Grandparents Last Visit to Taiwan

In February, my parents made one last trip over to Taiwan before we leave for good. They arrived on a Friday and so at midday came with me to pick-up the boys. It was quite the surprise!

For our first lunch we had potstickers and dumplings.

The boys went crazy when they saw the PJ Mask figurines Grandma and Grandpa got for them. Big hit!

I had a haircut planned that day so I said goodbye to the boys and left Mom and Dad to it. They were troopers to watch the boys considering how exhausted they must have been. They even put the boys to bed that night as Luke and I had a dinner with friends.On Saturday we drove out to Juming Museum and wandered around the sculptures.

It’s such a cool museum with lots of great activities for kids.

And Saturday night we headed to Chilis for dinner and margaritas.

Sunday we took Mom and Dad to a fancy hotel in Dazhi for an Australia/New Zealand Day lunch celebration. It was a great opportunity to introduce them to a lot of our friends in Taipei. The food was great and we all got lucky and won several raffle prizes.

On Monday, with the boys back in school, we were able to do some longer walks and have nice breakfasts out. 

Getting the boys off to school each morning was a struggle as they wanted to stay home and play with Grandma and Grandpa instead. Thankfully they were always happy after school but then it would be a struggle getting Toby down for nap. So much FOMO going on.

Jude, much more so than Toby, was all about Grandma and Grandpa. He was attached to the hip with them and managed to get a lot of one-on-one time.

Lucky Jude got to go see the Lego Batman movie with Grandpa one afternoon while Toby napped. They stopped and got donuts after and bizarrely enough there happened to be a news camera crew at Krispie Kreme at the exact same time they were there and so we discovered from his teachers that Jude was on Taiwan’s nightly news picking out his donuts!

One sunny day after school we picked up a bunch of food from 7-11 and had a little picnic with the boys. 

On Valentines Day, Mom and I did yoga together and then went out shopping and for dinner.

The big highlight of the trip was travelling to Cebu in the Philippines. We were all hanging out for some sun and warmer temperatures. We had a 7am flight to Cebu so we stayed at the airport hotel the night before. Grandma and Grandpa showed off their ping pong skills to the boys.

Arriving in Cebu felt great. It was raining when we landed but warm and not long after we got there and checked-in we were drinking margaritas overlooking the beautiful beach.

Jude and Toby loved this lady, who they called ‘princess’.

We spend 4 nights in Cebu at the Shangri-la and it was fabulous. Hands-down one of the coolest things about the resort was how kid-friendly it was. The boys had a ball everyday playing on this water playground.

The water slides were for kids-only which we found out right after this photo.

The pool area was so perfect for little kids. We loved the kids pool which was quite big and even had a canopy slung above it to keep the sun out.

Most days, after several hours at the pool, we would grab NZ Natural Ice Cream and chill out in the shade. The beach was also one of the better ones I’ve seen for kids as there were tons of shade umbrellas for guests to use.

We had breakfast outside every morning at Aqua, in the Ocean Wing. The boys loved getting a donut there every day. Luke and I snuck away one night for date night but ended up at the same restaurant as my parents and the boys!

Here are some more photos from our trip- so many good ones.

Back in Taipei we had several days before my parents flew back to the States. We had dinner at Commune,the food truck area, one night.

We also took a trip in the Gondola up to Maokong. It was cold and raining so we didn’t stay long. Jude got to go to the movies with Grandpa and Grandma to see Moana again. Burger King, popcorn and ice cream – lucky boy!Of course no trip would be complete with out a meal at Din Tai Fung.And for their last night out we went out without the boys for a more relaxing meal at our favourite places for Shanghai and Szechuan cuisine. On their last day we picked the boys up from school and they played one last time before saying goodbye.

It was a great trip with so many great memories had (even by our little pout-pout fish, Toby!). Our goodbye this time wasn’t as sad as it usually is as we will be together again in no time.  See you guys in May!

 

Our Last Christmas and NYE in Taipei

We stayed home for the holidays and enjoyed a low-key Christmas and New Years; our last in Taipei. This year instead of painting a cardboard tree we picked up a small fake one from Carrefour for $20. Decorating it provided a whole afternoon of entertainment for the boys.

We painted popsicle sticks and used the glue gun to make some ornaments as well as a star for the top of the tree.

Jude was all about presents. Anytime I would take him to a store he would ask me to take a photo of the item he wanted to send to Santa.

Even thought Christmas isn’t an official holiday here, the Taiwanese still like to celebrate it. The boys school spent the week before Christmas making ornaments and decorating their own classroom trees.

The Friday before Christmas the school had a big Christmas concert where each class performed to songs they had been practicing. Jude totally nailed his song and dance and adorable Toby started of great when he heard the music and then when he looked out at the audience froze and then finally decided to exit stage left!

We didn’t do anything special Christmas Eve. We had hotdogs for dinner and then Luke ran out to the toy store to buy the boys a present each.

They opened their gifts in the morning and were pretty happy with their new superheroes.

We had a lazy Christmas Day hanging around home. The highlight for the boys was getting to Skype with Santa Claus.

A few days later Christmas came again when we received a big package from Grandma and Grandpa.

The boys both got a remote control car- what a hit!

They also got loads of adorable PJs and some new books. So spoiled.

We had a low key New Years Eve as well. Luke and I put the boys to bed and drank some bubbly. At Midnight we ran outside and watched the Taipei 101 fireworks. They were amazing.

And on New Years Day we celebrated by going out to brunch at The Diner. A very special treat for the boys as we hardly ever eat out!

Now its the New Year and we have a mere 3 months left in Taiwan. It’s going to be very sad to say goodbye to this place we’ve called home for the past 5 years.

Bali Holiday 2016

We spent just shy of 2 weeks in beautiful Bali with Grandma and Grandpa. Aunt Dominica also stopped by for 3 nights on her way to the UK. It was a big bonus to get to see her. She brought the boys these awesome dinosaurs which they just loved. In Bali, we pretty much spent all our time swimming, eating, getting massages and relaxing at our villa. Bali is a beautiful, lush island full of an incredible number of temples. We stayed in the beachside town, Sanur. It had a really cool beachfront area with a walkway and tons of little restaurants. We took one day trip to Ubud, where we got to experience the amazing (and at times scary) Monkey Temple and beautiful rice paddies. The boys loved getting to spend all this time with Grandma and Grandpa. It quickly became the routine for the boys to wake up and wander over to Grandpa and Grandma’s room for morning cartoons. Of course, as always, it was hard to say goodbye –  both to Bali and to the Grandparents (and Aunt Minnie earlier in the week!). Here are some of the photos from out trip.

 

Summer Holiday: Ohio

We were lucky enough to get to spend three weeks in Ohio this summer. Luke was participating in a conference in Minnesota, so we decided to tag along with him for the flight over. He was only there a week so my Mom helped us out in a big way by flying back to Taipei with me and the boys and staying with us for a week.

(Here we are waiting to depart for the airport in our matching shirts).

Luke and I have both flown enough to have lounge access. It’s so great with kids. We were able to stake out a corner in the lounge and set up camp for the few hours before our flight.

We choose a night flight on Eva Air to LAX. Jude stayed up for the first 4 hours of the flight watching shows.

It took a lot of work to get him to sleep and he was still up and down all night. In the morning, during breakfast, he remained passed out on Luke’s lap. The poor kid is not used to having his usual 12 hours of sleep cut short.

My Mom met us out in LA. It was the best feeling to see her standing at the exit waiting for us. Luke had to run and catch his next flight to Minnesota but we got to relax a little as we were staying the night there before our early morning flight to Cleveland.

Jude was in a exhausted but hyper state and when we reached the hotel room, he ran around exploring every corner of the room. He was nutty for the phone and kept ringing Fireman Sam on it! We went down to the lobby restaurant and had some dinner. We used the iPad to calm Jude down.

The poor kiddo had such a hard time getting to sleep. It was agonizing. Once he finally passed out from crying, he awoke at around 2 am screaming. So we all woke up (Toby too) and tried to get them back to sleep by trying out various sleeping arrangements. Nothing worked so after an hour we stuck Jude back in the crib and let him cry more. Poor thing.

Toby slept in bed with me and had no problem falling asleep as long as he was breastfeeding.

It was a rough night, followed by a rough day of flying (although, surprisingly, the kids were both very good on the flight). We were all happy to arrive in Ohio at my parent’s house.

Grandpa and Jude explored the entire yard many times over. Jude would ask Grandpa all the time to go outside with him.

It was so nice to get to spend so much time outside and be comfortable. Taiwan’s summers are rough with the high temps and humidity so I don’t get the kids outside as much as I’d like too. We made the most of it in Ohio by down at the pond, running in the grass, pulling weeds or just walking around the neighborhood.

One sunny afternoon we pitched a little tent and just hung out in there.

We ate out a few times, our favorite place being ‘Yours Truly’. They have a train for kids in the waiting area and great kids meals. Each time we went Jude and Toby would split chicken fingers and french toast.

We took a trip out to Geneva-on-the-Lake one day. It’s a historic street with a carnival-like atmosphere. We used to go there a lot as kids so it was fun to experience it again after so many years. We left before lunch, hoping Jude would nap in the car on the way there. He didn’t, of course.

We kept Jude distracted from his tiredness with game-playing, a playground, and donuts. We stopped in the gift-shop of ‘Firehouse Winery’ and Grandpa spotted a red fireman’s hat for Jude. He absolutely loved it (and still does)!

We also got to see the Lake (Toby doesn’t look very impressed).

Aunt Natalie took a break from studying and came to visit from Seattle for just under a week. We all had a great time with her.

Playdates with cousin Robby were always a treat. So cool that the cousin are all so close in age!

We had a few days of rain while in Ohio. These two usually always get into trouble when they’re stuck inside.

It was great having Grandma, Grandpa and the cats around to help keep them entertained.

One lovely evening, once the boys were both in bed, my parents and I had a delicious dinner on the deck. It’s such a treat to eat outside since its something we don’t get to do back in Taipei.

Another thing Jude loved doing was helping out with taking out the garbage. It was pretty fun wheeling everything down the long driveway and then getting to see it all get picked up by the big green garbage truck.

We had such a lovely 3 weeks in Ohio and it was certainly hard to leave and even harder to say goodbye to Grandpa.

 

Valentine’s Day

Luke and Jude went out for a walk on Valentine’s Day and brought these back:

and these:

It was obviously Jude’s idea so naturally I let him have the first cupcake. He loved it! Instant sugar-high.

So after we set him loose on the vacuum (still his #1 current obsession)

He spends a lot of waking hours crawling around pushing the vacuum:

Other stuff we’ve been up to has been in the kitchen. Natalie got me this rad new Cuisinart mixer for my Bday and Elizabeth got me a steamed pudding container so I decided to try out both.

After mixing, I put the lid on,

and let it steam away for an hour and a half.

Jude patiently hung out in the kitchen playing while I baked.

And his patience was rewarded:

Later in the week I made Brazilian Cheese Bread. It was delicious – hot and gooey. These were made possible thanks to a friend of ours dropping off the key ingredient  – tapioca flour.

The same friend also dropped off two new shirts for Jude –  a polo tee and a long sleeve shirt with a bow tie. Here he is in the adorable polo:

It’s been really cold lately but the other day the sun came out and the temperature spiked.

It was a good thing as Jude and I had some business to take care of.

I bought his first car (second hand on-line) so we went to pick it up.

It also turns into a walker – pretty cool!

Milestones in Malaysia

Last week we were in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia. We scored a cheap flight + hotel deal (thanks to KK only being 3 hours from Taipei), packed our bags, and boarded our flight. Little did we know the week was going to be a doozy.

Our first night Jude started rolling from his back to his tummy (over and over and over again) and when he woke up the next morning we discovered that his first tooth had arrived! These new milestones coinciding with our vacation meant a bit less sleep than we were hoping for but we were both very proud.

To help keep Jude’s mind off of the pain we spent a lot of time at the pool.

We discovered he loves to try and grab the stroller fan when it is turned on! (Thankfully it is made out of foam but we still got quite a few sideways glances from other guests wondering why we were letting our son stick his hand into the blades of a fan…).

Next to our hotel was an Orangutang reserve. It was pretty cool to watch them get to do their thing in the wild.

We also spent a bit of time at the beach.  Jude’s did some wave jumping.

Followed by a big nap.

Jude made a lot of friends at the hotel.

He was charming everyone in sight with this adorable smile.

Despite all the changes, he was so well behaved and a lot of fun to travel with.

But at the end of the week we were all pretty pooped.

新年快樂！(Happy New Year!): Camping at Sun Moon Lake

Last week was the Chinese New Year here in Taiwan. Most Taiwanese get a whole week off work and spend that time with their families celebrating. Luke and I also had the week off and were kindly invited to do some things with our Taiwanese friends. On Sunday night we had a lovely dinner with one of my old Chinese teachers and her family. And on Thursday, we joined my current Chinese tutor and her family for a night of camping down in Sun Moon Lake. It was definitely the highlight of our vacation!

We left chilly, overcast Taipei around 9:30am on Thursday morning and made our way down the west coast stopping along the way for lunch.

The place we had lunch at was a huge rest stop filled with a large selection of restaurants and shops. There was even an area called ‘the Tunnel of Love’ with a graffiti wall for lovers. Coincidentally it was Valentine’s Day!

We made it to our camping destination sometime after 1pm.

The setting was beautiful- we were right on the lake. The sunny, warm weather helped too.

Our friends were already there and had a great set-up. In addition to my tutor, her husband, and their three kids, there was her Mom, her sister, her husband, their two kids and her brother and two kids.

The tent we rented was raised up on stilts and had a thin mattress pad lining the inside. So we just had to bring our sleeping bags and four pillows that I arrange in various positions around my body to make sleeping more comfortable.

After we unpacked and organized our stuff, we all headed into the small town down the road and caught a ferry to take us across to the main town. Being Chinese New Year it was pretty busy around the lake. The line for the ferry was long but moved very quickly.

The view from the boat was really nice. The lake is surrounded by beautiful mountains.

Here’s us on the boat:

Once on the other side of the lake we all rented bikes and hit the bike trail. My bike was extra fancy as it was electric! Perfect for me in my tired pregnant state. I rode it like a scooter most of the way and was able to keep up with Luke.

We rode for about an hour in total.

After biking we were driven back to camp where dinner was awaiting us. My Chinese teacher’s sister had make a couple of hot pots – one with a sour soup base and one with a spicy base. Both pots had various meats, fishballs, and veggies. I was a big fan of the sour base and ate so many bowls that I didn’t have room to try the spicy one.

The kids were super cute while waiting to get their bowls filled up.

I got lucky and in one serving got a Hello Kitty fish ball.

After dinner we played board games until almost midnight! The latest I’ve stayed up in a long time.

And in the morning, after a short walk, Luke and I returned to the campsite for birthday cake! A few days before it was my Chinese teacher’s son’s birthday so they brought along a yummy cake to celebrate with everyone.

After packing up we said our goodbyes and thank-yous and headed back to Taipei.

We had such a great time in Sun Moon Lake and can’t wait to return.

Family Baby Shower

After Christmas my family threw us a little baby shower to celebrate the upcoming arrival of our little guy.

Luke and I knew something was up but were mighty surprised to see the amount of effort that went into the set-up.

My eyes were immedietly drawn to these beauties:

The food for the shower included stereotypical pregnancy cravings, so Kool-aid and fried chicken were served!

This made my husband a very happy man!

We played several games, including guess the baby food flavor. I struggled my way through it.

Rob, on the other hand, quite enjoyed the challenge and was remarkably good at guessing.

Jen and Rob put together this great game to test our knowledge about birth and baby care. We played against seasoned veterans in the area (my parents) and surprisingly we won!

Gifts were also given. We received so many adorable and thoughtful things.

Our little man is going to be well dressed.

And have lots of furry animal friends.

(We got some other really neat stuff which I failed to capture on film, so will capture once I get the nursery together).

After gifts we took some photos around the tree.

Sadly, I couldn’t get one with both my sisters as Jen had a nasty stomach virus and had to keep a distance from me to ensure I didn’t get it too.

The night was toped off with one last game, a baby obstacle course.

It was me vs. Luke. We had a number of baby-related challenges to complete from changing and swaddling a baby,

to folding clothes and folding up the stoller.

It was a very close race and I only just won! Phew…

Thanks again to Mom, Dad, Nat, Jen and Rob for putting this together. We had a blast!

Christmas

As I mentioned in my last post our Christmas didn’t go as planned. We had planned on having spending half of Christmas Day with my Grandma at her nursing home and then coming home after and having a nice Christmas dinner. So that morning my Mom went over to the nursing home before lunch to get Grandma ready for our arrival and found her in a bad way. She had had pneumonia for the past week and was progressively getting worse. On Christmas Day she was completely out of it, wasn’t talking, and had a badly swollen lip and legs. So no question about it she had to go to the hospital. So off they went in the ambulance to the hospital and my Dad joined them there.

Meanwhile, the rest of us stayed at home and had the lunch we prepared for Grandmas. We decided to carry on as normal and after lunch got to work on Christmas dinner. We received regular updates from Mom and Dad about Grandma. By the time she was finished being examined and placed into a room it was well into the evening. And it was almost 9pm by the time they finally got home.

As soon as they got back we cracked a bottle of bubbly, toasted

And dug into the appetizers Luke and Rob had prepared (Pigs in Blankets).

Yum, yum

And after we sat down to a very late but delicious Christmas dinner.

Then it was time for presents.

Here’s Nat with a Weiqi board from Luke and I.

Jen with a fancy face tool to make her look younger from Mom and Dad.

Rob in a Taipei Elephants Baseball jersey.

Dad with practice chopsticks to help him prepare for their upcoming trip to Taiwan.

Luke and Rob gave eachother the same book.

We got a subscription to the Economist and a bottle of whiskey from Mom and Dad.

We had a great time but of course missed getting to see Grandma. So once she was feeling better, a few days after Christmas, we headed over for a belated Christmas visit. (I had to wear a face mask to protect my pregnant self from getting pnemonia).

Grandma loved her gifts, which included a lot of tasty treats and a cool photo calendar from Nat.

She wasn’t really supposed to be eating anything other than what the hospital gave her but we decided to live dangerously.

It was nice to spend time with her even if it wasn’t as we had planned.

Before Christmas

Sometimes no matter how much you plan life doesn’t always follow that plan. Our trip to the USA was a great example of this.

I was due to fly out a week before Luke and meet my parents in Arizona for a short getaway but ended up having to miss it and re-schedule my flight due to something coming up here in Taipei. Once I finally made it, and Luke had joined me, we planned to spend a few nights in Chicago but snowstorms across the North East led to a number of flight disruptions and our flight was cancelled not once, but TWICE (even after we switched airlines and purchased a new ticket with an airline who hadn’t made any other cancellations). We spent 12 hours at the Cleveland Airport trying to get to Chicago. Had we known, renting a car and driving would have been the better option. The last thing to throw our plans up in the air happened on Christmas Day when my Grandma had to be rushed into the hospital. She had caught pneumonia before I arrived and on Christmas Day my Mom found her in a not so good state so had to bring her in. This meant that my parents spent all day at the hospital curtailing our original plans of visiting Grandma and then coming home in the afternoon for Christmas dinner and presents. Well, we still had dinner and presents but it all happened much later after my parents had returned from the hospital around 9pm. So it wasn’t the holiday we had planned for but we still had a great time just being together.

So I’ll recap my trip in three posts- Before Christmas, Christmas, and Baby Shower. And after I have finished those, I will do one on New Zealand (where I was for a week after the States).

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The week before Christmas was busy.

It was filled with visits with Grandma.

Playing patty cake with Grandma.

A Cavs game.

They lost but we still had a great time.

A trip to the Farmparks to see a Christmas Light display and check out farm animals.

The light display was so-so but this global warming snowman was pretty clever.

Luke and I went to a sports park where he tried out baseball for the first time (and did awesome!).

We also braved the cold and went snowshoeing a few times.

We balanced out all this activity with some eating, including:

Pie at Bakers Square:

And Arby’s Roast Beef sandwiches

Natalie and I also managed to find time to bake up an assortment of Christmas cookies:

And of course, we did a lot of Christmas shopping. And apart from the whole day we spent at Cleveland Hopkins Airport it was a great week.