Beijing Day 2

We woke up to a little bit of snow today and it was cold! We went to a jade factory and saw how they carve jade. We got a neat piece called a Happiness Ball. It's one solid piece of jade carved into 4 separate balls inside of each other. There were so many beautiful things that were all hand carved by artisans whose families have been doing the same thing for generations.

Then we went to the Great Wall. The pollution was terrible so the views weren't quite what we'd hoped for but it was an awesome site! Syd and I made it up to the first guard tower and James made it up to the third guard tower. Talk about shaky legs! The stairs are very uneven, some were 2 inches high and some were over 12 inches high. It was amazing!

Then we went to the Birds Nest and Water Cube from the 2008 Olympics, it is a huge complex! We also got to go to an acrobat show and you can certainly tell that these people have been training since they were small children.

We went to Pizza Hut for dinner and Syd lost her tooth while we were there, wonder what the tooth fairy will bring her? She has been a trooper, loving all the tours we've done and exhausted by the end of the day! Her and James woke up around 4-4:30 this morning and since I was still asleep, James set her up in the tub with blankets and pillows to play with her new Nintendo DS (thanks Oma, Opa, MaaMaa and PapPap).

We've got to finish up with packing, we leave for Zhengzhou in the morning and we get Alex on Monday!!! Now that the touring is all done (for now) the real reason for us being here is starting to sink in. We'll soon be a family of 4!!

PS: Hope the first grade assembly was fun! Syd missed singing with you.

Hello from Beijing

We made it to Beijing safe, sound and really tired! We just hung out in the hotel last night and found out that we can't log into our blog, so I'm sending this to our friends and they'll post for us. Thanks Tim!

Today was a long and chilly day. We went to Tienaman Square and the Forbidden City before lunch. The Forbidden City is so much bigger than we thought. This is the off season here so we never ran into the crowds that we expected which was nice. During our tour, other groups kept coming up to our group to listen and take pictures of us. One family brought their 3 kids and they were the tourist attraction! I added a picture of them surrounded by Chinese tourists, pretty crazy!

For lunch we went to a traditional Chinese restaurant and the food was really good, Syd even liked it. After a stop at the silk factory (a required tour stop) we got to ride a rickshaw to a hutong. That is a traditional housing area in the shape of a square with a courtyard in the middle. We got to go into one of the homes and visit with Mrs Wu. The "house" is like a very small one room apartment with no bathroom or running water. She served us tea and told us about herself and her family.

Now we're hanging at the hotel and trying to decide what to do for dinner when all we'd like to do is sleep!! More tomorrow about the Great Wall.

Ready to leave!

We're all packed, snacked and ready to go!  After a stressful couple of days dealing with our travel agency (that we're not too happy with) we think everything is straightened out.  We'll have to sit in coach, so no leg room for James' 6'4" frame and they have us all sitting in separate seats (which is NOT going to happen), besides that, all is good!
So we'll be off line for a while until we get into Beijing and shower!  Thank you for all the support and well wishes!  Syd misses her friends already :-)

Final Travel Plans

We finally got our tickets booked and our final travel packet!  We fly out of the Springs on Wednesday (and yes, I have started packing) to Chicago to Beijing.  We're sooo excited about going to the Great Wall, Tienaman Square and the Forbidden City!  We'll be in Beijing for 2 days and fly to Alex's province on the 28th and finally be holding him on March 1!!!
It looks like we're traveling with 3 other families and there are other kids going so Syd will have someone other than babies and adults to play with!  We will be home on March 13th, long trip!  But it will be such a fantastic experience for our family and we can't wait to get started in 4 days!

TA!!!

We finally got our travel approval from China!!!  We'll be leaving February 24, so in about 3 weeks we'll finally have Alex in our arms!  We are waiting for our US Consulate appointment to be scheduled and then we'll have more specific dates on when we get Alex and when we get back.  Holy Cow!!! I can't believe it!!!

Day Trip

We went to Breckenridge to see the International Snow Sculpture Contest.  The sculptures were all great, and of course our favorite one was the one that the Chinese team did.  That's the one Syd's in front of.  Not sure what the frogs are all about but it's pretty awesome! 

Happy 7th Birthday!

Baking muffins for school, loving her new bike and bowling
with her friend Teagan, who could ask for a better birthday?