Half Marathon in Taroko

 Saturday morning while all the runners got up at 4am to head down to the race, the rest of us slept a few hours more.

Silks Place is the most beautiful hotel in Taiwan I'd venture to say. Pictures don't quite do it justice.

 We got up and had a leisurely breakfast and the kids went out butterfly catching.

 There were hundreds of beautiful butterflies all over the grounds of Silks Place.

 Kohen was the butterfly hunter. He had skills. He even managed not to mangle them as he caught and released them.

 Stunning scenery every where you look.

Meanwhile, Nathan was running a half marathon. Love this picture.^He is over the YM in our youth group and they had all been training together for the half. Pretty cool for them all to accomplish such a huge goal together. For you runners who might care, Nathan's time was 1 hr 56 min.

 Nathan, Ross, Jeremiah with the YM.

Back up at the hotel... Silks is the turn around point for the marathon runners and though none of the 42 runners we knew were running the marathon this year, we went out front with our neighbors and friends and let the kids cheer on the runners for a while. Jia you!!! (give gas!)

 The runners loved the little cheerleaders and one runner came up and motioned for Kohen to come run with him and off he went. K, bye?

 I started walking that direction when they took off and after they ran across the bridge the guy helped Kohen onto the sidewalk headed back to me. Kohen thought it was "pretty cool".

 All the runners would come by and give the kids 5's as they ran by. It was so hot out, they'd been running uphill for miles; I think it lifted their spirits.

 Next we took the kids swimming, indoors since we didn't bring sunscreen. In one pool there were hundreds of rubber duckies which inspired a few games.

There were about a dozen kids from our ward swimming and they spent quite a bit of time throwing the ducks all from one pool to another. I hope they got the sense of satisfaction they were looking for. I just wanted the activity to poop em out and I think it worked.

Speaking of poop. This is Brandie snuggling with Ander, teaasing and holding their noses after he was showered off. It's all fun and games till someone poops in their swim diaper. I do not wish to clean something like that ever. again.

 I love my sister Natalie's eye in photography. She takes the coolest shots at the coolest angles.

 The view from our room.

 The next day when we headed down the gorge we stopped on the rope bridge again. For some reason I was 10X as scared as I was last year. The space between the rope and wood seemed to gape open in a way I don't remember and I was worried that Ander would... I don't know. I was just worried.

So we took a quick picture and Ander, Scarlett and I headed off of the bridge.

Auntie Natalie and Kennedy

 Aly climbing on the wires that (hopefully) secure the bridge. As we walked onto the bridge Kennedy said, "Mom, why do bridges like this always fall down in the movies?" Um... that's an alarming and untimely observation, right?!

The gorge is stunning and the water is a very unique color. There is marble all over in the gorge walls. 

Meedle and Beeg

Up at a Buddhist Temple

Can you see the marble?

 The shrine for all those who died building the road through the gorge.

 This gives you some perspective on how ginormous that marble boulder is when you see the person on the platform!

 Between Natalie and I, we took hundreds of pictures. I tried to narrow it down. I really did.

 On the way home the weather turned quite nasty. The roads are already treacherous so we pulled out for a few minutes to let it pass. The "I have to pee!" alarm went off several times over so Nathan earned the Father of the Year award by taking turns escorting the girls out in the down pour and holding an umbrella for them while they did their business. (ps- everyone was decent at the time the pic was taken.)

Basically, if you have visited us in Taiwan and we didn't go to Toroko, you need to come back cuz you haven't seen the best Taiwan has to offer. And if you haven't come yet, put it on your list!!

The Road to Toroko

Natalie made it just in time to come with us to Toroko Gorge. It was our first trip with 5 kids so I was glad we had extra hands and we weren't going too far. Last year there were massive land slides a week or two before we were supposed to drive down to Toroko and at the last minute we had to find train tickets. But this year we were able to drive down on our own.

(Stopping in Nanao)

All things considered we made good time and didn't even have to stop that much. There are 8 seats in our van and every one was taken so things were real "friendly" and occasionally a bit unfriendly. Luckily Natalie has endured worse in her life so I never saw her reaching for the door handle to relieve herself of our periodic insanity; but believe me, I was watching for it!

We went through a series of long crazy tunnels which take hours off of the now 4 hour drive. One old tunnel was tall and super narrow, there was little room for error.

The drive is unbelievably gorgeous, I had no idea. It was another stunning day and the views were breathtaking, though so were the sheer cliff drop offs along much of the drive. 

We stopped in a quaint little town, Nanao, for a quick break. It was a lovely little town. Part of the drive is quite windy and since we were in such close quarters and I was taking no chances with chain-reaction-barfing, everyone got Dramamine'ed. Things were nice and quiet for a while there:

(Aly's neck = ouch!)

The closer we got to Toroko National Park the more beautiful it was. The two lane road is narrow and made me a bit nervous since I know landslides have swept buses and cars off and into the ocean before. I tried to focus on the beauty and not worry. It worked some of the time.

At one point traffic came to a stand still right before we entered a tunnel. Everyone was getting out of their cars and walking around. So Nathan, Natalie and I got out and had ourselves a little photo shoot. Supposedly construction was why we were waiting- thought you might want to know since it's always maddening to be stopped and never know why.

It was a good day for a photo shoot. I feel like the background almost looks unreal it's so pretty. But since I have no photoshop skills I assure you, you get what you see, for better or worse!

When we entered into the actual gorge Natalie was dying and having the perfect response you hope from a visitor. She was half hanging out the window trying to capture it with her camera. It's pretty much impossible to get pictures that show how ginormous the gorge walls are, vaulting up higher than you can even see in some spots.
The roads are extremely narrow in some streches and we had to back up a bit for this bus to come through the "two way" tunnel through the mountain.

I'm not usually a fan of driving anywhere stuffed like sardines, and there was that one time we all almost died when Kohen took off his stinky Keens, but otherwise this trip wasn't too bad and thankfully the scenery was perfectly distracting. It was a great start to our weekend gettaway!

(ps- I told ya she was hangin out the window ;)

Views From Above

 So November may have gotten away from me a bit. I can admit that I suppose. My sister Natalie arrived at the beginning of the month and so we've been wonderfully distracted since then. For our first outing we grudgingly got out of our pj's and headed to the local grocery store. On our way there I took her up to our old house and then up the hill to the look out we used to walk up to. It was an insanely clear and beautiful day.

 Ander was enjoying the scenery as well, never mind that he was asserting his 2 year old will every time we got in and out of the car and wasn't letting me buckle him in. It had to start sometime.
Anyway, as I looked out at that crazy clear blue sky I knew that it was a truly rare day that would be perfect for visiting 101. Even on blue sky days it is often still pretty smoggy.  So even though we had basically just rolled out of bed (after a call to my neighbor to pick up the older 3 from the bus) we headed to Nathan's office and he took us down to 101.

 We absolutely made the right choice. There wasn't another day as clear and beautiful as this the whole time she was here. We rode the fastest elevator in the world (1010 meters per minute) to the top of 101. At the top you can get a hand held little thing that you press the buttons on and it will talk to you about what you are seeing out whichever window.

 Ander was obsessed with it. He walked around talking his jibberish back into the phone thingy and gesturing to people like he was talking on the phone. He was completely content with the situation.

 We thought this picture with 101's shadow was pretty cool.

 The wind damper is so cool. Google it if you care to learn more about it, I don't feel like I'm a sound authority on it. It's pretty amazing though.

 My home... crazy.

 The observation deck was open which was a first for me. We headed out to check out the view.

 Pretty windy, it was freakin me out.

 It really is an awe inspiring building. It's hard to understand just how ginormous it is.

When we got home this was the sunset from our yard, not too shabby. What a rare treat to spontaneously go sight seeing. It was a great start to Natalie's trip.

*Starly*

 Ander pronounces Scarlett as "Starly" and it didn't take long for that one to stick. Our sweet little Starly is still the most popular girl around these parts by far.

Shortly after she turned one month old she went from sleeping 6-8 hours a night to an impressive 10-12 hours a night most nights. I've had to increase how often she eats during the day to ensure she is getting enough since she is going so long at night. I am definitely not complaining though!

 She went through the baby acne/ growing out of her hair faze just as the rest of my babes did though thankfully it was fairly short lived.

 Her hair is coming in and looks really dark in some lights and quite light in others so the jury is still out on that one.

 Ander continues to love and be sweet with his Starly about 90% of the time. He will occasionally give her a little whack or push but it is always very half hearted- I know his strength and he is definitely being gentle with her even when he is testing boundaries.

 He also discovered that her silky pink blanket (circa Aly 2006) is quite a bit silkier than his own and has decided it should be his. He is now officially the household blanket bandit.

 Wait. Who is this?! Auntie Natalie came a long way to get a much needed snug from Scarlett. Aaand to increase my odds of survival while Nathan was out of town for an extended trip. LOT'S more to come on this topic.

 Scarlett is trying hard to be a self soother though she has yet to decide what satisfies her most. She will take a pacifier but can't keep it in on her own very well. Sometimes she sucks on the same fingers that Ander does but she goes to sleep most nights now sucking her right thumb. It's about the most adorable thing on such a little baby.

Halloween 2011

The recent Star Wars influence translated into Halloween costumes this year (Aly even explained her lack of smile was because princess Leia had "this face", giving me her best strong/stoic face). All except for our resident Indian, Sacagewea. I should note that all of the kids are self posed in these pics.
 We made do with what we could find this year and no costume cost more than $5. Not from want of spending, mind you. It was just the only costumes we could find were old and cheap. It worked well.

I was intending to reuse a costume of Kohen's for Ander this year but he was having NONE of it and I am having to choose my battles with him carefully these days. While I was getting Han Solo, Leia, and Sacagewea ready, Nathan came up with Ander's "Padawan in Training" costume. I was thoroughly impressed with his last minute idea. Ander was willing to sweat to death all evening if he got to swing a light sabre around. Daddy= genius.

It should be noted that each of the children chose their own poses for the pictures. Yes, that should definitely be noted.

Glad someone could tell me that my furry black cat ears could not be seen against my hair and in the dark. My attempt at some Halloween spirit was all for not. Oh well, the kidlets appreciated my attempt.

We headed up to Yangmingshan again this year where all of the Embassy folks live and where we can trick or treat American style to a handful of houses.

Surprisingly, Ander didn't care much about the candy. He really was content to hang on to that light saber and swing it around in the dark.

There were lot's of people and we ran in to a lot of friends. Impromptu light saber battles took place about every other house we stopped at. Kohen and Ander were in heaven and Kennedy's patience ran out waiting for us to drag the boys out of "fights" to move on. I couldn't blame her.

A battle between our boys and our neighbor Carrie's two oldest kids still at home.

Scarlett is there under our favorite Halloween quilt (Thank you Debbie!), she was an angel for Halloween. No costume required. (Again, can't see my cat ears... How "ridicleeus" as Aly would say).

Here are my oldest 3 with my neighbor Brandie's youngest three. If you are doing the math, that means we are still missing 4 of our kids in this picture. We cause quite a scene when we get em all together. 

What I love most about Trick or Treating in YMS is that they get the real feel of what it is like but there isn't that much candy to worry about. After the kids gorged themselves with candy on the way home there was only about a sandwich sized baggie of candy left per kid. Hardly even enough for the parents to share. I said hardly...