Our Trip to Qing Zhou

As I've mentioned in previous posts, we had the awesome opportunity to go to our friends' hometown, Qing Zhou, last week.

The Chinese are beyond hospitable. 

They lavish their guests. 

They got us a room in a 5 star hotel {did I mention I took like 20 baths?! That was probably my favorite part of the trip}, took us out Every.Single.Meal, took us sight seeing and skiing.

We felt so blessed by their hospitality and love. 

But, man, we were stuffed!
Every meal they ordered at least 15 dishes.
One time we all got an individual steak plus all that was on the table!

Large parties are always served at round tables with a lazy susan in the middle.

Zachary and Justin's dad. He's trying to kiss Zachary.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is a pig head. Well, half a pig head.

Naturally, since Zachary was the guest of honor, he was served the pig's nose.

Zachary looks happy in this picture but he actually wasn't too happy about having to eat a pig's nose.
Look at how pleased they are in the background.

Something familiar! Fried okra. {with an Asian twist}

This was a red radish with sprinkles.
I always like my radish served with cup cake sprinkles. ;)

Super spicy fish.
Every meal, our table had at least 3 whole fish on it. 

We had a great time visiting their families. 

This is Justin's grandpa. 

He does professional Chinese calligraphy. 

Check out all his trophies. 

They are so proud of him.

He was so sweet and couldn't stop smiling. He even gave us a Chinese scroll he painted.

Justin and his grandpa. They're so funny in pictures. 

They rarely put their arms around each other. 

I had a great time holding this baby. 

I don't know if you can tell but this cutie was one fat baby! hehe. 

His leg was entirely mush. 

It took a while for him to warm up to this crazy, white person holding him.

But a few pictures later, we were in love. 

Jenny and her mother.

We of course had to check out the Qing Zhou museum.

Which was...interesting. We're not exactly museum type people.

{Unless it's a super awesome museum. Then, we're all for it & very museum type people.}

But, of course, we went, and found some interesting things. 

And they were super pleased and so proud to take us. So that was worth it.

From the Qing Dynasty.

Snow painted Chinese traditional building. :)

Pretty much every single Buddha had it's head missing. 

I have no idea why. 

Our favorite part of the trip was skiing! Can't you tell how excited I am?!

Zachary had  a terrible first time skiing experience in Taos, a few years ago. He was....horrible...at it. 

Poor guy fell down every 5 feet the entire 1 hour trek down the bunny hill.

But this time he did SO! I was so proud of him!  

We can't wait to go skiing on a real ski resort now!

We rented our skiis, boots and poles and were so pumped to get on the slope! 

{I say, slope, instead of slopes, because it was, in fact, one slope.} 

A bunny hill really. 

Unfortunately, we don't have any pictures of us actually skiing! Boo. 

I know. I know.

It's okay.

Wipe away the tears. 

It will just give us an excuse to visit the "5 star ski resort" we hear so much about in Beijing!

And that's our Qing Zhou trip in a nut shell. Or a blog post.

FYI, this darling girl, aka my sister, turned 1 this past weekend! 

She's precious. And growing up so fast. It's amazing & sad. Because I'm missing all of it!

She is the sweetest, happiest little girl. I'm so thankful for her.

She's a blessing & joy to everyone who meets her! I love her so much!

Happy 1st Birthday Sophie!! 

Oh, and you should probably enter this giveaway over at the lovely and stunningly, beautiful Kelsey's blog! And while you're there you should probably just stick around and read some posts. :)

You'll love Kelsey instantly!

Enjoy your day friends. 

Grace and Peace.

{This is how Zachary always says good bye. :) }