Cole, Jocelyn, Suzy & Sophie

Cole and I had the amazing opportunity to go to China together this year. We wanted to take a trip together before baby #2 arrived. Cole has always wanted to visit China, so we jumped at the chance to go. Although, it was a hard trip for me being pregnant and being SO FAR away from Suzy, we had a great time. I will always remember this trip and the time we had together,

We started out our trip in Beijing. We stayed at an amazing hotel, thanks to my travel agent perks. We were able to two sections of the Great Wall of China. The Baddling section, is absolutely breath-taking. It was a section of the wall that has been restored to how it would have looked when it was first built. The views were amazing and it was fun hiking around and seeing all the interesting details. It was a very surreal feeling knowing that we were on the Great Wall of China.

We also were able to visit an unrestored section of the wall called the Simatai section. This was my favorite day of the trip. At the bottom of the wall they have now built a replica of an ancient Chinese water town. It had just opened up after being built for years. They actually said we were the first Americans to see it. The little town was amazing and so beautiful. After walking through the town we took a gondola to the top of the mountain to the wall. After the gondola, we still had to hike quick a ways to get to the wall. It made us really think about the Chinese people who built this section of the wall. Hiking and carrying all the stones and brick up that steep mountain would have been so hard. It was really interesting to see this unrestored section of the wall. Parts of it were crumbling and falling apart, however it still had such great detail and architecture. We felt so lucky to be able to see this amazing part of the world.

In Beijing we were also able to see the Ming Tomb, the Summer Palace, the Forbidden City, Tianamen Square, eat at an amazing Peking Duck restaurant and shop at lots of little local shops. Beijing is a crazy place but we had a great time exploring there.

After Beijing, we then took a quick flight to Xian to see the famous Terra Cotta Warriors. We were only in Xian for a few hours but we managed to tour the museum of the Terra Cotta Warriors and go to a little shop where they make replicas of the warriors. It was amazing to see in real life.

We quickly jetted off again to Guilin. Guilin is such an amazingly beautiful place. Very green, huge rolling hills and full of rice fields. We took a boat ride down the river and were able to get great views of the beautiful green hills and landscapes. Our boat ride ended in a little town called Yang Shou. This is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. We loved strolling through the local markets and doing a little shopping. They are famous for this special pepper mix that we saw many of the local women making on the sides of the road and selling. We had such a great time.

What an unbelievable trip of a lifetime. We are grateful we got this chance to travel the world together.

Baddling Section of the Great Wall of China