Taking it easy

Today was a very relaxed day in Guangzhou. We woke up and ate breakfast then came back to the room to change the kids into their new outfits we bought yesterday for a group photo. Many of the families are dressing their children in traditional Chinese clothes, including us. We also bought clothes for Max, Sydney and Veronica. As expected, with 25 families it was borderline chaos to get it coordinated, but we did. Afterwards it was back to the room to change to street clothes and catch a cab to Shamain Island.

Surprisingly we all fit into one cab with Julie and the four kiddos in the back and I rode shotgun. It was a pretty quick ride and Emerson whimpered but didn't totally freak so that was an improvement. We picked up our chop at Jordans as well as some more things. For the record, chops are stamps with names, symbols, etc that are etched into stone. Not sure why they are called chops, but they are. We hit the first store that we visited yesterday, Andy's, and pick up more souvenirs. I think we may need an extra suitcase on the way home as some of the stuff is heavy and we are close on weight as it stands. We will see for sure when we get to Hong Kong. We stop by another store that we had make chops for each of the children and picked them up. They look awesome and have the child's Chinese zodiac symbol on the top. We then head over to the White Swan hotel to pick up a taxi to our hotel.

The kids are winding down and we head to the room for naps. Julie and I read for a while then catch some zzzzzs as well while Veronica snuggles with Julie and Shan-Shan sleeps in his crib. After we get up, we hang in the hotel room until dinner and head down to a restaurant called Food Street in the hotel and eat noddles with beef, Schezuan noodles and sweet and sour vegetables with tofu. We hit 7-11 and get more water before it is back to the room for the night.

Tomorrow we are to hang in the hotel room while our guides take our paperwork to the consulate and then we will be free in the afternoon. Sounds like more reading and sleeping is on the way. :)