Beijing Day 4

I'm blogging from my phone today. It has a keypad but typing with your thumbs isn't very fluid. I find myself trying to keep a grip on my phone from slipping out from my hands. And I'm fighting the urge to type like I'm typing a txtmg.

We took Evan to the Montessori Kindergarten that my cousin Faye teaches at, for just a couple hours. He's been giving us his usual i need something else I can do speech when we're out. So we thought it be good for him to go run around with Faye and some kids his age. He had fun despite the usual pushing incidences between him and the other kids.

While Evan was with Faye, Mark and I took Careese with us to go eat hotpot for lunch. It was perfect to have on a cold day like today! We ordered the double pot, where you can have two different soups in the same pot, cooking at the same time. Glad we did that cause Mark's side, mahla, was way too spicy for my tastes buds. I guess I'm not Chinese enough to take it. hehehe

I was going to go to a market, near the hotel, that sells clothes and bags and stuff like that, and try haggling, but the kiddies were so cranky that I figured it was probably better for my sanity that they got a nap in. Especially, since we were going to church that evening to see Elder Oaks speak to the branch members here. Great timing for our trip!

Elder Oaks is a great speaker, and his talk touched on how we can know for ourselves, with commitment to God in our prayers, if the gospel was true. And it was also nice that he touched on how we should handle the current predicaments that the downturn of the economy has placed the global family in. Even though, it was tough listening to him speak while making sure the kids were happy and not making people around us unhappy, it was refreshing to hear. Makes me want to go back and read conference talks again. I was so excited to shake the hand of an Apostle for the first time!

Afterward, it seemed like everyone converged on Dairy Queen downstairs, including Mark. Then we went out to a late night Korean BBQ place. OOOOoooooooh Its been such a long time since I've had Korean BBQ. I need to find one in Japan! Surprisingly, even though we were at the restaurant till way late, Evan was being SO well behaved! It probably has something to do with my cousin Faye sitting next to him. One thing I've learned about traveling with young kids, be flexible and plan for downtime between things and always carry wipes. hehehe

Its our last night in this hotel. And I'm actually typing to you on my phone from the bathroom, Its huge in here! I seriously love this bathroom. I love the colors, I love the clean lines. I love the lighting, And I love the amazing views! The housekeeping lady must think I'm weird for dragging the chair and ottoman in here. hehehe but it's nice to hide out in here while the kids are napping.