We spent this morning at the Archery Fields with Eric for his second round of competition.  Unfortunately, he was beaten by three points to kick him out of the running.  It was a bit disappointing.   But there's always 2012 London!  

The rest of the afternoon we spent at the Olympic Green - the Water Cube more specifically.  Here you can see the Bird's Nest and the Water Cube and the National Indoor Stadium in the distance, behind the fountains.  It's a HUGE area that you could spend days in.   We watched a few swimming events - one was the men's 400m medley, where a guy from China, with no arms,  swam faster than most of the other guys and won the silver medal!  It was incredible!  We also saw the women's 200m freestyle and watched the US take gold and silver!  It's pretty exciting being inside and seeing all the action.  All the cheering gets you pretty pumped up.

This was taken inside the Water Cube - it's water running down the inside of the walls.  Pretty cool stuff!

I liked this view of the Bird's Nest, just because it has pretty green stuff in front of it.  :) 

And, of course I couldn't forget to include a picture of the Olympic Ramp where I'm going to win the gold in the Wheelchair Speed Ramp!!! 

Day Three

                       Ok, since the first pictures I posted weren't so easy to see, I'll make these next ones bigger so you can see them better!  How's that?  :)  These are just pictures of some cool buildings around the city.  The Water Cube should be familiar to you.

                                                  I feel like such a fraud!  Remember my autograph signing?  Well, today a couple of girls came up and asked if they could get a picture taken with me (I'm a star! hee hee).  Pretty soon there was a crowd around us and everyone wanted to get a picture taken with me.....AAAGGHHH!  What can you do except smile and let them take a picture?  It's really embarassing.  Rachel just sits back and laughs.......We decided that if I'm going to be an athlete then I'd better have a competition - so we decided it would be Wheelchair Speed Ramp (who has the fastest time going down the ramps in a wheelchair.  Without running into anyone.)  I'll let you know how that turns out......

So now to the real athletes.....today was Eric's first day of elimination competition.  We spent the day at the Olympic Archery Field cheering him on.  Here are a few pics of him shooting.  It's really cool to watch him shoot with only one arm.  I can't even do that with two perfectly good arms!  He's trying to recruit me into taking up archery and going to the 2012 London Paralympics. (Hmmmmm.........maybe then I could give autographs legitimately.....it's a thought, isn't it?).  

Eric's competition finally came down to a tie breaker between him and a Korean guy (this guy beat him by one point in their last competition before the Paralympics).  Sweet revenge for Eric - he beat him by one point for the tie-breaker!  Which puts Eric in the next round of eliminations tomorrow and one

 step closer to a medal.   GO TEAM USA!!!!

  

Greetings from China!

    We're not in Kansas anymore Toto!  We made it through our first day in China.  After an EXCRUTIATING all night flight, we arrived at 5:30 in the morning to what looked like a beautifully serene foggy morning in Beijing, just barely making out the silhouettes of tall buildings in the distance.  It was like walking out of the airport into a misty dream.  But then we found out the misty fog was really a thick smog that rarely lets in any sunlight, no matter what time of day,  and it wasn't so dreamlike anymore.  But, besides the smog, Beijing is a beautiful city, they planted thousands of trees and flowers just for the Olympics and it's made everything so green.  

     We made our first foray into the city just after 11:00 this morning - what a riot that was!  The cab driver couldn't speak any English of course, so trying to tell him we wanted to go to the Olympic Village was a task in itself.   We were supposed to meet Rachel's husband Eric (he's my friend that is competing in the Paralympics) at a particular place in the Olympic Village, but it was gated off all the way around.  So the cab driver just dropped us off at a corner and we were going to find our way in.  As soon as we got out of the cab several Chinese people came up to me, holding out a notebook and a pen.  I was confused for a moment.  Then I realized  - they wanted my autograph!  They though I was an athlete!  

How funny is that!  I just smiled and signed their notebooks........what else could I do?   We then tried to find our way into the gated Olympic Village and discovered it's not so easy trying to fake your way in.  We found one entrance but we had to have a pass to get in so they told us to go around the corner to the next gate.  "Around the next corner" turned out to be a half hour hike around a soldier-guarded-security-camera fence until we came to the next gate, complete with gun-toting guards, with an itty-bitty sign that said "Guest passes".  Our athletes are well guarded, that's for sure!  I think Rachel was ready to shoot her husband at this point.   We spent the rest of the afternoon touring the Olympic Village with Eric introducing us to various athletes he knows from different countries.  It was way cool!   

     We tried to get over to the Bird's Nest and Water Cube about twenty minutes away but there were just too many people.  We'll have to try again another day.  

     Our trip back to the hotel was another driving adventure!  We barely made it back alive - the drivers here are CRAZY!!!!!!  Traffic itself is crazy.  When the light turns green everyone goes - cars, bicycles, and pedestrians all scramble into the intersection trying to see who can get through first.  I'm actually surprised that we didn't hit anyone - maybe just barely nicked a few.   But all in all it was a good day.  Can't wait to see what other adventures will come our way! 

Only five days left 'til we're off on our grand adventure!   But who's counting...... Packing for the trip is going to be the challenge - you take one suitcase of clothes and one empty suitcase - cuz you gotta have room for all the stuff you bring back!  

Ok, so I just have to brag - see how cute my little sis's are?!

Look - how cute!  The first twins look decidedly round.  

     

But wait.....what's that coming out of her belly already?  Could it be......? 

What caption would you put under this picture?

getting started

Ok, this is something completely new to me - but I thought I'd give it a try anyway. Since I'm not so good at writing letters and keeping the family informed on what's going on with my life, I thought this might be more fun. Not that there's a lot of really exciting stuff going on all the time, but once in a while I might have something I want to share with all of you. Like my upcoming trip to China! Since you can't go with me I figured this would be perfect to post pictures and experiences from the trip every couple of days. So we'll see how this works out. :) Stay tuned - I'll keep you posted!