Married.....again.....!!!

Well, I guess we have three anniversary dates to remember now. We just renewed our "vows" as part of the Qingdao Annual Beach Festival. They called on us, the token Americans, to join the wedding celebration part of the festival. It was quite the event--held at Bathing Beach No. 1. The festival included dancing boys and girls, speeches, kung fu, ancient Chinese dancing, sand castle/sculpture building and the wedding celebration. We marched onto stage to "dum dum da dum" and then they had the officiant do his speech and popped confetti firecrackers around us. There were then speeches from two gentlemen--a famous Chinese spokesperson and our own, Joe Goodrich, from BYU. We all took hands and went down to the sand for a circle dance and photos. Back up on stage for flowers and certificates and then more photos with the governor and mayor and a special tour of the sandcastle/sand art. The BYU boys had purchased huge, "diamond" rings for us and got down on one knee in the sand. I think we caused quite the stir. We were then driven to a nearby hotel for a special banquet including duck (w/head), fish (w/head), shrimp (w/heads), etc. We even got a special wedding gift--commemorative plate with stand, tee shirts and sheets. That night we watched the fireworks from the balcony of our apartment. Well, I did as my cold finally caught up with poor Terry and he was in bed.