QianLing park

This will be a double post day. We have a lot of down time this morning and it's raining outside. So before it really started raining we walked down the block to QianLing Park. It is a very nice park with tons of locals. I think there were so many people because today is Sunday. Zane has some insight on the morning so he's going to do the rest of the journaling.

Today we went to the QianLing Park

it is very old with artificial turtles.

These were druming with bamboo sticks and tied
to the end was pieces of ribbon.

This is ladies doing the macarena

it is very different than ours.

This is the coffee club in china.

Here is the tango.

The Massages there are not very private

in america you have seen sausage on a stick but here is watermelon.

we have gotten used to the staring but there was a couple video taping us and taking pictures.

Safe in Guiyang

Today started very early with a severe thunder and lightning storm about 3a.m It woke all of us up and we eventually got up about 5:15. We took the flight from Beijing to Guiyang. This is the capital city of Guizhou. All adoptions must be done here in the Capital city.

When we checked into the Hotel here's what we found waiting in our room. Plus one of those little bitty infant tubs in the bathroom. It is funny to imagine him in that little tub. Maybe he and Zane can play boats in the little tub.

We spent some time this afternoon walking around on the streets. It's so interesting to see all the local people going about their daily routines.

There is such a harsh contrast from the old to the new. the first picture is the apartment building right next to our hotel.

The second picture is just a few blocks away. We went there to eat at Pizza Hut!!! mmmm it was good!

We also took a trip to our local Wal-Mart. It was HUGE and very BUSY! There were 51 check out lanes and a cashier in each of them.

Anyone hungry for spicy pickled Chicken feet?

No? OK how about CANDY?

Zane impressed a lot of people by showing off his Rip-stick skills inside Wal-Mart. He attracted a little audience. Everyone stares at us anyway, so might as well give them something to stare at.

I can tell you from everything we have seen they are ready for the Olympics. There are these little characters everywhere you look. They are called The Friendlies. The five of them are the 5 colors of the Olympic rings. Each one of them have a name and when you say the names all together in Chinese they say Beijing Welcomes You for a Good Time. They are all doing different sporting events. Many of the kids are wearing Olympic T-shirts and there are Olympic flags flying everywhere. In several of the more affluent places we have seen these red clocks that are counting down the time for the start of the Olympics.

Happy Day

It's 6:14 a.m and we are on our way to Ty's Province. Guizhou. You say it Gwee Joe.

Just wanted to wish Nana a Happy Birthday and Happy Gotcha Day to Mia. It was 3 years ago that she was placed in our arms. Our lives have never been the same since. We Love you little Girl!!

What goes Down, Must come back UP

The title of the post today was Zane's idea. As you might have guessed today was our Great Wall Day!!!

This picture is for Kaylee, Trent and Mia. Zane really wanted them to see our Guide, Angela's little dog. Her name is Gwhy Gwhy, which means good dog in China. He is very cute and Zane has had fun playing with him.

We drove about 1 1/2 hours out of the city to a very beautiful part of the wall. David and I had not seen this before. For the first part of the Great Wall we had to take a Ski lift up to the top of the Mountain. I don't knoow if you can tell but the men literally push you out of the seat when you get to the top.

Then once we arrived at the top we spent time going up an down the wall. Angela was very smart in that she took us very far down first. Although with each step going down I knew there would be a coming back up.

It was a truly spectacular view. This section of the wall is so calm and serene. And then the real fun began.

Instead of taking the ski lift back down we rode a toboggan slide down the side of the mountain on little black roller cars. It had one stick in the front that made it either go or stop.

Zane loved it and he and David actually rode it twice.

For lunch we stopped at the Golden Arches. The fries and coke were reallly good. then after lunch we drove back to the market and did a little more shopping and bartering.

For dinner we went to Old Beijing Noodle House. Apparently this style of noodle is only availabe in Beijing. The restaurant is old style. When people walk in the door they yell and each waiter tries to direct you to his particular table. We felt like we were in Ci Ci's pizza there for a while.

Jane McLendon will be so proud of us for all the new things we have tried so far. And we have only been here a few days. I have even eaten Tofu for the last 3 days. It's been hard to get used to the little bitty plates and chopsticks but we are all getting the hang of it. The dish on the left side of the picture is celery and Lotus Flower. It's very good. On the right is Beijing Pork. This is Zane's favorite thing that we have had.

Here is Angela mixing up the noodles for us.

This was the biggest surprise to us all. It's BokChoy with soybean and fish head sauce. It is really good, Really it is.......I promise.

Our first FULL day

And boy do I mean Full. We left about 8:30 after sleeping all night long from 6pm the night before. Zane was waiting on the bed for his turn to shower and he fell asleep in his clothes. (and slept in the same spot for 12 hrs.)


Our first stop was Tiananmen Square. It took a long time to get into the city. There are so many cars now!! And NICE cars at that. So we saw the square and the Forbidden City.

Then we had lunch and went on a Hutong Tour. We rode in the back of bicycle powered rickshaws through the very old parts of Beijing. A Hutong is a very small alley that connects "houses" The house is 4 separate buildings with a courtyard in the middle. We were able to visit with a local man and tour inside his house. His parents had bought the place in 1925 and he grew up there and then raised his children there as well.

Inside the courtyard of each house they have a fish pot. It is used to collect and hold water in case of a fire. I think the goldfish are added for decoration.

Next stop was the Temple of Heaven. This is the place where the emporer went to pray 4 times a year. He was the only person allowed there. Now it is open to the public (with a fee) and many local people go there to sing, play instruments, play cards. It is very shaded and many times is much cooler also.

We left the Temple and went to a shopping market that was 4 stories high. Each floor had many "great deals" I could have bought 1000's of different pajminas, coach purses, ipods or tennis shoes. In fact Zane got a pair of Converse for about $10. The look on his face was priceless when the women started yelling at him - "buy mine, I have your size, look here, good price" They all had the same "stock" and really wanted you to buy from their booth. I really thought he would hate all the yelling but he enjoyed the bartering. He wants to go back there tomorrow.

Then we rushed in to the acrobat show. It is truly amazing to watch the acts these people can perform. The last stop was dinner and then back to the apartment. We are beat and hopefully will get another good night of sleep.

Oh by the way..... Look what else I found today!!! Her grandmother let me hold her. Mmmmmm I could have eaten her up.

We made it!

We made it!!! We’re in Beijing. The flights weren’t to terribly long. The first was 3 hours and the Newark to Beijing flight was 13 hours. We were totally surprised to find that we flew over the North Pole. Zane thinks he may have seen a red nose flashing at him on the ground.

We are staying with our guide, Angela. She lives in an apartment building inside Beijing. Zane is having fun watching the ladies in the courtyard do their exercises. We are trying desparatley to stay awake until it gets dark here. When we arrived it was 2a.m Houston time. We just spotted some babies playing down below as well. So guess where I'm headed.......

Swim Team '08

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

We Wrapped up our 2008 Swim Team Season yesterday. It was LOTS of fun. Swim team is a concept I didn't know anything about until we moved here. It is truly an amazing thing to watch. Kids here swim on a team just for their neighborhood. Then on Saturday mornings 2 neighborhoods will have a competition. Kids from 4 yrs to 18 yrs old practice every day after school. They do Backstroke, Freestyle, Breaststroke and Butterly. There are also relays, medleys and IMs. The numbers of each person's events are written on their arm. That way it's easy to remember when it's your turn to swim. So that we can keep up David and I write all the numbers on our hand as well. The kids really enjoyed the season and we look forward to swimming again next summer. We will be practicing our breathing, strokes and kick turns for next year.

Mia's 4th Birthday

Since we are going to be gone on Mia's actual birthday we decided to have her party a little early. We went to KidsN Action for a fun filled afternoon of running, games, balance beams followed by cake and ice cream.

Kaylee tried out the rings. Using her legs instead of hands.

Here we are under the parachute with Mia in the middle singing Happy Birthday. She had a great day.

Did She Dance?

OH YES! She did...... We all held our breath and we headed over to the High School to see if there would or would not be a Spring performance for Mia this year. Remember that there was NOT a Christmas performance. (Well there was a show but it wasn't dancing. Lot of crying)

This spring the song was "Daddy's Little Girl" So the teachers had a surprise for all the girls. At the end of the song each of their Daddy's came out and gave them flowers. It was so sweet to watch the expressions on their face. Some of them seemed to say "Hey Daddy, I Love you" and some seemed to say "Hey Dad, what's up? this is my gig!" But in the end they all loving went with their dads. I mean really how often does a nicely dressed man present you with flowers?

Daddy's Little Girl

Butterfly Museum

A few months ago Grandma Toni came for a visit. Mia and I took her downtown to the Houston Museum of Natural Science. They have the best Butterfly Exhibit.
Grandma and Mia are watching some of the Butterflies come out of their chrysalises.

We all had a good day! It's always fun to get out and see new things. Especially when you can see it through the eyes of a 3 year old.

Can someone say "HAM?"

Trent's Kindergarten awards were last week. At the event his teacher gave each child a "special" award. Basically something she thought of for each child.

Some of the awards were:

Best Smile

Most Creative

Most Helpful

Trent's award......... Best Dance Moves!!!!

Well I believe it. Not sure where he gets all his moves. We're wondering if he sneaks in at night and watches MTV?

Did you hear me HOLLER' Hall e lu jah?

If you were anywhere near Texas today you may have heard the Hallelujah yell from my house. I was so glad to be done with all the 5th grade festivities. Remember my almost complete DVD.... well it turned out to be much more of a challenge than anticipated. There were hardware problems, software problems, pixielazation, blurry photos, DVD+ and DVD- problems. Let's just say 24 hours before the actual presentation I had not burned the first copy. (I only needed to have 50 ready) But in a pure miracle it finally decided to cooperate.

And this morning at 10:30, 103 5th graders watched their slideshow in the cafetorium and sang along to the songs, laughed at all the silly pictures, and applauded loudly at the end. It did my heart good.

Then I came home and passed out.