And his answer trickled through my head like water through a sieve.

Two of the best looking men in town.  It was Hans's first try at caring for the baby and he found the experience a bit confusing.  He picked up the baby and had no idea what to do next.  I have to get him to talk to Dad about this.

We decided to head off to China.  Johnny had a research paper to write on Chinese customs.  Hans and I came along to make sure he didn't get in too much trouble.  Dad said he'd rather stay home and watch Picasso.

Johnny wasted no time in setting off to explore a couple of important cultural locations.  The first was the Hall of Warriors in the Forbidden City.

He soon found a secret passage down to an area not meant for tourist.  Exploring tombs requires moving a lot of heavy objects.

In the meantime, Hans had a bit of a slap fest with a training dummy.  I'm pretty sure that he's meant to hit it a bit more strongly but he is only just learning.

As for me, I went to a garden to take pictures then practice my guitar.  That kept me busy most of the afternoon.

Johnny was finding the area under the Forbidden City fascinating.  Though he did mention that maybe others had been by.  There was treasure but it wasn't nearly as valuable as the stuff from Egypt had been.

He still had to work pretty hard to get any where.  There was a lot of rock to clear.

But he found the missing artifact for one of the natives.

She did give him some coins for his troubles but he would have loved a new relic for his collection at home.

Johnny came to camp to practice his cooking skills.

While Hans and I practiced our loving skills.  Very important to keep those up.

Hugging is not the only loving skill that you should practice.  The more often the better.

The next day I tried the training dummy.  Even slapping it is harder than I thought.

Hans had a couple of practice matches with a local expert.  He tells me that you can learn a lot from a good teacher.

Johnny decided to brave the Dragon Cave.  I wouldn't have gone near the place myself, Johnny is just a dot on the tongue and it's breathing smoke all the time.  Scary.

He found a number of small things; bags of money, ancient coins and the occasional gem.

He also had to deal with a few of the less savory residents, the bugs. Johnny isn't a scaredy cat but he wasn't happy about an arm of bugs.

I decided to get into the act by collecting minerals for someone who rang me up to  ask about it.  Maybe next time I need to pick some adventuring clothes along with my regular stuff.

I did manage to improve my guitar skills.  I can serenade Hans now.  And he loves it.

All too soon, we were headed home again.

I've never been sure about Ripley myself.  She hasn't been a bad step mom but she doesn't feel like a real mom.  But she does make dad very very happy.  And that makes me happy.