Time With Mom

If you think mom was able to rest after two of her grandkids left, think again!  Back to school the boys went, which included their various activities.  Mom and I participated when allowed.  Grahm had a football (soccer) game.  He had a couple of headers and one header goal! 

This is his header goal, see the yellow ball heading for the boy in a white shirt?

Hits it square on and into the goal it goes!

Look at how excited he is!!!

Victory dance.

Mom also received her own personal trip to the wall.  It ended up being extremely steeeeeeeeeep.

Lane, Grahm and Drake continued on to the top of this mountain.

That small red dot in the middle, on top of the small part of the wall, is Grahm.

Duncan put Grandma to work making all kinds of goodies.  Reflection cake: multiple ingredients, and many hours later they had a beautiful cake to celebrate Duncan's 12 birthday.

             

Candy canes

Treating ourselves to pedicures.

Rickshaw ride.  Tour guide was great! Check out the handle bars.  I love the old Chinese bikes.

Bell Tower

Shopping for glasses

While mom was in town, Lane and I took full advantage by going on our own trip.  Hours after we left the boys became sick one by one, infecting my mom.  Not only did she have to take care of them while sick herself, she also tried to keep up their regular activities when they felt better, like Halloween parties.  Guy also was gone for half the time to an away volleyball tournament.

This wonderful lady lightened our world, joined us on adventures, laughed with us, tried everything we threw at her and all with a smile, despite us walking her over 23 miles her first 3 days here.  We love you mom!  Thank you!!

Say What?

At times we get a good giggle in with signs and their translations.  Hee Hee Hee

Cow Street

The boys and I went exploring a new part of town, Muslim Quarter.  Our excursion took us through zhende hutongs, the real deal hutongs, the kind where people actually live and share the bathroom down the street.  A hutong is a maze like street of buildings, now becoming popular tourist destinations.

Most do not have dryers, and if you look closely on the roof you can see a water heater, the orange like pipe contraption.  One of the coolest things I have seen is their hanging gardens.  The squash and pumpkins are overhead hanging down.

These beautiful painting were on the walls of the hutong.

Following our map and directions from a friend we kept our eye out for Cow Street.  Now as I didn't see it in writing I am thinking in my head, Kao Lu, which would be the Chinese version right.  Unfortunately I couldn't find it anywhere on the map, but knew we were headed in the right direction.

On our way we stopped off at this little temple.

I love these steles.  

After the temple we turned on Niujie.  Reading the characters, I turned to the boys and asked them if they recognized them and could tell me what it meant.  That's when it hit me, Cow Street!  It wasn't a Chinese word with the same pronunciation it was actually already being translated for me from the Chinese!  Niu-cow, Jie-street.

Prayer benches.

Talking about ringing your bell!  This dragon fish would be rammed into a super huge bell to send it ringing.

Your guess is as good as mine, but I think this was super awesome!

We watched them do the call to prayer here.  All the men were dressed in white and stood in formation, joining in with some actions during the call.  At it's conclusion they entered the prayer hall and shut the door.  Although we did not see any women participating we did find the woman's prayer hall in the back of the complex and there were a few wandering around.

Fascinating seeing the Muslim and Chinese cultures intertwine.  Here is a typical Chinese roof complete with guardians but instead of a scenic picture there is the traditional Arabic writing over the door.