China

 The first city we visited was Beijing-above is the view from our hotel
Below is inside our hotel

 We took the kids to a park near our hotel after dinner

 Returning to the hotel after some time outside

 First morning with our tour group-at the Summer Palace, the summer home of the Emperor and his family

 It was a beautiful place.  We really enjoyed the lake and the ride on the dragon boat!

 Having lunch

 Our tour guide told us that we were coming up on the American Embassy and then pointed out this McDonald's!

 Riding a rickshaw in an old neighborhood with streets WAY too small for our tour bus to fit in

 Tienanmen's Square

 The Forbidden City-where the Emperor and his family lived during the rest of the year-we all thought the Summer Palace was prettier.

 The Temple of Heaven below

 Our first night's dinner-Scott was just a little tired!  Though we didn't have the excuse of jetlag since Beijing is the same time zone as Manila.

 This was our peking duck dinner!  It was very good-tasted like chicken.  The chef sliced it and the waitress showed us how to pu the meat on little pancakes and roll them up.  Ryan particularly enjoyed them.

 The duck platter reminded me of eating turkey from a turkey shaped platter at Thanksgiving!

 Below are pictures from a jade factory and store that we visited.

 The animals at the Sacred Way of the Ming Tombs

 The Great Wall-it was amazing!  We rode up to the top in these gondola cars and were disappointed that it was so misty the day we were there for picture taking but we were cooler!

 Below is one of my favorite pictures-the boys loved playing arching standing at the openings to defend the wall and Greg caught them peeking out one of the openings.

We are back in Manila!

After an amazing week and a half in China and a fabulous six weeks in the States seeing family and friends we are back in Manila.

The kids are on their third day of school, start of the first full week.  I am betting they will all be tired by Friday.  Things are off to a good start though-everyone is happy with their new teachers and Ashley loves Kindergarten.  Here are a few pics from the trip back and the beginning of school and soon I will post lots more of China and our time at home!

 These were taken in the airport in Tokyo.  Scott crashed after the 13 hour flight from Atlanta to Tokyo and we had a hard time getting him awake enough to get on the plane again!

 We got to our house around midnight on Friday night, rested for a few days, and school started on Wednesday.

 This picture is of all 3 of the first morning

Here is Ashley in her "regular" not PE uniform on Thursday morning

Here are Ashley and Scott on the bus this morning-it is so funny to watch her be excited to do anything that her big brothers are doing!

I am becoming my mother and mother in law

to some degree-we leave for China in the morning and I have wikipedia article printouts for all the things we are going to see!

3rd post of the day!

At least I don't have a whole suitcase of travel books, like my dear mother in law forced all of us "kids" to haul through Europe!  Just teasing, Bev!

I remember my mom talking about wishing that she had read/studied about where she was going before she and some of the Navy wives went to Europe following the ship and how she did read about all those places when she got back.  She loved that I had to go to EXTRA classes after school before our 7th grade Washington DC trip.

We have read the Magic Tree House book where Jack and Annie go to China.  Now we are halfway through a trailblazer book called Shanghaied to China about Hudson Taylor, the missionary.  We have studied maps, learned the names and order of cities we're visiting, learned a few phrases in Chinese-probably pronouncing them very badly, but we will try to be polite!  We have read my cousin and her husband's blog about their visits to the same sites.

Our bags are almost all packed, squeezed shut to the right measurements so now all you have to do is wait for the zillions of pictures that I will have to post after our trip!

Scott and I went on a dive trip

 Scott has now completed his 5 dives in the ocean and is an officially PADI certified Junior Open Water diver!  We had a great time diving with his instructor in Anilao about 2 hours away.

This is what Scott wants to do all the time-have his head underwater to see what is under there!

 On the first day we did 3 dives just off the shore at the beach club-mainly for Scott to demonstrate his skills.

 Though we did see some fish too.

 Scuba Diving does great things to your hair!

 Below is Scott with his instructor, Dexter

 The next day we went on a boat ride to another dive site where Greg and I had been before.

 Dexter brought bread down to feed the fish!

 Even Scott said that was a little intimidating with ALL those fish so close!

 These are giant clams and it is ok to put your hand inside them.  They close but this kind does not close its shell all the way.  It just feels like your hand is between 2 pillows.

 Scott would have played with these things all day or until he ran out of air!

It is fun to now have 3 divers in the family!

Scott's Junior Open Water Class

 Greg took his Advanced Open Water diving certification while the kids and I were home last summer.  He met a great instructor named Dexter and Scott is having a blast getting his junior certification-you have to be 16 to get a regular Open water certification.  Here they are on their first night of class

 Getting ready for a pool session

 Ryan and Ashley had to go check out what they were up to

 Underwater they go!  If there are windows in Heaven, Grandpa Allen has a HUGE smile on his face and wishes he could be here to dive with his oldest grandson!