Happy Birthday Little Barrett!

Hello! We hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July. Like I said before, I was bummed we missed the festivities, as the 4th of July is one of my very favorite times of year. We had our own celebration by going swimming and trying to create our own American style barbeque with our neighbors, the Jagodas. Our meal included hot dogs and hamburgers on make shift buns, chips, jello with whipped cream, and pasta salad. We had to go to a special store to just get those ingredients. It was great and felt a little like home!

We celebrated Barrett's birthday on the 7th instead of the 8th, because we were gone all day to the Great Wall of China on Barrett's birthday. He was so excited to turn four and was so sweet and grateful for the presents he received. He is so easy to please and would be happy with an ice cream cone for his birthday...what a sweet boy. On his birthday, we went to the park of his choice, then to eat at the restaurant of his choice (McDonalds, of course), then we went to meet Travis at Chouyang Park where we were going to ride on some rides (but it turned out that they stopped the rides right before we got there...bummer). But, thankfully, there was a fun playland there where Barrett, Kaleb, and Savannah Jagoda had a blast. Last, we went back home to sing Happy Birthday and eat a No-Bake Cheesecake (hey, man, I have to get creative with food here).

After a busy birthday on Friday, we had a Great Wall trip planned for the next day. Trav's internship company, Abroad China, planned and sponsored the trip. We rode a bus way out to a wonderul, little village nestled in the mountains. FINALLY, we got to see some of the "real" China. We were all in awe at the beauty and way of life of the village people. We explored the village and hills and then some townspeople made us lunch. Yeah, um kinda scary, but we're starting to get used to the crazy food we see sometimes. But, they were so hospitable and seemed to love having us around. As we would walk around, people would come out of their houses to watch us or try to talk to us. The following are some of the pictures taken in the village.

This little girl seemed to love having us around. She would come out of her house everytime we walked by and shyly wave to us.

Next, we headed off for a trek to up to the Great Wall. They boys rode a horse for part of the way for a small fee. The hike was actually quite a steep and long trek, but the boys did great. The part of the wall we hiked up is referred to the "wild wall" as it is not restored in any way. When we got to the top, we could look in both directions and see the wall extending across the mountains. What a cool thing to see. Although I do want to go to the touristy part of the Great Wall sometime (Badaling), I absolutely loved our trek up the wild wall...no crowds and beauty surrounding us...it was perfect.

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Last, after the trek, the townspeople once again made us food. Little Barrett was dead tired and couldn't even make it through dinner. What a cutie!

Allrightie then, there is another day from our China journal. Until next time...