Olympics!

We just got back this evening (exhausted) from an Olympics soccer match. Shanghai is hosting a few games at the big soccer stadium in town, and so we took the girls down to the Korea vs. Hondurus game...and we have now played our part in the Olympics madness going on in China right now. Here are a bunch of photos from our time. It was actually a really great experience. The stadium was packed, and the crowd seemed definately pro-Korea (lots of Koreans live in Shanghai). The girls liked it ok...not great. Vera LOVED the cheering and clapping. She would get excited when everyone stood up and cheered. Wendy, on the other hand, would plug her ears and hide her face in Alex's shorts when the cheering started...when Korea scored the only goal of the game and the crowd went wild, she actually teared up and I had to take her to the back of the stands. Ahhh...how funny it is how God made our girls sooooo different!

OK...here are the photos...

Here we are in front of the stadium....3:30pm (game starts at 5pm)...girls still happy.

This is one of the Olympic mascots. The girls decided not to take a photo with them. Below is the picture of their faces when Alex suggested taking a picture next to the 8 foot tall mascot.

Wendy looks pretty concerned here. Vera just looks a little grumpy and unsure.

OK...next photos is of the stadium. Pretty cool!

We were there quite early, so not too many people in the stands yet. However, it was a popular game with only the upper section having empty seats by the time the game started.

And here we all are in the stands. It was almost 100 degrees and very humid. The girls had an ok time. Vera enjoyed the seats. They were the kind that flipped up when you stood up, so she would push them down and then watch them pop up over, and over again. Later on we keep the girls appeased by lots of raisins, ice cream, and milk boxes.

We realized about 10 minutes into the game that soccer is pretty hard to follow for really little kids. The ball was kind of hard to see for them. When we initially arrived at the "Olympics" (as we had been advertising this event as), Wendy asked "where are the bars and balance beam"? I guess we have been watching a lot of gymnastics on TV...not too much soccer. So then when the match began she announced that she didn't want to watch soccer, she wanted to change the match to fencing...the other sport we had watched earlier in the day on the Olympics channel. Oh well...they'll have the photos and when they are older they can at least say that they had been to an Olympic event!

After the game we walked along an Olympic-themed sidewalk and headed for McDonalds. It was the promised reward for good behavior at the game :).

I caught Daddy giving Vera an extra treat under the table...yes, that is a large Coke.