Toroko Gorge Marathon 2010

Because we were really excited for this race we nailed down our babysitter for our 4 kids + 1 cousin, about 3 months before the race. That is why it was seriously frustrating when she fell through two days before the race. In the end Bonnie selflessly offered to stay at the hotel with the 4 older children for more than 8 hrs. (thank you, thank you, thank you Bonnie!)

Aaand I woke up Ander to go with the rest of us runners at 4am. Poor baby! We stayed at an amazing hotel up the gorge and so we had a 25-30 min bus ride down the mountain to the starting. Well, our bus driver decided he was gonna give us a 'special' treat by recreating a prolonged Space Mountain ride. The lights were on in the bus and it was black outside and you couldn't anticipate which way we would jerk next. It wasn't long before I  needed one of the barf bags on the bus... and I used it. Great way to start a race eh? 

 We got off of the spacecraft bus and made our way in the rain into the park. It wasn't long before we met up with our friends and you could feel the excitement in the air as race time approached.

 This is most of us who were running.

 Tara, Nathan's sister, was running her first official half marathon and Nathan was running the full marathon.

 The mother's who were running had special shirts that said in Chinese, "I am a mother of X number of children... And I can still run!" In a country with a negative birth rate, we really turned heads with our numbers.
I wasn't sure if I wanted to wear the shirt considering I would be pushing a baby for the first time and in a non-jogger stroller, lest I become an embarrassment, but in the end I decided to just go for it.

 Look at this picture of the starting line of the 1/2 and Full. It is just so cool!

 I actually found Nathan and Tara in the crowd ^ if you want to play Where's Waldo, Tara is in the pink shirt with blonde hair and Nathan is to her right. A couple helps, the tall guy with the blue shirt was with them... I was surprised to find Norm -who I had been running around looking for- had disappeared down to the starting line to see Nathan and Tara off. He's the blue hat.

 I will say this repeatedly and I will not apologize. Toroko gorge is AMAZING. It's huge and the above and below pics illustrate that, in that the runners,who you can actually see, are about the size of ants.

As the 5k-ers were getting ready to start I was desperately trying to get pictures of my FIL really getting into the warm up exercises with the rest of the crowd. Only later when I looked at the picture did I realize that someone had desperately been trying to get a picture of me.
 Oh Asia... how I love thee :)

 Our 5k started and Ander and I were off. The scenery was so incredible. Everyone was full on stopping to take pictures.

 My run was hard at times but good and I became very grateful I was wearing the shirt about 1/3 of the way in when I realized most of the racers were giving me big smiles, thumbs up and shouting encouraging "JIAYOU!?" (an idiom that literally translates to "add fuel"). Some even ran next to me for a bit to ask if my shirt was true. One just ran ahead of me, turned around and ran backwards while giving me a big, cheezy, thumbs up. It was hilarious and helpful.

 We did it! Not gonna lie, I was pleased with my time considering the circumstances.

 Next Norm and I waited for Tara. She did so awesome!! She finished strong and spent the next few hours telling people that yes, she does in fact have 5 children. I was so proud that she ran such an awesome race and made great time. Way to go Tara!!!!

 Meanwhile, miles up the gorge, Nathan was making his way up to the turn around point which happened to be at our hotel. So Bonnie and the kids waited outside to see Nathan and cheer him on. They gave lot's of racers high fives and "Jiayou!"'s while waiting.
Unfortunately by now, Nathan was in misery, having cramped up going up the mountain. Kohen was like, "We've been waiting an hour dad, go faster!"

And because Nathan was in so much excruciating pain and I like to keep things light here on the blog, let's take a moment for some comic relief.
HERE'S TO YOU MR. (& Mrs.) ROBINSON:

 When I saw it coming my way, and I actually had my camera ready and the darn thing actually worked... it was a FESTIVUS MIRACLE!!!
After all of our speculation last year on this character, I think it's safe to say this drafty getup is his M.O.
I get the giggles every time I look at it. I still can't believe, out of 10,000 people, I got this picture!!!
It was a message from the god of friendship, reminding us how much we love and miss the Robinsons. :)

 Back to the agony and the pain.
We waited a long time for Nathan. And after an ambulance went up the gorge I was waiting quite nervously. But nearing 5 hours -an all time worst for my sweet husband- a broke down Nathan came out of the tunnel. I was so grateful he made it!!! I was so proud he finished! Especially after he told us about how at one point he was just dragging a cramped leg along. I love you babe xoxoxo

A day that started off about 4 hours too early, followed by an up-chuck and cold, drizzly rain turned into a day full of self satisfaction, a sense of accomplishment and a little sunshine to highlight the beauty all around us.
The full body massages back at the glorious hotel didn't hurt either...

Halloween 2010...

...And no, just because it is now nearing Thanksgiving does not mean that I can't blog about Halloween. 

First thing you need to know is Nathan was able to help me with the gauntlet of Halloween parties at school (quite literally running back and forth between 3 classes) before leaving the country for the official holiday. If you want to see scary it's me pulling off Halloween on my own. I was a Witch for Halloween. No costume needed ;)

I was feeling guilty that I had no costume for Ander until I remembered this gem of a hat.

Aly chose to be Cinderella (please note all poses were completely crafted by the child w/o mom input)

Kohen was a Knight. His armor was shining.

Kennedy was a cat. I suggested perhaps she was Kiefer's girlfriend -Ashley- she LOVED that idea.

My favorite thing about Halloween is the terrible group shots that usually require at least one child to be in tears. I loathe taking the picture but it always makes me laugh after the fact. We did pretty well this year, I bribed Ander with a treat to keep his hands off of the hat, then snapped the picture as he charged me for more. Is it me or did Ander morf into Elmer Fudd here? where's dat wascally wabbit?!

It was a mostly lovely evening up on Yangmingshan where there were around 20 houses participating in trick or treating. That turned out to be the perfect amount for me the kids.

We met several of our friends up there and enjoyed the evening as the kids sprinted from house to house. Most of the houses were decorated to the nines and it felt like home.

This cute Cat is sure happy about her bag-o-catnip

Happy Halloween!

Visitors! Yay!!

 So my delay in blogging has been for a good reason. We have grandparents in town!!! Woot woot!
Bonnie and Norm have been here and in other parts of Asia the last 3 or 4 weeks and we are now hitting our stride with the arrival of Nathan's sister Tara and one of her 5, Laynie. So obviously there is lot's to chronicle. I'm on it. I swear.

But for the moment here are a couple pics, the bottom one from when Gma and Gpa visited all of the kids classes during school. They were well received, as shown by Aly's hyper-happy grin :)

A Mermaid Party, No Ariel Allowed.

For Kennedy's 8th Birthday she invited 3 friends over for An Under the Sea, Mermaid themed party. Kenna told me about a year ago that she really wanted a Mermaid themed party so I've had a long time to prepare. Which makes one wonder why I waited until about a week before to get to work on it. 

I don't know what possessed me to make not one paper mache' fish for a pinata, but four more, for decoration. Maybe someone needs to hit me with a bat, I dunno. Paper mache' is time intensive ya'll! And then I pulled out my paints to find I had about 3 colors that were usable, but all now in gel form. So I hopped in the car and ran to Target and picked up some more. *SNAP!* Oh hi reality. Yeah, I had no idea where to find more paint so I made do with what I had. "Making Do" is not a favorite activity of mine, fyi.

As the girls arrived we put a flower clip we'd made in the girl's hair and a shell necklace around their neck and each of the girls set out coloring their own mermaid. 

This party was an Ariel free zone, largely because Ariel is a naive, disobedient, tantrum throwing, heaving-bosomed 16 year old child bride who pitches a fit and then gets her way-  HOW I DID NOT PICK UP ON THIS when I was obsessed with the movie, and sound track I had on cassette tape with which I would force my sister and neighbors to reinact scenes, with me headlining as Ariel, of course- I will never know.

 Anyway, at some point years later it dawned on me the lack of values in the story and so, though my kids watch the movie once in a great while, I wasn't about to dedicate a whole party to her. Not when Kennedy and her friends would make better mermaids just being their cute selves. 

 Cute Selves Exhibit A

 We used the Mermaids the girls colored and cut out for "Pin the Mermaid on the Shell Throne". When I told Kohen he didn't have to color a mermaid, there was actually such a thing as "Mer-men" he made a face like he'd smelled stinky socks and said, "No thanks, I think I'll just be a shark." So there was quite a scene when Kohen planted his shark right on a mermaids head (you can see, above). He couldn't have been more satisfied with himself or the room full of squealing girls. 

 Giving the fish some love before they smash her face -and my 5+ hours of work- to bits.

 I've seen enough America's Funniest Videos to know that it isn't so smart for Nathan to hold out the pinata while a bunch of kids swing at it with a bat...
Here is Kennedy with the first crack, which thankfully only made contact with the pinata.

 And a great action shot of Maddie gutting the fish.  

This ^ was a party favor, and all I will say is that I was doing more of that "making do" again. Luckily, I had the girls at M&Ms.

 If the paper mache' fish weren't proof enough of my desire to inflict unnecessary pain and stress on myself, I offer you this. A cake complete with fondant frosting (my first time ever working with it) and the sugar I made to look like seaweed which took three tries to get how I wanted it, and I also didn't have the cake pans I would've preferred. Taking all my disclaimers into consideration, I feel fine about how it turned out.

 So did the birthday girl. I think having a birthday party, and more importantly, having friends to actually invite to her party, was a really big deal for her. And in spite of all my complaining about party prep, if I'm being honest, I really enjoyed doing it. It was a labor of love. (Except for the part where the fondant wasn't working and my kids were swarming me in the kitchen and I closed my eyes and yelled, "GET OUT! AND DON'T COME BACK FOR AT LEAST 5 MINUTES!!" except for that, it was all love).

 Happy Birthday Kennedy Jolee!

xoxo

Kinmen

What does this mother of four have to do to get one night, I repeat, one night away alone with her husband?

I'll tell you what. 

I had to agree to eat Fear Factor caliber food, wake up at 4:30am and run further than I have in at least 5 years, not to mention stressing myself silly arranging care for our children. All in the name of love, baby.

Nathan and I recently went on an overnighter to Kinmen Island. We were able to go with our friends Carrie and Ross and we thoroughly enjoyed our 28 hours (you better believe I counted them) away from our crew. We went to Kinmen for a race and so we were with a Tour Bus group and kind of at their mercy that first night. But it was fine, while everyone else went in to hear like an hour long pitch on Tea that we don't drink, we enjoyed some adult conversation instead. Uninterrupted, I might add.

Seesters! Look what I found! A rare and exceptional Asian Afro coupled with what I suspect is a straight ponytail of extensions. The juxtaposition of the puff vs. the pony really had me pondering. Real or not real? It's still a riddle to me. An afro on an Asian... doubtful. But the color is unmistakably what you get when you bleach very dark hair. Just ask my sister, ha ha! No but really, it's a conundrum.

(In his head I imagine he's got a loop of Christina Aguilera's 'Beautiful' with the line-  "Humidity won't bring mee-ee down!")

ANYway. Eventually they took us to the race site. Heretofore I was not excited. But I started feelin it a little at this point. Nathan went in and worked his Nathan Magic and got he and Carrie signed up for the 1/2 Marathon even though it was full. 

Next we were all herded to dinner. Now, how do Asians carb-load you may be wondering? 

Uh huh. They set this gem down in front of me. And guess what surprise is under the whip topping and sprinkles? I'll never tell.......    

Okay fine. Shredded cabbage. I know, I can't explain the thinking on that either.

But wait! There's more! And it's gray! 

I don't eat gray.

S.O.S.! 

It was at this point I questioned just how much I loved Nathan. Thankfully I thought on it so long I didn't have much time to eat the array of horrors in front of me. I ate white rice with a few tentative bites of "fish" and "pork". I was still hungry when we left.

We headed to our hotel which was slightly nicer than I was expecting so that was a pleasant surprise. We had two twin beds, it was very "I Love Lucy".  Except the beds were hard as rocks as usual. You might as well be sleeping on a box spring. Or the floor. But again, it was clean.

Wake up call was 4:30am. Breakfast was not so gross but not really good, either. Lesson definitely learned to bring our own food for this kind of stuff! 

It was the perfect weather for running. Overcast and warm, with an occasional cool breeze. The four of us were 4 of 7 non-Asians that we saw which was kind of fun. It made me realize how cool it was to be  there. 

We enjoyed watching all the other runners do their warm ups and stretches which are nothing short of comical. Lot's of gyrations, some slapping, unabashed hip thrusting... it's good stuff.

Before I knew it the race had started and I was officially running my first race ever. Never mind that the 4.5K was called a "fun run"-which me and my huffing and puffing resent, btw- it was still a race. 

And even though I had never actually ran that far in my practice runs my goal was to not stop running. When I discovered about 8 min. in that at least half of the course was uphill, I was even more proud of myself for meeting that goal. All 4 of us met our personal race goals so I'd say it was a success.

Carrie especially had success -she came in 2nd place for her age group! She was pretty frustrated when she realized she was beat by only 42 seconds, and had she only known she would have kicked on the after burners. After all, her legs are about twice as long as little ms. snuck into first. 

I love this picture because while both women are giving the "V" for victory per requirement for any picture on this side of the hemisphere, Carrie kinda looks like she's giving the other lady rabbit ears... was that on purpose? :)

Next our taxi driver took us somewhere "special" to buy some of the peanut candies Kinmen is famous for. I had to include a few pics because this is typical. We pull up to some suspicious looking building and are told we have arrived. We went inside and checked out the goods and where they were made. I didn't see any hair nets or gloves, for the record.

This little old lady was cute. Her family was behind this peanut operation *punny* and Nathan bought candies to take back to his assistant and other Chinese friends who might appreciate them. 

After we went back to the hotel and showered up it was time for lunch. Maybe it was just because I was starving by now but lunch was a few notches up from dinner. 

There was still some less than appealing dishes swinging around the lazy susan though. ie:

We tried to rent scooters to drive around the island but they were all rented out so we settled on our quirky taxi driver. 

First stop was to get some fruit, Carrie and I let the boys handle it.

I was starting to rethink that choice when Nathan got back in with a bag full of plums. I think this speaks to his hunger level as well- we were supposed to be getting on a plane shortly- who did he imagine was gonna eat all those plums? lol

Our driver took us on a tour of the island. We saw some riveting sites including but not limited to his Elementary School, High School, meeting his Wife etc.
We did get around to a war museum where I realized exactly where we were. Kinmen is technically Taiwan so I assumed it was right off of the main island's coast. I was shocked to see we were literally on mainland China's front porch. Crazy.

If you are interested ^ is a little info on Kinmen's importance in the war. From what I gathered, if Kinmen had fallen, mainland Taiwan would have as well. It was neat to learn a little more history about it.

Before we headed to the airport we stopped at the beach. It's hard to resist the urge to do the Crane, of Karate Kid fame, when you are on cement stumps on a beautiful beach.

So, it wasn't exactly a romantic gettaway. But the scenery was lovely, the race was fun and the company was great. And if all else fails, we did see that Puff v. Pony. It made my day anyway.

Goldfish Sandwich

I really do love and appreciate when Nathan packs a snack for Ander for church. Because then I get a laugh as well as a new favorite snack choice, A Goldfish Sandwich (???).

Ander Video

Some Ander videos by request. First we have Ander trying to keep up with his siblings. He doesn't even flinch at the sword wielding, stampeding herd he has obviously grown accustomed to. 
Couple quick items: please try to ignore any weird voices or sounds I make during these videos.
Also, the same outfit appears in most of the videos. This is purely coincidence. The videos were shot on different days, and I change Ander's clothes at least once a week, I swear!





Next we have Ander copying my clicks. Either that or he is becoming truly Asian, unable to chew unless one's mouth is open. I'm hoping he likes the clicking sound.





A favorite family dance song is "Beggin" and you may catch that Kohen likes to interpret music literally, as he gets off of the floor in front of Ander. Did I mention Ander get's down to this song too? Even when strapped in a seat...





Ander's new favorite place to climb is this random box seat. And his new favorite song is Jesus Wants Me for a SuuunBEAM! In this video he is trying his darndest to jump to the song. Just try watching it without moving yourself. 
The impressive spill at the end? Don't worry, he rolled out of it like a ninja. And proof that modern day miracles still happen, I video'd this with my hand over the microphone. You are welcome.





Lastly, we have Ander laughing his head off as Kennedy shouts his favorite song. Nothing better than those belly laughs!