Group at Shilin

Here's most of our group at the Stone Forest today.

MeiLi's smile revealed

We have gotten to see MeiLi smile a few times now and Karah teased a smile out of her today. Here is her delightful smile! Her skin is dark because she was apparently outside in the sun and

has a dark tan. Today she could not be removed from Mary while we were at the stone forest. I think that is a good thing; she is attached to Mary. Karah and MeiLi are now bathed, fed & ready for bed; they are watching some Kid's videos together. One of them was "Nihao Kai-Lan" from Nickalodeon. MeiLi was jumping and playing out the parts with Karah.

Visit to the Shilin (Stone Forest)

This is Mary writing today, Tim has bath time duty tonight! Several families decided since we had a day off today that we would travel the extra couple of hours and spend the extra expense to see the World Heritage site Shilin. For all those who suggested we went, Thank You so much... it was absolutely beautiful. We first traveled around the smaller forest in a couple of trams which was especially easier for those with little babies. Then we got out and walked through the Large part of the forest... the rock formations were almost unbelievable. There were even a couple times I had to warn those behind me to watch out for low ceiling areas. We got to the middle of the area and were "convinced" that we needed to dress up in the "Yi" ethnic group's clothes for pictures... It cost us 10 Yuan each, but what a great picture... actually the ones that they took didn't work , but several people in our group took some so we didn't miss out. In fact, several other people wanted there picture taken with our girls. We then went to lunch at an authentic chinese resturant with duck being the main course... the whole duck, head and all. But I must admit it did taste pretty good the little bit I ate of it (MeiLi was eating most of mine). She was so excited and chowed down big time, helping herself to several pieces of vegetables and rice. She is really starting to bond to me alot, in fact she refused to have Daddy hold her twice for me to do something with Karah. (That's part of the reason he has bath duty tonight, plus its his turn) I have had an interesting time tyring to fit 3 of us girls in the little bathroom stalls to use the public "squatty potty" . We have used A LOT of hand sanitizer after each use, and I have to say that my girls are pros at it now. The bus ride back was like riding in a bumpy sauna... the air conditioning didn't make it to the back of the bus where we were at all very well...and I had a sleeping little girl against me, so that made me even more sweaty. Karah has made great friends with the Morgan/Strubar girls and another little 10 year old little girl named Taylor ... They were pretending the whole way back... something about mommy, daddy and baby. Well the girls are out of the tub and we are getting ready to order room service again since it is about 7:30 and we don't want to redress the girls to go out. We had a fun day overall. -Mary