dinner and show

After a very full day we went to a theatre and had a super yummy dumpling dinner followed by a Tang Dynasty Show.

Can you see the cute shapes.  The yellow is duck.

The darker ones look like a walnut to me.

The ones at the bottom of the basket are pork.  They are little pigs.  Cute and yummy!

The show was fun.  The costumes were amazing.  They had a sign near the stage that scrolled through the acts explaining the story.  It was in Chinese and English.  We were so grateful. 

Terracotta Warriors and Horses

After the Pagoda we went and learned how they make the warriors.

After they are finished molding them they are placed in this kiln and it takes 2-3 days for the small size.  They cut open the doors remove the finished ones, then reseal the doors.  It takes over 2 weeks for the life size warriors.

This little pomegranate is their "mascot" for Xian.
After lunch we went to the site of the Terracotta Warriors and Horses.

The tomb was discovered in 1974 while a well was being dug.  Pottery was first to be found.  This was the tomb of  Emperor Qin Shi Huang (259 BC - 210 BC).  He built this army for the after life.

The size of this building is amazing.

That hole in the middle is where somewhere was buried and never discovered the emperor's tomb.

The black is from fires that burned the carriages years and years ago when the tomb had been raided.

All of these pictures are of Pit 1.  Pit 2 is much smaller and they have uncovered a small portion compared to the first Pit.  Then Pit 3 had not had any digging. 

Notice the cables?  They don't bury them.  They just add more and roll them up the best they can.

This guy is giving a haircut in a public park.  This was the second day I noticed it.

Xian Day 1 ~ Wild Goose Pagoda

This is the view from our hotel room. 

All the apartment buildings were amazing to me.  We were told from our guide that the people can own an apartment for 70 years than it reverts back to the government.  So generations cannot live in the same place.  The government feels that 70 years is the life of an apartment.  It's then gutted and rebuilt.  That's one way to control wealth. :/   

When we went out on the roads we truly felt it was life or death.  Nobody stops for pedestrians.  There were some intersections where only one direction had a light.  The other direction went whenever they wanted.  There were people on scooters everywhere, and they would weave all over the place.  There were a couple of times that I thought we were going to get hit.  Drivers would double and triple park too. 

In Hong Kong, our guide told us a joke.  I hope I can share it right.  In America people drive in the right lane.  In Hong Kong people drive in the left lane.  In China people drive insane.  :P  It's true.  It was insane!!

This is the Wild Goose Pagoda.  It was built in 652 during the Tang Dynasty.  It use to have two more levels before an earthquake.

This garden had "stake to tie a horse" posts everywhere.  They were cool.  I'm sure my boys would love to have one in our yard. :)

This woman wrote Brian and now she is writing Alison.  I still need to get it framed.

By ringing this bell it's suppose to give you luck, or posperity, or long life.  ;)  It seemed that everything meant one of those things.  We kind of made a joke about it.  Years and years ago common people could not ring this bell.  It was only used for special occasions.

cheese

Mason has been looking forward to this day since May.  He finally got his braces off!  Doesn't he look great!?!  He is such a handsome boy. 

School starts Monday and I've been looking forward to the first day for ...weeks.  :)  The kids are all tired of each other, tired of the same friends, tired of no structure.  The boys have been setting their alarm for 6 all week to get ready for school.  It was Mason's idea. 

Bailee will be starting the Cosmetology program this year.  She's very excited.  Me too! She will be getting her driver's license in November and hopefully a job soon after. 

Karlee is on yearbook staff, the school's television broadcast, and she's also an office aid.  She said this is going to be the "best year ever", (her words).

Carson will be in Kindergarten.  Both boys are excited to ride the bus together and go to the same school.  They met their teacher Thursday night and now they aren't so nervous.  I'm excited that all my kids are in school.  I'm surprised that I'm feeling a little lost that there won't be anyone at home to take care of during the day.  I take that back.  I will have Adam two days next week, then the whole week following.  But on a normal week I'll watch him for one day and I'll have four days for myself.  (That sounds selfish.)  I'm excited to possibly take of some "to do's" that I've been putting off because I haven't been able to focus.

One of my "to do's" is to finish posting about our trip to China.  I really thought I'd have it all done before school.  Not possible.  End of the month?  I guess we'll have to wait and see. :)

Travel to Xi'an China

When we left Hong Kong they were having a typhoon, level 5.  That sounds pretty scary to to us tourists, but all it was was a very bad storm, raining horizontal I need to add.  When we arrived in Xi'an we were met by our guide, Vincent, and had dinner in the airport.  All of us thought that was odd. 

One more strange thing.  At baggage claim they had dogs running (and sniffing) between all the bags as they came down the conveyor belt.  I wanted to take a picture but didn't dare.  There was a lot of security/policeman everywhere.  It was obvious we were in a different country (world).

 It was gloomy here too. 

 I really liked how we had to put our room key in this slot to have electricity.  It made it super easy to turn off the lights when we headed out.  ;)

 This bed felt like sleeping on a box spring.  Yes, that hard.  It's a good thing we were very busy, we were able to sleep well despite our bed.

Take a close look.  It's a glass wall into the shower/bathroom.  ;) ;)
I didn't think we reserved the honeymoon suite. :)