Gabriella Turns 3!

My little baby is slowly turning into a little girl... Today she turned three and we had a "Dora the Explorer" themed party. She loved it, especially the Dora balloon! Unfortunately the weather was a little cloudy, so we weren't able to have a pool party but the kids ran around and entertained themselves. It was a little low key this year, since we've been busy and will be leaving for California, Oregon, and Disneyland tomorrow. The party was at Grammy and Papa's house (who are out-of-town) and all her cousins were there, plus Harper.

Gabby's School Performance

This was a Chinese song and my favorite peformance...

Singing "Twinkle-Twinkle Little Star"

Kung Fu poses- she's in the back.

Gabby's face at the end when she saw me in the audience...

she wanted her mommy.

Gabby's school put on an enf-year performance. She was so proud of herself and was waving "Hi. mommy!" She did a great job, even though she spaced-out a bit. She really is her mother's daughter... :) S

Huangshan, China Trip

Mt. Huang or "Yellow Mountain." We climbed this and it was over 5000 steps and 6.5 km long. It took me about two hours and the steps were straight up and down. I was in the middle-top of the pack, so not too shabby for a 30-something year-old.

This guy is planting rice. Crazy, huh? He is wearing no shoes and does this for almost ten hours straight. Makes you think differently about that bowl of rice and how it gets to you...

These are tea leaves... we got to pick some and then participate in a Chinese Tea Ceremony. I had no idea what was going on because it was in Chinese but I loved trying all the tea.

My attempt at being artistic...

I bet this roof is 800 years-old or something.

This was a village, called Tangmo. It was really cool. This architecture is traditional Huangshan style 

(white w/ black roofs)

I went on a school trip last week to Huangshan for three nights and four days. I picked this trip because you get to fly both ways and I didn't have to take the overnight train with hard-sleepers. I was completely exhausted the whole time because we were insanley busy, but I actually had fun (minus all the Chinese food, so glad I brought my Western snacks). I enjoyed learning about the culture and getting out of Beijing for a couple days- even though I missed my family.

Great Wall Mutanyiu

We had an amazing time up at the Great Wall this weekend. It was Velora's birthday and a bunch of us rented a house, cooked yummy food at the BBQ, enjoyed good conversation, and relaxed. On Saturday, we hiked around the Great Wall. Gabby did fantastic! We were quite impressed by how much she walked and never complained.