Trip to Zhangjiajie 张家界

My parents just returned home from their second mission, this time in Kaliningrad, Russia. And lucky us, on their "way home" they came to visit us!! We went to a place called Zhangjiajie, which is one of China's national parks. It was quite spectacular! Here are some pictures:

Sam, Amy, Eve, Coralee and Bryan Drennan (Amy's parents)

These mountains aren't even part of the national park. Beautiful, eh?!

At the front gate

A natural bridge. The drop is about 400 feet below (hard to get a picture of that =)

Lovers put their names on locks and then lock them to the rails on the bridge. We didn't add a lock, but we did hold hands across the bridge which is supposed to ensure we will stay together. I guess Sam is stuck with me now! =)

We got to see a small Tujia minority village

This grandma even let me try spinning yarn. It took a minute, but after a few tries I actually spun a little!

Eve sporting a Tujia minority head-dress

Banging the big drum

Traditional dress for a Tujia bride

So wherever we go, Eve seems to gather a crowd. My parents laughed at how many people would gather around to get a glimpse of our "Foreign Doll". I guess Sam and I are used to it -- we hardly even notice anymore =)

More beautiful views!

Too bad Sam is afraid of heights. He looked pretty pale all through this part of the hike.

Buddhist Temple

We took a couple of cable cars up and down mountain sides. Very cool!

People will write wishes on red banners and then tie them in the trees in this part of the park. It looks pretty cool, I think.

I really wanted to see a monkey on this trip. I was so excited when I saw these two, that I put my backpack down to take a few pictures. While I was photographing one of the monkeys, the other one ran up to my backpack and stole our treat bag out of it and then climbed up a tree to enjoy his spoil! Sad for us, no treats, but cool to see the monkeys!

(Our little monkey)

This place is called "Heaven's Gate Mountain" because of this awesome tunnel that goes right through the mountain. It really does look like you could walk right into heaven through it!

Sam and I climbed all 999 steps to get up to and through the tunnel. It felt almost like a date, since we left Eve with Grandma and Grandpa for 45 minutes to do it. The view was incredible! (and the company even better -- how I love my husband!)

A spectacular trip and wonderful to be with my parents!

9 Months Old

Here are the Photos we had taken for Eve turning 9 month old! All the pictures are taken in our apartment complex.

Pinewood Derby 2010

Our branch has an annual pinewood derby competition, which is the highlight activity of the year here. We let the kids enter cars as a cover-up, but let's be honest, this race is really for the grown-ups. These guys in our branch are finally able to put their engineering degrees to full use! Many of the cars were designed with state-of-the-art design software and created with top quality factory tools. And to finish: coated with water-proof, smudge-proof, glare-resistant, bullet-proof paint. We, however, having no engineering degrees, made our cars using a $1 handsaw, a piece of borrowed sand-paper, a couple bottles of nail polish, and a lot of elbow grease. Neither of our cars won a single race. However, we feel comforted that they at least went down with style points!

Here is our ode to The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. This car's name is Willard (after the man Will Smith himself). His paint job was better than his racing skills.

This car is an ode to the tasty New Zealand treat - the Tim Tam (Ever had one?). This car's name is Tim. Unfortunately, Tim was too heavy so Sam spent the better part of the activity drilling large holes in his under-side so he could make the weigh-in cut. Maybe that is what threw off his equilibrium and ruined his much anticipated mad speed skills. I mean look at him! With aerodynamics like that Tim should have slammed this race!