Our Snazzy Kids: We Made It Here Safely!

Hello Friends and Family,

We made it here safely. It is 7:56am right now and we are wide awake. Our flight got in around 4:30pm and we made it to our hotel around 6:45. We were all asleep by 8:00pm. I woke up at midnight only to find the boys watching "The Karate Kid." Haa Haa! They thought it was morning - I guess it was morning in the USA. I told them to go back to sleep and they did sleep for another 3 hours or so. The beds here are hard, but I'd rather have a hard bed where I don't feel every movement of Todd than a soft bed that is bouncy. I guess we've been spoiled by our Tempurpedic. Our flight was uneventful. The boys did really well. Deklan found out that he can't play his DS on the plane as he gets motion sickness - he didn't actually barf though - thank goodness! The picture taking (of us by people we don't know) started on the plane. The boys thought that was funny - they felt like movie stars. The views from the plane were spectacular at times as we flew over Alaska and Russia. At the airport we were met by our driver. He was a very friendly man but spoke no English. He drove us to our hotel in a Mercedes van. The drive took around 1 1/2 hours - there was traffic. Apparently it should have only taken about 45 minutes. So far, Beijing reminds Todd and I of Seoul. When we stepped off the plane, the smell brought rushing memories of Seoul back to us. The driving here (so far) has been quite tame - nothing like Korea in 1997 - 1998. Another funny thing were the cars; they have quite he variety were as Seoul didn't really. We saw many different brands - a lot of Volkswagon Jettas, Audi's, many Hondas and Hyundais, a good bit of Toyota, we saw a Chrysler Town and Country, a Toyota FJ Cruiser, a few Hummers, Buicks - it was quite the variety of cars. Today, we are going to go to the Forbidden City. Tomorrow we will go to the Great Wall at Mutinayou (totally butchered the spelling there) and then a quick stop at the olympic stadium. We are going to try and "hook up" with a friend of Todd's boss here in Beijing for dinner - he boss set this up for us - so sweet! It will be nice to have someone take us out and show us where a good place to eat is. Oh, our room is very nice. It is a 2 bedroom apartment and we have a lot of space. The pool area is GORGEOUS! Funny thing is a sign in the pool area says "Slip and Fall Carefully." Gotta love the translation! O.K., I'm going to try and attach some pictures here.... Until next time....