A Day of Touring

 This was a lady in the Cloisine shop painting vases by hand.  They would also lay all the copper designs piece by piece.  Took 4-5 days to complete one.

 This was a photo taken in one of the lookout towers on the Great Wall.  Very steep steps up and down.  We walked all the way to the top of the wall to the last lookout tower.  Length of the wall is 4000 miles of wall and it took 200 years to build.  

 From the top of the side we climbed looking back to the army base and back up the other side of the mountain valley.

 Brock was a hit with all the ladies.  Maybe Blake should take him with more often when he goes out with his friends back home.  Several times the Chinese would want us to have their picture taken with us.  Brock was a good sport and did it quite well.

 This was the lookout tower at the top

 On the way back from the Great Wall, we stopped at the 2008 Olympic Village.  We walked around and took this picture of the water cube where Michael Phelps won 8 gold medals.

 Next to the cube was the Birds nest where the track and field and opening/closing ceremonies took place.  We remembered watching this with the McMahons back in 2008 at the cottage.  The Olympic village was enormous.  Many newer looking buildings and parks near by.  Different than other parts of Beijing.

 Guess what we had for supper?  The picture kind of gives it away, Duck.  Dad had to make the kids eat it, but after they did they said it was good.  I thought is tasted like Beechwood chicken.

 This was the first meal we ate without silverware, took us a little longer than normal, but very fun.  We still need some work with the chopsticks!

The entrance to The Roasted Duck Restaurant.

We had a very busy day, but it was Awesome. We were up by 6, breakfast and downstairs by 8 to load the bus. We had a 1 1/2 hour bus ride (traveling with 9 other families from Bethany) to the Cloisene  Factory. Very interesting how labor intensive the process is to make each piece. Then it was off to the Great Wall. Before splitting up as group to walk different sides we had a group prayer in the parking lot for safety and all our adopted children. We have met some great Christian families.   There are 2 sides to the wall our guide informed us. A steeper side and a not so steep side . Yep, you guessed it Jim said "we are going BIG and doing the steeper side".  So this mom of almost 5 tried to keep up with the 4 kids and Jim!  Lets just say my legs were burning and shaking but we did it!  The steps were very steep and uneven in certain sections it took about a hour to get up and half hour to get down.  With it being 90 out we treated ourselves to ice cream at the top!  The bus then took us to lunch with a Jade shop attached to it, a tourist trap.  The lunch was authentic chinese food it was very good, even the kids liked it. After some shopping we had a half hour bus ride to Olympic village. We walked around and saw the Birds Nest and Water cube and many other Olympic buildings. The area seemed very large and very busy with chinese visitors. We got  back to our hotel at 5:30.  We cleaned up and went to dinner. We pointed to pictures on the menu to order.  

Jim and I have been waking up during the night thinking about our little Braelyn and the adjustment we will all have including her leaving her foster family.  Shiyan from Bethany informed us that it is sometimes harder for a foster child because they have attached to a one family life vs. many caretakers.  She explained it is usually a rough couple of days at first but then the attachment will be stronger after that period.  We will leave tomorrow afternoon to fly to Kunming City 3 1/2 hours from Beijing, after a morning of sightseeing.  Our guide will pick us up and tell us what time we will get her on Monday morning.  So needless to say we have a lot of emotions right now.    Good night!