Someone please turn on the A/C!

Today we went to the Chen's Family Temple and walked around there for about an hour.  It was built in the late 1800's and was an ancestral Temple of the Chen family.  The architecture was pretty fantastic.
It had rained in the morning, so the humidity was out of control.  Plus, the sun decided to come out (or as much as it does in China... it was still pretty hazy/polluted looking) which made it even more miserable.

Griff and his bud were deep in conversation about something

the front entrance

one very big 'front door'!

 a lot of people were sketching while we were there

always climbing on things he's not supposed to!

 the boys with their sister, and the boys' new friends with their sister

These American boys are always center of attention, but they didn't seem to mind today!

It POURED while we were just about to leave.  As we waited under cover, the boys thought it was the perfect time to run!

 soaked!

After we left the Chen Family Temple, we headed to the grocery store to get a few things.  Mainly, snacks for Harper since we can't keep enough in stock for her.  She's a machine when it comes to eating! 

One thing (out of many) that I do miss about the states, is the grocery store.  The store's here seem to have no reasoning behind where things are placed.   We were in the baby section looking for diapers, but there were none to be found.    I finally pulled a diaper out of our backpack and showed it to one of the workers there.  She kept pointing to the floor and I had no idea what she was trying to tell me.  It was like a crazy game of charades!  I almost started laughing because I wanted to say "Ok... first word.  Sounds like....  floor?" HAHA!!
She realized I had no idea what she was trying to tell me and she motioned us to follow her.
She took us to the escalator and took us downstairs.   I had no idea there was a downstairs!  We had already been on two floors, I didn't know there was a third.   I finally knew what she meant about pointing to the floor.
The next hurdle was to determine what size of diaper to get.  Since it was all in Chinese, it was hard to tell, and the lady who brought us down there didn't speak English. Another guy from our group had made his way down to the same aisle....after he also walked circles on the second floor looking for diapers.   Between the three of us, we finally got the sizes we need.... or so we hope!  

She acted like it was her first time in a shopping cart.  She wasn't quite sure about it.

As we were roaming around looking for things, we ran into our guide, Michael.  He was watching Tom and Jerry on one of the tv's on in the store.  Looks like a little girl stopped to watch too.

Waiting for our bus to come pick us up.... Harper is already bossing her brothers around :)

 Too cool to sit next to any of us, the boys claimed the back of the bus.

Home from the grocery store, and ready for a little mommy time out while Harper naps.  It's been a long time since I've seen a pull tab!

Once Harper was up from her nap, we went down to our friends room to celebrate their little boy's 4th birthday.  The boys have really become attached to him, and he really loves hanging out the 'the guys' as he calls them.   It was Harper's first birthday party.... as far as we know anyway.... and we ate cake, and then 'the guys' wrestled with the birthday boy for a while. 

We left the party and headed to the little outdoor playground at the hotel.  Harper LOVED the swings, but started to cry if it got too high.

We ran into a few from our group, so it was really fun to watch the girls somewhat interact with each other.  

Getting a drink after so much play time in the heat.

We're up again early tomorrow to head out to the zoo.  I've been to the zoo in these two weeks more than I have in the last couple of years!

I sure hope it's cooler tomorrow.....