Hello all!! Doug came and visited us for a week and we had a splendid time! It was fantastic to have company, we really missed him, and it was great to finally get out and see the sights in and around Beijing. We thought for sure our shipment would have arrived before Doug, but since it didn't he also brought us some much needed things from the US. :) He picked a perfect time to come, during National Holiday in China, so the kids and Mitchell were off for the entire week. We did a lot of sight-seeing, but we also did a lot of hanging out and relaxing. It was a wonderful mix, we just hope Doug enjoyed it as much as we did! :)

I think the thing we did the most was eat this week...there were so many places we wanted to take Doug to and so many new places we wanted to try. Since we were basically on vacation too, we figured why not! We only struck out a couple of times, one recommendation from Mr. Ren (hot pot) was disastrous, but all in all it was fabulous.

Eating at Ganges, one of our favorite Indian Restaurants.

Din Tai Fung...yummy dumplings!!

Doug's favorite...with the hot pot. :)

This is one of our absolute favorite restaurants in all of Beijing, Let's Burger. It was so delicious!! Good pick Doug!

Addi was thrilled she finally got to have french onion soup again!

Showing off their Iowa pride. :)

Mitchell's creative photography.

We had an absolutely gorgeous day over the weekend and were able to spend the entire day walking around and hanging out at Chaoyang Park. It is a huge park in the middle of the city, it was beautiful. There were trails for walking/running, kite flying, grass for football games (we actually saw a pretty pitiful attempt at an American flag football game...quite funny), a ropes course in the trees, water activities, Olympic Volleyball court, etc. etc. We even got to observe some pretty bizarre photography in the park. For once we were the ones pointing and taking pictures. It was great! :)

Yes, they are fishing in a swimming pool for gold fish that they take home.

The next day found us at the Beijing Zoo...this was an experience. :) It was packed because of National Day and we were quite the spectacle. There were (literally) more people lined up to take pictures of us, or with the kids than there were people taking pictures of the animals. Every time we would stop to try and see an animal a line would form around us of people wanting a picture. The kids were troopers and at one point Addi actually told Mitchell "it's ok dad, its kind of like being Hannah Montana". People would pose their kids around ours, putting their arms around them, etc. There were also quite a few people who would just come up and want to touch Addi's hair. It was a crazy experience for sure! It was a little overwhelming too and after we saw the Great Panda exhibit we took a quick walk around and then left.

Good thing daddy is tall or she never would have seen the pandas! :)

Truman is such a good sport. He smiles for anyone! :)

This poor girl followed Addi around the zoo for 10 minutes before she got her picture.

We finally made it to the Great Wall!! It was definitely a highlight of the week to visit a portion of the Great Wall at Mutanyu. It was absolutely surreal to be on the wall, amazing history. The kids loved it and actually walked with us for almost 3 hours before complaining they were tired! We took a chair lift up to the wall from the village and then a toboggan sled down when we were done. It was so much fun!! I can't wait to take more visitors when they come. There are so many portions of the wall that are just a short drive from Beijing...we will have to try more, but the slide was great fun! :)

Super excited to be on the chairlift!

Doug and Henry having fun on the toboggan slide on the way down from the Great Wall.

Doug's favorite wall sales lady. :)

The toboggan slide from the chairlift.

If you look really hard you can find Doug and Henry waving in the picture...its a little easier when you click the picture and it gets bigger. :)

Jess and Truman on the slide.

Henry and Addi had so much fun playing with their new Great Wall swords, while daddy did a little negotiating. :)

Mitchell trying to get a better price. :)

Mitchell and Truman on the chairlift.

After that we went to the Ming Tombs, another recommendation from Mr. Ren. :) I can't say it was my favorite thing and don't know that I will revisit it, but it was interesting. We visited Ding Ling tombs which originally housed an emperor and two empresses. Everything in the tomb was a replication, but people were throwing yuan after yuan onto the throne, tombs, etc. I guess maybe I just don't understand it...but I found it quite odd. We did come across a couple of our favorite "Chinglish" signs here though...gotta love it! :)

This is the slope the sign in the next picture is referring to. :)

This is by far my favorite one!! :)

We also took Doug to the Pearl Market and the "secret handbag shop". You can't come to China and not buy something fake! :) On the way we did a drive by of Tianamen Square, next time we will actually get out of the car.

Here are a few more random pictures from the week. We had an amazing time and loved finally getting out to see the city. We can't wait for him to come again!! :)