Happy 9th Birthday Natalie!

Natalie is turning 9 on Tuesday. She had her party yesterday with a few friends. I took them to see High School Musical 3 and then all the girls came back to our house for a sleepover. Well, a stayover I should say, they did not do a lot of sleeping. Good thing its a Holiday here on Monday and the girls will have an extra day to recover from their lack of sleep.

Girls just want to have fun...

Beijing

We had a wonderful fall break in Beijing. Saw all the sights: Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, Temple of Heaven, Summer Palace, Hutong area, Traditional Acrobatics show (WOW!), had dinner at local restaurants, shopped Silk Market AND walked the Great Wall (on Colin's Birthday).

In front of the Forbidden City
Tiananmen Square (The largest square in the world)
Proudly flying the Chinese flag
The tree of love in the Forbidden City
A rickshaw ride thru the "hutong", an old Beijing neighborhood with narrow streets and alley's

The Summer Palace The Temple of Heaven This lady loved the kids, she took lots of pictures, gave them hugs and carried them aroundMy favorite part of all... The Great Wall

We climbed about 1400 steps to get to the Great Wall... with a few pit stops to catch our breath
Endless views of the Wall

Colin and the kids took the gondola back, I took the steps