Chris left very early in the morning for some best man duties. A few hours later the toddler and I got up to get dressed and head over to the wedding venue.  We had to be there at 9am.
 When we arrived, they were handing out these flower and confetti sticks, which we were to set off when the bride and groom arrived. 
The couple arrived, confetti sticks were popped, and then we headed in to the venue. The first stop was this elaborate throne in a large foyer. They couple stopped so everyone could take photos. 
the wedding hall itself (photo from last night's rehearsal) was large and just one of MANY this facility had.
 Once everyone was seated at their dining tables, the ceremony began.
 You guys, they had a fog machine. A FOG MACHINE. 
After the fog cleared out, there was a tea ceremony with the parents, a bouquet toss, and then food was served!

They even had a procession of women dressed carrying the signature dish (I think) that was then later served at each table. It was delicious fish.

While food was being delivered, some performers came out for a small dance. It was very interesting to watch. 
 
Then, after a dress change, there was the arrival and carving of a goat, which was later served to guests.


 And they served the best yogurt I have ever had. One of the women was pretty sure it was yogurt they made there, and it was delicious.
The whole ceremony and lunch lasted several hours, but was over by 1pm. And it was amazing.  Quinn had a fantastic time running around with the other children, which let me take bites here and there of food.

Today is the first day of wedding festivities that we're attending. We switched hotel rooms, driving across town roughly 40 minutes and closer to the wedding venue for tomorrow. Once we were settled in we headed out to a big part that the bride's parents were putting on for the neighborhood.
 They had a giant tent set up, with a stage at the front, music playing and people having a great time.
 There were kids around and the little one had an amazing time playing with everyone.
The food was great. I loved trying all of the different foods.
I was amazed at how many performances they had.Magicians, singers, comedy routines, acrobats - they had everything.
When we moved from the wedding party to the wedding venue for rehearsal, the little one finally fell asleep. Which was good, since he needed to rest.

We decided to make today a quieter day. So we spent the morning playing in the hotel room with the toddler then walked a few blocks over to the Sanlitun international shopping area.

The air has been bothering me more and more but luckily both Chris and the little one have been unaffected.
A lot of the shops in the international shopping district were what you'd see at a high end mall in the United States. This store, however, is not. It was a cool crane-game store!

It was hot out and the toddler needed a nap, so we spent the rest of the afternoon back at our hotel room.
In the evening I headed out to Wangfujing Food Market, which was a few subway stops from where we were staying.
The alley was full of food stalls and small shops selling trinkets. It was busy and the smells were interesting. I'm glad to have gone, even if I didn't partake in any of the exotic food choices.

Today we hired a car to take us out to the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall. It's about 1.5 hours north of Beijing.
We opted to do the cable car and toboggan slide down. Both seemed to be a much easier way to navigate with a toddler.
 Quinn had an amazing time. He was slap happy the entire visit.
It was a little stressful, chasing him around and making sure he wasn't climbing on anything (which he kept trying to do).


  It was an amazing sight with an amazing view.
The way down is to either walk the stairs down or take the toboggan. So we took the toboggan, which was more fun that I thought it was going to be.

Today is our first full day in Bejiing. We're not fully adjusted to the time change, but we headed out early morning anyway to the Forbidden City.
Beijing's subway is amazing. And cheap. It was super easy to get around. It really helped that everything was also in English and color-coded. I really wish we were more serious about public transit in the states.
We were originally going to check out Tienanmen Square, but after seeing the line for the Forbidden City, we opted to just do that.
Purchasing our tickets was a little confusing (there is a special window for non-Chinese nationals), but once that was out of the way we were in the city. It's so much larger than photos really do it justice. There were so many side areas that we didn't even explore.
After we were done we headed to our hotel room to take a quick break. That turned into a long nap for Chris and sleeping nearly 12 hours for Quinn. All rest that was needed!

They feed you a lot on the plane. Like, 3 meals, and not small meals either.
Chris's friend met us at the airport and helped us navigate the subway and walk to our hotel. We landed a little after 3pm, which was 3am for the 3 of us.
He took us out for dinner at a nearby mall with a restaurant that serves delicious Xio Long Bao. Quinn didn't eat much, but Chris had some tasty soup with pork.

Today is the first day in a week-long trip to Beijing! Chris's best friend is getting married so we are heading out to do a little sight-seeing and attend the wedding.
Quinn did amazingly well on the planes. The flight from Detroit to Beijing is over 12 hours, and while he only slept for 4, he was very good natured the rest of the time while he was awake.
It's a really, really long time to be on an airplane. Before this the farthest I'd flown was to California.

Today is another day-long meeting. Those days always come with interesting and tasty food. Today's meal was a boxed lunch for Grand Traverse Pie Company. It was quite tasty (aside from the weird fixation restaurant have with slathering mayo on EVERYTHING).

The sun is shining and even though it's not quite 70 degrees, we headed out to get some ice cream anyway. You have to celebrate the sunny days, no matter the temperature.

Some delicious spices arrived today. Hooray for tasty cooking supplies!

We had a lot of fun making the RC car in the Nintendo LABO kit. The IR camera is impressive!

Escalators are fun.

I pulled out my old iPad and loaded up Costume Quest on it. A co-worker recommended it since it's Halloween themed and the toddler loves Halloween. He was not disappointed. He loved it!

It snowed again last night.

I'm hanging out in a conference room all week for a vendor meeting. At least the room is large so we're not all crammed in a tight space.

The snow and ice storm continues, so it's another day indoors. So far we've made things out of play-doh and sculpey, and we also made mini-volcanoes. A co-worker sent me a photo of her doing something similar with her son yesterday and I thought it was a great idea!
The snow and sleet has been off and on. Luckily we have power. There are number of people in the area who have lost theirs.

It's rainy, sleeting and eventually it started to snow. All in all a chilly Saturday.

We played Candy Land and video games. 
I also finally got around to assembling a Bare Conductive lamp for Quinn. The black dial in the lower right is a dimmer, each little spot makes the light brighter or dimmer. It's all held together with conductive paint, card stock, and a little light up board. Time will tell if he uses the light or not.