A weekend in the desert

Wow! I had no idea how much fun I would have camping and hiking in the Mongolian desert but it was one of the top five trips I have ever done! Thanks to the great hikers of Beijing Hikers and the fun group I had a blast! I was really lucky to meet some fun people to make the experience even more amazing. We started the trip with a drive in jeeps out to the desert - now jeeps in China on sand dunes with no seat belts is crazy! I was nervous but it was incredible! Then once we got out to the sand dunes, we started treking. The heat and sun of course were strong (Erin you would not have liked the sun but we all wore 60 SPF and hats. I made them!)....we spent hours hiking through the sand - just so incredible. The blue skies and the sand dunes were so beautiful. When we came across the lakes in the desert, you couldn't imagine the green around the lake with sand surrounding it. Though I hated the mosiquitos! Then we continued to trek through the desert to find our camp site which was near a lake and normand's home. They hosted us for dinner! The sheep wondered around us as we ate a great meal and enjoyed Mongolian beer. Then we watched the sunset over the sand - beautiful! Our guide made a great campfire before we headed to our tents for a much needed rest. The next day after some more hiking, we got to ride camels through the desert! So fun! I named mine Suzie, but later learned she was a boy- no wonder he got made and almost ran away with me on him! Now it's a funny story, but at the time it wasn't! We finished up the trip with some more time at the Great Wall  - always a bonus to see the Great Wall. We visited some dynasty tombs too. But after the desert hiking, nothing seemed as cool! Thanks to the fun group - Gaby (my roomie!), Bob and YFong, and the other Americans, British, Danish, and Chinese for making this a once and a lifetime trip!
Here are some pictures from the amazing trip!

At the start of the hike

Hiking...

Jumping and throwing sand

 Treking through the desert

Hiking to our jeeps

A desert lake

Gaby setting up her tent

My tent

175 Years of John Deere

 At the top of the sand dune

I made it!

Normand's house for dinner

Yummy!

The crew waiting for the sunset

Here we go again!

Another lake - amazing

Our guide telling us about the camels

I loved the camel ride!

 Getting ready to leave

Found another lake

Inside the Great Wall!

Great Wall in Mongolia

Gaby and I jumping in front of the Great Wall

Celebrating 175 Years of John Deere

So I am behind in my blog...I will try to catch up this weekend as the Mongolian desert trip was amazing! But first let me share with you a great week in China with my whole team! For the first time, I had my team together face to face - what a great week! Georgina joined from South Africa, Darshan and Pawandeep traveled from India, Kelly and Veronica traveled from Singapore, and Shelley hosted us in Beijing! We had great meetings focusing on our 2013 plan. But we also got to spend some time together at traditional Chinese dinners as well as they all loved shopping at the Silk Market! The highlight for me was traveling to the Great Wall for a teambuilding event. We hiked along the Great Wall for hours proudly wearing our John Deere 175 Anniversary shirts! What a great week! Here are some pictures!

The team! Kelly, Pawandeep, Georgina, Veronica, me, Shelley, and Darshan

 The crew climbing up - it was a workout!

Shelley, Kelly, and Pawandeep smiling! Loving it!

My classic jump shot

At the top

Showing off our John Deere shirts- people asked us about it and took pictures!

Walking to lunch - I wanted to get in the picture too!

Celebrating 175 years Singapore Style

To celebrate 175 years of John Deere we had a family day building sandcastles on the beach in Singapore! What a fun day! We were in 6 teams building the John Deere castles and having the kids tell the stories about how the Green tractors are always the best! It was great to meet all the families of my coworkers! We had a blast!
Here are some pictures!



Celebrating 175 years with our John Deere Singapore team and families!




The teams working on their castes with our 175 shirts!


Yati working on the stairs!




Our castle!



Rob, Ching Yi, Brett, and Yati working away on our castle!



Sridharan and his family building their castle!



Paul and his family building their castle!




Perfect!

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