Whew, today was a LONG day!  We went to the Great Wall- 4+ hours to get there, 5+ hours to get home… and 1200 steps to climb to the top of the Great Wall in between!  Our favorite part was most definitely the supercool slide down the side of the Great Wall.  This July, when we went, our kids were exhausted and they wouldn’t let us ride the slide because they were both crying.

They have “toboggan” type cars that you get in and slide down a giant metal curvy slide that takes you from waaaaay up the mountainside all the way down.  It was sooooooo nice!  After the giant hike to the top, we were so happy to have a lovely breeze!  It was 90+ degrees today, so we all got our daily allotment of sweat in- from the non-a/c van ride to the hike- whew boy!

So, with that in mind, please excuse our sweaty faces!

The girls did amazingly well today- they tolerated the heat and the long drive and the hike very well!  They were actually leading the pack up the 1200 stairs!

And ayi got to enjoy her very first trip to the Great Wall.  She was such a lifesaver, I have no idea what we would do without her!

As part of your entrance fee at the Great Wall, you have to purchase a 13 cent insurance policy.  Keith and Jim tried their best to cash in on it…

And an unrelated photo from another day…

I’m off tomorrow to go to my FIRST Chinese wedding!  I’m excited!

Thanks to Emily for posting for me!

Since it appears that my computer (her name is “Baby”) will be a long-term issue vs. a short-term one, I had to figure out a solution for the meantime. I think I’ll be kosher using Keith’s laptop for awhile (sorry babe!). Of course, it has no photo skillz, so we might be limited for a bit. Sorry about that!

About 6 months ago, HP issued basically a >>recall<< on some 300,000+ laptops. My Baby was among the recalled, but as her only blemish so far had been that in February the wireless capabilities dropped, I wasn’t too concerned. Well now, she won’t turn on. That’s a bit more of a serious problem, so she’s taking a nap right now while we wait to hear from HP on what to do next. The HP-China branch didn’t seem to convinced that they could help me, so I am anticipating that Baby will need a trip to the US in order to get fixed.

Because this is obviously an extremely minor problem in the grand scheme of life, I can be a big girl about it.

But yeah, I was pretty sad on Monday- I left Baby hibernating while I laid down with the girls for an afternoon nap and woke up and she didn’t want “wake up” from hibernating. I tried CPR on the keyboard, but to no avail.

I even tried percussive therapy (i.e. banging on it) on the power adapter, thinking it was to blame.

Jim and Patty are doing well. They have gotten a bit braver and even walked to our local McDonald’s by themselves with Libby while I took Katie to her preschool interview this morning. They have an English menu you can point at, so they successfully ordered some food and ate lunch there.

Tomorrow is the Great Wall and I hope to share photos if I can!! I’m not sure how successful that will be though!

Hola!  This is Emily, Kimberly’s sister.  Kimberly is having yucky la la laptop issues at the moment and is unable to post.

However, they are all fine!

So that’s all!  She is not sure how long her laptop will be MIA as they are currently saying it has to go back to America to be fixed.  We’ll see what HP says when she goes there today!

Okie Dokie - that’s all!  Just checking in for y’all!

Emily

Patty, Keith’s mom, is our guest blogger today. We had gotten some comments from her sisters back in the US, so she wanted to respond on the blog:

Congrats to Rosie, Nicole, Danny and Megan on running the Kentucky Derby Mini-marathon.

Tianjin reminds me a little of downtown Manhattan as the many apartments and little shops. Throngs of people, cars, bikes and taxis.

But, picture New York without traffic lights and stop signs. Here, all of the above merge together, somehow, and flow like a river thru streets.

The food here is Fantastic! The jiaozi (little dumplings) were very tasty. Chicken, carrots, and spices rolled into a floury crust. MMMMM good.

Kimberly gets her daily fruits and vegetables from local farmers-market type neighborhood vendors. Lots of variety and very fresh looking.

They walk or bike to most places.

Jim and I visited Keith’s school. We looked in on Libby’s classroom, too. Really nice library at the school, also. The school had a carnival-festival on Saturday that we attended. They offered a free lunch of Hot Dogs and French fries, but we opted for kimbap (Korean food—-looks like sushi, but with veggies inside).

On Saturday evening we walked to a restaurant that featured Hot Pot. In the middle of the table, a pot of boiling soup is placed over a flame, and dishes of uncooked food is brought out and you place in pot to cook.

And, mom, next time you fry eggs, cut up a couple of tomatoes and add towards the end. A staple, here and very good.

We also visited Katie’s school. The carpool line was full of bikes.

We are so happy to be visiting and observing this culture.

We are going to the Great Wall on Wed. We are also taking Ayi with us.

Should be great fun.

Thanks for the e-mails from Rosie and Mary Ann. And a warm hello to Eric and Brittany.

 Tonight, we all headed out to hot pot (like fondue, kind of, only not…).

I think the walk to dinner was a bit eye opening- they were amazed at all of the things we can buy on our street on a simple 1/4 mile walk to a restaurant.   Everything from balloons to fish to meat-on-a-stick to hats to shoes to mirrors.  Who needs Target?

This is in front of the hot pot restaurant.  We had a friend with us (she took the photo) and our total meal for a party of 7 was about $16 US.  Not bad at all!

These pictures completely speak for themselves….  the grandparents and grandkids are loving the time together!  (don’t worry, we know that, as adults, we are chop suey compared to cute 3 and 5 year olds!  It is hard to compete with the little ones!)

When Ayi made jiaozi for dinner, Patty tested her dumpling-folding skills.  I am fully convinced that Western hands can’t do it!   I am completely a failure at it for sure!  Here’s Patty trying it out…

And yes, I have her permission to post this- can we find which one was made by Patty and not ayi?

Tomorrow, we are all heading to a carnival at school!  Fun times!

No pics, but just wanted to let family know that Jim and Patty made it here safe! They had an uneventful flight and even got here a half-hour early! They have been great sports so far!

That’s all, just a quickie update for the fam!

There’s a fairly universal truth among women: Women love bread. It doesn’t seem to matter if this is in the shape of a stick (breadsticks), a circle (bagels), or a loaf, or a ball (rolls).

This is why you see women at Indian restaurants with 2 orders of curry and 5 baskets of naan. And of course, why Olive Garden offers unlimited refills on the breadsticks.

When I flip through websites like tastespotting, my eyes go to 3 things: breads of all kinds, colorful salads, and Asian noodles. Oh, and of course chocolate. But that’s a given! So, this morning, at 7 a.m. when I was contemplating what we could accomplish before we head out to the airport at 11, I zoomed in on potato rolls. Mmm, yes, yummy. Delicious. Portable for eating in airports. Comfort food for the new arrivals to China.

The recipe for these rolls is >here< from AllRecipes.  I made it as rolls vs a loaf.

Okay, now we’re *really* off to the airport! Just a slight baking detour on the way out the door!

Katie and I are heading out to the airport!  Jim and Patty are only expecting me- the darling 3 year old in pigtails will be an added bonus after their million hour flight! I’m pretty sure Katie is a much better treat than me!

I’ll be awol a bit with their visit, but if you need to be entertained, check out this awesome cooking-temptation website. You can see images of gabillions of recipes that are beckoning to you “create me” “eat me!”

There are no words for how much we love this dish.  I am a big fan of garlic.  And well, this is seriously the most delicious way to serve broccoli- ever.  Even better than velveeta-laden broccoli.  Really.

Garlic Broccoli- by my sweet ayi

Step 1: Boil a pot of water.   Add 1-2 heads of broccoli  that you’ve already washed and cut into bite size florets.  Leave it there for 1 minute, boiling, and then dump broccoli into a strainer.  Set aside.

Step 2:  Mix together in a bowl: 1 tsp chicken bouillion granules, 1 tsp veg oil, 3 minced garlic cloves, pinch each of sugar, salt, sesame oil.  Add broccoli, toss.

Step 3: Heat wok to medium-high to high heat with about 1T oil in it.  Wait until the wok is nice and hot. Add broccoli mix.  Stir fry very fast on very high heat for about 1-2 minutes.  Add an additional tsp of sesame oil at the end.  Serve.  Salivate.  Enjoy.

I apologize for the foggy photos- but seriously, this was some HOT cookin’!  I mean, steamy hot!  Very very hot!  All that steam makes the ole camera a bit cranky!