March Madness

It was so exciting to have our Kitley Family come for a visit! 

We saw a whole new side of Hong Kong through the eyes of our younger grandkids!

Kowloon Park was a lot of fun.....especially the maze where we played Hide-and Seek!  Here are Tim, Kim, Sarah, Claudia and Emmett doing the Lion Dance.

Jet lag hit during dinner the first night! 

After that, the kids adjusted amazingly well!

Look who we found in the MTR Station!  Claudia LOVES pandas!

We took the glass bottom cable car up to Big Buddha.  I wish we had a picture of the floor!

We climbed all the steps up to the top!

The mist hanging over Big Buddha gave it a mystical feel!

Perfect weather!  Not too cold!  Not too hot!

Emmett was a chopstick master from the very start!

We spent a day at Ocean Park!

It was kind of unnerving how the Chinese people grabbed our grandkids 

to take pictures of them!!!!

Lunch time for the pandas!!  It was the highlight of the day!

Such a darling picture of Sarah!

What a fun family photo!

I rode the turtle on the Merry-Go-Round to be close to Emmett.

Tim, Kim, David and Sarah loved riding the rafts and got soaking wet!

Emmett had a little "rest" when we visited the Hong Kong Park Aviary.

A sudden storm necessitated buying umbrellas and having a fun walk in the rain! 

Thursday Family was excited to have our family visit them.  Kitley's loved being with them too!  Sarah said she smiled so much her face hurt!

One day I stayed home to play with Claudia and Emmett while David, Tim, Kim and Sarah went to Stanley Market and Victoria Peak.

This is my favorite picture of David.  Kim took it as we were riding on the Ding-Ding. 

She was sitting and looked up and saw the pictures on the ceiling that we hadn't ever noticed before!

Thanks for making the effort to come and see us, Tim, Kim, Sarah, Claudia and Emmett!

We love you!

Sister Maura was suddenly terminated and made the decision to go back to the Philippines to take care of her son. 

The other sisters gave her a going away party.

Choir practice is always a reason for photos!

It's so exciting  that so many sisters are willing to take time to learn to play the piano.

We had many Relief Society Birthday celebrations!

We sang "As Sisters in Zion" in Tagalog, Indonesian and English.

There was lots of dancing!

The Elders were our music men on the piano and cell phone music!

We took Elder and sister Pack to the Peninsula Hotel for High Tea before they finished their mission.

The Hong Kong Flower Show

Our good friends, Ho and Christina Ho, Gayle Allen and Janet came to Hong Kong!

During Easter Week each Family took a walk around the building identifying paintings that went with the scriptures about the life of the Savior.

 Afterward we colored Easter Eggs......a brand new experience! 

This is Diana.  She lives in a tiny fishing village named Tai O and she wanted to show us the village from her perspective.

Our friends the Chamberlains and Ortons were with us.

Diana's house is one of those on stilts.

On the way home with our prize baguette!

It was so great to get to meet President and Sister Hassell...

the first president of the new Vietnam Hanoi Mission!

(They are VERY tall!)

Sister Abie on the right shared this picture on Facebook with the caption,

"I just can't explain the love and peace I feel when I am with them!" 

Everyday Branch is truly an inspired program!

Our Full, Fun February!!

This is the best thing that happened all month.......the birth of our 22nd grandchild!!  

Little (or big  9 pound 2 oz) Cora Frances Towers was born February 20th. 

She is the 6th child and 4th daughter of Tyler and Jamie!

How we wish we could hug her!

Welcome to our family, Baby Cora! 

NOTICE FROM THE EDITOR:

It appears from this blog that we seldom do church work, but what we do on weekdays we usually don't take pictures of.  

So just know that we DO work, but we take MORE pictures of our play time!

Gong Hey Fat Choy!

Happy New Year!

Chinese New Year has been crazy!

Red lanterns, orchids, Mandarin orange trees of all shapes and sizes, bright yellow mums and blossoming cherry trees have decorated every home, business and park. 

 It is beautiful everywhere you look!

It's the year of the monkey so they pop up everywhere!

On a beautiful sunny day we went down to the promenade to watch them practice for the parade which was going to be the next night.  These people are trying to maneuver this giant puppet.  During the parade, he was all lit up inside with blue lights and called the "Gentle Giant of Light". It was my favorite part. 

 The picture just doesn't do it justice!

 We were invited to a New Year dinner party by the Area Presidency.

Of course we had the required group picture taken.  This is the Asia Area Presidency and wives, all of us Area Missionaries who work in the Wan Chai building,

 the temple president and wife and the Hong Kong Mission senior couples.

After dinner we went out on President and Sister Funk's balcony and watched the fireworks.

'

The Super Bowl was a fun occasion for us.  Unbeknownst to Americans, the rest of the world doesn't give a hoot about football!  While the Super Bowl was going on, we got boat racing and bull riding on our TV!  But that was no problem for us!  We got a little of the 1st quarter while skyping with Kim and Tim, some of the 2nd quarter while visiting with Geoff and Jolene, Evan and Kelli and families in Ohio, and during the last half, Ben just sat the computer right in front of the TV and dad watched the rest of the game with the Salt Lake Families and half the neighborhood.  

Luckily, Kristin sent pictures! 

Since we were too far away to participate in the Towers Family tradition of  making secret Valentines for each other, we decided to do it with our families here in Hong Kong.  

 It was lots of fun and exciting to make something for someone else and there were lots of happy tears and hugs when the Valentines were given!  These Sisters need that extra love!

This is Sister Lyrma holding her very first Valentine from her real sister, Novalyn in the blue.  Lyrma has been bringing Novalyn to church each week in hopes that she will want to become a member.  They are both domestic helpers, but Novalyn just arrived in Hong Kong.

 Guess who drew MY name!  I love my Valentine and of course I agreed to be his!

Sister Remy made me a Valentine when she drew my name on Saturday.  I really love her!

Thursday Family Relief Society Presidency gave all of us a Valentine Surprise!

This bouquet is made out of strong smelling soap carved into roses!  

My eyes were watering!

We and Scott and Karen Smith were invited to go to Disneyland with some of our friends and some Sisters in our Wednesday family.  

Scott loves taking selfies on the MTR.

Meet our friends Quentin and Angela Lee.  He plays the part of Scar at the Disneyland production of Lion King.  They attend Wednesday family when he has to work on Sunday.  This picture was taken when he ran over to have lunch with us between performances.

 They generously treated Analyn, Marjory and May Ann to a day at Disneyland and we just went along for the fun of it!

It was one of the coldest days we've had here in HK, but we had fun anyway!

We really enjoy working and playing with Karen and Scott Smith, our counterparts in the branch.

Buzz Lightyear was on hand so we stopped for a photo op.

Whoa...this was weird!

The props and scenery for Lion King are amazing!  We loved it!

Here's Quentin doing his thing as Scar!

Sunny, clear days are rare, so on this one we rode up to the Peak on the top front seat of a double decker bus.  It was a real trip!  The view at the top was magnificent!  Coming down we hiked the Old Peak Road.  It was super steep and my legs were totally rubber when we got to the bottom!

We sometimes find time to play games on weekends with our friends. 

 One night Sister Orton made this delicious Swedish cake for dessert!

Judy, Matthew and Natalie Staples came to visit for a few hours.  It was great to see them, but not nearly long enough!  We took them for a ride on the Ding Ding.

And to the Lantern Festival.

This lady is writing Chinese characters with white sand on a piece of plastic tarp. This picture shows less than a third of what she had already done.

Karen had a turkey breast in her freezer, so we decided to have Thanksgiving Dinner in February! Turkey, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, yams, fresh veggies, rolls, Jello salad, and pumpkin cake!   What a treat!

The fun just never ends when Sister Smith is busy thinking up things to do!  Here we are having a posh lunch at the Hopewell Center.... a revolving restaurant 60 floors up!

Broom Hockey was the sport of choice at Family Home Evening one Tuesday.

 Our Wednesday Family Sisters went crazy making cakes for dinner.  They had never used an oven before so it was a learning experience for them.  They turned out great!

 Saturday Family planned a Lipsync and Aerobic Dance Battle for FamilyHome Evening!

We have so much fun at our activities!

I have some new piano students!  They are quick learners! 

As a parting shot, David wanted me to include this. 

 It seems that there is nothing you can't get here in Hong Kong!