Birthday on the Great Wall

As soon as I realized that Lucy's 1st birthday was going to be during our October Break, I couldn't stop picturing here on the Great Wall. What a story that would be for Show And Tell someday in the future! So, when Pete asked me where I wanted to go for break, I said, "Beijing!" without hesitation.
We decided to stay at a very nice hotel called "Commune on the Wall," run by Kipinski. It's located about an hour and fifteen minutes outside of Beijing in the middle of trees and the beautiful mountains of China. I definitely got the taste of fall that I was craving - the weather was crisp and cold with clear blue skies! I loved it, loved it, loved it! In fact, I even managed to banish thoughts of the Hong Kong heat and humidity for the entire four days we were there.
Now ... on to the good stuff! Here is documentation of Lucy's big day:

Pete woke up first and you would have thought it was his birthday. He kept saying, "Let's wake her up and sing "Happy Birthday." But, I insisted that we let her sleep. I mean, I would like to sleep in on my birthday, for Heaven's sake. When she finally did wake up, we let "Happy Birthday" roll.

Lucy did not know what to do with her presents, so we had to help her open them up. The whole time she was like, "What the heck is going on? Can I wake up like this every day?"

She got a fun xylophone.

And a new puzzle - a fire engine. We tried to get at least some gifts that weren't too girly.

We left our hotel room to walk to breakfast. Here is a picture of our place from the outside. Like I said, our hotel was great. There are four rooms in each "lodge" with a common area, a kitchen, a dining room, and a study. Lucky for us, there weren't any other people in the other rooms in our lodge, so we had the whole place to ourselves. It was great.

More beautiful pictures on our walk to breakfast.

After breakfast and Lucy's nap, we walked to the Wall. Here is our first glimpse.

When we arrived, Lucy stormed the wall.

A family pic as we began the hike up.

Lucy and Pete at a lookout.

A close up of the view.

Lucy walking on the wall - my dream for her first birthday came true. :)

People in Beijing were obsessed with Lucy. We seriously got stopped all the time for pictures or just because people wanted to stare. Here is one such example.

The wall was VERY steep. I definitely didn't make it as far as I would have liked. At this point, I called it quits. That's Lucy and Pete up top. They came down to meet me and walk back down.

A view from the top ... well, not the top, but far enough.

We found a little preying mantas friend on our way down.

Birthday cake at dinner ... well, cheesecake. That's all they had. Lucy took her first bite of chocolate and her first bite of cheese cake .... then she promptly threw up. :( I think the cheesecake was a bit too much.

Back to the room for a bath and bedtime.

What a fantastic day (aside from the throwing up part). I can't believe our little girl is one year old. What an amazing year it has been. I am overwhelmed with emotion when I think about this little one and what a blessing she is in our lives. She is everything I ever dreamed of when I thought about being a mom. She is a true, true joy and we love her so very much.