Day 5 with Little Olivia

Day 5 was good with Olivia. We didn't do much which was a nice change of pace actually. Last night our friends, Barb and Mark, got in from Nanjing where they got their new son and today we pretty much spent the day together. It's nice to have another couple here now to do stuff with. Don't get me wrong, the time with just Jay and I has been nice, but considering we've spent every single moment together for almost 2 weeks......It's nice to have someone else to talk to. :)

After breakfast we had to go to the Dr. and have her TB shot looked at. It looked fine, so that only took a minute. We then had about an hour of paperwork to get completed with Lucy. Barb and I did that while the dads played with the kids in the Swan Room.


After lunch we decided to take a ferry to the other side of the river where there was supposed to be a park. Barb and Mark had gone there 2 years ago when they were here adopting their daughter, Megan. The walk to the ferry was very interesting. It was along the canal that runs into the Pearl River and there were men selling things they had either caught in the canal or found nearby.....I'm really not sure. I got some video of it, but when Jay took out his camera, the man told us to move on so we didn't get a picture. They were selling fish, snakes, eels, turtles, huge frogs, crabs, birds (not sure what kind, but they had tons just crammed inside these crates) It smelled pretty bad just walking through there. It was only a couple blocks of this before we got to the dock.

We paid the half of a Yuan to get on.....that's about 5 cents and took the 5 minute trip to the other side.

I was able to get some good pictures of our hotel from the water. It's the highest one on the island.

The air is strange here. When you look outside, it first looks like it's foggy or maybe hazy from humidity, but then you realize it's really probably just smog. It's like that every day. You can't look far out and see the horizon or buildings far away. I'm so used to being in the city at home and seeing for miles. Not here....it gets almost a little depressing after a while cuz it almost blocks the sun. It's been overcast every day here, but I'm starting to wonder if the blue sky every gets through all this bad air.

Once we got off the ferry, we soon realized that the park was gone. There were some walking paths so we just did that for a while.

Usually the dads were up ahead pushing the strollers and Barb and I, along with Mark's parents who are with, followed along.

That was nice to just get out and take a walk and it was a nice day.....close to 70', I'm sure.

We got back and chilled for a while in the room and in the Swan Room again, then headed to dinner at Subway with the others.

Yep, all this time there's been a stinkin' Subway and I didn't know it. They still don't have diet coke, but the subs were good. They had about half the selection of veggies, but it was still yummy. I tried to give Miss Olivia some break and cheese and turkey....but, nope, so we got her some chicken congee at Lucy's on the way back to the hotel.

After I fed her, I painted her fingernails. I had completely forgotten that I brought pink polish to do that, so we had some manicure time before bed. Too cute.

Day 4 with Princess Livi

Oh my gosh, what a busy day. We haven't stopped since going to breakfast. We went to 3 main places today. The first one was pretty close as it is actually inside the hotel. It's a playroom called the Swan Room and it's with is great space for the kids to play and interact with others. We happen to be the only ones in it this morning but that was fine with us. We stayed for about an hour and Olivia was loving it. She loves playing with balls. She was sharing them with us and keeping 2 for herself at all times.

By the way, we tried the stroller again today and she started to cry a bit at first, but then stopped and was fine the rest of the day. I loved my friend, Sue's, suggestion to use it to go to a positive place nearby so that she won't associate it with the Dr. again. That worked great and she was fine all day after that. We have to go back to the Dr. tomorrow morning just for a bit so they can check her arm where she got her TB shot. We're going to carry her there this time. :)

After the playroom we hopped in a cab and went to a shopping area that our guide had suggested. It is called Grand Buy and it's HUGE. I find myself saying that a lot, but it's true. Everything here is hustle and bustle and crazy busy and big.

We got a few things at the stores, including way too much candy at a cool candy store where Jay got one picture before the lady scolded him for taking photos of her store. Whoops.

I kinda snuck around a corner of a store and had to take a picture of the rows of boots for my sister. She loves shoes/boots whatever. She would be in heaven, and if you look at the price....they were only 89 Yuan a pair. That's about $11. Heaven I tellya.....heaven.

We left Grand Buy to get back to the hotel by 2pm to meet Lucy who was taking us on a sightseeing tour. We went to a place called Yun Tai Garden. To say this place was beautiful is a total understatement. It was breathtaking. 2011 is the year of the rabbit, so although to most of us looking at the pictures we'd think it was decorated for Easter, it's obviously not. It will have the rabbits all year until next year when they will redesign it to go with the animal of 2012.

It had lots of natural beauty........

lots of exotic flowers and trees......

and many fun kids' characters.

It was really a great place to visit. Just nice to be in a relaxing place vs. what we've been around lately. Today's gone really well and, as usual, we're exhausted.

Tomorrow is another adventure waiting........