My battery was dying and it was pouring rain but this is a picture of Zoe with an 18 mos. old tiger and lion. They wanted so badly for someone to come in an play with them. In the cage just a few over, they had 5 mos. olds... so beautiful and you could be so close, it was a little scary. The real scary part was that it was 4:30 pm and a storm had rolled in. We were getting soaked and the zoo was designed in a maze that would never let you out. No matter how hard we tried or who we asked, there seemed to be no direct route out of the place... just up and down more stairs with our baby in the stroller getting soaked. That was frustrating. To add to that, it was $12 per adult to get in, the kids were free, and you still had to pay if you wanted to do anything else... see a performance, park your car, feed the animals, take a picture with a monkey....are you sure they're not capitalists?

The zoo had a huge bird enclosure where you could hand feed chickens, ducks, peacocks... and several others. These are Black Necked Cranes a famous and rare bird in China.

After the hike, we went to the wild animal park next door. As we drove in, the bus took us through different enclosures where tigers, bears, and lions surrounded the bus... just on the other side of our windows (each in their own enclosure of course). Here is Marlo feeding the deer- one of the attractions.

This is the view from the top of the elevator looking down.

After you hike down, into the canyon, you come to the end and you ride an elevator up 100 floors to get out.

We hiked for about 2 hours through this canyon dripping with waterfalls. Teac got to ride most of the way so we were pretty tired by the end. The kids were great!

This is where we went on our most recent adventure- a beautiful george called Bi Feng Xia.

We like our Ayi!! She is a good sport about letting the kids climb all over her... she is only two weeks older than me... strange world.

I think I may just have to blow this one up and put it on the wall. Swimming any one? Teac is really not that buff by the way, he has on one of those suits with a life jacket built in-- it balances out his belly!

Thank you, thank you, doesn't my new shirt look great with my eyes?

Spanish Night

Last Sat we invited a few families over who have one or more of the
spouses from a Spanish speaking country....strange
qualifications....anyway, we had a great time (don't ask how we fit
in). There was good food, and for a few moments we actually forgot we
were in China. We had homemade tortillas and chips... salsa, carne
asada, and lots of other yummy things. The best part of the night was
playing crazy Uno....we should have called it "One". There were a lot
of kids and Marlo is excited to have other kids who speak her secret
language... at least it's a secret here in China.
Michelle

Happy Easter! The Easter Bunny came to our house after church as I couldn't see sitting through a session of conference (that is what we did for church that Sunday) all sugared up. The girls had a very fun time... Teac even got into the egg hunt a little bit. 

A wonderful, brave friend invited some of our families over for a passover meal. She is single with no kids so we felt she was extremely brave to have so many kids over for a sit-down meal. The food was great and the kids were well-enough behaved... Teac just couldn't resist the marble-covered stairs that were sure to crack his head open. I didn't eat much but he didn't get hurt either. 

Are you going to eat that piece of candy or spit it out again.... or maybe he is saying, "please share with me". :) 

Are you going to eat that piece of candy or spit it out again? 

The consulate had a fun Easter party for the kids. 

The worst part about this way of life is friends always moving somewhere else. This is Nurse R and her husband. They were so fun... and she took such good care of our kids. We are really going to miss them. 

Coloring Easter Eggs with our friends. I think Teac cracked about 4 eggs just banging them on the table while insisting he could do it himself. 

Look, they actually sprouted!! 

Back to the routine

James arrived home safely from Germany last Sat. bearing many tasty
treats. His favorite part of the trip was his weekend in Holland but I
will let him post more about that later.

Wednesday, as part of their weekly English talk program here, I gave a
lecture/discussion about Carpinteria and how it inspired me to love
nature and want to do something to protect it. I let them see my shell
collection- they were most impressed by the sand dollars and showed a
short DVD we made of our trip to the tide pools one spring when Marlo
was a baby. It was really fun to be back in teacher mode again.
Besides, I finally got to wear the black suite I had made at Christmas
time. We talked about environmental protection and how it effects all
of us. It was really fun.

Anyway... I have been enjoying my chocolate more than I should... I am
sure coming down off the drug is going to be painful. Good thing
Easter is coming soon.
Michelle