We've had so much fun this past week doing our normal routine and adding a little bit of fun "play time" with Nana while she's here. We made it to a new spot on the Great Wall of China--at least new for us! We hired a driver to take us the two hour drive there to a small town named Ji Xian, then unloaded the car, loaded up some of the kids in backpacks, and began our journey. We hiked along the wall for about two hours, stopping for a picnic lunch in one of the watch towers--which was a great spot to stop, except for the fact that due to the strong smell of urine, it was obviously also the favorite pit stop for people along the way! The kids were troupers, and the hiking was intense! I had Noah on my back and Kevin had Hudson--who is definitely NOT the lightest kid in the Joseph family! He ended up also carrying Karis in his arms during some of the journey, as her ankle is still a little sore from a sprain she got on a trampoline about two weeks ago. My professional athlete husband has not lost any of his athletic ability even as his age increases! My mom and I were impressed, as were all the Chinese people stopping along the way to take our pictures!
At the base of the Wall there were all sorts of touristy things--like special gardens, temples, vendors, and even a maze that the kids had a blast exploring. We also got to see the Great Wall Marathon going on at the same time. We were fascinated by how many foreigners we saw, while sighting absolutely NO Chinese runners! We were later told that this marathon in particular focuses on pulling in foreigners, charging about $200 for signing up and then adding a bunch of stuff geared toward westerners and site-seers. We also heard that because of the steepness of the incline of the portion of the race that is actually run along the Wall, a runner should plan on increasing their expected marathon completion time by an hour and a half or two! That's some serious racing!
We had some rain yesterday, so we stayed closer to home than we would have otherwise. The photo of the kids by the window was them on their "fishing trip" with Nana--a game in which they used their fishing poles (also known as badminton rackets) to catch whatever Nana happened to attach to their poles on the other side of the sofa. It's amazing how long they can stay entertained by the games they create! After a light rain this morning, the sun came out, the skies cleared, and we enjoyed a picnic lunch at the Water Park here in Tianjin. The kids each picked an amusement park ride to go on, and then we walked around, played badminton in an open area, were told to get off of the grass (which is rare to find at all anywhere!), and watched some large schools of beautiful orange fish. It was a great day!
