Here we were at Tianman Square in Beijing.  Casey is showing Ellen his favorite poses for taking pictures....or for when the Chinese take her picture!

Oh what a night...and a trooper!

Here we are stilling in the hospital in Beijing on our first day of our vacation.  Why you ask?  Well the night before at dinner Casey and Ellen were doing 1, 2, 3....jump and the next thing you know we are leaving the restaurant and heading for Dr. Denis's office.  Since it was 8:00 o'clock at night the doctor was happy to see us but was not able to offer a real solution.  We told him we had an 8:00am flight to Beijing in the morning and wondered if we should cancel it.  He said no and actually referred us to this hospital.  So he bandaged Ellen up in a sling, gave her a sucker and sent us on our way.

As soon as we landed in Beijing we dropped off our luggage at the hotel, grabbed a taxi and headed to the hospital.  Mind you that Ellen was still in pain and barely had any sleep, rode on a plane for 3 hours, took the subway to the hotel and the cab to the hospital.  Needless to say she fell asleep on the way...which was a good thing!  As soon as Casey and I told the doctor what happened he walked over to her, grabbed her arm and slowly rotated it.  Ellen woke up as he was saying he thought he heard something pop back into place so it was most likely dislocated.  He told us we had to give her 30 minutes to see if she would start using her arm again.  I gave her my cell phone and she was cured!  Wow!  What a way to start off our trip!  Luckily the rest of the trip went much better!  

I should also mention that on the way home from Dr. Denis's office I realized I did not have my house keys and either did Casey.  We were with Joe and Karen so we all made it into the building and headed to our apartment to see what we could do.  (Bekah I even tried my credit card trick from college, but no luck.)  I ended up calling Takila and asking her to help.  She found me someone that worked at our complex and was going to charge me 250 RMB.  I didn't care at that point, I would pay anything!  Ellen was in pain and we needed some sleep before our trip.  But as I was on the phone I look at Joe and he is taking his shoe lace out of his shoe.  He ended up sliding it in the door on the top of the lock and pulled it out the bottom.  He then pulled on the shoe lace forcing the latch in and allowing our door to open.  He was a true life saver and saved me some cash!  He would do anything to make sure Ellen was home safe and in her bed!  Thanks again Joe!

The destruction of my laundry room!

I love that they have been doing construction below my apartment since right after we moved in.  Oh wait, no I haven't!  It has been so loud and noisy it is hard to stay in our apartment during the day!

 We then ended up finding out there was a leak from our laundry room that was causing them issues below.  So as a result, I now will be without my washing machine for several weeks while they tear up my back room.  Here they are carrying my washing machine out to the front patio.  Love how they use their handy stick!

Here a gentleman is carrying loads of tile and concrete that they have broken up in the back room.  Again...using his handy stick!

The pagoda!

 Here is the pagoda we can see from our window in our living room.  We spent a Sunday afternoon riding our bikes to it and because the hill was so steep, we had to get off and walk the rest of the way.

See how hard they were working to make it to the top!

Happy Easter!

This was our first Easter in Chongqing.  We went to the Hilton Hotel for a delicious brunch and then they had a very nice Easter egg hunt for the kids.  Ellen had a great time and loved the Easter bunny.  Even though when he got hot he would take his mask off and you could see he was a regular man.  She didn't care one bit!

The final celebration of the Chinese New Year!

The Chinese New Year starts off with a bang and ends with one as well!  We were sitting in our apartment one night and suddenly were surprised by the display of fireworks going off outside.  We later learned it was the mark of the end of the Chinese New Year.  

 Ellen now hopes they do them every night!  She was soooo excited to see them from the balcony.

What can you get at a local Chinese market?

Well, of course you want to begin with one of these cool Chinese baskets that serve many purposes.  A lot of people use them to carry their young children (there is a wooden seat inside) and their groceries from the market.  Karen and I decided to purchase brooms, so we carried those!  And let me tell you, we were getting a lot of stares and most people were wondering where our babies were.  

So, what else can you get at the market?  How about some live chickens?  I don't know about you, but the bird flu did not come as a surprise to me!  Sad it happened, but these are not the most sanitary conditions.