Green Mountain Day

Here's the Katie coloring picture I promised a couple days ago. She's warming up slowly, but she is warming up. Today we got to see her playing with toys for the first time, and her first pointing. 

So studious. And such a sweetheart. Oh, and with a camel's bladder! I am so impressed. Her dipe is almost always dry, and she usually produces when I put her on the toilet. 

Dinner last night at Pizza Hut. Don't be fooled by the name. It's a sit down restaurant here, and neither of us had pizza. 

I had spicy waffle fries, lol. I get most of my Chinese food at the breakfast buffet. Noodles for breakfast every day.

Today we went to Green Mountain. First, a Buddhist temple.  Lots of incense. It was irritating Paul's cold. 

The moat had fish and turtles in it. 

The twelve zodiac animals are around two trees. The red strips are prayers people tie on. Paul is from Year of the Pig.  Katie did not like being in the carrier. It was so hot.

Another building in the temple complex. 

Katie is Year of the Tiger

Luke is Year of the Rabbit. Although, we decided that he looked a lot like the statue of Happy Buddha. Unfortunately, that was a no picture zone. I would have loved to show the resemblance. 

This picture is for Brianna, my dragon. 

Watching the guides (2 childless men) try to explain why Luke is crying has been amusing. One of them decided this leaf would make good shade for him. Ironically, they pinched the stroller shade closed to hold the leaf in place. 

Yup, Luke is hollering in my ear. 

In front of the main inner temple. Upstairs was the source of the chanting.

City view behind us. We sat down here for a bit and Paul took pictures while I gave the kids a snack. 

Then it was in the car for a bit to another part of the park. See that pagoda?

Then we took a big walk, and came to a pond filled with lotus. 

The pagoda is looking closer now.

We are standing on a bridge. The flat green behind us is water and lotus. 

See the butterfly?  We saw lots of them today. It finally occurred to me what it feels like here. You know how you go into the butterfly house at Six Flags, and it's super hot and humid, and part of you is like, wow, look at all the neat butterflies, and part of you is like, man, it's drippy hot in here, let me out? Yup. That's here. Only there is no out. 

Another koi pond. Some of these were huge. The guides were joking, it's just like China, very crowded.   Luke was asleep at this part, but he saw fish in Nanchang. 

This is a little shop/picnic area at the base of the pagoda. I stayed here with the kids while Paul climbed to the top. 

Getting some water before going up. I sat and fed Luke a bottle and Katie and I shared an ice cream from the little store. 

Paul said it got cooler as you went up. 

After we were done there, we were dropped off at the mall near the hotel to find lunch. We ended up at a Japanese noodle shop, although we both ordered rice. Mine was rice with peppered beef, and it was quite tasty. Katie really warmed up to Paul here, as he was feeding her across the table. 

Now it's nap time.