Elephants on parade

Shanghai

Nanjing

Hong KongNanjing

BeijingNanjing

Nanjing
I'm sure you are thinking "why does Jake have a lot of pictures with elephants" Well to tell you the truth, it started out just by me saying, go stand over there and I will take your picture. Then one day we realized that he was always the one standing next to the elephant statues so we have continued to snap a picture anytime we find an elephant. And a little fact you might not know about Jake is he can do an awesome elephant sound. If you don't believe me you will have to ask him to do it the next time you see him. Clara loved Jake's elephant sound.

Terracotta Warriors

So I know it has been awhile since I have updated this blog. These next couple of posts are still from when my parents came over Christmas. We were able to go to Xian and see the Terracotta Warriors. We had a great time seeing this exhibit, but all agreed that Xian is kind of a dirty place where I think every cab driver tried to rip us off. This was our last stop of our excursions so that night we ordered room service and all crashed. It was so much fun.
I made everyone pose as one of the warriors...Jake's pose.

Dad's pose

Mom's pose

My pose...mine didn't turn out that good, oh well.

One of the rooms that they found full of warriors.

Cool looking vase that I made them stand next to.

This picture shows how big of a place this one. They have 3 buildings full of these warriors.

Jake and I with all of the warriors

Mom and Dad

It was seriously crazy how many of these there are and they are still excavating them.

Some of the warriors with their heads still intact.

Great Wall

On Christmas Day, we took a flight up to Beijing and did as many sites as we could. One day we woke up early and hired a driver to take us up to Simatai. This part of the Great Wall is what you see photographed in National Geographic and doesn't get as many sightseers because it is farther away and a lot more intense hike. We didn't really realize how intense it was going to be until we got there. First we walked down

At the bottom of the mountain, getting ready to go over to the cable cars.

Get ready Great Wall...here we come!

My lovely parents on a once in a life time experience.
We took the cable cars...well they were more like a partially enclosed ski lift about half way up the mountain. The train that then took you about another fourth of the way was NOT up and running so we had to hike that and then a bunch of stair to get to the top. My poor dad had hurt his knee before coming to China so my mom and I helped him that first part but then he hurt his knee even more so he ended up having to stay back. I of course felt horrible that I hadn't researched this as well as I should have. Because there are other parts of the wall to see that aren't as strenuous.



I love this picture of my parents, especially since my dad is not big on heights.
Along the Wall
Hiking up to the wall...man there were a lot of steps!
Resting with my dad
My dad's resting spot, with his "resting" stick...that's not really what we called it, but I'll just say we found that stick by the bathrooms...
On top of the world...ok the great wall, you say potato I say potatoeSome of the places were incredibly steep
This villager followed us around and decided that my needed help down the steps.
The picture doesn't do it justice for how steep this part was, if you know me you know that I love to be adventurous and of course I was at the edge looking strait down and on these steps I was pretty much jogging down them and the lady kept telling me in Chinese to "slow down" because it was dangerous
Inside one of the towers looking out...great picture Jake!
My mom and I absolutely loved it up there. This has been my favorite scenery place ever. I loved every moment of it and can't wait to go back, and this time I am going to zip-line down from the wall.
These next pictures are the way down. There were some even stairs that followed the train track down, so we decided that would be the best for my dad. The Chinese people said we couldn't use them because it was closed but we snuck through the gate and did it anyway...what were they going to do throw us in a Chinese prison...well maybe but we were willing to take the risk:)
My mom and I helping my dad, Jake was our life insurance incase anything happened he had to be able to translate, so it was left up to the Woodward Women to get the job done.
This picture is for my sister because her response was "Wasn't it handicap accessible". Well this is as accessible as it got. We had quite the chuckle when she said that because nothing in China is really wheelchair accessible.
This is to show how steep it was even though their was a railing, I kept waiting for my dad to slip and fall the whole way down, especially since parts of the railing were not sturdy at all.

We put Jake in front so that if my dad slipped and fell, Jake could stop his fall. I'm just so grateful that we got down safely and that his knee felt better a few days later.