i love stackable band rings.
i have four beautiful, gold hammered bands for each of our four sons mike gave me on each's birth-day and i have a diamond band from my grandmother that i stack in all different ways with my wedding band.
for our 10th anniversary, mike was supposed to get me another cool band to add to my little collection.
a couple weeks before our 10th, he sat me down and said, katie i'm really sorry but i didn't get you a band. instead, i booked a trip for just the two of us to CHINA for almost two weeks. i already cleared it with your parents to watch the boys. what do you think??
we LOVE to travel so i was all aboard!
enjoy our pictures :)
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| flying to lax |
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| my essentails for a 14 hour, overnight flight. |
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ahhhhh, they gave us mini packets of sriracha!!!
and fed us about a thousand times on the flight. |
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| i LOVE squatty potties! |
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| last bit of america in the changsha airport! |
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| more food. |
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| bus selfie! |
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| tiananmen square and the forbidden city! |
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| we caught the chinese guard marching and singing! |
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all over china they had these cool asteroid pieces as art.
apparently, millions of years ago a meteor hit and left a huge lake in china and since then they've dredged the lake to use these rocks as art. so cool! |
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| we had lunch on our own so we chose a local restaurant and got big bowls of mushrooms and rice and bean paste and cucumbers over noodles. all for about $7 and delicious!! |
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| chinese kites over the temple of heaven!! |
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| warm yogurt was everywhere in china! and they were in these beautiful ceramic containers for a dollar! |
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| that night, we watched golden mask dynasty show with our tour! |
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| sleeping on the way back home |
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the continental breakfasts at the hotels were amazing!!
such a huge selection! and delicious! |
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| every other day of so, we'd skype with the boys :) |
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| jade carving |
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and then later, we climbed the great wall of china!!
we climbed the jiankou section, which is the very steepest section!
4 miles and 65 stories straight up! we did it in 39 minutes! |
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the very top!
these chinese tourists were super interested in us. my semi-blond hair was a huge hit and we spent about 10 minutes taking selfies with them :) |
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celebratory beers!
i hate beer but that's mostly the only choice in china and these were less than a dollar each so... |
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| later that day, we toured a cloisonne factory! |
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| i got my vase! |
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| that evening, was the bejing olympic birdsnest! |
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| old town bejing! |
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| rickshaw through old town! |
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| family style authentic dinner in old town! |
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| the next morning, we headed to a traditional chinese medicine place |
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| the summer palace! |
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| chinese water sidewalk writing |
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| bbq-ed scorpions, tarantulas, silkworms, starfish, centipedes, and seahorses! |
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| another breakfast |
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| touring a silk factory! |
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| candied, fermented mystery street fruit |
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| more mystery fruit |
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| even the trashcans were gorgeous |
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| the lingering gardens in suzhou! |
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| one of our favorite places! |
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| bonsai garden in the lingering garden |
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| wandering along the grand canal |
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| later that evening, we toured the universal studios of china...the 3 kingdoms studios |
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| and we took a cruise on the lake taihu, one of the biggest lakes in china |
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| the fog (and smog) made it very mysterious |
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| exploring street markets |
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| teas |
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| crepe-type things |
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| candy stores for the boys! |
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| fresh noodles |
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| the BEST super spicy szechuan fish stew! |
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| they serve silken tofu like oatmeal in china |
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| a bowl full of pastries ;) |
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| tree transport :) |
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| pearl tea! |
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| pearl exhibition! |
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| freshly roasted macadamia nuts! |
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| pit stop for lunch! |
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zongzi was a chinese tamale!
wrapped in bamboo leaves, its pressed rice with tender pork inside |
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| the beautiful west lake and gardens |
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| west lake is the most romantic of all the lakes :) |
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| sampling rice wine |
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| another chinese breakfast |
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| this super cool grilled chinese flatbread, that was lightly stuffed with herbs, green onions, and sausage |
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| dragon well tea plantation |
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| sack lunch on the bus that day :) |
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| a delicious leek and egg quesadilla thing |
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| dinner! |
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| shanghai! |
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| the famous bund |
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we were extremely please with the quality of hotels in china.
this one was our last one in shanghai, near the shanghai disney! |
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our tour guide toby teaching us some chinese!
this is "china" |
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| haha mango pie at chinese mcdonalds! |
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we took a couple of maglev trains so we toured the maglev museum as well
maglev is magnetic levitation and china has the fastest one in the world! |
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| chinese flea market! |
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shanghai skyscrapers.
30 years ago, this was a swamp.
30 years ago was the 1990's so it really blew our minds. |
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| shanghai national museum! |
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| some of these ceramics were MILLENNIA old. crazy. |
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| tour guide for a second :) |
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the city god temple bazaar
the architecture was ming dynasty but now its a shopping center |
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| dumpling time! |
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