Complete Randomness

     Today, when we were at the beach, riding waves, building sand castles and making memories, I whipped out my camera to capture the moments.  When I turned the camera on, I saw a flashing exclamation point which resulted in that sick feeling... the sick feeling you get when you forget something (that seems to be happening to me a lot lately!).  I knew that I forgot the memory card and the little doohickey that downloads the pictures.  Grrr!!  I remembered them.  I remember grabbing them.  They just didn't make it into the suitcases.

     We couldn't go buy a new doohickey.  Want to know why??  Because we forgot it when we went to China and had to buy a new one ($60)  We had to go buy a new card just so I could take pictures.  

     We went to Walmart.  Paul went to find the card and when he came back to put it in the cart, he said, "$33.00!  That hurts."  

     I told him not to look when we went to pay for it!

ANYWAY.....

     So, I walked around the beach taking pictures with my phone.  I was a nervous wreck.  I was so afraid I was going to drop it! 

     The pictures are not the greatest quality.  You're going to have to wait until I get home to get the good pictures.  

     However, when I downloaded the pictures from today, I found some pictures that I had forgotten I had taken... thus the randomness!
There's my girls!!:-)

     The Forbidden City in Beijing.  It was forbidden a long time ago and I think they should reinstate the rule.  It was so boring.  If you can see the outside, you've seen about enough of it.  We walked and walked and walked.  It was like a city!!  Oh, maybe that's why they name it The Forbidden CITY!   Sometimes, I am a bit slow.
     This is my little man at the Fire Department's Annual Ice Cream Social.  My kids love to go because they make this huge foam field for the kids to play in.  We never even get the ice cream.  Sometime, it doesn't take much.

     But, check out this dude's body.  You'd think we made him work out every day!

     This is my REALLY, REALLY good friend, Jennifer.  Well, maybe not after she sees this picture.  In which case, this wasn't really worth it.   She doesn't deserve this!  But, it was on my phone's camera.  And, I didn't take it.  Therefore, it qualifies as randomness.  Right??

    Who in the heck are these people?  And, why in the heck did I take the picture??  

     I think it was because the building was cool.  It was in Beijing.  It was this big round ball sitting in a circle of water.  It's the performing arts center, but it doesn't even look like there's a way in.  After a little investigating.  We found the entrance.  There are 2 of them.  They are underground.  Pretty cool, huh??
     This is how high we climbed on The Great Wall.  Somewhere down there was the parking lot.  In the parking lot sat Grace and our driver.  We told her she didn't have to climb with us because she was wearing pumps.  She wore these everyday.  She even wore them through that forsaken city we walked through the day before.  When she started climbing the wall with us, Paul told her to take a load off.

     Ok, he didn't say it that way, but he wanted to.  We both did.  This was our second day with her and we were scared of her.

     Her English was good, but it still took us a bit of time to piece the sentences together into something cohesive that made sense.  Plus, she would always start on these long diatribes.  We were so tired and sometimes it was interesting and we wanted to listen.  But, sometimes she would ramble.  Her explanations always went something like this:

    "Forbidden City has 4 collars (translation- colors).  Why 4 collars?

     Let me stop her and say she asked these type questions ALL THE TIME!  We were scared of her because sometimes we were supposed to answer and sometimes we weren't.  Sometimes we weren't paying that close of attention so we didn't even know how to answer.  And, sometimes, we wanted to say, "How the heck are we supposed to know?  That's why you got paid to show us around!"  AND, SOMETIMES she acted like she was mad at us when we didn't know.  So, back to the tour...

    " Red, green, blue and gold?  Why gold?"

     I wish we could have a video of us looking at each other.  We'd make the  ssssss noise and draw our mouths back and shrug our shoulders.  Do you know the look I mean?

     Sometimes, we would guess at the answers to her questions.  Like the time we were on our way to The Great Wall.

     We were finally out of the crowded congested part of the city.  We were in the tree covered mountains and while there was still lots of smog, it was beautiful.  We wanted to see China.  Not the city and the buildings, but the landscape.  Both of us were craning our necks looking all around to get a first glimpse of The Wall, when she started...

     "I will tell you about Great Wall.  Great Wall sometimes referred to as world's biggest cemetery.  Cemetery.  Why cemetery?  ( I am not kidding about the repeating either and all 3 guides did it!)

     We decided we'd answer this one.

     " Because so many people died building it??"

    "Yes!"

     Shewwww!

     "Now, I tell you fable about Great Wall."

      She tells us about some woman who married a man and she was very much in love with him.  He went to work on the wall.  After much time passed, she was sent word that he had died.  She was very upset and set out to find his body.  

     She found the body and and buried it in a tomb.

     Time past and she found a new love.  He wanted to marry her but she would not leave the location of her dead husbands body.

     So, the new guy abides by her wishes. (very, very paraphased)

     "You understand??"

    We look at each other and Paul decides to answer.  Now, keep in mind, we are in a car.  She is in the front passenger seat and we are in the back seat.  So, she is turned completely around talking to us.  

     With a look of great disgust, she says, "I did not say house, I said tomb."  With the disgusted look still on her face, she closes her eyes and turns around.  She was pissed!

   

    
     Another view of The Wall.  I think I was trying to capture a train coming around the mountain.  It was picturesque.

     Emme at the Walmart in Nanning, China.
     Emme on one of the first days home with the kids.  You can tell she is thinking, "What in the world have I gotten myself into??
     Emme at the beach house.  She is rolling all over the place now!
She's diggin the sand and surf!
Emme's little mama, Gracie.
     The men in the family.  Jackson is handling losing his position of baby of the family like a real man.  He loves her.  Yesterday, after looking at her, he turned to me and said, "She has beautiful eyes."  Awwww!

I wonder what they talk about?
     Paul's only sibling, Julie, has 6 kids.  On this trip, Emme is the center of attention.   They just met her.

Jackman flying a kite.
   Jackson is in the hole he dug.
Paul was holding Emme in this picture when he suddenly felt something very warm running down him.:-)  Haha!