been asking to go back. Luckily, Derek was tall enough to also be able to drive his own car. We did appreciate that they actually require the drivers to wear helmets for safety. Sorry, no pictures of them actually driving as Mark was driving his own car.


Safety first!

Both were winners and celebrated with lunch at Subway!

The final stop of the day was the Urban Planning Museum. It's amazing how much Shanghai has changed in such a short time. The boys' favorite thing was the miniature replica of the entire Shanghai area!




Overall, this was a very good day in Shanghai...some exercise, some learning, and LOTS OF FUN!

and the adventure continues...