We had the most wonderful vacation! We went to see the Great Wall and so did Mamaw and Papaw. To top it off, while we were there, another friend of ours was there and we got to hang out for a few days. Tons of fun. We actually went to two different sections of the wall, but this one was by far my favorite. It was called Mutianyu. It was beautiful and not many people there at all. 
We climbed all the way to the top! It was well worth it and no one complained. The view was gorgeous! 
And yes, Lauren climbed the wall, too! She would not let us help her. We offered several times, but she insisted on climbing it herself (even though some of the steps were just about as big as she was) She did finally collapse. She sat down on a step and just fell sound asleep. Jonathan and Papaw took turns carrying her back down the wall...not an easy task...she was a dead weight and it was starting to heat up.
We didn't know that Little Puppy made the trip up to the wall. Benjamin had him stuffed inside his pocket and as soon as we got up there he pulled him out and wanted his picture on the wall. Every family member needed a picture by the wall :)
We visited a silk factory that was really cool. The kids saw how the silk worm grows and then got to watch every step of the process in making the silk. We even got to help at one point. 
We also went to a jade factory. I actually got one of these balls. It intrigued me. They call it a "happy family ball." It starts as one piece of jade and they carve out a ball with 3 other balls inside. It is very detailed and was interesting to see them making this as well. It takes 35 days to make and if they chip it or break one of the balls at any point in the process, they throw it out. Each ball represents a generation, so they say 4 generations is a happy family. 
We found a hard Rock Cafe and had some really good burgers while we listened to an Asian band sing lots of Classic Rock songs. You can see that my kids were trying to climb the sign :) Benjamin thought this place was really neat because it was just filled with guitars.
Regan and our friend, Cassie. I don't think Regan left her side the entire time she was with us. Oh, I just realized when looking at this picture that the kids did not eat burgers there. They all ordered Mac and Cheese :) 
Katherine is riding the bull! We were just walking the streets when we passed all of these little bull statues. There were four of them...one for each kid :)
The Forbidden City. Our vacation was for 6 days and for 5 days we had very heavy fog (which we have been told is not typical for this time of year), but it did make it hard to see everything clearly and it also trapped the heat in the city! I was glad for the fog during this part of our trip. I could not imagine how hot it would be at the Forbidden City with all that stone and the emporer did not allow any trees because he thought that enemies could hide in them...therefore, no shade.
This was called the love tree because the two trees were intertwined. It is custom for all couple to get a picture in front of it :)
The kids were excited that our hotel had a pool. When we went to it, we found out that all had to have swim caps. Thankfully, the hotel sold them. Then, the pool turned out to be ICE COLD! I backed out of the swimming...too cold for me. The kids (and Jonathan) did swim. Actually, they spent most of the time warming up in the hot tub and then jumping into the cold pool for a few minutes and then back again.
Made a trip to visit Tiananmen Square. Oh, you may notice all the GAP shirts/hats. There happened to be a store right next to our hotel and we bought everyone a T-shirt. We had so much fun just looking in the store, but I was quickly brought back to reality when I found two cute pairs of capris and decided that I needed them, so I would buy them, and then I saw the sizes...0, 00, 2, and for the "big" girls a 4 :) I guess I'll just have to wait to get some cute ones to fit this American body :)
Went shopping in a market place. I thought this was funny, but my kids actually attached themselves to Cassie. I guess they wanted to make sure they did not loose her.
A trip to the Ming Tombs....really a sad reminder of what so many believe.
On our way to the Badaling section of the Great Wall we got stuck in traffic. Then people just started unloading from the tour buses and walking down the highway. It was a steady stream of people. We were quite entertained by the whole thing since Papaw open the van window and greeted everyone that walked by....I think he only scared one kid (don't think he had ever seen a foreigner before)
Regan and Benjamin amused themselves by taking what seemed to be 10o pictures of themselves. 
This section of the wall was jammed pack with people. Everyone wanted a picture of and with the kids...some asked, some just jumped in our pictures, and some just grabbed a kid. Our tour guide told us that we should charge for each picture and then our vacation would be free...now, that's a thought. I wonder if it would work :)
Temple of Heaven
We also went to a pearl factory. I was very nervous in the store when they started piling all of these really expensive pearls on my two little ones. I took the picture then tried to get them to give back the pearls so I could get the kids out the door....TOO many nice things and too many little ones!And that about wraps up our vacation. We are still recovery a bit from all the long days of fun and no naps and the 27 hour trip back home, but we would gladly do it all over again!
