ALASTAIR + LALEINIA

Since we were on our way back from the Bay Area to Michigan, we stopped off in Utah for about a week and a half for Christmas. We didn't tell Grandad that we were going to be there, so it was a surprise for him when he got home from church to find us in the basement! We had a nice Christmas together, opening presents, building the McKee brothers traditional Igloo, and skiing/snowboarding with Logan and Veronica. Emre enjoyed visiting Santa (same one) just as much as he did last year! It was funny because he was so excited to see him, but then wasn't happy at all during the quick photo op, but then didn't mind Santa again after we left! We also visited Lain's parents in Idaho, which was nice. It was good to be back in Southeast Idaho, but we didn't make it back up to Rexburg on this visit. Hopefully next time! We left a few days after Christmas and headed east for a few days, before making it to our new place in our old town: Ann Arbor!

I love Shanghai. If I had a list of the places I wanted to live, Shanghai would be top on that list! Our last night was spent in Shanghai. Our flight was delayed for a couple of hours, so I was so sad that we weren't going to have much time to shop around. We got to our hotel around 10 at night, maybe a little later. We made it just in time to see the lights shut down for the night. We rushed to our room, opened the shades to see our view of the Bund, put our robes on, and danced to The Weeknd. One of the best moments ever! It was such a lovely suite, I even took pictures for future reference! One day, we'll have a home. One day.  We had a wonderful breakfast, then headed out to enjoy our last few hours. We went to the financial district to see the Pearl Tower and one of the tallest buildings, Shanghai Tower. The Shanghai Google office was in one of these tall buildings, so of course, we went to it. It was lunch time, so I snagged a pork bun from the cafeteria. Sooo

Oddly enough, one of the top things I was looking forward to about Japan was staying in a capsule hotel. I'm not really sure why, but I've wanted to do it for a few years now. So as we were looking for places to stay in Kyoto, where almost all hotels were full or incredibly expensive, we took the chance to book our capsule experience! Luckily, since getting other hotels proved to be such a challenge, we had to book 2 nights! We stayed at 9hr Kyoto, where guys and girls floors are separated. As you enter the hotel, you take your shoes off and put on these cheap slipper things, which just gets the weird awesomeness started. After getting checked in, Lain and I split and headed to our floors. The floor has maybe 20 or 30 capsules in a row, one on top of the other. They must be making a killing. It was kind of dark, very clean, and super futuristic. It kind of made me think we're in the hunger games, in the part while they are training. The capsules are v

Seoul was a pleasant surprise! Given the fact that I'm slightly obsessed with their multiple step skincare routine, I was excited to make the journey to the Mecca of skincare!  We stayed in Gangnam, mainly because of PSY and had no idea about location, so we took a 1 hour bus ride to our hotel. Being extremely tired and cranky, we stayed in for the night. The next day was dedicated to visiting North Korea. Prior to our trip to the DMZ, we went to the Korean War museum. It was one of my favorite museums! My grandfather served in the war, and it just made me think a lot about him and where I'm at today. It was a great time to reflect on things that I was never really aware of. Visiting North Korea was an interesting experience; that's the only way I can describe it. It was interesting to have a South Korean give the tour and to hear the choice of words on the situation; like a family torn between ideology. You could feel the brotherly love between all the barriers; It

Possibly the most anticipated part of our whole trip was the opportunity to visit the demilitarized zone and get the chance to technically step foot inside North Korea! About a month or so ago when we were thinking about the trip, I mentioned it to Laleinia and was surprised when she said she would like to go. Not wanting her to change her mind, I booked it then and there, sent in our passport information, and got confirmation on the dates. I'm not one for tours, but this was the only way we could visit the DMZ, something I didn't want to miss! We hurried over to the meeting point at a hotel on the other side of the city, passing who knows how many hundreds of Starbucks cafes on the way (it seems Koreans love their coffee) as we semi-enjoyed being cold again! We then went to the Korean war memorial museum, which was really cool, and then visited the freedom bridge, which I think is the closest most South Koreans can get to the DMZ. It was cool to look in the distance a

Let's start by mentioning the delicious sushi. Actually before that: it wasn't super easy to find a hotel in Tokyo. We kind of left it late and so in the end we booked a "love hotel." It was interesting. When you arrived to check in, there was frosted glass hiding your face from the hotel staff. I'm sure lots of the people that go there don't want to be seen. Kind of odd. Anyways. The room looked nice. It was pretty normal apart from the lights control panel by the side of the bed, and the box of condoms on the side table. Very convenient. Anyways, back to the sushi. We went to Tsukiji fish market to look around, and ended up in a restaurant with a revolving conveyer going round with plates of sushi. Before this trip I'd only ever had California rolls and things like that, but I was anxious to try more. I absolutely loved it. Without knowing the difference, I just felt that this sushi was fresh... Whatever that means. Lain on the oth

I went up to Seattle for a couple of days for a work event. It was really enjoyable, the first day the sun was out and it was glorious. A lot different to the Seattle I remember since the last time we were there the weather wasn't so great. The second and third day the weather was what I expected, which was also what I wanted, as I've missed the rain! I got to go out in a canoe for a photo, and also slept in the office on my second night. I was lying on a couch in this bar area when at about midnight the security guard told me that the cleaner wanted to come in, and i should go behind the bookshelf. I had no idea what he was talking about, so he took me to this library looking room and pulled the bookshelf back, revealing three little sleeping rims with these couch bed things, complete with blanket and pulled and everything. It was so awesome. The only problem was that I was so excited to see it that it made it hard to fall asleep!

While the cats away, the mouse can play! Lain went off to Utah and Idaho to visit our new nephew and I took the opportunity to climb half dome with Kip. Actually, the day before I went to Tahoe with Logan and Veronica, which was fun. I spent the night sleeping under the stars at the side of the road close to Chinese Camp on the way to Yosemite. My phone didn't work out there but before I arrived I send the coordinates to Kip, who met me out there at 2 or 3 in the morning after going to a concert in the bay area. The hike was quite long, I think 17 miles, but it was a lot of fun. At the summit you have to climb up a really steep section, where you hold on to metal cables and navigate up as people are coming down the same route. It gets really congested there, and I didn't have gloves so after hanging on for so long, I could barely feel my fingers. I decided to go on the outside of the cables instead of up the middle so I could get up faster before my fingers fell

It's always a good time when family is around! Chris, Naty, and Athena decided to come visit us on their Trinity Trip. They went on a long road trip to California, Nevada, Arizona, and Utah, calling it the Trinity Trip. They stayed with us after visiting my parents in Modesto, so we wanted to show them a good time. They had only about 24 hours with us, so we wanted to fill as much fun as possible. They arrived late afternoon, so we didn't have much time to head to the beach, especially with traffic. So we went to... Google! We showed them around the different offices, road bikes, and made some Italian sodas. They had a fun time riding around and I had fun holding little Athena. She's always so smiley, which Emre was not as a baby! We headed back home and ordered some pizza, pasta, and mozzarella sticks from our favorite place. Also, some smoothies from our favorite smoothie place. The next day, we went to San Fancisco. They only had a couple hours, so we wal