Dec. 17: Shopping and Playing

Mom, Me, and Sarah Lu at the park

Me, Mom, and Sarah Lu by the river

Sarah Lu on the train

Dad, Mom, and Sarah Lu at the park

Dad, Mom, and Sarah Lu

The Christmas tree in the lobby at our hotel

Our little "monkey"

Sarah Lu and Emma, another 2 year old in our AWAA group

This morning I woke up sick...I think it was because of too much excitement. Mom, Dad, and Sarah Lu went to breakfast without me, and when they came back I was feeling a lot better, so we all went with our group to Shamian Island again. We went shopping, found some great deals, and we got to pick up our chops. They look so good! Sarah Lu's is the biggest and it has a monkey on the top because she was born in the year of the monkey-2004. On the actual stamp part it says SARAH and has the Chinese characters for Lu Hua, and we also had a panda put on it. It is super cute! Anyway, we went to the Shamian Park on the island and that was really pretty. So many palm trees, I love it! At the park they have this little area where they have different rides, like at a carnival, for little kids. Sarah Lu was really excited when we told her she could go on one. She picked out a little train that just goes around in a circle, but it was really fun for her. Then after the train ride, she wanted to go on a little stationary kitty ride, so she got to go on that too! She really liked that too, but she was not happy when we had to leave. But, she was ok after a little bit and just as happy as before. We did a little more shopping around Shamian and then it was time to go back to the hotel. We met up with our group and drove back. We tried to have Sarah Lu take a nap, but that did not go to well...She just sat in her crib for a while and well, we are just skipping her nap today. After our nap experience, We decided that we should go do something, so we decided to take Sarah Lu down to the playground again. She definitely loves that place! And she has mastered every thing at the playground except for the spiral climbing thing. She climbs up and down the slides and all over the other climbing things, it is amazing that this is just her second time to all ready she is like a pro! Again we definitely have to go back to the playground because she loves it SO much!
Tomorrow at 10:30am is our U.S. Consulate Appointment, we don't actually go to the consulate, just our guides do, and we wait in our hotel rooms just in case there is a problem or something. Then I think we are going to Shamian Island again and do some more stuff like that.
I will try to update again soon.
~Staci
(and Jonathan, Caroline, and Sarah Lu)