carson's bike brakes

Thanksgiving Feast

Friday afternoon the Kindergarten classes had their Thanksgiving.  I had to laugh, the Pilgrims were at one table and the Indians at another.  I thought Thanksgiving brought everyone together.  :)

choices

Weeks ago Mason decided to do the Reflections contest as his PACE assignment because he thought it would be easier than another project.  Thursday night we went to the school to see every ones work.  We found out that Mason's won a ribbon.  Now he goes to the next level.  Yea Mason!!! 

play dead?

Saturday Brian and I got up early to meet my brother in Monroe, Louisiana.  We headed out the door at 6 am and Brian finds this in our garage.  A possum!!!  He wasn't afraid of us. He didn't run away.  He didn't play dead.  He looked like a giant rat!!  Bailee thinks he's cute.  We finally had to get on the road.  We told the kids to make sure and keep the door to the garage closed and we left the large garage door partially opened. 

We needed to take Todd's things to him from our parents home.  We only visited for about 10 minutes then all of us hit the road again.  He originally was going to drive to our house for the weekend but he didn't realize the drive was so long.  All of us were very disappointed when he changed his mind, especially my boys.  We returned back home 12 hours later.  Luckily we were able to take care of a few errands that we needed to do together. 

I had signed up to clean the church building months ago.  So at 6:30 Brian, Karlee, and myself headed over to clean.  Bailee had been home sick all day and the boys were at Cici's with a neighbor.  It was a long day.  Good but long. 

Day 3 ~ Beijing ~ Temple of Heaven

The Temple of Heaven is China's largest existing complex of ancient sacrificial buildings. It is three times the area of the Forbidden City. It was built in 1420 for emperors to worship Heaven.

In the picture above and below I tried to show how there were two walls.  The outer wall was square and the inner round. 

The Imperial Hall of Heaven.

The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests is a magnificent triple-gabled circular building built on three levels of marble stone base, where the Emperor prayed for good harvests. The building is completely wooden, with no nails.  All the building in the complex have blue roofs to represent Heaven.

It was magnificent!!

food ~ Beijing

In Beijing we had a variety of different kinds of food.  This was my most favorite.  It's pan fried noodles.  They have this huge slap/brick of dough that they slice off noodles.  It was cool to watch. 

When we arrived to this restaurant Lisa would not tell us what we were having.  We were game and tried it all.  Most of it was good.  There were a few dishes that we tried but didn't care for.  We guessed it was tofu and we were right.  All of it was tofu.  It was good.  Although I don't think I'll ever order tofu I now know I enjoyed it. 

This was the most strange looking dish.  Shrimp with heads still on. :/  It was difficult to eat, but I did.

By the end of our trip we all wanted American food.  One night we almost blew off what Lisa had planned for pizza.  But we stuck it out and had the full experience.  



family dinner

Thursday night, before the wedding in Vegas, we went out to celebrate with family.  It was Larry's, Brian's dad, 70th birthday. 

I don't think I've ever seen a burrito so large.

This two were sung to and then they tried to give them a shot of some "Mexican water" to celebrate.  McKinzie finally realized it was Tequila.  She has never closed her mouth so fast.  :D

They also sang to Bailee and Larry for their birthdays.  It was a fun night.

After dinner we took the kids to the Strip.  I remember years ago about a show at Treasure Island.  It's not was it used to be.  It was not a family friendly show.  We did walk down the street to see this volcano erupt.  Very cool!

another late night

Last night we stayed up late with thousands of other Twilight lovers and went to the midnight showing of Breaking Dawn Part 1.  I invited some friends to join us and the hours before the movie went by very quickly.

Well...we loved it!!  I thought it ended in a perfect spot.  But now I want more.  I want the final installment and more sleep. 

Day 2 ~ Beijing ~ Olympic Village

Before our day was over we went over to the Olympic Village.  When I saw this through the van window I thought for sure we were close.  It looks like the Olympic torch!!

 

 It's actually a hotel designed to look like a dragon.  Do you see it?  Kinda cool!

I wasn't sure you would remember a previous post about how they arrange their tables and chairs.  In ancient times Chinese people believed that heaven is round and earth is square.  So all the restaurants were arranged like this. 

The Olympic Village is no different.  That's why the Bird Nest and the Water Cube are placed where they are, heaven is round and earth is square.

The Water Cube Aquatic Center is still being used.

The Bird Nest Stadium is not.  They don't even let anyone go inside.  She said there's no reason to give tours, there's only chairs inside.  But I want to see those chairs.  It's not just a stadium.  It's an Olympic stadium!  I think it would be cool to go inside.