Jakarta - Beijing - Houston

We were so happy to get on the plane to make the long journey back to Houston.  Poor Alex missed the last 8 days of school with a virus that went into walking pneumonia, so he had been sick on the couch for days.  Thankfully the antibiotics had kicked in and he woke up feeling better on travel day!  And bonus was that Christmas ticket prices were through the roof but somehow Air China business class tickets were not!  So happy for sick boy to have a bed to sleep in transit.

Our flight departed at 11pm and we were all smiles to start the long journey! My bum foot was pretty happy to have a business class seat, too.

The sleep was amazing on this trip!

The weather in Beijing was definitely shocking.  We had packed warm clothes but we still weren't prepared for this kind of cold!

All the gates were full when we arrived so we had to take a bus to the terminal.  We threw on as much warm stuff as we could but the cold took our breath away!

Alex was thrilled to see some snow on the ground around the airport.  He's been wanting to see real snow for years.

Our layover was scheduled for 8 hours, which is just long enough to get a temporary visa and leave the airport.  It took about an hour to get through immigration, then we bundled up, met our tour guide Shane, and drove about 90 minutes to Huanghuacheng where we found more snow than we could have hoped!   

All smiles despite the freeze because there were several inches of snow still on the ground from a storm a few days earlier.  We were lucky because apparently December can be early to see snow and it was a heavy snowfall.

We hiked up a hill and then climbed a tiny, frozen ladder to stand on the Great Wall of China for the first time.

Amazing!!

The snow made the wall even more incredible.  This section was built between 1400-1600 AD.

The boys couldn't decide whether the snow or the Great Wall was more exciting!

Snow sledding on the Great Wall of China!

We only had a quick 90 minutes on the wall before Shane started guiding us back toward the car.  The walking was tough on my foot but since I had to wear my ugly boot, my foot was so cold I couldn't feel it for ages.  The snow definitely kept the swelling down!

We had to drive back to the airport and head through immigration and security again, then it was time for the 14-hour flight to Houston.  Even though we were all tired, no one lost their smile! And fun fact - we left Beijing at 3:00pm and arrived in Houston at 2:30pm on the same day.

Alex slept about 10 of the 14 hours and Ben wasn't too far behind him.  The flight was over quickly and we were thrilled to be back in Texas!

Is there any place happier than the arrival hall at an international airport?  We were so happy to see Grammy and Grumpy and they took the kids to Chick-fila while Matt and I got our rental car.

Then the next most important thing to do was fill up on Tex-Mex.  What a beautiful sight! And what a great way to end a successful trip across the world and kick off Christmas with our families.