Friday, December 31, 2010

Tiananmen Square & Forbidden City

Today we visited Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, a tea house, and saw the acrobatic show.  Did I mention in the last post it was "FREEZING"!  Well the high was 27 F with wind chill it felt like 8 F  - there is a picture of flags at a memorial in Tiananmen Square that you can see are straight out due to the winds.  Lynda and Hannah got new coats to help keep them warm, they will be needed even more tomorrow at the Great Wall.

Everyone is sleeping now as I (Kevin) update the blog.  We were up at 4am Beijing time and have gone non-stop all day it is now 8:20 PM. I guess none of us will be making it to midnight tonight to celebrate the New Year in - so to all of you Happy New Year, may God richly bless you and may you all enjoy peace and joy in 2011!!!

Cameron Forbidden City


Lynda Forbidden City


Kevin & Hannah Tiananmen Square

 
Hannah Forbidden City
Hotel Entrance

Thursday, December 30, 2010

We Are In Beijing!

We made it to Beijing yesterday afternoon, due to the jet lag we spent last night catching up on sleep and decided to wait until today to log on the internet. We are about to go out and tour the Forbidden City and see the acrobat show.  It is freezing here - much colder than it was when we were here 5-years ago.  Cameron & Kevin ran into a man on the elevator who was born in Beijing but now lives in Chicago and he told them that this is the coldest he has experienced here.  (hi temp yesterday was only about 26 F).

Waiting in Guangzhou Airport for connection to Beijing.

Breakfast this morning in Hotel (Beijing)

Hannah at Starbucks with Clay Soldier Replica

Our first of what will start our collection of "Lost In Translation" signs.

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Bags Packed, House/Pet Sitter Ready, Kids Excited, Leaving Tonight

We are ready, all the bags are waiting near the door, our house/pet sitters are checked out on the house, cats, and dogs; the kids are excited, and we leave for LAX around dinner time tonight.


Within days Lauren will no longer just be words on a page, or pictures on a refrigerator and blog; she will go from being the dream in our hearts to a daughter and sister physically in our lives to hold and love!


This will be our last blog entry until we arrive in Beijing, please continue to pray for our safe travels and for us all to stay healthy!

Monday, December 27, 2010

Changes in the House & Changes in Technology

The house sure looks different with all the decorations down, it seems so empty and bare. We did not think we would be able to get it done before leaving, but we did it all in one day!  Just a few stops to pick up some last minute items today, and then one more sleep until we leave for China!

As for technology, we were thinking about our first adoption 17-years ago with Cameron when we would have to drive 45 minutes from our old house in the mountains down to town to use the fax & copiers at Kinkos. We had an old Apple IIGS computer with no internet and only one cell phone for emergencies only (as it cost $1/minute to make calls.) Then 15-years ago we went to Russia to bring Amber home, no cell phones or internet in Russia, as a matter of fact to call home we had to call an international operator and wait for them to call us back when they had a line available for our call. (in the middle of the night)

During our last trip to China 5-years ago to bring Hannah home we had to get a Panda Phone (a cell phone for in China) as our cell phones would not work there.  We did have internet, but blogging was not yet widespread and there was no Facebook, so we used a service to post a travel log and photos.

For our trip this time we will take multiple laptops with us with VPN's installed and Skype to video chat with family (also make calls & text). We will also have Lynda's cell phone, our iTouch ipods for music and video entertainment, and Hannah's Leapster (and one for Lauren).

It seems looking back we are finally moving into the George Jetson future, the world has become so small as people from all over the world are checking in, following our journey, and praying for our safe travels.

Thank you all!










And one of Hannah from yesterday - just because she is so cute!!!


Saturday, December 25, 2010

MERRY CHRISTMAS

We had a wonderful time this morning and have some great things that we all need to pack for our China trip, Hannah said Santa must have really been paying attention since he knew exactly what we each still needed for our trip!






Friday, December 24, 2010

Christmas Eve

Tonight we have Amber and Eddie with us for Christmas Eve.  After Christmas Eve service at our church we returned home and took a look at the NORAD site to see where Santa was on his trip around the world.    We also let the kids (and Kevin) partake of our annual tradition to open one present on Christmas Eve.  Hannah then put out a plate of cookies and eggnog for Santa and some celery and carrots for the reindeer. Hannah went to bed so excited and can not wait for morning!





Thursday, December 23, 2010

Drying & Dryer

Drying:

Well after almost a week of rain (yeah all you non-So Cal folks just can't relate)  : )  we are finally seeing the sun rise and hope to have the saturated ground dry out.  The unofficial information I saw for our area is over 13-inches of rain in less than 7-days, so we got our annual rainfall in one week.  Although we are thankful for the rain, it would have been better being spread out over a longer period of time.

Dryer:

Last night Lynda started the dryer and heard a "clunk" and then the drum stopped turning.  The belt broke and the idler pulley looks like it exploded! (well maybe just fell a part - but exploded sounds more exciting).  I (Kevin) head out soon with Cameron and Hannah to pick up the parts which they have on hold for me since I was able to call them 15-minutes prior to their closing last night.  Our afternoon will now consist of fixing the dryer and a conference call with our FTIA coordinator and travel partners - two other families that we have only met through e-mail and blogs.

Only 2-days until Christmas and 5-days until we head out to China!!!