The Rest of 2012

So it seems that the year 2012 became so busy and jam-packed that it just slipped right by us.  Here is a quick and painless run down of some of the things that has happened this last year that we didn't do a post on yet.  Looking at these pictures, it seems like my life is consumed with Jason, Disneyland, my Young Women, and our nieces and nephews.  How could life get any better?  

Here are some of my Girl's Camp pictures.  It was so much fun to hang out with my young women in our ward.   

Khan demonstrating the hats we crocheted for our service project.  

I took some pictures of my girls.  They have to be the most beautiful girls in the world.  

Before our big hike up the hill.  

We also made face masks one night for mutual.  

A close-up of Baby Ben.  Not sure when this was taken, but it was on my phone so it counts as a 2012 picture!  

Baby Jeb!  Again, not sure when this was taken, but based upon his face this was taken a few months ago.

    

Some good times at Disneyland.  

Such a nice day.  

In line at Cars Land.  

Sunset over California Adventures.  

Jason wearing Oswald ears in front of Oswalds.  

We were walking by and then we saw Goofy.  Random!  

It's the most wonderful time of the year! This is the closest Californian's get to having a "White Christmas."  

Pretty much the best sandwich place on Earth!  Earl of Sandwich!  Only at Downtown Disneyland.  

Gotta love Small World at Christmas time!  I want my house to look like that!  

Here is Jason's first time riding the Dumbo ride.  It's such a classic!  

We love Disneyland!  

Here are our Halloween costumes:  Jason is Wall-E and I am EVE.  

Here is Jas as Wall-E during the daytime.  

Kurt and his baby Sis.   

Here we are on Halloween on Big Thunder Mountain.  Can you see Shel and the boys in the background?

I love the faces of the boys on Thunder Mountain.  

Jason and Baby Ben playing on Halloween.  He must have dressed up like the cutest baby!  

Here are some pictures of the Burrows clan from when we saw them back in September.  

Alex saying his "O" sound. 

Bela and her sweet smile. 

Patrick in motion zooming down the slide.

  

Ephraim has that cute smile getting ready to go down the slide.  

Patrick was convinced by someone to play in the sprinklers, so he took off his shirt but pulled up his shorts like an old man.  It was so funny!  

Sweet Baby Luciana.  

My sweetie with his dad's grave at the funeral.  

We had the opportunity this fall to attend a family reunion, which doesn't often happen with the Blackburn family.  We traveled to Las Vegas to see everyone, and it was awesome!  I loved seeing everyone and getting the family together after so long.  Here is a picture of the original children of my grandparents, Easton and LaVon Blackburn.  

Here are some pictures of the Barnum bunch throughout the fall and winter seasons.  

Baby Ben at our place, mildly entertained based upon his smirk.

  

Matt and Lego Hulk. I think Matter's is doing the robot.

  

Drew impersonating Lego Hulk. 

Here are pictures of the Kurt n Shel and their clan at the beach.  

Kurt, Jason and the boys climbed clear out to this rock.  I am glad the boys trusted Kurt and Jason enough to carry them out this far.  

Some pictures of parents at the beach just after eating at their favorite place, the Beachcomber.  

During the Thanksgiving break Jason went out sailing with my dad and Paul.  

At the beginning of December the Barnum bunch came down again for some Disney fun.  Here are some pictures from that trip.  

December came way too fast and the next thing we knew it was Christmas time.  We usually have a ton of time off during the break, but we were only able to make a weekend trip up to St. George because I worked the day after Christmas.  Here are some pictures from Christmas time.  

We then made it over to their place for Christmas morning and the unwrapping of presents.  Here is Shel, Matt, and Drew.  

Karen and Paul let us give Jeb some presents early, which he seemed to like, even though he played with the paper more than the presents.  Here is a sweet picture of him!  

Ben the little drummer boy.  

  

Baby Jeb and I cuddled up and he enjoyed snacking on his toys.

Matters and I colored during the Christmas break.  

Nanjing: 2012 Final Post of China

Finally, that moment has arrived: we are finally to our last post about China!  I pinky promise that I won't mention doing a post about China again. 

We can't talk about being in Nanjing without mentioning Jason's school experience   This was the main reason why we were in Nanjing, because he was at Nanjing University taking Law School courses.  He had an amazing time there with his classes and his classmates from Whittier Law School.  They basically became family after a while and we all did everything together.

A picture of us eating at a favorite restaurant.  

Jason in his class at Nanjing University during a break.   

Here are some views of Nanjing from the Intercontinental Hotel.  It was a really nice hotel close to ours that had a lovely restaurant. 

A view of Nanjing at night.  

Jason eating at the Intercontinental. 

Both of us overlooking the city. 

Here is a view of the Intercontinental from the street.  It was such a beautiful clear day that you can actually see the reflections of the clouds on the building.  Nanjing was hard to get used to seeing the sky so dark and overcast most of the time, because it is known for having poor air circulation.  There was finely a nice day in Nanjing and it was wonderful to have this day. 
 

Our hotel during the summer school program.  The Jingli Hotel. 

This is a picture of the Intercontinental on the left and our hotel that we stayed at on the right. 

This is a picture of how the sidewalks look everywhere in China.  They make these lined walkways so that those that are blind can follow them around town.  I thought that was rather clever of them to do that! 

Here is the base of one of the pillars in downtown Nanjing. 

We had the opportunity to visit the Nanjing Memorial Museum.  This was incredibly hard to visit, not because it was a long ways away, but because it was so realistic.  It was done so well that you were crying and sober by the end.  The nice thing was that it starts out very dark, going over the horrific details of WWII, but as you progressed throughout the museum it became lighter and brighter with hope and encouragement.

 

This is the number count of how many people were killed in Nanjing when it was invaded by the Japanese. 

The craziest thing was how the museum was built.  Apparently they built this museum around a grave site so the outcome of the attacks were so visible that it was terrifying.  Here is a look down into the grave pit. 

The is what the museum looks like on the outside with the cross. 

This was crazy, because these are rows and rows of books containing the names of the people that were attacked during WWII. 

We loved this because it was a huge electronic billboard that had an error popup on the screen. 

Hagen-Dazs was a super fancy restaurant in China with bizarre flavors and eccentric presentations.  

Welcome to the bus system in Nanjing.  Good luck! 

Huh?

Just got my nails done in town. 

One of the sections of Nanjing that we loved was called Fuzimao.  It had this temple dedicated to Confucius.  It was such a different place from the rest of Nanjing because of the canals of water there.  We took a boat ride there that takes you through different historical parts of China with music and dancing areas. 

Here is the Wishing Tree in Fuzimao.  You write your wish on the red ribbon, which is attached to a metal coin, and then you throw it up in the tree and hope it sticks. 

This is what the canals look like at night. 

Our boat ride.

Confucius says, "Don't eat the rocks."

We had some... interesting treats and food out in China.  Thank goodness there was a small snack shop by the hotel that kept us full of recognizable treats. 

We did find good ol' Walmart out in Nanjing.  But if we thought that it would resemble anything of the Walmart's back in the US, we were WRONG!  Just take a look at these pictures and see for yourself. 

Fresh seafood.  Yes, those are turtles on the right. 

Chicken just sitting out in the middle of the aisle. 

Frozen fish. 

Candy.. NOT!  It's actually pickled duck.  

Not sure...

Still not sure...

We had such a wonderful time out in Nanjing and China.  We are so grateful for the opportunities that Jason is having in Law School to meet some amazing people and do some incredible things.  This was truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience, because we know that when we go back to China it will never be the same as this time.  It was such a blast and we want to thank everyone that was on the trip that made it that much better!   

Here is a picture of the Whittier Law School group that traveled out to China.  What a good looking group!