We made it!

Well it took us until 3:30 before we could get to bed the night before we had to leave for the airport at 5:45 (which made for a fun start to the trip for B. and I) but we did make it. The kids did fairly well on flight flight considering that A. announed he was bored within the first 90 minutes of a 14 hour flight. The descent and landing into Beijing was the worst that B. and I have ever been on (ond we have both travel internationally more than once) Poor X. announced that his belly felt bad and he was going to throw up- he was not wrong so as we had to deal with that while trying not do the same thing. My advice for those of you waiting to travel, especially if you are taking younger kids- bring additional clothes in your carry-on and if you can swing it upgrade at least to premium economy- it would have been worth the extra money for the extra room. It is still a holiday in China so traffic and crowds in Beijing are smaller than usual. We spent the first day hanging around the hotel as no one felt up to leaving the room. (bring snack type foods at least for the first day so you don't have to go out if you don't want to) B. and A. walked to a local grocery store to stock up on bottled water and A. was excited to find skittles candy. He informed me that they have the same candy in China as we have at home (a fact that will delight his first grade class I am sure
Today we are touring the Summer Palace and Forbidden City. Goggle (and blogger) are blocked at least where we are so we are having difficulties posting to the blog but B., resident computer whiz, has found a solution- we will be trying to add photos tonight. So bear with us while we work through some technical difficulties