A tale of two weddings, part 1

On April 10, we were lucky enough to attend two weddings. The first one was for a good friend of mine, Amanda, and her new hubby YuanKuei. Actually, they were married in California last fall so the ceremony this month was the Taiwanese one. Here's the beautiful bride.

And her lovely gown - that she doesn't have to store forever or try to figure out what she'll do with it afterwards since it's rented - a fabulous Taiwanese tradition, I might add!

And the groom.

And then she changed into this gorgeous gown.

Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of the last gown - a brilliant red color that accentuated her already thin waist - as this was the state of my daughter by the end of the luncheon. She'd had a bit of a nap at the beginning, but that just wasn't enough.

Congratulations Amanda and YuanKuei!

A tale of two Sundays

Our last trip to Minnesota reminded us how yucky Minnesota winters can be. We finally got to enjoy one wonderful afternoon in the snow on Valentine's day. Kate was quite the trooper and went down the hill with me right away. Come to think of it, I guess I didn't give her much choice, but she seemed to think it was a good idea anyway.Keanu watched us a half a dozen times before he finally agreed to try with me and soon he was keen to go down the hill all by himself. He loved it and still asks where the snow is now.

While Keanu was sliding, Kate was busy toddling along the sidewalk in her boots that were 2-sizes too big! Whenever she sees this video, she always says "ah-boom" in preparation for her fall on camera. That's actually more fun than the video!

And then we returned to Taiwan...

We froze for the first couple of days and then last Sunday was a gorgeous day that called us out to the park with friends. Keanu and Kate both LOVED the toys that Kelly and Ian brought to the park and didn't play with.

Like the scooter...

And the matching bike helmet that Keanu wore while playing basketball with their fishing net (a.k.a.LaCrosse basketball)...

Two great Sundays, but hard to believe they're only a week apart!

Happy New Year (again)

Welcome the year of the ox!

We've been busy

After celebrating Keanu's birthday on Sunday, we've had a busy week. We've picked strawberries...

and then ate all 10 pounds that we brought home. Yes, 10 pounds. We probably picked 6 or 7 pounds and then bought the others pre-picked. OK, so we ended up giving a few away thinking it would be impossible to eat them all, but with Kevin's appetite for strawberries almost as big as his son's, I think we could have eaten them all ourselves!

On Tuesday we didn't make it to the zoo, but went to the mountains to drink tea with Amanda instead. Keanu really enjoyed his tea and the caffine didn't affect his nap because he slept the whole way down the mountain.

We also had plenty of time for playing at McDonald's

and playing at Yoyo's house.

Since it got cold, we've stayed home a bit and Keanu got a chance to put his new 'stickers' on the shower door. Did you know that clouds have stars IN them?

Keanu also went poopy in the potty this evening, but I didn't take a picture of that accomplishment!

Tomorrow is Chinese New Year's Eve and we're going to take it easy as we ring in the year of the Ox.

Christmas Cookies!

Last weekend we invited some dear friends over for a Christmas tradition - making Christmas cookies! While the moms and a few girls (for a short time!) played in the kitchen, the dads were supposed to watch the kids play with Keanu's toys. Well, the dads did a good job of pretending to watch the kids while Keanu's Grandma and Aunt Teresa did most of the "babysitting." The good news was that they mostly stayed out of the way until the cookie thieves came down and found some good things to eat! They did a pretty good job of cleaning up the crispier ones!

In addition to the good company and good cookies, the clean-up crew was pretty nice, too!

Halloween Party

Alright, I've had a few requests for Halloween pictures, so here they are! Angie hosts the party every year and she convinces her neighbors to cooperate, too, since Halloween isn't typically celebrated in Taiwan. Guests to the party bring treats and the willing neighbors joyfully hand it out to the little ghosts and goblins who knock on their door. It's great fun for both the kids and the neighbors! Plus, it's completely safe since the party guests provide the treats, it's done in the afternoon, and we just walk up and down the pedestrian street in front of their houses.

Before the trick or treating, the kids play with the many toys at Angie's house - she's got three kids, so there's quite a selection! It was hot last Saturday afternoon, so Keanu's "back-up" costume was a sports jersey, but since the sun wasn't shining directly by trick or treating time, we decided to put on the penguin costume, too. Isn't he just a cutie?

Keanu and Jayden the pirate

The little penguin (before he took the hat off after the third house!)

Keanu and "Da-ee"

Keanu and Hank the tiger (Hank's big sister kind of took these two little boys under her bumblebee wing and helped show them the ropes of trick or treating.)

Weekend Fun on the Tienmou Trail

We went back to the Tienmou Trail today, but this time we just did the flat part and brought someone to carry the tired boys back to the car - both were very smart changes over last weekend. Here are some pictures.

Speak softly and carry a big stick. You never know when you'll need to scare the monkeys away. Towards the beginning of the trail we saw a couple of monkeys playing in the trees just off the path and Keanu decided to carry a stick to scare them away if they came close. The monkeys were probably bigger than him, but they weren't going to come close to us. Jayden and Keanu were quite the troopers at the beginning, but by the end, they both needed their daddies to carry them.

Keanu saw that Jayden was collecting rocks so he decided that he should, too. Then he dropped them and complained that his hands were dirty. What a city boy!We turned around after having some sweet potato soup with a big fat pig (literally):

Summer vacation ended... a whole week ago...

OK, so with the start of the fall semester comes my procrastination. Here I am, finally getting a chance to share some of our fun from the mini vacation that we enjoyed between summer school and the fall semester. No, we didn't travel very far or even stay in a hotel, but those last days of "summer" vacation were really well spent.

On Friday a week ago, with no plans beyond renewing my passport and a leisurely brunch at New York Bagels, we hopped on the highway heading East through the big 13km tunnel and ended up in Suao. Kevin had been to to cold springs there several years ago so we decided to check them out since it was such a hot day. There are both communal pools like swimming in an unclorinated swimming pool as well as private rooms that you can rent. We decided on the private room (since we hadn't planned ahead and brought anything else to wear!) with the cold spring water along with a faucet for hot water. The cold spring water was about like swimming in a MN lake in early June, but Kevin was crazy enough to enjoy it. Keanu and I, on the other hand, stayed in the pool of mixed hot/cold so we could pretend we were taking a bath.


After the bath, we spent some time in the wading pool and Keanu had a great time toddling through the ankle-deep water. He was afraid of the fountains that shot up from the middle of the pool, though.

The worst part of the adventure was forgetting the camera... so that means no cute pictures for you!

THEN, on Saturday we finally met up with fellow-Minnesotans Leo and Kate and their two little ones: Conrad and Rita. Kevin had to teach in the afternoon, but he dropped Keanu and I off at the base of the Tienmou Trail which meanders up thousands of steps up Yang Ming Mountain. Since Keanu usually loves going up and down steps, we figured this would be great fun for him, but with it being nap time and all, he didn't do as well as I'd hoped. With two toddlers, we didn't get very far, but it gave us all a good work out.
After the "hike" I tried to get a picture of the two boys, but they obviously had other plans.
Afterwards, we went to play at the park in Tienmou and the boys really seemed to enjoy that. They also enjoyed their juice break and Keanu was so exhausted after his big day he fell asleep in my arms at the park! When he woke up, we were home and Kevin was making hot pot for us!