Watermill Park at Yellow River

I spent quite a bit of time last night on this post and then "lost" it when I tried to publish it. So, here it is again :0)

9/4/08 We toured the Watermill Park that is right beside the Yellow River. Again we had beautiful weather and Abby really enjoyed being outdoors. Now that we're getting to know her a little bit better, it's amazing how well she fits in with our family. She loves the outdoors and is also a little prankster! Earlier today I yawned real big and looked down at her and she was mimicking me...she just laughed like it was the funniest thing. We are having so much fun with Abby and can't wait to get home and show her off!


Here are the watermills--they're much bigger than they look in the picture.



Daddy, you're going to love this! It's a Chinese grist mill.


The Yellow River is sometimes called the Red River by locals because it turns red after a good rain washes red clay down from the mountains.

The "Mother River" Statue represents the Yellow River's ties back to ancient civilization.

Enjoying the scenery.

We thought these were really gross. It's sheep skins "blown up" to make a raft. Our guide says these were used by the Chinese thousands of years ago and could transport tons of goods at a time.

We found this caligrapher in a local open market. He's writing Abby's Chinese name (Wu Ming Xiao) and date of birth (April 4, 2007) on rice paper. Later on when Abby is older, we will have this framed as a special gift for her birthday.

Michael eating mutton on a stick and fresh bread. (It's pretty good when you're starving hungry!)

This man bbq's mutton on a stick. It's very spicy but quite good!

Here is some of the best bread you'll ever eat! It has peanuts and onions on it Don't knock it 'till you've tried it...we thought it sounded bad until we ate some.