Bishop & Sister Ward have arrived!!

What do you do when you have just been called to be a bishop?....flee the country of course :) And we couldn't be happier to be on the receiving end. Troy's older sister Nicole and her husband Brian (just called to be a bishop last Sunday) have come to visit. We are looking forward to a great week of travel, laughing, good conversation (in English...hallelujah), good food, and great memories...

We have this entertaining thing down! Airport pickup, lunch and rest at our apt., shop/custom clothes fitting, dinner at Cuc Gach Quan, and an early bedtime.

Auntie Nic and Enzo bonding with his new green car. Drey was hoping the treats and gifts would never end! Granola bars, fruit snacks, cookies.... thank you!

Brian was fascinated with watching the traffic on the street from outside our window..."controlled chaos". 

Our first stop was to Saigon Square II for some DVD's and Hello Kitty paraphernalia.

Then to our favorite tailor Son for some custom clothes....what was once a possible purchase has now become a necessity for Brian. 2 suits and 3 shirts

Dinner at Cuc Gach Quan

                                 

Fresh pineapple juice and honey makes this kid happy :)

Birthday Wishes...

Today is Troy's 36th birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TROY! In our morning prayer over breakfast I said "We are grateful for Troy and all that he is" and when the prayer was finished Troy asked "Who is I"  (English is now our secondary language). This was an easy question for me to answer,

Troy is:
kind, patient, sensitive to what is right, fair, FUN, hard working, strong, creative, a good listener, a problem solver....and so much more!

Thank goodness for awesome co-workers who celebrated his birthday....What did I do for him you ask? Oh just a nice dinner of left over, made-from-a-packet spaghetti, warmed in a microwave, and served in tupperware....I know, I'm too kind :)

We will be traveling over the next few weeks during the Tet holiday.  Since I'm not sure of the phone/email availability, I would like to wish a Happy Birthday to some other very much loved family members celebrating birthdays in the next couple weeks:

this beautiful couple born only days apart, Tyson 1/25 & Kristen 1/31

handsome Sawyer (and another just like you) 1/29

beautiful Monika 2/8

Luke-ster 2/8

Big D -  2/11

Grandpa - 2/14 our sweetheart :)

Happy Birthday, we love you all and wish you the best!

Back to reality....

 Happy 2013!  To be honest, I started 2013 with a dead battery, hence my lack of posts. There are two reasons for this:

1.) I broke my 2013 resolution within the first 24 hours of the new year. It may have been a lofty goal that was hastily decided upon, but if accomplished I would feel like "Super Mom." Needless to say I feel like "Villain Mom" on a daily basis...ugh!

2.) On Christmas day my friend Betsye handed me the DVD sets for season 1 & 2 of Downton Abbey. Wow! The past two weeks my life has been consumed by this British soap opera and I have loved every minute of it! (Troy is rolling his eyes right about now with absolute disgust). Sorry, I have a slight addiction problem.

So the hype of the new year is over and we are now back to our routine days. The good news is that I can now say I will see you all this year!

Delicious little oranges (like cuties) enjoyed on New Years day. 

The day after picture. We didn't actually make it downtown to this point, but drove by a side street and saw this contraption built for a fountain and light show. New Year's Eve was another packed night in the city.

This is the true aristocrat of our family sitting high on his throne and demanding his cup be full of juice at all times while he watches cartoons. Enzo is the mischievous brother trying to distract and then dethrone him. 

Fresh coconut juice. 

Drey catching a ride with Duy. He loves Duy and climbed up on his scooter for a ride home after our ice cream outing.

Back to our weekly Gymboree classes

I needed Troy to watch the boys for a bit while I made a quick trip to the gym on the 2nd floor. However he had already made an apt. with the shoe shine guy just outside our building for the same time. Troy being a quick thinker and supportive husband (only because me & the gym have rare encounters) ran outside and brought the guy up to our hallway to shine his shoes while he watched the boys. Shoes are safe, boys are safe...it's a win/win.

                   

                        Troy's helmet before

Troy's helmet after

                         

Merry Christmas

We have had a beautiful Christmas Day (Troy may have even mentioned that it's been one of the best). Drey and Enzo are at such fun ages for Christmas. We tried to keep everything as traditional to home as possible. Skype calls allowed us to see and spend time with our loved ones, which made our morning all the better and allowed us to see a bit of the celebrations back home. What Christmas day represents for us is a love for family, friends, and of course our Savior Jesus Christ.  Even though we are celebrating in a foreign, non-christian country, on the other side of the world, we accomplished a feeling of love today and that felt good.

It's a miracle! Santa found us in Vietnam.

Drey wasted no time and started by opening the largest gifts first...the bigger the better right?

Enzo loved Gymbo. Thanks to Drey's Gymboree classes for teaching him to love clowns :)

Thank you Nana. xoxoxo

One very happy boy

Getting down to work....task at hand: to see how many tractors, trucks, and tools he can play with at once.

 Not even living in Vietnam will stop me from making this bread....us Wellings are serious about our traditional Christmas morning Monkey Bread.

And then...AND THEN we really indulged and went to brunch at the Sheraton Hotel with our friends Betsye and Johnny Park. Words can't describe how amazing and delicious this brunch was (hence Troy's best Christmas ever comment). For a small fortune and maybe a few extra months of working in Vietnam, we were able to enjoy a ridiculous amount of great food. We arrived right on time at 11:30am and shut the buffet down at 3:00pm. It was a glorious experience.

A very small portion of the desserts. Imagine chocolate fondue, ice cream /gelato, cookies, cakes, custards...

Salmon, sushi, scallops, fresh or grilled whatever your hearts desire...

turkey, ham, prime rib, yorkshire pudding....(YORKSHIRE PUDDING, a first and WOW my absolute favorite)

The entertainment, Santa (handing out wrapped KitKat bars) and his helpers singing Christmas carols. We loved it!

How to entertain a 1, 2, and 3 year old for 3 hours?  stickers and an I-Pad.

Betsye giving Drey moral support with Santa Claus

Enzo couldn't handle any more excitement....the food comma set in and he was the first man down.

Merry Christmas.

On the Eve of Christmas....

we partied like it was the coming new year...seriously! If you combine New Year's Eve celebrations in Times Square and on the Vegas Strip you may have something similar to Christmas Eve in Ho Chi Minh City. I told Troy that for Christmas Eve I would like to have an early dinner and then scooter around town to see the lights, thinking this would be a low key night and a way to feel more festive. Little did I know what we were in for. Hours before leaving for our activity we were warned about the crowds and traffic, so we ditched the scooter and took a taxi. Our night was spent walking around in a sea of jubilant Vietnamese people celebrating the novelty of Santa Claus, lights, and snow in a can.

Tree made of gift boxes outside Caravelle Hotel

Angels lining the streets.

Our friends from San Francisco, Jeff and Diana Zisselman, are here doing business in Vietnam along with Troy and decided to join us on our adventurous Christmas Eve. Jeff grew up in NYC and was shocked with the crowds in HCM. His biggest surprise was that it was a friendly, peaceful crowd....very little police around, only to direct traffic. 

Snow in a can. I have never seen this before but it has a foamy wet texture. Kids were spraying snow on each other and innocent bystanders (me!).

The heart of downtown Saigon. The glowing ball in the back is  wishing a Happy New Year 2013.

Tree in front of Vincom2.

Yellow flowers strung across the street. Each street was decorated with a different flower and color.

The historical cathedral downtown.

Drey missed the entire party...he was out at 6:30 and didn't budge amongst all the noise and crowds.

I do have to say that Vietnam really knows how to decorate their city. Christmas trees and lights were everywhere. It was nice to have some kind of acknowledgement of Christmas to help from missing home.