Cat Dental Hygiene

While she was here, Aunt Sarah took this picture of Madelyn brushing Percy's teeth... not a practice we usually follow in our house. Not sure what possessed her on that particular night, but she reassured Sarah, "Don't worry, I'm using a guest toothbrush."

Very reassuring to the guest. :-)

Two Together

Another favorite photo from Brad and Sarah's visit... Uncle Brad and Madelyn hanging out in this traditional Chinese doorway in Yuyuan.

Her Synopsis

Madelyn wrote this little piece last week after Brad and Sarah left. I've added a couple photos to illustrate the favorites she mentions in it!

My aunt and uncle were here for eight days. We did lots of things with them. We went to Yuyuan Garden, Beijing, an acrobat show, and lots of other stuff. One of my favorite things was going on the rickshaw. I think Aunt Sarah's favorite thing was when we ate hot pot. I think Uncle Brad's favorite thing was climbing the Great Wall. I hope they'll come next year. ~By Madelyn



Rickshaw ride in the hutong area of Beijing.
Dinner at Hot Pot Paradise

Hot pot is a traditional Chinese meal, kind of like fondue. Each person has their own pot of boiling broth in which to cook a variety of vegetables, noodles, and thinnly sliced meats. As each different ingredient is done, you take it out of the broth and eat it with one of several dipping sauces. We went to Hot Pot Paradise in Beijing. Madelyn loved cooking all the different foods, and kept offering us portions of the things she cooked. We found out later that she actually ate almost nothing, but just enjoyed the cooking experience!

Loving the experience of being at the Great Wall!

Afternoon in Yu Garden

Tuesay was a beautiful fall day in Yuyuan Garden... Brad, Sarah, Madelyn and I lingered there a long while, enjoying the sunshine, bright fall colors, and Chinese architecture. I love this place!

Olympic Park

We managed to squeeze in a walk through Olympic Park on our way to the airport as we were leaving Beijing on Saturday morning... the eight of us and about five hundred Chinese people were happily exploring the grounds well before 9 o'clock in the morning!

We all loved these little light posts around Olympic Park, which look like minature Bird's Nests!

The area around the Water Cube has some neat sculptures... this picture is notable, though, because it shows that Caleb is officially taller than me, after threatening to be for quite some time!

On The Wall with Brad and Sarah

We had a whirlwind 36 hours in Beijing Thursday night to Saturday morning, and of course we couldn't go to Beijing without visiting the Great Wall. We went to a different section than we had been to before, Badaling, which is one of the most dramatic sections and also one of the most popular sections for tourists. It was very cold and windy up in the mountians, but we climbed hard and kept warm!

Did I mention it was cold?!

Brad doing O-H-I-O on the Great Wall of China!

Just a slight incline...

Beauiful Beijing blue sky... I guess that Olympic clean-up really worked!

Brad and Sarah

They're here, they're here! We have visitors from our other life, Scott's sister and her husband. We have so much to pack into the next week. Just in the hours since they've arrived we've been to Caleb's basketball game, peeked in on Seth's play rehearsal, had jiaozi (boiled dumplings) for dinner, played Candyland, taken a bike ride to Starbucks, and had top-to-toe massages (head, shoulders and foot). Now it's bedtime, and we all need to sleep hard to be ready for the coming days of activity. I'll let you know what we're up to!