The Rest of the Story

Through out all of our fun trip to Haulien and Toroko Gorge, there were a couple moments that are worth mentioning: Nathan got a hot new hairdo. It's called "The Tara". (laughed until tears from this one)

Due to a typhoon washing out the road to Toroko we had to change our plans and take a train. Our trip home was not a straight shot and we had a typical experience in that communication is often spotty, no matter how clear we are. And everything takes two times as long here!!!

Case in point:

Upon following specific directions we find that after all 10 of us (sporting a stroller, wheel chair and a gaggle of kids) walked several blocks in the rain from the train station headed to the bus station, we had been told the wrong direction to go when leaving the train station. 

So the traveling circus tuuurned around and made our way back to the train station, up the elevators (spent 10 minutes trying to get the possessed doors to close), across the station, down the elevators, and out the other side. 

Several more blocks in the pouring rain to the bus station and we arrived soaking wet. 

                                

 What? what's the matter? do I look wet?

Why? Is it raining or something?

Notice the kind bus station lady taking pity on us and breaking out the 1 ply toilet paper for us to dry off with. This was actually a generous gesture considering Taiwan is notoriously stingy with all paper products. (ie: not standard in all public restrooms).

Unfortunately, the t.p. just kind of disintegrated as we gingerly patted ourselves off. By now we had come down with the giggles and the situation was pretty hysterical to everyone....

Except this poor guy.

Not fun being the ring leader in charge of the traveling circus. Nathan, you did amazing getting us from place to place. And by "place to place" I mean, hotel to van, van to train, train to bus, bus to 2 taxis, 2 taxis to 2 cars to (hallelujah!) home!

A weekend to remember!

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