Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is Thanks-Living! Our family chooses to travel on Thanksgiving. When we are in the US we go to our family in New York. Since we have been overseas, we tour the new country we live in. (Of course, last year, we toured the hospital. Payton was sick and on dialysis for kidney failure. We are sooo greatful he recovered and is a jolly, energetic, normal boy.)


This year,2006, Owen was sick, but not deathly ill. We decided to go to Sun Moon Lake, which is situated almost exactly in the middle of Taiwan. The country was gorgeous! Spectacular!

After making it to the lake, we couldn't find our hotel. It was frustrating. There was no parking near the hotel so Greg carried our luggage from a parking lot some 400 meters away. Luckily we didn't have much since it was a one night stay. Our fantom hotel (which was being remodeled) was not the nicest but we had clean beds! Awkward- new experience!

Next, we went for a boat ride. (Of course, I didn't take a picture of that boat. Oops! Now that I think about it, I should have. It was funny walking on the dock. We keep passing all these nice looking yahts and then we finally get to our little ugly yaht.) But the tour of the lake was nice. We didn't understand our red-toothed, old guide but we appreciated his friendly kindness. The tour was to the opposite side of the lake to visit another small town for 30 minutes (really not enough time) then to a somewhat man-made island in the middle of the lake. There were plantbeds floating around what we thought was the real island but since we weren't allowed to walk on it we couldn't tell.

After the boat ride we got ready to eat dinner that the hotel had provided. It was like a flashback to living in mainland. (Actually, this whole resort get-away felt like it.) The food was authentic chinese. The table was full of weird things the boys didn't like. (I eat anything, but even after trying most of it, I wasn't impressed by any of it.) Our menu consisted of: sweet and sour fish with the head and tail still on, steamed-scrambled eggloaf, some kind of pork that looked like jerkey meat, cold chicken with all the skin, fat and bones, cold salad of bell peppers and sliced ham, yucky tofu something, taro soup, and rice. Needless to say, we ate mostly rice.

Later on that evening we walked around the neighborhood. A street dog adopted us for company and followed us around. She was friendly. The boys picked up a snack at 7-11. We went to our car to get our video camera, which we later found out had no power; we forgot to charge it up. Finally off to bed.

Getting anyrest in a one room hotel is difficult. New place, unfamiliar sounds. We watched a video on our laptop and then tried to fall asleep. Once we were dead asleep, the fire alarm goes off. I frantically picked up my purse and got my shoes on. We woke up Gray and Owen and where getting ready to grab and carry Noah and Payton to walk down 9 flights of stairs, when I felt impressed to have Greg call the front desk. (I thought, "Knowing our experience in China, I bet this is a false alarm.") Sure, enough it was. A cigarette smoker set off the alarm. So we put the children back into bed and sat around trying to smell smoke. We called the front desk again and asked if we should exit the building and they said not to worry. So we didn't! Now, if we were in the U.S. I think they would have made us walk down the 9 flights of stairs even for a false alarm.

The next morning we woke up in time to see the sun rise. Beautiful! (But, like most of this trip. Did I think to take a picture? No! So you'll just have to believe me.) I promise to get better at picture taking.

Friday our day was spent at a nearby Aboriginal Village/ Amusement Park. Amazing scenery and lots of walking. It was lots of fun. There were rides and games and shows. I loved the shows. The opening ceremony had the guests jump over a flame to enter the village.
There was train rides, carosel, rollercoasters, log ride, and more. Owen almost past up the skylift but did very well on it. I was the baby. I just don't like heights. Again, the food available at the amusement park was mediocre but we didn't starve. We had a wonderful time!

Halloween

I am testing this out again because my last entry had troubles. I think I figured out how to add pictures. I can only add one at a time. I can't resize them and add it. I must add it as the original. It takes longer but it works!!!!

The holidays have started with Halloween! The boys are dressed up in their various gigs.

Payton was a sober Captain Hook. He didn't want to dress up for some reason. I think he thought his friends' costumes were cooler. He wasn't happy with his simple jacket and homemade hook. To his credit, there wasn't much to choose from here and my tardiness with buying the costumes didn't help. Shopping the day before doesn't allow for creativity, fixing mess ups or adding to what we bought. Ironically, the day after Halloween, I finally went out to the fabric market intending to get a head start on Christmas, and I find four GREAT Halloween shops. I never made it to the fabric market, but decided to buy a few things in preparations for next year! The second picture is Payton dancing to the song, "Monster Mash". He is with his preschool class.

Next is Noah as a ninja. Can you find him? This is his classroom party day. First graders rotated from class to class and had great activities such as Mad Libs Halloween and crafts. Later they did a parade.

Third is Owen. He is captured on stage at the Taipei American School Annual Halloween Parade! He is Mr. Muscles! His class also had some crafts and a little party with yummy treats. (Oh, yes it was fun bouncing around to each classroom. That is why I dressed as the white angelic ghost. )

Oops, I don't think I got pictures of myself or Greg! I'll have to add it later- along with our ward social- trunk or treat. I actually dressed differently that night because I didn't have the ghost costume then. So, I used my belly cast and a kimono to dress up- pregnant and barefoot. No, no wishful thinking there. I'll have to put my costumes on again and post it later. Greg was himself- my handsome, young prince! Okay, back to the boys.

Last but not least, is ... Green Monster/ Ghost- Gray. 10 year old boys -we have learned -don't want to look like themselves at all, or at least want to do something different than the superhero years of before. Here he is with his friends, Jack and Tobias. Instead of just marching along on stage, they got acting around. Everyone was laughing.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

KenTing Road Trip

Wow, I am doing a lot of publishing on this date. That is because I am finally motivated by our road trip we took with the Anderton's down to KenTing, Taiwan. It was a wonderful trip and we are hoping to go again; not sure when. We are in our final year here in Taipei and we feel we haven't taken advantage of all the beauty here. We are sad we left so much to do for our last year, but are glad we still have some time.

The boys did great on the 7 1/2 hours drive down. We left Friday the 6th of October. The traffic wasn't too bad. We learned later that another freeway was quicker, since it took us about 6 1/2 hours to return home. Luckily, the traffic wasn't bad and the scenes were magnificiant. Unfortunately, the pictures I took from the road trip are on our new video camera and will take some time to figure out how to upload those.

Anyhow, here are some pictures in order of events that we did. The beach was a daily afternoon treat, but Saturday we went to a lighthouse (Gray stepped in some wet ash, Shannon couldn't believe it and commented on what an adventure this trip to the lighthouse was. Not to mention the fact that Noah and Spencer decided to walk ahead on the trail to the parking lot -on their own! Greg finally found them.) Sunday we went to a National Park, Monday we road on Go-Karts.

Tuesday morning we finally went to the beach in the morning and there was a huge difference in the water. My pictures only show the p.m. beach, where as our friends were able to take the a.m. pictures. The water is just more clear and blue in the morning. We figured this out too late. Next time, we will go to the beach in the morning!

We did vist the hotel pool twice, went bowling and did bumper cars once each. The hotel was nice with great accomodations like a game room, exercise room (eventhough I chose to jog outside), shopping, complimentary breakfast which wasn't too bad just crowded, tunnel to our beach, and more. (I don't have time to add all pictures now, but here are some.)

Anniversary and Birthday celebration

Due to the fact that we had our first girl over my birthday and our 11 th wedding anniversary this year, Greg and I didn't do too much. Our dear friends, the Anderton's (whom we recently went on a trip with), watched our five children while Greg and I went out Friday night to eat for our Anniversary/Birthday.

Earlier on Monday, Labor day holiday, when the children were in school (their school here doesn't give that day off), Greg and I went with Kai-Li to the top of the tallest building in the world... Taipei 101. Luckily we saw alot; it was fairly clear that day. It was also funny to see our little car parked way down at the bottom. It's the brown van, bottom and middle in this picture, white car is to the left of it.

Foster baby girl- Kai-Li

From September 1- 9 we were priviledged to have a baby girl in our home. She was a cute and slept very well. (Didn't take long naps but sure did well during the night, which is what really matters.) Again, Payton and Noah spoke of the desire to keep her. Owen joined in saying he wanted to adopt her too. Owen loved giving her kisses. However, any baby we foster here is already going through the adoption process and we are only the half-way home. You may think this is tougher on the baby to adjust to the new changes, but it is something they will have to get used to anyway. Your right, it is tough on us. I cried when I had to say good-bye to Kei-Li. But, having the baby leave the orphanage and live in a families home opens up space in the orphanage for another new baby that needs help. I enjoyed dressing her up and fixing her wild hair in plastic bands and bows.

Birthdays thus far

Since our blog is new, I am trying to do a quick up date on this past year. We just had our final birthday of the year...Gray is now 10! Before him it was Bev...thirty something. Prior was Noah. Notice Noah's picture, lighting his own birthday cake. Payton is the preschooler at 4 years and Owen is 7 since the beginning of the year and anxiously awaiting for his birthday to roll around again. He will be baptized soon! Plans are in the making for family to fly out and join us. Greg was at the beginning of the year also. One year older and wiser!
(My picture is missing because it coincided with having our second foster baby...a girl this time. I'll share more in the next blog.)

Foster Family First Time

Back in March we began to open our home to foster caring infants that were on their way to a new home. Their adoption work was almost final and we were going to help them transition into a home environment for a 10-15 day period. Shau-Yu was our first. He smiled easily and loved watching all that was happening around him. Unfortunately it was difficult for me to capture on film his smiles. The only one I have is blurry. The boys really loved him and after a week they asked if he could stay and if we could adopt him! However, he moved onto Holland. He will grow up speaking Danish!

Utah

Our trip to Utah lasted one week. While there we spent lots of time with Tio Estuardo and his family. Abuelita Soli lives with them. We had a blast chatting with them in their home, touring sites in Salt Lake City, and checking out cool parks like Thanksgiving Point. Here are pictures from that trip. This was our first trip to Salt Lake and thus an introduction to the Mormon sites there. We appreciated getting more familiar with the former saints and learning their history.

summer vacation

Our first stop this summer was to Utah. Here is Great-Grandma Soli!