NOT AS PLANNED

Yesterday was a very interesting day. It started out great but ended with a pretty sad bang. We got up and stuffed ourselves at our hotel’s amazing breakfast buffet. Then we headed to the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall with a local driver who spoke no English. Trying to communicate with him was funny – like a bad game of charades. He did get us there safety though, and that’s when the fun began. We took a gondola to the top of the wall (stairs are for sissies) and then came down the mountain on individual toboggans. We had a blast and no one was scared! We stopped at lunch at a very unique and traditional Chinese restaurant called… Subway. Yep, the same Subway chain that’s in every American city. JD saw it as we walked up to the Great Wall and there was no turning back. My Chinese-food loving kid was ready for some Subway so I caved in and we all enjoyed.

When we got back from the wall, we (as in Piper and me) were exhausted. We fell into bed and woke up for dinner a few hours later. Melanie picked us up for a special sushi dinner that was near our hotel. The restaurant was great and the kids had a good time exploring new foods (it helped a little that Audrey, Melanie’s 11 year old, kept telling Piper how wonderful each item was.) There’s nothing like peer pressure to get a kid to eat!

After dinner we took the kids ice skating. For those of you that personally know JD, you can guess the ending here can’t you? Well if you guessed that we’d spend most of the evening in a lovely Chinese emergency room – YOU’RE A WINNER! His wrist is swollen up like he’s got gout an he’s got an injured leg that he’s limping on (which he swore to the doctor was broken but he doc disagreed.) So now my pack horse is a gimpy little man. I’m in trouble friends and again (as always) covet your prayers for my travels through China with Piper (my emotional kiddo), JD (my physically broken kiddo), and Molly Kate (my kiddo who doesn’t want to be my kiddo just yet.) Let the fun begin!