At the Six Bai Yan temple

Today we had quite an eventful day. We actually began our day with our medical examination for the consulate... but I will post about that separately. We went then with one other family to the six Bai Yan temple. Bai Yan are trees and there are six ancient gnarly trees in the courtyard of this temple. This visit was quite different from our other temple visit. It felt like a place to be - but there was not the sense of quite and reverence that I had seen at the other temple. However, there were some fun pictures and the boys had a great time climbing this huge tower. They each paid about $1.25 US to climb up a huge tower in the swealtering heat -- I love youth! My job was to take pictures. I got some fun ones that they will enjoy remembering in years to come.

The artistry in China really is amazing. Today we saw carvings and pantings and masonry that are so intricate and beautiful. Julia seemed to enjoy walking around. She was pretty funny today -- she is talking more each day. She now can say Mama, Jacob, James, Bye Bye, Hi, No, peek, and "Where?" Her palette prevents her from having great consonants so much of what she says we know by syllables and inflection but she imitates us pretty dang good. She seems to be relaxing and enjoys hanging out with us all these places. I am not the least bit worried about her fitting into our daily life -- she is a trooper and enjoyes going places. She naps well each afternoon for a couple of hours and is good to go again.