SOGGY Great Wall...but still great!:)

First, even though my fam is in the mountains without me, Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad! Yes i did not forget, even halfway across the world:) Like always, lots to write! Thursday was a great day and Christmas went pretty well. The kids liked it although they didn't understand some of the important stuff...Friday was really tight! In class I had them make timelines of their life in the future which was really interesting. It's amazing how much they/we want our life to be planned out to a tee. Kinda like the Zimbabwe convo mom:) It's so cool to see where my kids are in life and how far i've been brought, yet I realize how much farther i still have to go. We made several KFC ice cream runs along with this other ice cream shop we found. We take our kids a lot which is good discussion time. On Friday afternoon we had movie time...We watched Princess Diaries 2 (needless to say the boys weren't huge fans). The funniest parts of it though were when she pulls out the crown jewels from a drawer and everyone freaked out...they also freaked out when some famous Chinese singer came on and sang a Chinese song...even if they weren't paying attention, they totally perked up at that:) Friday night was so tight however...all my little 13 year olds pitched in and took me to this really nice restaurant we call a hot pot restaurant. They light a fire in the middle of the table and put a pot of boiling water with different sections on top of it. Then they brought us raw food we could then cook ourselves right on the table. It was REALLY good. I had some good bonding time with my kids. Then we went and got ice cream with some of our other kids and there are two who totally remind me of Elise and I...their names are Fish and Dylan. so hilarious...Back to today. We got up at 6 on this saturday morning and drove in a van for 2 hours...and until we got back at 4 it was POURING! Yes we went to see the great wall of China!!! It was so tight. We are now real men according to the saying. We climbed to the top of our location which i think was about 2 miles or so and then we took the gondola back down. It took 2 1/2 hours to get up there and we counted 1,027 steps plus MANY uphill ramps. Being the hiking nerd i am, i loved it! My team was ready to head though so we didn't look around much. I just keep thinking to myself, at least i'm not hiking in snow, over and over.:) We spit off the top b/c bonnie and i are always thinking of funny things we can say we did in china for 2 truths and a lie:) we're really goofy. On a slightly sad note, i left my nalgene on the gondola darn it. I'll see about getting a new one soon. On a side note, in my book from miss nutter today i opened it up and there was a picture of DO with his combover from wed night. It was a good way to wake up on an early morning like today. Another random thing, for about a second today i considered going after this woman who was eating a snickers on the great wall...i have to say i can't wait to eat one of those! Tomorrow we are going to Beijing to go shopping for presents and stuff which should be so fun. Our kids went home this weekend so it's just team time right now which has been nice although i totally miss my kids. I'm getting really sad it's getting close to being over but i'm staying focused. You guys are totally wonderful.
Shoutouts:
The Bearer of the Community of Kindness and Necessity Award 2 times!- you are such a servant and have such a beautiful heart. I love you SO VERY MUCH! I told my team your singing Russian man story and they loved it:) thanks for your writing consistancy...it's much appreciated! Can't wait to talk to you more and hear about life!

Willymo-sorry i didn't leave you a shoutout last time...such a jerk am i. I hope work's going good and i can't wait to hear more about your summer when i get back. Take care of my fam!

DO-hey! thanks for being so constant in your writing! you need anything here?:) can't wait to hear details of your time here. your combover was priceless this morning. keep persevering!


And one last thing, with tomorrow we are going to an approved meeting on sunday morning in beijing so i'm pretty interested to see about this. Easter night is Tuesday night and Thursday night is our last program with Teach the Teacher about China night. You'll hear more tomorrow. Take care guys! Keep writing if you want! I am so thankful for your encouragement. Peace out til tomorrow night.