Xian 2

We really enjoyed our trip to Xian (She Ahn). We went on a guided tour with 10 other families. Our tour coordinator is awesome. She has lived in China for about 8 years. She sets up the trips to be completely kid friendly and has plenty of snacks and activities for the kids to do. We will definitely go with her again. So the first day we flew to Xian and then went and ate a big Chinese meal. It was raining so we changed from going to see the city wall to going to an art museum that showcased traditional Chinese art. The kids got to try their hand at calligraphy while we heard about the history. Then we went to our hotel which was very nice and checked in and then off to the Bell Tower. From the bell tower you could see down the avenues at both modern and historic buildings (and lots of cars and people). Then we went to a 40 course dumpling dinner and stuffed ourselves silly. On Saturday we went to the site of the Terracotta Warriors. This was really neat to see all the different facial expressions. When I get all the way thru the pictures I'll post some more. We ate another big lunch where the kids got a chance to make dumplings with the chief and then headed back to the city wall to take a bike ride or a golf cart tour (that is what we did) around the wall that is about 10 miles. The next day we went to a really old mosque that dates back to the silk road days of China and it was amazing. We even got to witness some of the praying. Not quite like you see in the middle eastern mosques. We also went to another site with more artifacts. It was interesting but not as much as the warrior site. The day was so pretty that we rushed thru and then let the kids play outside. Then we got on a plane and came home. All the Chinese food that we ate over the weekend was not the spicy kind that we are used to. So when we got home we had to hit the Indian food restaurant for some spice. That is our new form of a Mexican food outing. Anyway, it was a good weekend but we are happy to be home. It was funny listening to the kids begging to back home to Shanghai instead of back home to the US.

Xian Trip

Land Family Art Day

One of the great things about living in Shanghai is that they have this street with store after store of cheap art supplies. So we can experiment with all kinds of art creations with little money. Yesterday, Ava and I went into one of the shops and she picked out all the canvases and today we did family painting day. Mark only got a drawing done because he was working while we painted. Ava started out making a picture of Poppy (my dad) and then decided to make it a girl and then she said it was a chinese girl. Ella made a butterfly garden. And I tried my hand at pulling together some pictures I liked into one painting. Hope you enjoy the pictures.

Random Photos

Well, we are officially settled in. We've got our daily routines and they aren't much different than in the US. We had a busy time for a while. Ella did a double whammy ER visit one week. First we went because she had some breathing difficulty and we thought she was going to have to be admitted but then they gave her a round of breathing treatments and she cleared up and not 2 days later she fell off a chair and broke her arm. Then Daisy, our dog, got an imbiblical hernia and had to go into surgery and stay at the vet's for 5 days. But we are all better now and like I said, life is as normal as it can be for us.