Beijing

Our first day in Beijing was very laid back and lots of fun.  Our friends arrived by overnight train at around 9:00 AM.   After settling in, we headed across the street to a park where we found people dancing, wrestling, singing and playing musical instruments.  Love how people live outdoors here, fully in community.

 

The park had lots of exercise equipment that the kiddos had fun on while we all caught up on the whirlwind of life that has taken place over the past six months. 

The kids climbed around on rocks and wandered on trails.  The excitement for the AM was momentarily losing Sophia! 



The girls were memorized by a lady who was standing in the woods singing to music playing on her phone. 

Next stop was a delicious, authentic Chinese restaurant where we ate what our pals, the experts, ordered for us: marinated cucumbers, Kung Pao chicken, green beans, rice, friend eggplant and melt your face off pork. 

Next the Deans needed to go to the US Embassy, so we had some hotel room fun babysitting their kiddos.  

 

By about 5PM, jet lag hit like a mack truck so we headed back to our rooms to shower ourselves awake.  A taxi ride later, we ended up at a Tex-Mex place where Chinese waiters, wearing Texas flag print button downs and bandannas, served everything from tacos to pizza to goulash.  Matt learned the hard lesson to always be sure that the burger that you order...and have been craving...actually contains a burger.  April says, "If you haven't been utterly confused by life in China, than you've never been to China!"  Such a fun adventure in this land that we love.

 

Our fun and relaxing first day, was followed up by falling asleep hard.  Problem is, FALLING asleep is the easy part, STAYING asleep is not so easy .  We've all been up for hours.  Blame the jet lag, or...

 

that a van picks us up in two hours to take us to Evie!  Today, my friends, TODAY!