Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We celebrated with a quiet day at home. After sleeping in we had a late breakfast of egg sandwiches and relaxed.

Then [my favorite part], we put up our Christmas tree! I've been waiting all year to do this! We didn't put one up last year so this was the first year I've ever put up my own tree. It took a long time to fluff all the branches out. Luckily we have a pre-lit tree so I just had to decorate. Ryan made a good supervisor (and he put hooks on all the ornaments for me). I reminisced about each of my ornaments (not sure Ry really appreciated all the stories!)

I started writing Christmas cards while Ryan relaxed and watched football. Then we tried out a new recipe for stuff chicken. It was a success!! Next up was Angels and Demons, then smoothies, and now we're basking in the Christmas lights and watching Elf on tv.

Thanks to all of you for being such a blessing in our lives!


Val - this is for you! Ryan's ornament was the first one on the tree!


Chicken with spinach, cheese, sundried tomatoes. Thanks for the recipe, Mom!


LOVE our newly festive living room!! AMA, do you recognize the tapestry above the front door?


The chair is already my new favorite seat!


I have been reading about adding spinach to smoothies so I gave it a shot. Looks pretty disgusting but couldn't even taste the spinach. A new way to eat my veggies!!

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A Day with the Rudes!

We spent the weekend in Iowa. We celebrated an early Thanksgiving with Ryan's family in Ames, Ryan went to Iowa City for the Hawkeye game and I spent all of yesterday in Des Moines with the Rudes.

Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures in Ames but did go a little camera crazy at the Rudes'. (Meg also grabbed our camera and had a little fun getting shots of her babies) Not a lot of pictures of Myla and only a couple of Rex - Quinn stole the spotlight! (And I spent my baby time cuddling instead of snapping pictures...)

They're growing like crazy!! ENJOY!




























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Asia Part II - Shanghai

We had a great time in Shanghai! We arrived later than planned due to our delay in Vietnam. We were busy with work but I did get Saturday off to tour around the city. Two of the ladies from the Target office were nice enough to be my tour guides for the day.

LOTS of pictures to share...


Shanghai airport


Big temple in the middle of the city

People throw money into this huge thing for luck

A turtle-dragon? Outside the Yu Gardens

Part of the Bazaar at Yu Gardens


The Pearl Tower

That's the financial tower on the right - tallest building in Shanghai


Looking across the river at The Bund

Pearl Tower


A shot from the other side of the financial tower (now on the left)

The arrow is pointing to the 100th floor observation deck where we went to check out the views of the city


Me, Lucy, Brandy looking up into the ceiling of the financial tower observation deck.


Looking down through the glass floor of the 100th floor observatory!

We're looking DOWN on the giant building next door!


Looking out over the river (hard to get a good shot with the glare on the glass)


Looking down at a park - the cars are teeny!

Working with a vendor at the Target office


Yep, I ate a big bowl of RAW fish for lunch one day!


We had dinner on the river one night - it was beautiful! The restaurant had a beautiful patio overlooking the water.

Cool buildings along the water


Looking out across the river.


China countyside as we were driving to factories


The view out my hotel window.

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Asia Part I - Vietnam

Well - here I am in Vietnam! We left Mpls at 12:45 Sunday afternoon. We flew for 13 hours to Tokyo, walked to our next gate and flew 7 more hours to Vietnam. We arrived at the hotel 12:30am Tuesday morning local time.

First class was fun! I didn't get any pictures but thoroughly enjoyed my fully reclining seat, snacks, watching 2 movies, 3 tv shows, and napping. But, by the second flight I was ready to be on the ground!

I called Ryan and checked email for a bit, showered and went to bed for a few hours. We met for breakfast and then got picked up at 8am.

We toured two factories and I got to work with people that I email back and forth with quite a bit. We accomplished so much more in person - it was great!

We had an amazing lunch at one of the factories - spring rolls, soup, tofu, beef, rice, veggies.

We also spent a lot of time in the car! Probably about 3.5 hours total. The traffic is insane! EVERYONE rides scooters and the weave in and out of cars, in the wrong lane, with as many as four people on a bike! We saw an entire family - mom, dad and two kids - on one scooter!

We were supposed to leave Vietname at 1am Wednesday time. We got to the airport and were told it was 2 hours delayed when we checked in. After various updates, our current estimated departure time is 6:40am. We're sitting in the business lounge at the airport - all on our laptops. All exhausted! I think I've slept a total of <8 hrs since leaving Mpls. YIKES!

The pictures below are not in order but here's a glimpse of Vietnam!


Me, Lynne, Patrick, Kate by the sign with our names at one of the factories.


Look at all the balloons on the back of this bikes!

Production lines at the factory.

After dinner.


I had just followed this dress that I worked on all the way through the production line!

View out the hotel window.


Motorbikes!

Really nice bathroom at our hotel!

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