A memorable surprise!

Miriam and Joab on a horse ride.
During the ride she said " I love
horses, I mean it, I really love them"

Joab came home from work on Monday asking me if I would like to go to "Shidu (pronounced Sure-do)" this weekend with some people from work. I had been wanting to get out of the city for awhile, so this was the perfect opportunity!

We left at 2 PM on Friday from Joab's work and went with 15 of his Chinese co-workers and a family from New Zealand (who have four kids). We traveled by bus about 1.5 hours south of Beijing to lovely Shido. And my, was it lovely indeed. Great hiking trails, clean air, and horses to ride on! Miriam had a great time playing with the "big kids" and Asa loved all the extra attention from the Chinese co-workers. On Friday night we enjoyed a local meal, some of the dishes included: fresh fish caught just hours before we ate it, leaves from local trees mixed with eggs and fried into an omelet looking thing, corn meal muffins from local corn and fresh corn boiled. Some of it was good....some not so good. But all in all it was good to get a taste of what most people in this region of China eat.

After dinner we joined into together for a late night of Karoke. The kids from New Zealand have pretty much grown up in China, so they sang local pop songs in perfect Chinese, it was really amazing. Miriam also did her first Karoke it was, Row Row Row your boat. It was very cute to see her sing! I was sorry we did not get a picture of it. Joab and I also did some duets together (not as cute as Miraim was!) and had a great time.

On Saturday morning we got up and hiked in some local mountains. The whole groups hiked the whole way up, we only made it about 1/4 of the way and then went back for a rest. It was just so nice to be up in the mountains and around so much water.

We are now home, tired but happy to see another part of this huge country. Joab and I commented on the way back in the taxi how nice it was to feel like we are headed home (here in our apartment in China). Hope you enjoy the pics! Em and Joab