Halloween 2015

We had a great night at a Halloween party with friends.  The kids had a ball trick-or-treating in a group.

Mal and Elliott were excited about the night:

Hef and 50s Housewife also wish you a happy Halloween!

Halloween at St. Hedwig 2015

Blair's school had their Halloween celebration today and it started with a costume parade.

Will watching the parade:

Room 1A:

Blair and her 8th grade friendship partner:

Trunk or Treating with Will

Will had trunk or treating at his preschool this morning.  He was so excited to dress up in his Elliot costume from E.T.

Halloween Hijinks 2015

Our Daisy troop went to Halloween Hijinks again this year at a local park.  It is sponsored by the Los Alamitos Service Unit and older troops plan and organize booths for the younger girls to enjoy.  Blair is Mal from Descendants this year and is posing like "Rotten to the Core."

The whole trip made it out to the event:

Blair's best friend, Lori was also dressed as a Descendants character:

Booth fun:

Xian

We flew from Beijing to Xian, which is about a 2 hour flight. With the traffic in China we are becoming extremely familiar with, we finally arrived at our hotel a little after lunch. We grabbed something quick at the cafe there and headed out to the city wall. We rented a tandem bicycle and cycled around the wall. It would take about 2 hours to go all around it, so we rode for about 30 minutes and then started back to the hotel to get ready for dinner. 

It took over 30 minutes to find a can to take us back to the hotel. Apparently the drivers here are in short supply and can pick where they want to go. We finally begged one to take us paying double what we should have. 

We went to a Tang Dynasty dinner show at night and had a dumpling dinner. It was neat to try all of the different kinds. The show was pretty impressive with music and dancing from that time period. 

The next morning, we traveled out to see the Terracotta Warriors.  A farmer discovered them in the 1970s and now there is a large museum and archaeological site.  There are three pits and seeing the warriors up close was amazing.  Each one has a different expression and there are still more being repaired.

We had lunch nearby (more yummy noodles!) and then headed back to Xian to walk around the Muslim quarter.  It was a great place for souvenirs and seeing that part of the city's culture.  The pictures don't really do the chaos justice.  Over all, we had a great time seeing all of the sights, but it was also so nice to get home.

Longqing Gorge and Ming Tombs

We started our day with a drive out to the Longqing Gorge, which is normally a summer and winter resort area for Beijingers. We went up a large escalator inside a dragon on the side of the mountain and arrived at the boat dock. We took a boat ride through the gorge and enjoyed the scenery and mountains. 

We stopped off at the Diamond Temple to see the Buddha there and then took the boat back to the dock. We went with our guide to another local restaurant and he ordered some interesting items this time, including pig intestines. No thanks on that one, but the glass noodles were so good. 

After lunch we toured the Ming Tombs, which have been uncovered and opened to the public. We went through the Dingling tomb, which had been ransacked during the a Cultural Revolution. It was still amazingly to see the structure they built. 

After a rest at the hotel, we went to a hutong for diner at TRB, one of the newest restaurants in Beijing. It is seriously my new favorite restaurant. They greeted us with champagne and appetizers before we even ordered and then kept brining out thugs between courses too. My favorite was prosecco poured over lemon ice. We clearly saved the best for our last night in Beijing.