Six Banyan Tree Temple and Flower Pagoda

We visited the Six Banyan Tree Temple and Flower Pagoda this morning. It was just so beautiful and peaceful. The photos just give you a snapshot of the how simple yet beautiful everything about the area was, yet to be there you can just feel the peace and harmony surrounding you within the courtyard of the temple.   We burned three incense sticks (one for each of us) at various spots along the way and placed them in the giant incense burners. We saw several monks in deep mediation, and many lay people in walking mediation. There were also a few monks engrossed in work practice as well.   It was just so peaceful...if we only knew what craziness was going to be set before us beyond the gate to get back to the White Swan; we probably would have still be at the Temple. (No worries though, we arrived back safely at The White Swan in time for lunch and naptime, it was just a crazy 1/2 hour trying to find a taxi to take us back.)   Thanks for continuing to follow along on this amazing journey!!! ~dee, napping David, and a peacefully napping Ella!!!

Ella and her Man Servant have a conversation.

A Day Off.

Above are a few pictures of Shamian Island and the neighborhood we are staying (right next door to the US Consulate). Very Chinese Colonial and absolutely beautiful. Every morning everyone comes out for exercise, either Ti-Chi or badminton as well as a game much like hacky-sack.

We still get lots of looks, most are very friendly after you make eye contact and flash them a smile. Some just want to give Ella a very obvious look over.

We where taking a day to just relax, of course Ella choose to turn this into a: "How to handle a Rageing, Tired, Grumpy Toddler lesson" Day after we had a wonderful morning with her.

We are getting much better at it! I sort of feel like I'm in the Pit at NASCAR when we see a tantrum coming on. We can get her calmed in about 15 minutes now, definitely room for improvement to work on that time but we are up to the challenge. I imagine once language and communication become a non-factor we will really make headway.

Dee was able to get out for a nice and well deserved Massage after we got Ella down for a nap. Can't beat the price being it worked out to be around 15 dollars for a 45 minute body massage.

Thanks again for following, plan is to hit Six Banyon Temple tomorrow!

~Dave, Dee, and a tired Ella.

Xiangjiang Safari Park

Another wonderful family invited us to join them on a visit to the Xiangjiang Safari Park, which is about 40 minutes outside of the City of Guangzhou. The taxi ride as always was half the adventure! Not many places I know can turn a 4 lane highway into an 8 lane free for all.

The Safari Park came as a highly recommended place to visit while here, and we definitely pass on that recommendation to all the other families who will be heading this way!



It's touted as a children's Zoo, and it doesn't disappoint. Many... many... many baby animals with alot of places to feed every species you see from Giraffe to Monkey's.

As for the Zoo itself, it was very humanely put together with alot of space for them.



For those of you that know Dee well, you know how difficult it was to get this picture. I managed to talk her into getting this close. I was afraid if she got any closer she would be handing me Ella and go screaming thru the park.



A 2 year old just isn't old enough to know how cool this place is, though she did dig the Giraffe's and watching them being fed. I think in this picture she is telling Dad how totally awesome he is. It was something like: "Dad, your totally Awesome". You can see from Dee's look that she was in shock that Ella was able to pronounce and put together such a sentence. Poor Dee, Ella only says "Momma" to her.



I'll let you guess what she is thinking in this picture. But that is the: "You best evaluate your next option very closely because if you make the wrong choice I will let the park know about it" look that we get every so often.

Thanks again for reading!

~Dave, Deanna and Ella-bean

An Ella Song

Here is one of Ella's ditties. We can usually prompt a song by humming along, this one she just started belting out on her own as we where getting ready to go down to the pool.

All of our paper work is now complete. Her Passport is being processed and we should have her visa shortly. We now have 1 1/2 weeks to wait for our Consulate appointment. We definatly will need the time to bond more with Ella.

It's been a rough couple of days but so far all three of us have gotten thru them. She is starting to let me pick her up again, but only so I can hand her to Mommah :) We play lots of kissing games, she has started to feed us and herself, and she is starting to try to put on her own shoes.

She regresses every so often, but usually a nap fixes everything and we get to start over.

I'm trying to get Mommah to take a few hours to get a massage, she definatly needs a break. For now she is just out walking around to do some window shopping and reading in the quiet of the lobby while Daddy watches Ella nap.

Thanks again for following along! Can't wait to get home :)

~Dave, Dee and a napping Ella.

Elf and the Shoemaker

Do you have a Shoe Elf helper living with you?    When I got out of the shower last night David and Ella were chatting up a storm about the shoes in the shoe cabinet. Little did I know that we had an organizing elf in our midst? You must understand that an elf's organizing skills are vastly superior to just us mere humans.     You can clearly understand the how's and why's of Ella's shoes being out in front and only one to a pair at that...well of course it makes it easier to view what is most needed at the time. I mean c'mon an elf is a busy little person and does not have time to dilly dally amongst decisions of which pair of shoes to wear. If you pick out one from the pair, then of course you just grab the match from the back of cabinet. You can see from her position in front of the cabinet she is making such a decision and it isn't one that can be made lightly either.   So there you go. When you are looking for a pair of shoes in your closet and you seem to be befuddled as to finding it's partner, then you just need to thank you local Shoe Elf, because after all they are just trying to help us big people make decisions quicker and more logical than one could on their own.   ~dee, David, and Ella Elf

The Mommah/Daddah/Ella game with Floppy Hat.

Well at least it started out as the Mommah Daddah Ella game. Now she sort of just skips around. It started out with her just saying Mommah every time we would go down the hallway to our room. It evolved into this.

We are making alot of head way with her walking. She is getting much more confident going on her own and is starting to be able to get up on her feet on her own. Still is taking a bit of work. She doesn't have the strength yet to hold her sippy cup, not that I mind holding it for her :)

We had another melt down when we happened to give her a toy that her Nanny sent along with her. I wasn't here for the initial event, but it was a doozey. We are now just putting away all the toys and other reminders away for a while.

She is a happy chatter box though. She is VERY into shoes which Dee is very happy about. I'll post a video or pictures of her doing her Shoe inventory.

Tonight we go over more paperwork, but we should have the weekend off to do some site seeing. We plan on hitting a few of the local Buddhist Temples as well as seeing some of the outdoor markets.

~Dave, Dee, and Ella the Bella