we love a playground!

I snapped these photos on our last morning at the conference. We LOVED having such a nice playground to enjoy this week! Oh, how I wish we had a playground near our apartment :) Or even semi-near our apartment :)






And, since I haven't been telling many stories this past week, and since we're all good friends here, I thought you might enjoy this:

The conference hotel was only a 30 minute drive... which, by the way, is possibly the shortest "travel" we've ever done. On the way home we stopped at a brand new McDonald's for lunch.

In the States I only eat McDonald's chocolate cones, but in China, well... I don't like to confess how often we eat McDonald's. Probably once a month. If you had told me 10 years ago that I would one day visit McDonald's on a monthly basis I would have NEVER believed you. But in China, it's actually one of the better family restaurant options. For one, it provides high chairs. And it's impossible to break the bowls and other serving dishes. And, the icing on the cake.... in the past few months they have started selling Diet Coke!!!! We were hoping that this new McDonald's would also have a playground, but were once again disappointed :)

So, we enjoy our cheeseburgers and sundaes, hop back in the car and head home. Roads here are bumpy. And traffic is bad, which makes for a not-so-smooth ride. Stop. Go. Lurch. Turn. Stop. Go. Stop. All the way home. Apparently it didn't blend too well with Lydia's full belly, because as we pulled to a stop in front of our apartment stairwell she threw up all over herself and Matt (thank goodness she was in his lap, not mine!). Julianna took one look at Lydia, and in a loving, sympathetic, big-sisterly way, joined her. More throw up. Terrific.

I helped Julianna out of the car and walked around to the other side to wrap throw-up covered Lydia in her blanket and pick her up off Matt's lap. I sat Lydia on the ground and undressed a panicky Julianna. She trudged up the stairs in only her panties and the pink and brown cowboy boots she wears every single day. I cannot imagine what the neighbors think. Probably something along the lines of "what are those crazy foreigners going to do next?"

Matt unloaded the luggage onto the sidewalk, picked up Lydia and we began the journey to the fourth floor. 30 minutes later the girls were clean and cuddled in bath towels, just in time for afternoon naps :) Matt and I agreed that we're thankful baby #3 is safe in my belly and couldn't join in the throw up extravaganza.

It wasn't our smoothest return home, but considering the throw up event could have happened at an airport, I'm thankful! The threat of this kind of event happening on an all-day-airplane-journey-travel-day is what makes my carry on luggage so heavy!