China!

Next Tuesday, August 1st, I leave on a trip to China for five weeks. My entire family is going. We've never actually had an entire family trip that my little sister Lily can remember. China is our first, and probably last, entire family trip. (Mom and Dad had to make it a really big deal so that everyone would come.)
Mom, Dad, Lily and I will be there for about five weeks, but not everyone else can be there for that long. My older brothers, Talon and Kai, and Talon's wife, can stay for about three weeks. Kai will be staying afterwards to teach English to Chinese kids.
Mom's little brother Josh Steimle has lived in mainland China and Hong Kong with his family for five years. They will be helping us around, and we'll be staying with them when we're not seeing other things. They have a nine-year-old adopted daughter and a seven-year-old son.
School starts on August 18th, but we'll be back on September 13th. I'll be missing the first month of eighth grade. I missed the first four day of sixth grade for Talon and Maddy's wedding, and in seventh grade I homeschooled, so I will have missed every middle school year's beginning.
We are planning on traveling in a big oval around eastern China, and taking overnight sleeping trains. I'll get to see the Terracotta Warriors, panda bears, rice terraces, Tienanmen Square, the Great Wall, and other interesting things. I'll be blogging all of the way. I'm excited!