Grateful for a mountain getaway, and the cornfield was heavenly

Destination: Zhang Jia Jie (张家界) in the northeast corner of our Hunan province. The craggy, tower-like mountains and gorges inspired the landforms of the movie Avatar. 

We took a six-hour train, stayed in a hotel two nights and a local family's guesthouse one night, and did a lot of hiking.

The happiest memories were simple ---

• playing at a preschool yard adjacent to our hotel, the principal brought out free breakfast noodles for all three boys
• parents snuggling in a single bed, three boys tucked in sideways on the other single bed
• a bathtub, just a normal bathtub, in the hotel
• washing clothes in the well with the guesthouse family granny
• playing in the cornfield (...a flood of childhood memories)
• they grew the best sweet corn I have ever eaten in my life
• guesthouse family borrowing clothes to our kids cuz it was unexpectedly chilly
• the unexpected cold in August! brrrrr it felt awesome!
• noodle-legs from hiking forever down into the canyon (Titus also walked the whole time, great job)
• boys wading in the cool clean stream running through the canyon (that was everyone's favorite!)
• Mike scored a 4 year-old girlfriend on the train home by sharing his stickers
• The kindest 8 year-old boy, also on the train home, decided to give his new wooden crossbow souvenir to Titus

We've been a little pressured, a little stressed, pulled in many directions over the summer. We needed to go away before Titus' school starts again (today). While it's impossible for us to escape our weekend responsibilities, we were so, so thankful to leave the city Tuesday through Friday. We know that not everyone can take four days off at a time, so we feel very grateful.

counting the graces

thank you Father for

ALL of the above