We're back in Arizona...and barely surviving!

I don't know if anyone will keep reading this now that our exciting trip is over, but I thought I would let everyone know I made it home safe. We left Beijing at 9:00pm Friday night and sat crammed in a plane, with NO empty seats, for 12 full hours. Luckily, I was able to sleep some, but the worst part was having to smell the chinese food they served on the plane. I will NOT be eating chinese food for a very long time.

We landed in LAX at 6:00 pm, Friday night. After a major hassle with getting Patricia's wheelchair off the plane and having a heated discussion with a Mexican Paralympian (in Spanish) who wouldn't get out of Patricia's wheelchair, we finally got through immigration and customs and were saved by Jennie in her silver minivan. I will never complain again about LA traffic...the streets were so calm after what we'd just experienced in Beijing!

Because we had just slept 8-9 hours on the flight, we decided to go ahead and drive home...at least that way when we finally did get tired, we would get to sleep in our own bed! I got home around 1:45 am and after giving Eric a kiss, I ran in and got my, not so little anymore, boy out of bed. I gave him a big hug and just held him. I don't think he totally understood I was home and after a minute, he pointed to his crib. I slowly gave him up and let him go back to sleep. It was soooo good to be home.

Since then, all I've been trying to do is adjust back to Arizona time. It is KILLING me. I stayed awake all of Saturday, crashed that night and then didn't get out of bed all day Sunday. I tried sleeping Sunday night...did okay from 12-4, but could not go back to sleep after 4 am. I taught preschool yesterday and managed to stay awake until 8:30 pm...but again was up again at 4am this morning. Not even Tylenol PM is helping. Eric is even worse off than I am. I think he came home with a little bit of a cold, which is making him achy and even more tired. But he too can't sleep through the night...he's usually up by 3:30. Hopefully we'll adjust soon...it's definitely not fun!

Everyone asks me, "Was it wonderful?" It was WONDERFUL and AMAZING. I am so glad I went, but I am also SOO glad to be home. Being gone for two weeks was just long enough to do what we wanted, but then just long enough to appreciate being home!

Street Market

Patricia thought we couldn't leave Beijing without seeing the Street Market. You know, the place where they serve all the crazy and disgusting things on a stick...sea horses, silk worms, honey bees, centipedes, star fish, scorpions, etc. It's only open at night, so around 5:30 tonight, we headed down there. It is definitely NOT a place where pregnant people should go. The smell was just as bad as the sight of the food. I was very squeamish the entire time. Patricia was approached by a guy selling fried bananas. He convinced her it was good and she actually bought it. She bit into it, and there wasn't a banana, so we figure they must have mushed it all up and put it into the dough they fried. She said it was good and sweet.







Our tour guide, Lin, was actually the one who showed us where it was. It was on the same day we had gone to the silk factory and the factory guide was telling us all about how silk worms are a delicacy here. So I asked Lin if he'd ever tried silk worms, and his reply was "No, I'm just normal person." Hehe, I'm a normal person too! :)

Around the corner from the Street Market is a street that is closed off to cars and it's full of shops. Kind of like an outdoor mall. We were able to find a KFC for dinner...shocking I had an appetite at all after what I had just seen. We walked around for a bit and then also found a Haagen-Dazs. We were super happy. I have to say I have loved finding ice cream places here. I think I've had some sort of ice cream almost every day here. I don't know if it's because it's something familiar from home, or if I'm going to be craving it the rest of the pregnancy. Probably better that it's not a craving!

I really took it easy this morning. I've been sleeping a lot, which is surprising since my bed is harder than a rock (Kellie and Bill can confirm that) and my hips/back hurt so bad after lying down. But what else can I do...I'm SOOO looking forward to my nice big, soft bed.

Patricia and I went down to the spa this afternoon. All I wanted was a manicure and she wanted a pedicure. They took her in one room and me in another. My manicure ended up being a nightmare. I am already hesitant to go into manicure places in the USA because the girls are all oriental and I never know if they are going to understand what I want. Well, take that and now be in an oriental country! She really didn't have a clue what I wanted. After trying explain that I wanted a french manicure, to which she told me no, and then trying to pick a color from the very small selection, to her looking at my nails and me having to explain to take off the clear coating that was already on there...we finally got underway. It was a very basic manicure...and she had to redo a nail right at the end that smudged the instant I had to sign the receipt...oh well. It was something to do. Patricia on the other hand got a 60 minute foot massage with her pedicure. I was jealous.

Tomorrow we are headed home! We leave the hotel at 5:00pm and will hopefully be in the air for a 12 hour flight by 9:00pm. I finally let it hit me that I get to go home and started getting so homesick, especially to see my little boy. I haven't even been able to call home while I've been here because I knew it would be too hard on me emotionally. So I can't wait to be home and hold him. I'll see you soon, Bubba!

Closing Ceremonies

Closing Ceremonies was AMAZING tonight. I feel so lucky that I was able to be there to watch it in person. If you have some time, you should check it out on universalsports.com. Beijing has done an amazing job putting these whole games together. The thousands of volunteers were so friendly and helpful, everything was so organized and clean, and their ceremonies were amazing. I was literally touched tonight and just sat in awe in my seat. Unfortunately, because of where we had to sit, we were under an overhang and Patricia wasn't able to very many good pictures. But I highly recommend you checking it out.



The only part that was kind of disappointing is that the athletes didn't parade around the stadium. They were ushered into 1 of 4 entrances, and then their seats were right near their entrance so I wasn't able to see Eric at all tonight. One of the entrances was right by where we were sitting, but he didn't come in that one. Oh, well.








This morning Patricia and I were super lazy. I think all my activities are finally starting to catch up with me. All I wanted to do is sleep! We made it down for breakfast, but then came back up and I took a 2 hour nap! We ate a late lunch before we headed down to Bird's Nest for the ceremonies.


Tomorrow, we are going to sleep in, probably even going to skip breakfast and eat some of things we have in the room. Then we have talked about trying out the spa here in the hotel. Hopefully it will be a nice day of relaxation.


Eric flies out tomorrow. I know he's excited to come home...it's been 3 long weeks for him. I know that Logan is just as excited to have his daddy home too.

Day of Shopping

Today was a day full of shopping. Eric was able to meet us at our hotel today, and he experienced how crazy taxi rides can be as he felt like he was taken in circles and charged way more than our normal rate. It's so frustrating. After he got here, we went to a shopping market, different than the one Patricia and I accidentally ran into last week. We had heard this one wasn't quite a busy, or the salespeople quite as pushy. So we got in our taxi and headed down there. It was a lot nicer, and although the salespeople tried to stop you to look at their things, it wasn't quite as bad as the other one was. We were able to get a lot of things we were hoping to purchase while in China, and Eric was the master barterer, although he wouldn't say he was. They always start out so high, and we just have to remember to start out just as low. We were there for about 2 1/2 hours and then we decided to go get something to eat.

The other night on our way home from the US Embassy, Patricia and I saw a Pizza Hut and a Baskin Robbins. We knew it wasn't too far from where we were, so we got in taxi went there. I have to say, the pizza was DELICIOUS! It tasted so good. And then of course, we had to go get ice cream from Baskin Robbins. It was a great day!

This picture is for you, Vickie! :)

After that, we came back to the hotel for a bit so I could crash before Eric and I went to Tiananmen Square together. Eric just wanted to see it and say he'd been there, and since it's only about a 10 minute walk from the hotel we decided to head down. On our walk there, a Chinese guy walking alongside us started talking to us. He is an English teacher in Shanghai and was here on an exchange with other teachers from Beijing. He talked to Eric about the Paralymics, and what we've seen and done. It was then that we told him we were going to the square and he informed us that it was closed for the day! What??? We were bummed. I guess they have it all closed off for a firework show they are doing tomorrow night in conjunction with the closing ceremonies. Dang it. We went ahead and walked down to the square so Eric could see some of it, he took some pictures, although it was really cloudy and hazy today. Then we stopped in some of local souvenir shops on the street and decided to head back before it got too late. All of a sudden though, the sky turned completely black and the wind started to blow, and before we knew it we were caught in a thunderstorm. Luckily we made it back before it downpoured, but it's been a crazy storm all night.

After that Eric headed back up to the Athlete Village and Patricia and I relaxed in the hotel by watching a movie. Tomorrow night is closing ceremonies. It's crazy to believe our trip is coming to a close. Patricia and I were just talking today about how quickly its all gone by. Don't get me wrong, I will be completely excited to go home, hug my boy, sleep in my nice soft bed, eat chips and salsa, etc...but overall, this trip has been amazing.

I was able to download some pictures from Eric's camera today, so here's another picture of me on the Great Wall. This is just before you get to the 2nd guard tower. You can already see how high up we are, and we went even further, making it to the 3rd guard tower. What a crazy experience. Fortunately for me, I am not too sore today. I only feel it if I'm going down stairs or a ramp (go figure!). Maybe my 1 hour hot bath last night really helped!

This is a another picture from Eric's camera that I took yesterday of Eric eating at the local restaurant. See we have proof! He actually ate Chinese food! Don't let the chopsticks fool you though, that was the only bite he used them with. The rest of the time he used the fork...cheater!

The Great Wall

Lin took us to the Great Wall today! Oh my is it GREAT! This is us at the bottom of it. Patricia stayed back knowing she's never be able to do it on crutches, so Eric and I decided to see how far we could go. Lin took us to a part of the wall that isn't a tourist part, mostly just locals. He said that there aren't as many steps up, but that makes the wall very steep. I would go about 10-15 steps and have to rest. The steps are not equal in height. Some are very short, others are quite high. I was lucky I have long legs, but man did we get a workout.

Every so often up the wall, there are guard stations. We made it up to the 3rd guard station, which in the picture is the one on the top right next to the two trees. There was probably one more station we could have gone too, but we were both quite tired and knew we still had to make it down. It took us 2 hours to get up and about 30 minutes to get back down. By the time we got to the bottom, my legs were shaking and felt like jello.

This is a picture of Eric and I (not a very attractive one of me...but I had just climbed the great wall!) at the point of the wall where we were done. The guard tower in the picture was the next one...we decided against it. :)

After the Great Wall, Lin took us to another local restaurant. We were all worried how Eric would do with the food, especially him. He had a couple of granola bars in the van before we got there just in case. The food was similar to yesterday, but not quite as good. The chicken today was like a tiny spicy and it was really good. There was also a pork that was good, but not a lot of it. It was the only thing Eric would eat, so he ate most of that and Patricia and I enjoyed the rest. I was just proud he tried some things. With both the chicken and the pork, he said it would be better wrapped in a tortilla. Hmmm, is he from Arizona? :)

After we ate, we got a tour of a jade factory that is attached to the restaurant. It was really cool to see how they carve the jade. Everything there was really overpriced, and we are hoping to find some better deals at the silk/pearl market tomorrow. At least there you can barter. Lin said all the jade there is guaranteed, so that made me feel a little better about buying from there.

Next we went to the Summer Palace. A 700 acre park with a huge lake in it that was built for the Emperor and his family to live at in the summer. It was beautiful. We even got to take a dragon boat from the end of the park back to the beginning, which was nice to cut out some walking!

Lin took us back to our hotel and I crashed! I went and soaked hot water in tub for an hour! Patricia and I have just hung out here tonight taking it easy. It's been a GREAT day!

You Pick It, You Die

Today we took our tour of Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City and the Tower to Heaven. All through our tour, our guide was talking to us about the sacred nature of everything. Then we came across these pomegranate trees. I said, I bet we can't pick those. He said "You pick, you die". Literally. You would be executed. How crazy is that! We loved our tour, and we love our guide. Oliver Lin...what a great guy and an even better tour guide.


The Forbidden City is amazing. The architecture is unbelievable. Lin told us a lot about the history of the buildings, the emperors, and everything else that goes along with it. It's one big courtyard after another with the Emperor's palace right in the middle. All the different courtyards act as protection and there's even a mote that goes all the way around the square.

Considering all the stairs, the area was pretty well wheelchair accessible. Lin told us they had done all of that for the Paralympics. Patricia even got to ride a stair climber! It was pretty cool! :)

Just as you are leaving, there is a garden for the Emperor. It's full of rocks they took from the bottom of a lake, and then they pieced all the rocks together with sticky rice...yes, sticky rice!

Here's a picture of the rocks that are all pieced together. But I also had to put this on here because we thought this little boy was the cutest little thing ever.

After we exited the Forbidden City, we had lunch at a "local restaurant". Can I just tell you how scared I was. I don't consider myself to be a super picky eater, but I just didn't want anything too exotic. Lin took us to the Wahaha Restaurant. It was huge (4 stories) and absolutely beautiful. He ordered food for us, made sure we were settled and then took off. The first thing they brought us was actually really good, some kind of yummy orange chicken (even better than Panda Express!) :) the next two...not so much (some sort of soup and then eggplant) and then the rest was fabulous. There was a plate of cabbage with some sort of vinegar flavor, and then shredded pork and carrots in a soy sauce. I was one happy girl. For once since being here, I was full and it wasn't because of McDonald's! I even ate the whole dinner with chopsticks!

Here is Patricia with our spread. From left to right, going clockwise: watermelon for dessert, the cabbage, the yummy orange chicken (see there's not much left!), the eggplant (a lot left), the pork and then the soup. It was great!

After lunch we went to a huge park with the Tower to Heaven in the middle of it. This is a place where the Emperor comes twice a year for sacrifices and to pray for the crops in the spring and then again during the winter solstice. The park itself was beautiful, full of cypress trees. And then the Tower to Heaven was amazing. It's a big round building and Lin told us it was built without using one nail. So cool.

After seeing the Temple of Heaven, Lin took us to a silk factory. It was crazy to see how a little moth can make silk and then what they do with it. They stretch it to make clothes and quilts. Patricia was really impressed and got a silk quilt, a silk quilt cover and pillowcases...all for only $400! She can't wait to go home and put in on her bed.



We came back to the hotel, I got to take a quick nap before we took a taxi down to the US Embassy where we were meeting the team for a dinner with the Marines. They were BBQing for us...YUM! Two good meals in one day! They had chicken and ribs, with baked beans and potato salad. It was so nice to be around people that all spoke English and eat American food. They even had a foosball table, and of course I lost to Eric twice, but I did beat him once!

Oh the Mobs...of People

I know I say this everyday, but I CAN'T get over the number of people here. If I thought the Olympic Green was crowded before, I was proven wrong today. I'm not kidding when I say that I waited in a MOB of people for 40 minutes at McDonald's tonight for dinner. Oh the things we will do for the comforts of home. You should have seen it. It was insanity.

Patricia and I took it easy again this morning, and then our routine followed much the same as yesterday. We went up the archery field to watch one of Eric's teammates compete and see the medal matches. Then we took the bus down to the Olympic Green where we finally got our McDonald's. Then we were lucky to have Eric meet up with us and we all went to the Indoor Stadium to watch the USA women's wheelchair basketball team compete against Australia in the Semifinals. That was a lot of fun. The whole time were were on the Olympic Green, Eric just kept commenting on all the people and that we should take a picture...um, we have every night we've been there, he's just not experienced it yet. I call it my sea of black hair because I'm taller than everyone so when I look out, it's all I see! :) It took Patricia and I quite awhile before we could hail a taxi tonight there were so many people also waiting for one. Finally we got one and got back to the hotel around 10:00pm.


Tomorrow we have our first tour day. We are going to the Forbidden City and the Tower of Heaven. I'm sure I'll have lots of pictures to share. But for now, here's a couple of Eric and I!



























I just had to throw in a picture of the MOBS of people. Can you see what I'm talking about? This is outside the National Stadium. It also happens to be cool picture of the moon and the flame. Thanks Patricia for taking such great pictures! I love your camera!

More Walking Around Beijing

Patricia and I decided to take it easy this morning. We ate breakfast a little later than usual, came back up to rooms and watched some Paralympic events on TV and read the China Daily (a newspaper in English). We also decided to walk around our hotel a little to see people in their everyday life and some less busy streets. I even snuck in about a 20 minute nap before we got up to head to the archery field to watch some of Eric's teammates compete.

It was fun to spend the afternoon with Eric and watch some archery matches. I even got to be famous for a minute. Someone came up and asked to take Patricia's picture. Then they realized I was cut out of the picture (no biggie to me!) but they decided they needed one with just me too then!

After the archery competitions were over, we headed back down to the Olympic Green because we had tickets for track and field in the Bird's Nest. We took the same bus line we did yesterday but this time we found the McDonald's on the Olympic Green. It was on the opposite direction that we went yesterday. So when I said the Olympic Green was huge yesterday, that was only the half of it! We finally made it to the McDonald's (YAY!) and then walked all the way back to the Bird's Nest. We got in and couldn't believe how full it already was. That place was packed! By the time we were ready to leave, it was dark outside so we got some cool night time pictures.

We are exhausted tonight after all our walking. Last night was the first night I actually slept through the night. I don't know if it's because I'm finally adjusting to the time, or if I was just tired enough, or the help from the Tylenol PM, or all of the above. I used to wake up around 3:00am and not be able to fall back asleep for almost 2 hours. I'm sure I'll sleep good again tonight!

Here are some of my favorite night pictures from tonight. Sorry Logan that mommy isn't in any of them. I'll make sure to take one of me and daddy tomorrow.

Isn't it just beautiful! One thing I can't get over is the shear amount of people everywhere. The Bird's Nest was completely full, I'm sure there was just as many in the Water Cube and probably in the Indoor Stadium as well...not to mention the thousands just wandering around. It's very overwhelming!

A Very Unfortunate Loss

Eric shot his heart out today, and he shot a 114, only dropping 6 points. The bad part is that John Stubbs decided to shoot a Paralympic world record during the match that Eric had to face him. He shot a 117. That is almost unheard of and Eric was eliminiated. :( It was heartbreaking, but very satisfying knowing Eric shot his best today.

He obviously is very bummed. Not necessarily because of his loss today, but because he didn't shoot as well as he wanted to in the ranking round, making him face Stubbs early on. I was able to see him for a bit afterwards and we just embraced for a long time. He wanted me to make sure everyone knows how much he's appreciated your support, both emotionally and financially. This really has been a once in a lifetime opportunity and we BOTH are so lucky to be here and share this together.

After Eric was done competing, Patricia and I decided to get adventurous! We found a bus that goes to different Paralympic venues, and we wanted to go to where the Bird's Nest, Water Cube, and Indoor Stadium are. We had tickets for the swimming event at the Water Cube at 5:00pm and the bus dropped us off around 12:30. We walked down the streets a little while trying to find a place we recognized to eat. We finally found another Starbucks and ate there. We still had tons of time to kill, so we walked the square with all the venues. It's huge and there were SOOO many people. I don't know how they can have 3 major venues all together like that and not have major congestion problems.

This is a picture of Patricia in front a huge river that they were doing a water show in. On the left is the Bird's Nest. The building with the arch on the right is the Indoor Stadium and just left of the tall tower is the Water Cube. You'll probably recognize the tall "squiggly" building that you saw on all the broadcasts of the Olympics.

Here's a good picture of the Bird's Nest, and you can see the torch buring.

The Water Cube

We had another frustrating taxi ride this morning...argh!!!! The taxi cab driver took us all the way east and around on the outer city loops. 45 minutes and $87RMB later...(our usual trip has cost us $38RMB). We were late getting to the archery field and the stadium was filled, but oh well. What can you do when you are in a foreign country.

Two things I forgot

I forgot to mention two things yesterday. One is that Eric will be shooting at 10:45 am today, which is 7:45 pm Arizona time.

The next thing is another funny "Patricia is famous" story. After Eric was done shooting, he had some other teammates competing in the other stadium. So he went down to watch the compete, while we stayed up top on a major walkway where we could just watch the giant scoreboard. When everyone was done shooting, Eric came back to meet us and all these people began filing out of the stadium. It didn't take too long before a Chinese person spotted Patricia and asked to have their picture taken with them. What was even funnier than all the times before was that Eric, the real athlete, was standing right there next to her! :) Then of course, when one person is getting their picture taken, everyone walking by thinks, hey she must be famous, so they stop and want to take a picture too. I think in just a matter of a minute, we all had our picture taken with Patricia and some random Chinese person about 5 times! Eric and I just laughed, and Patricia said, next time that happens, you need to get a picture of me so I have proof that I'm really famous. We are trying to come up with an alter-ego for her! We've got to make it good! :)

HE WON!

For all of you dying to know how today went, Eric won! It was with dramatic fashion, so let me tell you all of the details.

Eric shot against a guy from South Korea, who beat Eric in the bronze medal match in Korea at the World Championships, so I knew Eric would be ready for revenge. They entered the stadium and they shoot 12 arrows, 3 at a time. After the first end, Eric was up by 2 points. The second end, the Korean gained two points so they were tied. The 3rd end, they tied and the 4th end the scoreboard showed us that Eric won by one point on the very last arrow! He had shot a 10 and the Korean had only shot a 9. We erupted into cheers holding up our flags and barely able to breathe and stop from shaking. That was the most stressful thing I have ever experienced. I don't know how Eric does it. He waved at us, all of us in the stands collapsed in our chairs and tried to catch our breath.

This is Eric smiling up at us after he won the match!

WAY TO GO, ERIC!

We start packing up and then all of a sudden over the loudspeaker we hear the announcer say that Hyun-Ju and Bennett will be competing in a tie breaker. We were like, HUH???? Sure enough on the scoreboard they had changed Eric's 10 to a 9 and they were tied again. The officials had to go get Eric who was at the practice field, all ready to take off his equipment. We again collapsed in our chairs, but this time in disbelief.

In a tiebreaker, they shoot one arrow. Highest score takes all. So after the first tiebreaker end, they both shot a 9! Tiebreaker round two. Hyun-Ju's arrow went off first and he shot an 8...I knew Eric could beat that, and he did with a 9!!! Again, we erupted into screams, Eric won TWICE! :) We knew it had to be over now, and thank goodness it was!

VICTORY IS EVEN SWEETER THE SECOND TIME AROUND!

We were able to go down and see Eric right after he finished the tiebreaker. It was so great to just hug him and tell him congratulations. Tomorrow he will face the #1 ranked guy from England, John Stubbs. We know he can beat him and Eric is ready to get revenge on him as well, since Stubbs took the gold in Europe, when Eric came home with the silver. It will be another exciting event, I'm sure of it. I will be gone most of the day because after we watch Eric shoot, Patricia and I have tickets in the Water Cube to watch swimming. That's should be a fun even to. So if you want to know results before I'm able to post on the blog, you can check on http://en.paralympic.beijing2008.cn/ and the results are listed there. Again, keep him in your thoughts and prayers!

We were able to spend most of the day with him today as he took Bill and Kellie around the Athlete Village. It was an absolutely beautiful day today, the sky was blue and we could actually see the sun...I even got a little sunburned on my face. The rain yesterday helped clear out some of the smog. You'll see a big difference in the pictures from our window out over the front of the hotel compared from the first day we were here. You could see for forever today. The moon is shining brightly into our room tonight, and it's just been beautiful.

Patricia and I had another fun cab experience today. We had to go to a hotel by the Water Cube to get the tickets to watch Eric compete. The taxi dropped us off in front of a hotel, we walked in and I headed into the elevator to go up the 5th floor where there was the suite. The doors shut, I pushed the 5 button, but nothing happened. I did it again, nothing. I went to the other side of the elevator and pushed that button, nothing. It was only then that it said, insert your hotel key to activate the elevator. I was literally stuck in the elevator. None of the buttons worked. I waited, hoping someone else would come along and the elevator would open. No luck, I ended up having to push the emergency button and asking someone to come open the door for me. Before they could, the elevator took me up to the 10th floor. At least I was able to get out! There was a janitor guy there and I asked him where the stairs were to go down and he looked at me like I was crazy. He obviously didn't speak english. So he took me to a room where there were several hotel workers and a lady came out and told me that there weren't any suites on the 5th floor. So I got out the address and showed it to her, and she told me I was in the wrong hotel. The one I wanted was a 5 minute walk down the road. So I went back downstairs, got Patricia and started our 5 minute walk, but never seeing the hotel we were looking for. We got all the way down to another corner, asked a military guy on the corner, he told me to cross the street and it would be around the corner. We crossed, but still didn't see anything. Luckily we saw some Paralympic volunteers, who usually speak English, and they told us to go back across the street and we would see it. We were just there and we didn't see it...but we tried anyway. Ended up that it was literally right next door to the hotel we got dropped of at, they pretty much shared a parking lot! So much for a 5 minute walk! I was so irritated. :)

I can't wait for tomorrow! Thanks for all your support! We can feel it all the way over here in China.

P.S. I was hoping to post a slideshow of all the other pictures we took today on our nice clear day, but it's not working yet...the internet is running really slow. So hopefully I'll be able to do that soon.

Bill & Kellie have arrived

Just wanted to let the family know that Bill and Kellie have also arrived in Beijing! They said they barely made the connecting flight in San Francisco and Kellie has already crashed for the night. We are planning on having breakfast tomorrow together and then head up to watch Eric compete. We will be keeping you posted on all the details!

Our Morning

This morning we woke up, got ready, ate breakfast and decided to risk our lives in another taxi ride. We had to go down the the CoSport office and pick up our tickets for the events. This ride was actually quite pleasant and we got dropped off in the right place, so that was good! :) We got all our tickets and decided to walk around a bit and see what was there since CoSport said they were in a business/shopping district. We turned a corner and saw a Starbucks down the road, so we decided to head for that. We got to the street, where the Starbucks was across from, and found it to be a MAJOR 8 lane street. There was a barricade going down the middle so we had to find a "crosswalk" and pray for our lives.  As we were waiting to cross the street we saw two huge signs on a building, "Silk Market" and "Pearl Market". I thought, can we really be that lucky to just run into it?  

Okay, the picture doesn't look as crazy as it was, but the building with the 

big red sign is the Pearl/Silk market.

We finally made it across the street and went to Starbucks. They didn't have a Strawberries & Creme Frappechino...my usual, but they offered us a raspberry one. Had to say that I almost liked it better...yum! After that we decided to go see if it was really THE silk/pearl market and it was! Talk about crazy! We really only wanted to check it out, because we wanted to get back and wait for Eric's phone call on how he shot, but it was a major eye opener. We are definitely going back there when we have a full day. I had to laugh because when we got out of the elevator on one of the floors, another American guy passed us and said, "welcome to the zoo". It was so true! On our way out we spotted a Subway, grabbed some sandwiches to take back to the hotel and managed to have another smooth cab ride back.

I finally heard from Eric...he didn't shoot as well as he wanted to this morning in the ranking round. He said he can't figure out any reason why he would have shot as poorly as he did, he hasn't shot that low of a score all year. He said he was very relaxed and confident, but for whatever reason he didn't perform as well as he wanted. He is ranked 16th right now and will have his first elimination head-to-head tomorrow. It will be at 2:00pm...11:00 pm Arizona time. Everyone please keep him in your thoughts and prayers. He will be going up against the South Korean that beat him for the bronze last year in Korea at the World Championships. We all know he can beat him and he's going to be the biggest underdog comeback story this year! After he beats the guy from Korea tomorrow, he will face John Stubbs, a guy from Great Britain and the guy that beat Eric in the gold medal match this past summer in England. But again, definitely a guy Eric can beat.

I will keep you posted as things progress. We all love you Eric and support you as you GO FOR THE GOLD!

Our First Day In China

What a day it has been! After we got showered and cleaned up, we headed downstairs to the buffet where we can have a "western breakfast". It was okay, definitely not totally western, but I was able to find something to eat.

Then we got our first taxi cab experience. We wanted to go up to the Athlete Village to see Eric, but no taxi driver, nor hotel staff could figure out what we wanted. Of course they tried talking to Patricia in Chinese, so finally we got out her Ipod that had a map of all the Olympic venues and tried to show them that way. Finally, that taxi driver said, okay and motioned for us to get in the car. We got in and I said ok? He gave me a thumbs up and off we went! About 5 minutes into the ride, he looked at Patricia and asked for her GPS...um, it's not a GPS, it's an Ipod, so we were a little concerned. Fortunately, Patricia was able to find the streets on the map and kind of figure out where we were going. At one point, he pointed and said, "that way?" HOW ARE WE SUPPOSED TO KNOW? But we finally made it to the Athlete Village and as soon as we got out of the car, 3 people came up to Patricia thinking she was a paralympic athlete and asked for her autograph. She just smiled and signed their papers. We tried going in the entrance, only to find out we were at the wrong entrance. We ended up having to walk about a mile and a half before we got to the right entrance! Once we made it to that entrance, everything was great. It was awesome to see Eric and where he's been spending all of his time. He got us meal passes and we were able to eat in the dining hall, where I had McDonald's! :) I'm definitely not ready to branch out into unfamiliar territory yet! He showed us all around the Athlete Village and the International Zone. I even ran into an old college buddy who is here as a trainer for the goalball team. It was great to see him and catch up with him. The whole experience was really neat and we took lots of touristy pictures. Unfortunately, I won't be able to post any of Eric and I there due to IPC regulations, but here are some others we took.

This is the ampitheater where Eric and his team went to raise the USA flag and hear their national anthem played.

Here is our flag flying with 143 other countries flags.

Patricia and I in front of a huge flower wall in the middle of the Paralympic Village.

This is one of the many dorms that the Athletes stay in. They are pretty small. Each has a common room, with three bedrooms and two bathrooms. They are already rented out to people who are going to move in once the games are over.

This is the Paralympic mascot.

After we were done with the Paralympic Village Eric, Patricia and I got in a taxi and went down to where the water cube and bird's nest are. We were able to see the torch burning, but weren't able to get a very good picture of it with the smog today. Eric said that today was the worst it's been so far. It was also super busy and crowded because there were events taking place in both the water cube and the bird's nest. So we got back in a taxi and took Eric back up to the village and Patricia and I headed back to the hotel. This time the taxi driver knew where we needed to go, but he took us a completely different route...all through the downtown city streets. Patricia and I didn't know if we would make it out alive. It was so crazy. I was so motion sick by the time we got out I could barely walk. Downtown Beijing is crazy with so many people, so many cars, so many bikes, and very narrow streets!

We ordered room service tonight and are trying to stay awake a little bit longer as we are trying to adjust to China time. We are grateful for Eric taking the time to show us around today, especially because it kept us busy so we couldn't sleep! Plus it was great to spend the day with him. He's ready for the ranking round tomorrow. He shot FANTASTIC yesterday, especially in the venue where the gold medal match will be. I know he will do awesome. I'm bummed I won't be able to watch him shoot tomorrow, it's closed to the public. So I will be anxiously waiting by the phone. As soon as I hear anything, I will be sure to pass it on.

I'm In CHINA!!!!

We checked into our hotel about an hour ago! The trip went very smoothly, except for that everyone thought Patricia was Chinese and tried to talk to her in Chinese. We are going to make a sign that says, "I'm Vietnamese not Chinese". Patricia just said, see the Asians can't even tell us apart! :) haha . The Beijing airport was amazing and beautiful, not to mention enormous! We arrived around 5:00am and here a picture of the plane that got us here safely!



Because we arrived so early, the airport was empty which helped us to get through everything fairly quickly. We had a guide waiting for us, the nicest guy ever! His name is Lyn and he got us out of the airport and to the hotel, being a great tour guide along the way. He said the airport was just finished, about two months before the Olympic games began, which explains why it is so beautiful. There were paralympic signs everywhere...I tried to take a picture of a huge one hanging from the ceiling, but it wouldn't come out. :(


Lyn helped us get checked into the hotel and up we came to unpack and shower (hallelujah) and see if we could get internet access. When we tried to get hooked up with the internet, it asked us for a username and password. So I called down to the front desk and asked them for it. She asked what room I was in and what my name was, and then she told me you cannot have a password because I was not checked into a room. HUH??? How can I not be checked into a room? I'm sitting in a room! So three people transfers later, a guy finally says he'll call me back, there must be a mistake. Really?! We obviously got connected, but Patricia and I will be laughing about that one for a while. "You can not have password, you not checked in, you not a guest." :)


So here's a picture of our view from our hotel! We get to see the out over the front of the hotel. It's beautiful.

So I just got off the phone with Eric. He was able to secure guest passes for us to be able to go and tour the Athlete Village today. That will be a lot of fun. I have to admit that I'm just kind of really excited to see Eric though! :)

Now that I know I have internet access, I will be posting often and taking lots of pictures! Hope you don't get sick of me!

Oh, one other funny story...I changed my computer to represent the time in China, and when I went to blogspot.com to start my post, everything was in Chinese. I had to laugh, good thing I know what I'm doing! :P

One more thing

I just found out that the Church News, a newspaper published by our church, released an article on Eric.  Here is the link, if you want to check it out.  

http://www.ldschurchnews.com/cn/view/1,1721,500006868,00.html

Opening Ceremonies

I got a call from Eric this morning at 6:00 just as he had finished walking into the Bird's Nest for Opening Ceremonies.  I immediately went to universalsports.com to see if they were broadcasting it.  They were!  I was able to watch the remainder of the ceremonies live, which I have to say were AMAZING.  It was a perfect way to start my travel day to China.  Eric and I were expecting them to be same as the Olympic opening ceremonies, but I was pleasantly surprised to see that they were completely different.  I loved that they had many people who had disabilities as well participating.  It was very well done and I would encourage you to watch it online at universalsports.com.  I was hoping to be able to see Eric as all the athletes walked in, but he didn't make the camera. :(  I loved the torch lighting.  As the torch got passed to the final person, it was a guy in a wheelchair and you could tell you he was on a pulley.  He pulled himself up, all the way to the top of the Bird's Nest where the torch was.  I couldn't believe how far he pulled himself up.  About a 1/4 of the way up, he paused for a minute, and the whole stadium erupted in cheers to encourage him along.  It was so touching, seeing everyone rally around him.  It really gave me a sense of what these games are all about, and made me soo excited to leave.

I will be honest and say I had a hard time leaving Logan.  I knew I would, but he did GREAT.  All morning long, while I was packing, he would pull my suitcase around and say "Bye, Mommy".    It definitely helped me to know he was happy, and will be happy while I'm gone.  Thanks to all of you who are helping and have offered to help while I'm gone for two weeks!

On our trip down to LA to catch our flight, Eric called me.  He had just woken up.  He said he LOVED opening ceremonies, and that it was quite an experience.  He was sitting up in the stadium seating so he had a good view of everything, except the lighting of the torch.  It was up behind him, but he said the guy who lit the torch on the pulley was only about 5 feet from him!

We are both excited to be in China together.  We are hoping to be able to get together that first day we are there and before he begins his competition with the ranking round the next day to see the Olympic Village.  I know it's going to be an incredible experience and a once in a lifetime opportunity!

I Got a Phone Call!

I woke up this morning and ran to the computer, but Eric wasn't on the computer, so I thought I would hurry and get the shower. Turns out he tried to instant message me while I was in the shower, and by the time I got out, the lines of people waiting for a computer were getting long, so he decided to just call me! It was so great to hear his voice!

He's doing great. He had another good day of practice and they had their flag ceremony tonight. He explained it to me that 4-5 countries at a time go to the International Zone where there's an amphitheater. There are all kinds of dignitaries there and each country's anthem is played and their flag is raised to be on display throughout the paralympics. He said it was a very neat experience.

Tomorrow is Opening Ceremonies! He thinks it should be pretty similiar to the Olympic Opening Ceremonies. It's going to be an all night affair and they've been told they won't get back to the Athlete Village until 2-3 in the morning. That means I won't be able to talk to him tomorrow morning, and then I leave to go to China...so the next time I talk to him, I will be in China too! It's still very surreal to me.

I believe UniversalSports.com said they were going to broadcast the opening ceremonies, so if anyone wants to check it out, hopefully you can find it there.

My next post will probably be from China! :)

He branched out!

Yes, I don't think too many were surprised that Eric had McDonald's for dinner his first night in China, so when I instant messaged with him this morning, I had to ask what he'd eaten that day. He went out on a limb this time and ate pizza, cereal and a PB sandwich. :) He said he'd be back to Mickey D's tomorrow.

He was able to practice and said the field was really nice. The weather wasn't so friendly, he said the wind was swirly and it rained at the end of their practice time. They have 4 hours to practice every day, either in the morning or the afternoon. He said he shot average, but that his main competition, the Koreans, were eyeing him and his new release. They had fear in their eyes! :)

I asked him what else he was able to do besides practice and he was able to go to the "International Zone". It's the part of the Athlete Village where all the shops are. He told me that it would be a place that we could meet and hang out as well. I was excited about that, but then he also told me he thought he could get guest passes and be able show me all of the athlete village, which got me really excited.

One thing that kind of surprised me today is that Eric said from the Athlete Village and the archery field he isn't even able to see the stadiums (the bird's nest, water cube, etc). He said it wasn't due to smog, but that the whole area is so spread out and it's just too far away. I can't even imagine. I think I'll be doing a lot of walking, or getting to know the taxi system really well!

Eric's in China!

I woke up this morning at 6:30 and rushed to the computer to see if Eric had sent me an email, and he was actually online so we were able to instant message for about 25 minutes! It was 9:30pm and he was EXHAUSTED. He said the flight was long, 12 hours exactly. Once they landed they were greeted in the airport by about 50 people to escort them through the airport. They had buses waiting at the airport to take them to the Athlete Village. He said everything is so huge and oversized. There are flags everywhere and all the olympic signs/rings have been changed to reflect the paralympic logo. He said that by the time they got all checked into their rooms, it was 6:30pm and they had an orientation meeting at 7:30pm, so they had to hurry and eat. Any guesses on what his first dinner in China was? In the words of Eric, a double cheeseburger, 5 chicken nuggets, french fries and a coke zero. Yes, he found the McDonald's. He said everything else they saw looked a little scary, but they didn't have a ton of time to look around. He thinks it will be McDonald's and PB sandwiches for him!

He's excited to be able to go and shoot tomorrow afternoon. I can only imagine what a cool experience that will be to go practice shooting at the place where he's going to win the gold medal. I can't wait to be there and see him do it.

Eric Update

I just got a call from Eric to tell me goodnight at 6:30pm. They are supposed to go to bed now, wake up at 11:00pm to eat breakfast. Next they load the buses at 1:00am to head to Denver. They load the plane at Denver at 5:00am and leave for San Francisco at 6:00am. They will land at 9:00am and board the plane again for China at 11:30am. Eric said they are allowed to sleep now, on the bus to Denver, and on the flight to San Francisco. After that they are required to stay awake, including the entire 12 hour flight to China. They will arrive in China at 2:30pm on the next day, September 3rd. So he has a very long day ahead of him, but he said he is very anxious to "get this show on the road".

Eric's trip has begun!

Eric left this morning at 2:45am to begin his Paralympic adventure. He flew to the Colorado Springs Olympic Training Center to do what's called "processing". At processing they give the athletes all their uniforms and clothing, shoes, socks and everything else they are required to wear. They also receieve instructions on do's and don'ts while over there and how to handle the press and interviews, etc. He will be there until 3:00am on Tuesday when he flies to San Francisco to depart for China.

I know that the biggest question everyone wants to know is if they will be able to watch Eric compete on TV, internet or some other source. Earlier this week, we received a press release that stated the following:

"Viewers will have the opportunity to watch the Paralympic Games, Sept. 6-17, with daily live and delayed highlight shows on UniversalSports.com and usparalympics.org. The official U.S. Paralympic Team site will also host daily video blogs from U.S. athletes and delegation members. Beginning in 2009, the U.S. Olympic Network will re-air portions of the 2008 Paralympic Games.

For current Universal Sports scheduling information for the 2008 Beijing Paralympic Games, please visit UniversalSports.com."

We were excited to hear this news, until we checked the schedule and archery is not listed. :( Hopefully they will do some highlights, and I assume the usparalympics.org will update results, but I don't know for sure. My suggestion would be to check these two websites and hope for something good!

Finally, I wanted to let you know Eric's schedule so you can know when to start checking for results. Remember this is China time, and I believe Arizona is 15 hours behind.

Tuesday, September 9-- 10:00-12:30 Ranking Round
Wednesday, September 10-- 14:00-14:15 Eliminations 1/16
(Eric is hoping to be ranked high enough that he will have a bye this day)
Thursday, September 11-- 10:30-11:00 Eliminations 1/8
Friday, September 12-- 14:00-14:30 Quarterfinals
Saturday, September 13--14:00-14:30 Semifinals
Saturday, September 13-- 14:50-15:05 Gold Medal Match (WAHOO!)
Saturday, September 13-- 15:30-15:40 Medal Ceremony (Double WAHOO!)

So Saturday the 13th will be an awesome day!

I leave on this Saturday to be with him in China. I think it all finally hit me when Eric left and that I now have less than a week left. I am obviously still hoping to be able to do updates in China and I'll let you as I hear things from Eric before I leave.

Let me know if you have any questions. Thanks again for all your support!

Go For The Gold Daddy

With all the exciting news of Eric going to Beijing to compete in the Paralympics, we have one more important piece to share.

Yes, there will be a baby on board with me when I go to China! I am 8 weeks along and am due on April 1, 2009! We are obviously very excited and I've been feeling great, besides the usual tiredness.

I also want to give a big shout out to all the family and friends who helped and supported Eric at his benefit dinner on Monday night. The food was excellent, the T-shirts were awesome, the nursery for the kids was essential and the entertainment of Eric's amazing archery abilities was definitely the highlight. We greatly appreciate the donations that will help us continue our efforts to Aim For the Gold.