Poppa and Granny

Man, I am so behind in posting on this blog. I have posted on the family blog, but not on the team blog. I will try to catch up. By the way, if you can't get enough of us, you can check out the family blog at www. hardinclan.blogspot.com.

Anyway, in February, my dad and step-mom (a.k.a Poppa and Granny) came to visit us in China.

We took a train to Beijing to meet them. It was a headache to get train tickets at that time of the year. We had originally planned on all of us taking the train to Hangzhou, but we could not get tickets, so we had to fly.

The train trip was pretty nice. We took "soft sleeper" so we had a small compartment all to ourselves. Eryn slept in the bed with me, but everyone else had their own beds.



This is Hallie reading the night time story to the kids. They are already in their pajamas.

Our train arrived in Beijing around 6 am. I was worried that the kids would not want to wake up, but they did great! I guess they were excited about being there.

We were in Beijing about a day and a half before Poppa and Granny arrived.

What did we do before they got there? We ate western food. Beijing has some nice places to get some food that we cannot usually get here in Hangzhou.



While in Beijing we ate Mexican food including crunchy tacos. We also had hot dogs one night. We drank Dr Pepper! I even let the kids have some.


While we were in Beijing we visited.....


The Great Wall,


Tienanmen Square,


and The Forbidden City.

We also introduced my folks to Chinese food and shopping. After 4 days in Beijing we flew home to Hangzhou.

While in Hangzhou we took them to tourist spots like West Lake and Hufeng Street. We watched fireworks on Chinese New Year. And we worshiped with Christians from two continents.

They got lots of hugs from the grandkids....

(We know the real reason they came!)

They also got to make cookies with the kids. Boy that was different! Cooking in our little toaster oven with ingredients that aren't quite the same is an experience.

We tried to show them a glimpse of our everyday life.

Right after we arrived in Hangzhou, I took my dad to the bus stop to meet Jon, Hallie, and Eryn ( we had taken a taxi, but they took the bus). As we stood there waiting, I thought, "woah! I am standing at a bus stop with my dad....in China!" It was a surreal feeling, like two worlds colliding.
I really enjoyed having them here, and the apartment seemed a little empty when they left. We can't wait to see them again this summer.