Beijing-Day 2

Our church service

Lunch with our group
Tianamen Square

Forbidden City

Birds nest from the 2008 Olympics

Inside the birdsnest

The next day started with an international church service. It was really amazing to go and actually hear the word of God in China. We had to show our passport in order to get into the service. We then went to tour the pearl factory. They had a lot of beautiful pearl jewelry there. After Lunch we went to Tianamen Square and the Forbidden city. The forbidden city was where the emporers lived and nobody was able to go in there until now. It is now a museum. It went on for miles, building after building. The next stop was the olympic birdnest. We were able to pay to go in there and that was so fun to see. After that we went to dinner with the group and then back to the hotel. We packed for our trip to Hunan the next day. We will get to meet Hannah tomorrow!!!!!

Beijing-Day 1

Heather, Elaine, & I wearing our "husker" gear

Summer Palace

Longest Hallway

Marble boat

Jade Factory

Great Wall

All of us at the Great Wall

Love the sign

We met our group at breakfast and then we met our guide, Maggie, and we headed to the summer palace, jade factory, & the great wall. It was very beautiful and the buildings all had a lot of detail on them. After lunch at a chinese restaurant, of course, we went to the Jade factory. There were a lot of very large jade pieces that were very beautiful but very expensive. The man in the picture is carving the round ball in the next picture. They carve it from the inside out and each "layer" is moveable, they are pretty amazing. The next stop for us was the Great Wall. We only went to one tower, apparently there are quite a few different areas you can go to. The steps are very steep and uneven. I did not go up very far, as you can see, as I am very afraid of heights and even there was a little scary. I was just very fun to be there. The locks in the picture are all along the wall at the bottom and each time somebody gets married they put a lock on the chain and throw the key over the edge. Next we were off to the Peking Duck dinner. After a very long and stop and go ride on the bus, everybody was very tired and nobody was very hungry. It was very sad for all of us to see the food that was going to waste. I was not feeling the best during supper and the ride home and just went to bed as I think it was the effects of jet lag.

We Made it to China

Bags packed and ready to go

In Omaha ready to check in

Our plane to Beijing

Ready for our 12 hour flight

We made it to China

In our hotel lobby

Our room in Beijing

We made it to Beijing and we were able to get seats together on all 3 flights that we took which was a huge answer to prayer. We were happy to be there and ready to go to bed and get ready for sightseeing the next day.

Harvest of Harmony Parade

Dylan

Brandon

We went to the Harvest of Harmony parade Saturday to support our schools marching band. The boys are both in high school this year and so they both marched. It was a very cold day but fun to watch them marching by.

Volleyball

Courtney had just bumped the ball, see it at the top of the picture?

Courtney had her first 7th grade volleyball game on September 20. The first 2 pictures were from that game which they ended up losing. The next pictures are from their 2nd game which they won and were very excited about that. Courtney loves volleyball and has sure enjoyed the season so far.

Husker Game

Bryan and Brandon went to Husker game on Sept 4. The night before we stayed at the husker headquarter hotel Em*bassy Suites in downtown. They have pre-game festivities the night before a game there. Chelsey & Brittney got their picture taken with Lil Red and we also got to see the hot dog shooter.

Tanking

Where but in Nebraska can you ride a cattle tank down a river with good friends, lunch and lots of snacks, and a cooler full of pop?? We had a great time!! The kids didn't really ride much they floated or walked down most of the way. I think this needs to be a yearly summer activity???!!

16 years old!!!

Playing with his sister in the sand

How can 16 years have gone by so fast?? I can't believe that Brandon is 16 already. He wanted to celebrate his birthday by going to a Nebraska Cornhusker game, so he and Bryan went for the opening game on September 4th. We went to Lincoln the night before and spent the night at the Em*bassy Suites in downtown Lincoln and then they went to the game the next day. The day of his birthday he wanted to go to the river so we invited the "cousins" to come and they all had a really fun time. We celebrated with gifts and cake in the evening. The highlight was getting his drivers license on the following tuesday!! Happy 16th Birthday--Brandon!!!!