Yesterday in Guangzhou

It’s felt like it’s been a pretty busy few days here in Guangzhou.

Monday evening we went on a river cruise, which was beautiful, but I wasn’t feeling great so didn’t manage to snap any pictures. Matt has a few here.

Then Tuesday morning, Matt ventured out on his own to see some art in Guangzhou, and my mom and I took the girls to the zoo with some other families from our travel group. We had a really good time. CaiQun enjoyed the stroller more than she’s liked the Ergo (sad for this mama, but we will try to work on that…and we have some good stroller options for when we return home), and she did pretty well walking around the zoo, though I’m not sure she understood what the appeal of most of the animals really was. Her favorite area was actually a petting zoo…we didn’t pet any of the animals, but we were able to get close enough that she could really see them.

Note my mother distributing MnM’s to Miranda. This occurred throughout our visit to the zoo and probably had a significant effect on it going so well!

My mom and Miranda and I enjoyed seeing all the animals – bears, tigers, and a hippo…

…elephants, zebras, and a rhino…

…and of course a panda!

And while I love having these pictures of the animals from our zoo experience, I know you’re really here for pictures of the kiddos 🙂 Here they are feeding leaves to giraffes.

And here is the beautiful Miranda with her zodiac sign, the tiger.

And here are the 4 of us together at the zoo and then Miranda with my mom!

After the zoo it was back to the hotel (well, with a stop at a souvenier shop a few doors down to pick up some traditional Chinese outfits for the girls) for lunch and a nap. Then we met up with the other families in our travel group in the lobby that evening to take family photos and some group photos.

We attempted a group photo of the babies…and it went…well, how would you imagine a photo shoot of 8 newly adopted toddlers plopped onto a couch together would go? Something like this:

And those, my friends, are the good shots.

We wrapped that one up quickly and headed out to a local restaurant for dinner with the group – a nice, pretty relaxing evening connecting with others 🙂 Then it was back here to the hotel, where we hung out and played in the room until the girls needed to get to bed – all in all, a fun, if very full, day.

I had intended to tell you more about today, too, but since this post is already long, and I’m due at a meeting about departure travel arrangements in 20 minutes, I think I need to wrap this one up. Perhaps I’ll write more this evening 🙂

Suffice it to say, we are doing pretty well in Guangzhou. We are very much looking forward to getting home, though – mostly to be living at home in our house instead of a hotel room and to see all of you wonderful friends, but also for the small things we take for granted, like having access to a washer and dryer, potable tap water, and lunches that consist of more than ramen, oatmeal, and peanut butter on crackers. Just a few more days, and we’ll be on our way.