Day 4 With Iris

The day started with seeing Ansley and Elliot via Skype.  We miss them both a lot and can not wait to get back to KC and see them,  Skype does help and it would be much harder if we could not see them.  We love you Ansley and Elliot. We also skyped my sister Jennifer, Jessica, and Big Will.  Iris was showing off for them and they loved seeing her for the first time. Today we went to the Yellow Crane Tower which is famous for several well recognized poets who have visited the Tower over thousands of years.  There are many tablets with Chinese poetry throughout the grounds.  Attached are some pictures.  We thought this visit looked like what we had originally thought China would look like. We have decided that Iris does not do well in the car.  She always gets cranky when we are in the taxi.  As I mentioned before, they are hot, bumpy, and have lots of exhaust fumes. The traffic hear is unbelievable.  It is every man or woman for themselves.  You see scooters with multiple people on them.   There are people walking in the streets, people pushing carts, buses, trucks, cars and none of them follow any type of rules.  Melissa is scared everytime we get in a car. Today the smog was extremely heavy.  It is like a foggy morning in Kansas City only it stays all day long.  Reminds me of pictures of California back in the 1970s.  This town, Wuhan, has over 9 million people in it and they make a lot of vehicles in this town. In the afternoon we walked back down to the shopping district which is about a mile or so away.  We ate lunch at KFC and Iris loves spicy chicken,  We also borrowed a stroller from the hotel and Iris liked that (so did mom and dad).  We continued to have a lot of people stare at us.  One lady stopped and tried to get Iris to talk to her.  She then looked at me, smiled, and gave me a thumbs up.  Again, it is like they see her and are thankful we are taking her.  We would like to just tell all of the people she is awesome and we are the lucky ones. Melissa went into a store and the young girls working there took turns holding Iris.  Of course she hammed it up for them also. Later we went to the swimming pool and Iris is crazy.  She loves the water and is not afraid at all.  She puts her face in the water, coughs, wipes her face, and then just laughs.  She pours water over her head as if it is nothing.  Ansley and Elliot need to be prepared because Iris may be swimming before them at this pace. The time we have with Iris is great and we are trying to enjoy every moment.  She continues to bond and trust us. She is also bonding more with Melissa which is nice to see.  We hope you enjoy some more pictures.