the visit: everyday 'round here

Of course we had down-time too. We wanted to show our folks our regular life so that included hanging out at home and showing them some of the local sights. The sights also included the latest greatest grandchild!

I love this picture that Boppa (Alan) took, aptly naming it "the two Cuties" How true. Hannah is not hurting for food, she almost eclipses Dana!

I love the grandparent shots with the newest grandchild, so I included one of each. Nana was excited and soon remembered her baby-burping skills without any coaching.

Hannah's favourite spit-up target was Boppa. It hardly ever failed, I would hand Hannah over to him to hold and 4 seconds later she would have a productive burp all over him. But her smiles made it all worthwhile right Alan?

And Babi too, took a shining to little Hannah. I love both of their expressions here, equally enamoured with one another.

This is the closest thing we have to a farm: one rabbit which Dana loves to feed our fruit and vegetable scraps too,

and two ducks that have miserable living quarters as far as I can tell.

When you don't have a backyard, this is what you learn to do in your house. We are looking into gymnastics for this little monkey, but may do a stint of diving in the meantime as it incorporates trampolines and swimming for a reasonable rate. If you remember how China did in the diving at the last summer Olympics, you'll know the coaching is decent.

Eli and Dana's bedroom. Eli was delighted to receive some Lego from Boppa, Nana and Babi.

On our date night, Scott and I got to go for an evening riverside walk with our folks, while Eli, Dana and Hannah were babysat.

One day we went for a horse-drawn carriage ride along five historical streets that featured (mainly) European architecture. We also saw the former residence of Eric Liddell. If you don't know who that is, watch Chariots of Fire or, better, read a biography about him. He was a remarkable man.

The sleeping slug. Hard to believe this little man could ever get into trouble isn't it? Hah!

Reading stories, and/or watching world cup soccer on the couch. We also played our share of games in the evenings with Scott's parents. My mom preferred to turn in early and get up early the next day to, buy fruit at the market, or play ping pong/go for runs with the locals.

We rode in the Tianjin Eye on a somewhat clear day. The whole rotation took about 20 minutes and there was lots to see from the 12 o' clock position especially. Eli opted to be at his friends house.

So, all said and done, it was a tremendous visit. I must admit I was a little worried about how it would go because I wanted to figure out things to do and see that would be interesting for our parents and fun for our kids too. Also, it was the first visit for my mom and so I viewed it as a "make or breaker" for any subsequent visits. I daresay that based on how it went, my mom might very well be back again, I know Scott's parents will. I felt very blessed to have them and the fact that they made the effort and incurred the cost to come means a lot to us. Thank you!