Xi'an Family Fun

Hi! We're back from Xi'an and back to real life (ok, not exactly real life, but whatever). So, we had a wonderful time and it went by way too fast! Here is our trip with pictures in a nutshell...

Xian is a city in a southern province of China that is well known for it's history and culture. We had been told by many people what a great place it was. We went with our friends, Dan, Brittany, and Savannah Jagoda. The train was a first for our whole family, so you can imagine the boys were pretty excited about it. The trip is about 13 hours, so we booked tickets in the evening so we could sleep all night on the train. That is the way to travel long distances (especially with kids)...


Our first stop in was the hotel. Um, not the greatest, but for $12 a night, you can't go wrong! Next we went to the Big Wild Goose Pagoda (easier to say than the Chinese name), which is a type of Buddhist temple. The surrounding grounds were beautiful, as usual.

Kaleb likes this picture because it shows how "big the Gapoda is." They were pretty proud that their little legs climbed all the way to the top to see a view of the city.

At certain times throughout the day on the Pagoda grounds, they have huge fountains set to music. There were certain fountains that people could play in. When the boys saw the other kids, it was all over. Who needs dry clothes anyway?

After full bellies and naps, we went to the center of town to go to the Bell and Drum Temples, the Mosque, and street market. Of course, I included a picture of part of the street market, as they are my favorite. I never tire of the markets here and I am proud to say that I reign as the bargaining queen (according to me anyway). Drum temple at night...

The next day, we headed out on a bus to go to what Xian is most famous for, the Terra Cotta Warriors. On the way, we went to the mausoleum of the first Qin Emperor, Qin Shi Huang. The tomb is said to be bigger than the Great Pyramid of Egypt. He is famous for basically uniting all of the China back in 220 B.C. This was a performance they did on the grounds.

You gotta have a picture with the main performer...

Ahhh, the Terra Cotta Warriors. Said to be the eighth wonder of the world. It was truly amazing, but the history behind it is what makes it so cool. The same emperor of the tomb we went to wanted to have his entire army killed and buried with him when he died so he could have their protection in the afterlife. He was finally convinced not to kill all of them (imagine that) and have lifelike statues of all of them, their horses, chariots, and weapons to be buried with him instead. It was kept a secret for thousands of years and was only discovered by some farmers in the 1970's. There are thousands and thousands of them, and they are still uncovering all of it. This was so fun to see. The facial features, clothing, and weapons were all completely different.

That night, Travis and Dan set off to climb an insane mountain called HuaShan. They hiked all night straight up cliffs of death holding on to chains with just their headlamps. Yes, it is a very big attraction around those parts. It sounds crazy, and they said it was a killer, but was also so amazing. They said the view at the top was beautiful even though the sunrise was kind of, well, non-existent, because of the fog. Here is a picture of my sweaty hubby.


While they were on the verge of death, us girls took the kids back to the fountains at night. After the insane amount of crowds gathering around us to gawk and take pictures with our kids, we got soaked and had fun in the fountains.

On our last day, us girls and the kids went to an awesome park until Trav and Dan rolled back into town around 11 am. We all went up on top of the city wall (which still surrounds the entire city) and Brittany and I rode bikes around the whole city wall while the boys took the kids to good old McDonald's for food and ice cream. Picture of part of the city wall and "moat" below it...

Wow, if you got through all of that, then congrats. You know me, I just get carried away with my stories and pictures. Believe me, I spared you the many small details that occurred along the way. I had to refrain.

Well, thanks again for the emails and comments! Love always, Us