Birk Adventures

Well, we're back on "this" side of the world again, after a long trip home. We were delayed leaving Hong Kong so missed our flight to Salt Lake from San Fran. Because of fires in San Fran the airport is running at much lower capacity and everything was backed up! There were 2 more flights to Salt Lake that day but we couldn't get on them. We ended up flying to Sacramento at midnight, "sleeping" in the airport, and flying home at 6 am. Needless to say, we were SO excited to get home. Adam was so great in taking care of Marian--he slept less than an hour the whole way home. Marian was a trooper and only threw one major tantrum (not bad for 33 hours of traveling). So now we're back and it's been great to re-immerse ourselves in our life--seeing family and friends, using our oven, eating brownies, not hand-washing our clothes, seeing all the babies we missed being born, having a door to shut when going to the bathroom, using our cell phones, not sleepi...

OK, so our internet is actually being really fast today so I have uploaded a ton of pictures! I'm trying to play catch up on the last couple weeks. But don't get burned out on all the pictures because you'll love the video of Marian doing "push-ups" at the end! To get started, here is the Great Wall of China!! It's kind of crazy to me that we've really been there. And yes, it's all that it's cracked up to be. Things don't just get named one of the 7 wonders of the world for nothing. Seriously, it's amazing how they built it--not only is it incredibly long but is built along the mountain ridges. I don't know if you can tell, but it got really steep in some places. Marian did a good job climbing and we got her an outfit that says "I climbed on the great wall of China." Kind of cheesy, but how many one year olds can boast that? A couple more random China pictures. This one if from the place we ate lunch at on our way to the Wall....

Sounds kind of romantic, doesn't it? The Forbidden City, also called the Imperial Palace, is where the emperors of China lived for 500 years during the Ming and Qing dynasties. It's HUGE because each emperor would add onto it. It's also an extensive museum where many Chinese artifacts are displayed. We walked through courtyard after courtyard lined with buildings and inside the buildings were museums. To see it all you would need 3 whole days or something. So we just enjoyed what we could see in an afternoon. Here is the famous Nine Dragon screen. Dragons are good luck in China. There are 9 because odd numbers represented masculinity or power and 9 is the highest single digit odd number. I just like the expression on this dragon. (It's the middle one.) This is the crown one of the empresses wore. We just had to get a picture. These people would have a heart attack in Utah if these mounds constitute "perilous hills." We needed to get back to the hotel in a hurr...

I have fallen behind in my blogging. It's kind of feast or famine with me it seems. Anyway, I fell behind because of our fabulous trip to Beijing! The Chinese government blocks blogs so we could not access our blog there or anyone else's. (I guess it's part of their strict media control.) We went for a week and 2 of those days Adam had a Law & Religion Symposium. I actually did really well getting around Beijing with just Marian and me. Most the signs were in Chinese and English, which was great. The challenge was that no one spoke English, whereas in Hong Kong, almost everyone speaks at least some. Anyway, it was great when Adam's meetings were over and he could communicate. We saw the major tourist attractions and also talked to some American/church member attorneys practicing international law there. That was very helpful in giving us a realistic view of what life is like for them. It is definitely not for the faint of heart. It sounds like 70-80 hr weeks are no...