Family Day..

We had a great family 3 day weekend. Since Saturday was a holiday Chad was off of work today. It was also Rilynn's last day before going back to school tomorrow.

We went to the Wild Insect Kingdom and to the Shanghai World Financial Center today. It was nice to actually experience some new sightings with the whole family :)

A little history- The Financial Center (also known as the bottle opener building) was built in 2008. It was awarded in 2009 with a Guinness World Record for having the tallest observatory deck. It has 101 floors and is 492m high. The Center is the Shanghai Stock Exchanges and also includes office buildings, a hotel, stores, and restaurants.

It was kinda spendy having our whole family go all the way up, but in the end it was worth it! For all of us it was 450RMB (~$68)..

We were brought up to 94th floor first via a very modern lighted elevator. Almost felt like we were in a sci-fi movie.. Looked around, then headed up to our final destination, the 100th floor! It was so crazy to be that high up. We were 474m up in the sky and had glass underneath us to make it feel like we were walking on the sky, or as Brady was doing "flying" through the sky, since he got down on his tummy to look out the glass :) We found out today for sure that our children are NOT afraid of heights! Chad and I will definitely be coming back at night to see the lights.

Picture to give you a perspective of how tall the building looks on ground level

Here we are:) Look by our feet and you can see the glass underneath us.



You are here :)


Walking across the glass floor


100th floor!


The Oriental Pearl Tower- Had held the title of tallest observatory deck back in '95. Is still the tallest tower in Asia and 3rd tallest in the world.


Jin Mao Tower- In '99 was tallest observatory deck and tallest building in Shanghai, but was passed by the financial center

Even though it wasn't the clearest day, the views were amazing!! It felt like we were up in a plane we were so high up.

Nearby was the Wild Insect Kinddom. Had heard it was worth checking out. They had all sorts of different animals- A sea lion, monkeys, koi fish, spiders, snakes, bugs, lizards, and crocodiles. They also had a petting zoo, consisting of goats and bunnies.. LOL. I may have nightmares of things crawling over me during my sleep, but the kids seemed to enjoy themselves :)

This was different. There were goldfish in the water and you could pay 10RMB ($1.50) and you get a net and an hour to catch and keep as many goldfish as you wanted. You would walk out onto the rocks and catch your fish. Needless to say, we did not participate in this activity :)

The petting zoo :)

Stare down between Brady and the frog :)

Had to throw this one in too... Rilynn and Baby modeling their matching PJ's from Santa :)

I'm hoping for a more laid back week coming up.. This weekend we began potty training Brady and it just doesn't seem to work too well being away from home.. Spent 530RMB ($80) on supplies so he better get it this time around!!! LOL

Miss you all!!