Summer 2011 - Trip to Texas & Durango

(This post was written on September 19, 2011 - I saved it and three months later, am finally sending it.)

Let's start from the beginning.  As in the ignorant bliss I was experiencing while packing and then boarding the plane. I assumed the plane from Beijing to Chicago would have TV/movie screens on the back of each head rest.  The plane had it in December from Beijing to Newark so why would it be different this time?  I didn't bring any electronic entertainment device (except my Iphone) and only a few activity books.  I was counting on those little screens to kill time until the girls fell asleep.

So imagine me standing in the aisle of a humongous United plane, with a hundred people in front and a hundred people behind me, and the realization that there were NO little screens to save me from my bored children.  I seriously had a little panic attack and wanted to run away...but there was nowhere to run...I was trapped!  And then I see we have the seats that don't recline...you know the ones...backing up to the toilets.  Oh, goody....this is really going to suck!!

It did suck but not as much as I imagined.  A very nice lady named Gigi sat next to Fiona while I sat next to Isla.  She was very helpful during dinner and spent time playing games with Fiona.  One of Fiona's Girl Scout friends shared her Ipad for about an hour which was a lifesaver.  Fiona fell asleep across Isla's and her seat while Isla fell asleep on me.  Yep!  Isla slept on top of me for S.E.V.E.N. hours.  I would occasionally have to shift different parts of my body to keep the blood flowing.  Thankfully the movies playing on the aisle screen were new to me so time went by less slowly than otherwise.  I think I finally was dozing off when they turned the lights on to feed us 'breakfast'.  20 minutes of sleep...and no feeling in my bottom or my right side.  Wonderful!!

The layover in Chicago was fine and the Continental flight to Houston was uneventful (because they had the little screens!)  Continental rocks and United can kiss my...seriously numb bottom.

Reunited with Mimi and Pops

Fiona's Arm Breaking Adventure

So I am catching up on my blog posts.  Most of you already know all this but I am doing this for my eventual Blog Book so you can choose to ignore the 'old' news.

Fiona broke her arm on June 17, 2011 by falling off the slide in our playground.  I rushed her to the ER where they quickly informed me it was a bad break so they recommended she be flown to Hong Kong for the surgery.  It took a while to understand why we couldn't just have it done in Beijing but after talking to several Chinese and Western doctors, it was explained.  It probably would be fine in mainland China but if something were to go wrong under general anesthesia, they did not feel confident in the emergency response.  With doctors not speaking the same language and add a patient and parents who don't speak the local language, things could go wrong.

ANZA Great Wall Dinner 2011

ANZA (Australia/New Zealand Association) of Beijing organizes a charity dinner each year ON the Great Wall.  Patrick and I went with friends this past Saturday night.  It was such a fun night.  I had to make myself stop talking and look around to take it ALL in.  Before going, we said it was a 'once in a lifetime thing to do'... now I'm thinking it'll be an 'annual thing to do.'    ;-)

Horseback Riding to the Great Wall

In the aforementioned book we found a trout farm where you can hire horses to take you to the Great Wall at Mutianyu.  The girls absolutely loved riding the horses and I love the fact I found a new way to take visitors to the Great Wall (assuming any of you actually come to visit!! (hint, hint))  We also stumbled on an AbFab Thai restaurant...who'd a thunk it?

Hiking Around Beijng

We have a out-of-print photocopied book called "Hiking Around Beijing" which we started using this month.  On May 2nd, we did our first hike from Long Quan Yu to Xi Shui Yu.  It was an amazing hike through a valley with the Great Wall all around us.  The four of us were absolutely shattered at the end of it but pleased we spent a day with such beauty, 'fresh' air and exercise.

At the start of the hike