We had a lazy day today, sleeping in (as late as the girls would allow) and then heading down to a late breakfast. After that we went back up to the room and all the girls seemed to find things to do that kept them busy! Some were building Lego’s, some reading, some writing, it was just very relaxed. My friend, Bob Hamm, set up Skype to allow me to watch the OSU-Baylor game, and we just kind of kicked back for awhile. Kelly and three of the girls went out on an errand to exchange some jade bracelets I had purchased and Britt, Leah, and I stayed at the hotel watching the game.

After Kelly returned, we went out for a quick lunch and headed down to a park that is not far from the hotel. Riley wasn’t too happy with this plan. She is fine in the room and is OK traveling places, but really doesn’t like to walk anywhere. She would much rather just sit in the hotel room! However, we are not a “sit in the hotel room” kind of family, so we drag her around, much to her dismay.

My friend, John Williamson, told me about a pizza place that is right around the corner from the hotel down one of the side streets. Funny how you stay on the main road and you don’t know what you are missing! Just one block off the main road is a really nice, quaint little neighborhood that is thriving with various restaurants and bars. I enjoyed just walking around this area as it was much more peaceful that walking along the busy roadway.

This little place reminded Kelly of a place close to our hotel in Vietnam that we frequented.

As we got a little closer to the park, I found several new and exciting restaurants that we might try with the kids. Not …

Entering the park, the clouds started to look a little ominous. We were hopeful that the rain would hold off until we had a little time to explore.

It did not. It began to rain just as Leah started going up the ramp to an area we wanted to see. Kelly had to run down and get her as the rain started to fall!

We ended up standing in a covered area with a bunch of other people for about the next hour as the heavens opened and it poured down rain!

Obviously, whatever was on this structure was important to this guy because he was out there filming it in the rain with his expensive smart phone getting all wet.

People found many ways to entertain themselves while it rained. Some practiced their ballet.

Some played games.

Some watched people play games.

Some danced.

Some hid.

Some experimented with taking pictures.

Some got and gave massages.

Some fixed their hair.

Some made a run for it.

Some wrote on the ground with rainwater.

That was actually kind of cool. The guy let Leah and Ali try their hand at using this large brush. Leah did Chinese characters.

While Ali did a giant sunflower.

The guy even started giving lessons to another little boy that was there.

Some sang and played instruments.

Actually, three different groups were singing and playing instruments, which was almost enough to drive you crazy. You can see in this picture that the singer has a headset on and an amp with a speaker on her hip. EVERYONE has one of these, singers and musicians alike, all of them set on 11 (because that is louder than 10). That makes a LOT of noise!

Some practiced their martial arts.

Leah thought she would mess with Kelly a little bit and started running her wheel chair right up to the edge of a step!

Kelly couldn’t take the stress so she went ahead and rolled her down to the next level.

During this time, Riley decided to distance herself from the family and sulk a little, mentioning that she had warned us about the rain and was, ultimately, correct.

Unfortunately for her, we would rather spend time out in the rain just being with each other than sitting in a hotel.

I will just throw this one in because I like it.

The rain lightened up a little, so we decided to make a run for it!

We saw another family that is staying in the hotel across the street making the same run back to the hotel and the girls called out to the husband with a term they use for him (and at times Kelly and me) that loosily translated means “older person”. They don’t appear to use it with distrespect and they keep trying to convince us that it isn’t a bad thing. I am not sure that I believe them.

The arrival back to the hotel again brought about a tear-fest, although I will say that through it all Jessie was a rock! No tears at all, and once one of them starts crying it tends to go downhill! Riley had her biggest cry yet and then Leah became upset when we had her come into the “living area” of the hotel room and play a game with us. It is all part of the process and it helps that we (more Kelly than I) lived throug this with Ali. As with bleeding, all crying stops eventually.

Tonight Brittany and I went out and got pizza from the place the John Williamson suggested. On our way out of the hotel we ran into a wedding in the lobby! At first I thought it was Chinese prom, but Britt set me straight.

As we sat at the restaurant waiting on our order, i took a few shots

The pizza was good, the crying stopped, and Brittany opened up a hair salon using Riley as a model. Her hair is VERY long and isn’t that thick, so Britt is able to work some magic with it. I told Riley earlier today that I loved her hair, and she asked me if that meant that I didn’t like Brittany’s. I told her I liked Britt’s also, but I really liked hers! There are other things about Brittany that I like a lot. She seemed OK with that.

Early to rise tomorrow morning as we have to get all these girls up and ready and fed before the van pulls out at 7:30AM! We are now looking at the down hill portion of this trip and the next several days should move quickly! We are believeing in positive outcomes for Jessie’s chest x-ray tomorrow.

Cameron