The girls' favorite part of the trip was the gondola ride up the mountain over the tea bushes. 

Saturday we went to Mengdingshan and learned about the beginings of tea and the world culture of tea. It was on the top of a very high mountain where they cultivate some of the best tea in the world. The word "cha" is tea in Chinese, which several other languages also use all over the world. The other word "Tea" comes from another Chinese dialect and the rest of the people in the world use that one. Very interesting. 

 
Look!! I can sit up and take a bath! 

Jinsha Musical

Wednesday night James and I were privileged to see the musical Jinsha.
It was all in Chinese, but there were scrolling screens on both sides
of the stage, one showing Chinese "subtitles" the other an English
translation. It was on the level with Cats or Phantom in it's
production scale and costuming but the venue was smaller than I would
have expected. It made it very fun to watch. There were fireworks, a
real rain storm from the ceiling, girls on trapeze over the audience,
levitating characters on the stage...a lot of fun to watch. The themes
were pretty common, but it was told in a way that was very Chinese.
Many of the characters were from nature and had balancing roles. There
was also a gauzy projection screen they used during set changes to
show takes from previous performances as this is their 5th cast- that
was very weird as it kind of jolted you out of the world they were
drawing you into. One person apologized as it may have felt like
"propoganda" but we tried to take it in its cultural context.
We had beautiful seats center stage, 4th row and got to meet the
producer and several other people who worked on it after the show.
They were celebrating their 300th performance and are looking for ways
to bring it on tour in the US, Japan, Europe, etc.
James and I both really enjoyed it- the music and the vocals were
awesome. We may have more interesting taste than some, but I showed
Marlo and Zoe a condensed version they gave us on DVD and they were
fascinated. As Marlo said, "It is a really sad story mom."

Here is a link to their page and a synopsis as viewed through babelfish.
http://babelfish.altavista.com/babelfish/trurl_pagecontent?lp=zh_en&trurl=http%3a%2f%2fwww.tyfo.com%2f10604%2fjinshamusic%2f05musicjs%2fnr_html%2f05js_news_050301_015.shtml

Check it out if you get a chance.

We were warned ahead of time that July is too hot to see the pandas, but we went anyway. We actually saw many more pandas than the pictures suggest. But as we walked around, I hesitated to take pictures hoping that we would have the opportunity for better ones... no luck. Old habits from film cameras die hard. So, you will just have to wait until we go back in the fall with James to see the great up-close encounters with these beautiful animals. 

After seeing the live pandas, we went to the museum where they had skeletons, internal organs, and fetuses to look at up close. This is a habitat display with some stuffed pandas. I kind of took the picture as a joke... they look awfully scary in the background. 

This is the male panda Bin Bin. He is relaxing in the cool room eating his bamboo. 

Can you find the panda in this picture? We were standing only about 10 feet away, but the glass was so foggy, this is what I got with the flash. 

Marlo went to the center previously with her school and so was acting as tour guide. In this picture she was a little miffed that we wanted to stay and watch the red pandas for so long. 

It was as if they saw us watching them and all came over to show off. The guy up on the platform on the left, sat there for a good 15 mins while the others came and went. 

This is a Red Panda. Part fox, part cat, part ringtailed lemur, part racoon. They didn't seem to mind the heat and were very fun to watch. 

More walking along the beautiful bamboo lined paths. 

After arriving we took the long walk up to the viewing areas. They are currently doing some construction and plan to tripple the current size in the next 10 years. 

We went to the Panda center with David today. It was hot and humid, but not as hot as the previous days. We had hoped to get there when it opened but you know how it goes when you are up all night and have three kids to get ready by yourself... We got there in time to see some of the Pandas relaxing in their indoor rooms, but it was way too hot for them to be frolicking out doors. I think at one point it was so humid we were all, including Teac, dripping with sweat.
The moral of the story is, visit the Pandas not in July. 

A walk through the garden. Wow! They are getting big. 

David (visiting from Bangkok), Scott (english teacher from Australia, joined the church here and is going home next week), Marlo, Me, James, Zoe, and David (Marlo's friend Natalie's dad is taking the picture). We had the first LAN party in Chengdu Sunday afternoon after church at our house. The kids and I read stories and played while the guys tried to shoot each other. I think they are working towards a much larger scale game for next time. 

They were having so much fun running over the bridges, I made them do it for the picture. This is the third time I tried to get the shot which is why Marlo is making such a face. (We have certainly gotten a lot of mileage out of those Barbie sandles. :)) 

Follow the leader... 

Getting to the university where the museum was located was not a problem. Getting directions to find the museum once we got there was a different story. Thankfully my chinese was good enough to ask for help and two young college girls escorted us through the campus to the museum. We passed by this lovely lake on the walk to the museum and so on the way back we spent time crossing the bridges and exploring a little. As cloudy as it was, it was still 85-90 degrees outside and very humid. 

Me and the kids having a snack in front of the museum. 

This is a beautiful carving they had in one of the cases at the museum. 

Picture of the girls and the very long dinosaur neck. 

The info on the long neck dinosaur found in the Sichuan province. 

Last Friday we visited the Museum of Chengdu Institute of Technology. It is like a mini museum of natural history. It's claim to fame is a complete skeleton of the dinosaur with the longest neck in the world. 

This is in front of the sign for the Sichuan Science and Technology University here in Chengdu. Marlo is holding a picture of "Flat Stanley" who was mailed to us by a class in Texas. We are going to send them some pictures of where he has been. 

After two weeks of waiting since she first discovered she had a loose tooth, Marlo finally lost her first tooth. She was so excited she woke us up first thing this morning to show us. After a horrible night with Teac I was not as excited as I should have been. One child is loosing teeth, the other is getting them... teeth seem to be a major cause of my lack of sleep these days. :) 

We took her new scooter outside to go for a test drive. Wouldn't you know, it had just stared raining and we had to go back in. This was taken in front of our apartment building. You can see the big security gates in the back ground including the black gates to let cars in and out. 

Marlo saw this cool scooter at the store a few weeks ago. She was saving her money and wanted to buy it. For her birthday we made up the difference so she could get it now. 

Sisters, sisters, never were there such devoted sisters. . . just need some feathers for the fan. :) 

I took Zoe shopping for Marlo's birthday and she picked out this crown, fan, and a sparkly ring that Marlo adores. 

Zoe took this picture of Huang Ying (our ayi/nanny) and Teac. I didn't find out until it was through, but tooth #3 is now in. He now has 3 bottom teeth. No wonder he has been waking up all night every night this week. And to think, a little Tylenol and I could have gotten more than 3 hours a night. 

Playing with Teac is turning into great entertainment. 

Happy Birthday to Marlo. 

As if she needs the little kid floatie! Marlo is doing so well at swimming that she can even get nice big arms over her head for free style. She goes where she wants to in the pool now, it is great! 

A friend took some pictures of the girls in the pool. This is Zoe diving for rings. 

July 1 Teac turned 6 months old. Now he is scooting all over and last night he even got up on his knees! He is going to be crawling soon and then nothing will be safe. Gotta love his smile. 

See my new trick? I can sit up all by myself!