Shanghai with Kids

The two best options to fly to New Zealand is to fly through Fiji or fly through Shanghai.  We decided on Shanghai...slightly longer flight, but we figured it would be neat to visit Shanghai and Shanghai Disney!

The flight from Chicago to Shanghai was 14 hours.  It was a long 14 hours, but we survived.  The boys did amazing and Hallie....well, she was Hallie.  She slept only about an hour and a half.  The rest of the time she was walking around and smiling at people.  We are lucky she is cute and people love her!  

We had about 6 days in Shanghai.  Typically you need a visa if you are visiting China.  We were able to get a free 144 hour visa because we had a flight moving on to a different country.

We spent our first day visiting the city of Shanghai.  We wanted to check out "old China" so we went to the YuYuan Garden.  It was SUCH a cool area!!  Just getting to the garden, you were surrounded by some really neat old China architecture.  I LOVED it!  The garden was really neat to walk through...a little confusing...like a maze.  I strongly recommend it if visiting Shanghai!  You take line 10 and get off at the YuYuan Garden stop.

Also in the area, was the City God temple.  The boys really enjoyed going inside and seeing all the "golden" statues!

The issue we ran into.....we were celebrities there.  We were a family full of blondies and they loved us.  If we stood still longer than 15 seconds, we would draw a crowd.  They would take our picture, point at us, stare, and just stand by us in close proximity.  

For the next two days we went to Shanghai Disney!!  See the post "Shanghai Disney" for details on this adventure!

After two days at Disney, we ventured back into the city of Shanghai...this time in search of seeing more modern Shanghai.

We took the metro to The Bund.  It is a walkway with an awesome view of the city!  Where we got off at the metro to see The Bund was East Nanjing Road.  This was a fun little area with shops and restaurants.  

The Bund and this area were a bit more touristy where you could find people from different parts of the world.  We still had people looking at us and taking our picture, but not early as bad as Yuyuan Garden.

After this area, we went on one more adventure to see the Longhua Temple.  It took a little while by metro and then a bit of a walk.  Eventually we found it.  Unfortunately it was no longer open to go inside.  It was still cool to check out on the outside, though!

The metro in Shanghai is amazing.  Clean and easy to navigate.  I also felt generally safe and the price wasn't too bad.  The signs are in Chinese and English.  It is color coded and arrows on the floor showing what direction to go and arrows to tell you what direction the trains are going.  VERY easy to navigate.  With that being said, I felt we spent a lot of time on the metro.  It just seemed to take quite a bit of time to get places.  There were also a lot of transfers where you would have to walk through a station to get to another train line.  Thankfully the kids were generally pretty good.  They enjoyed riding the trains.

Strollers were okay to navigate on the metro.  Unless it was super crowded, we were able to push it right on.  This was especially nice when we had napping kids.  Usually there was a handicap entrance big enough for our double stroller.  Occasionally we had to find a worker to open an a gate.  If you do this, make sure to still scan your card otherwise you will not be able to get out at the other end.  Generally there were elevators for the stroller.  Occasionally, we had a tough time finding one and would just carry the stroller or fold it up.  Overall, it wasn't too bad!

I am so thankful we checked out some ancient China areas and more modern areas.  It was neat for the kids to be exposed to another culture, new food, new architecture, and just a different way of life than what we are used to.  Not to mention it was neat for Chris and I to see such a cool place.  It wasn't always easy with the kids...the crowds we would draw, the tears, the heat...but in the end I am so happy we did it.  Always an Adventure! 

The Move to New Zealand

Imagine 9 years...3 kids...and a wife who is sentimental.  This equals one packed to the brim house.  Preparing for an international move seems IMPOSSIBLE.  What do you bring?  What do you do with all the "stuff"?

We started out really well.  We were going through our house and getting rid of 1 trash bag of junk a day.  Then life happened and we got busy just taking care of the family.  Some days it seemed impossible to do anything besides take care of the three kids.

Eventually we were able to throw together a garage sale.  My goal was to get rid of things, so we priced everything super cheap.  People were stoked to get such a good deal.  I had a bit of anxiety letting go of things...but I knew it had to be done.  It was a little stressful throwing it all together and figuring out what to do with the kids...in the end I was really happy with how it all turned out.  One of my favorite parts of the sale was all the people I met.  I felt I talked with some really neat people.  I wish our paths had crossed earlier!  When we closed up shop, we put the rest out for free.  We had some people come by and take things, but still ended up with a load to take to Goodwill.

Next step, preparing for the shipping container.  I have to say I am so thankful for family and friends.  There is no way we would have survived without them!  There was so much work to be done.

Late into the evening (the night before the shipping container), Chris started looking up rules on importing our things.  He came across a list and on that list it said BOOKS and TOYS were not allowed to be imported!!  I started to panic!  Chris called New Zealand and thankfully we are allowed to bring those in.  Looks like the list was more for things being commercially imported.

The night before the shipping container came, I did not go to sleep.  I stayed up all night packing boxes....so...much...to....do.  I felt terrible because it was our last night in our rooms...in our beds....but things had to be packed.

I watched the sun rise and started to panic again because there was still so much to pack!  The shipping container showed up shortly after 10am and I packed the last of boxes...I hoped that I had everything I needed!

We had 2 hours to pack the shipping container.  It was about the size of a half of a semi.  It was a mad dash of people running and rushing to get it all in.  Once again it was amazing to have the help of family.  We are SO lucky to have them!!

 We were skeptical that everything would fit, but it did!  We had a little room to spare so we threw a few more things in.  We probably are taking more than we need....and should probably purge some once it arrives in New Zealand.  It's hard going through the process.  We know things are more expensive in New Zealand so we wanted to bring the things we thought we would need....but who really knows what you need.....

Now that the shipping container took a lot of our stuff...it was time for a deep breath...but not for too long.  We had three days to clean out the rest of our house.

Why was there still so much in it!?!?  Eeekk!

Earlier we decided to get a storage unit to store some of our things that did not make sense to take and couldn't let go of.  The night before we left, we loaded up a Uhual and drove it to my parents house, which is near where our storage unit will be.  During this process we were taking care of some last minute sales...we had a mattress we needed to get rid of and a freezer.  I threw it up online and within a couple hours they were gone.  That was a relief because we didn't know what we were going to do with them otherwise.

We had a blessing show up late into the evening...Chris' brother.  Such a big help as there was still so much to take care of.  I eventually drove the kids up to my parent's house, while Chris stayed behind to clean out the house.  It is absolutely crazy how much a little house can hold and how much there is to do!  It is hard to enjoy your final days in your home...in your community when you are working like crazy to get things done!

Our final day in the US.....during our final day, we had to unload our Uhual into the storage container.  Again we had some great help of family!!  We then had to pack our bags for the plane and shop for some snacks.

On our way out, we said goodbye to some family and headed down to St. Joe for a final clean out and goodbyes.  It was so sad for me.  It was our first house.  The house we brought 3 kids home to.  The house filled with so many memories.  The house we love.  But I keep telling myself that it is okay to let go of something good because something better may be right around the corner.

Our parents drove us down to Chicago and we stayed in a hotel.  Our flight the next morning was at 9am.  We were still working on last minute things late into the night.  It seems like there was always something to do!  Tomorrow was a big day!