Hamilo Coast at Nasugbu, Philippines

After our memorable trek to Nasugbu we were excited to get up the next morning and explore our surroundings because it had been dark when we arrived. We got out to the beach and it was already scorching. The ocean was like bath water. 

The Philippines were slowly winning me over. 

 Kohen was so excited to try out the snorkeling gear, he was trying to figure out how to walk in flippers and had no idea I was taking pics of him. I have a series of about 15 pics of him valiantly attempting to walk down the beach, and they are all hilarious.

 The sun was so intense that it didn't take long before we decided it just wasn't smart to be out in the peak hours of the day. It was a good choice. Ander would get a nap and Nathan and Maddie would take the kids to go play inside the clubhouse. But in the mornings, late afternoon and early evening it was just so perfect out.

 Anyone with toddlers knows how unrelaxing they can cause a trip to be if there is water around. At first I thought Ander wasn't going to dig the ocean, but in no time he was venturing out on his own and when he inevitably lost his balance, he almost never swallowed any water which surprised us. He was never upset and just held his breath until one of us righted him.

I don't know how he could stand the salt water in his eyes and mouth but there was no denying he was having a good time. He was always trying to blow bubbles on the top of the water, which is tricky (read: funny) when you have gentle waves coming and going.

 We had access to a kayak and the bottom one ^ is Nathan with Kohen and Kennedy. The kayak was more fun when we didn't know we weren't supposed to go over and explore the caves across the bay...

 These flowers grow in our front yard in Taipei too. I love them, they are so perfect they almost look fake. Almost.

 Our little place had a small kitchen and we mostly ate there- except Ander who seemed to think he could eat anywhere. Hello, 3 pieces of sandwich in hand and a 4th shoved in his mouth. I guess everyone got in on having their version of a good time.

 On Sundays if we are on vacation we don't swim and try to keep things low key. We ended up having a really nice Sunday this trip. We had a short spiritual thought in the morning and then we played games and relaxed. In the late afternoon we went to explore the beach and look for more crabs.

 The children had gotten really good at catching the little crabs and even discovered that a bunch of the shells in one area all had tiny hermit crabs living in them!
Catching crabs on a Sunday afternoon: $0.00
Kohen screaming like a little girl after he got a pinch by a crab? Priceless.

 I have so many pictures of Aly in her own little world, pretending and singing away. Here she was tossing fists full of sand in the air and dancing through them. She provided her own music.

 Ander thinks I'm funny :)

 Maddie!

 Rents and the Minions

 This kind of sand crab is super fast, way to go Kenna! Success!

Yummy cheeks

This may be my favorite pic of the whole trip. ^

Monkeys  

Lesson of the day: Teamwork works best when trying to corner sand crabs.

Elusive Paradise

Living overseas, I've gotten lot's of opportunities to get good at packing a large family, if I do say so myself.

 My biggest nemesis when packing is Ander. That cute face? Don't fall for it. He can undo an hours worth of progress in about 20 seconds.

 When the 7 of us arrived at the airport - remember our niece Maddie was with us, yay!- we were kinda giddy to discover our Gate was the new "Hello Kitty" Gate. Saawheet!

 Tell me how Kohen can still be so completely enthralled and captivated...

 When he is watching some cartoon that is in Chinese with Chinese subtitles?!?!?

 Hello Kitty with your Peace sign, it doesn't get more Asian than that.

 What? Can't a girl just enjoy the Hello Kitty ambiance?!

 Hello Kitty Store opening into waiting area- well played Taipei International Airport, well played.

 Every gate needs a playground. Nuff' said.
K, on to the actual traveling. Sometimes things are difficult and frustrating living overseas. Things never go as planned and that's about all you can plan on. I have found that trying to explain how and why is tedious and difficult and my worst experiences never make the blog because frankly, I just don't know how to explain it. Me at a loss for words? I know.
Anyway, let me try and illustrate this day. The flight to Manila is about 1 hr and 45 min. Then we were going to drive ourselves 2.5 hours to where we were staying. So in your mind your thinking, total travel time, about 5 hours, right? Like a flight from San Fran to Boise and then hopping in the car and heading up to McCall.
Theoretically, yes....

Reality = No.
I don't know if you know anything about Manila but um, let's just say every store, like Starbucks, for instance, has a Security Guard standing at the door with a full on shotgun hanging from his chest. Yeah. So not the safest place. And there is a serious lack of infrastructure. A lot of poverty.
We started off from home with a 45min drive to TPE airport, about 2 hours to Manila and then we walked straight out to the car rental place and hit our first detour. Of course the "mini van" they promised Nathan was not, in fact a mini van. It could fit 7 people if said people had zero luggage. So the negotiating began with the other companies vying for business making all sorts of promises, many of which after talking to their managers, they could not keep. While Nathan is busy with this, Maddie and I are trying to contain 4 hungry, cooped up children in a filthy, dirty little space.
FINALLY, after about 45 min, they strike a deal and send a van to take us over to the rental place. Fine. So we get there and the van they promised was from the early 90's and looked like a tin can. We pointed to a larger van that was the only vehicle that looked suitable and the negotiations started again. At some point they come to an agreement and move us into the van while Nathan goes to sign papers.
We wait in that van for over an hour. I have zero idea what was taking so long. But I now have weeping and wailing from my kids because they are starving. Frankly by then, so was I. At least the van was on so we weren't dying of a heat stroke.
Eventually -after enough time had passed for a caterpillar to spin it's cocoon and reemerge as a beautiful butterfly and fly off, beating us to our destination- Nathan appeared. In the same parking lot we discovered a shady KFC and he ran in to get some (*gag*) "food" and we were off!!!

Boy were we glad for the training that driving in Taipei had given us! Driving a big 'Ol Five Speed van in the middle of traffic in Manila, navigating where we needed to go, it was like we were on a leg from the Amazing Race. We were trying to make it to this Mall of Asia where apparently there would be food and supplies for our week.
We got there and I waited with a couple kids for another 2 hours while shopping, and then potty breaks, and then running back in for one more thing, went on. We were finally leaving town right at peak traffic and I have to tell you, Nathan has mad skills because he handled it calmly and with confidence. It was crazy though. And that's coming from someone who drives in Taiwan.

As the evening wore on we entered these two lane roads that were still pretty heavy with fast moving traffic, with shacks/houses and little businesses on the sides. The thing that became treacherous was that as it grew dark, there were people everywhere walking along the sides of the road! They were very difficult to see and the roads were gently rolling and turning with the buses (those silver van lookin things in first pic) stopping and starting all the way, and passing was a very large and natural part of their driving routine.
So you had drivers occasionally coming into your lane, head on as they pass someone, and you can't even move over an inch because the road is already narrow and there are people all along on the side of the road. We had to be very vigilant and I tried to make sure and call out the peds as soon as I saw them cuz a lot of them were wearing dark colors and were difficult to see.
It turned out to be quite the "adventure". So total travel time had us leaving our house in Taipei at 6:45am and arriving safely to our destination at 10pm. We stopped to eat which was just under an hour. So basically, what in your mind you write off as a quick flight and a bit of a drive, somehow turns into a 15 hour ordeal.
Though I cannot say the same about daily trials and frustrations that happen in Taipei, in this case I can say it was worth it. Thank GOODNESS.

Hey, It's VINTAGE!

 Recently Kennedy found my Baptism dress and wanted to start wearing it.
Man, I loved that dress. 98% of the reason was because of how gorgeously it "spun out" when I twirled.

So this lovely Sunday afternoon we all were out for a walk, Kennedy wearing my dress. We are walking along and she strokes the skirt admiringly and says, "Mom, I just love this dress." Then wistfully she adds, "I feel like it's from.. the 1900's..."
I was shocked pleased to inform her, it is from waaay back in the 1900's.
Oh my word I feel ancient all of a sudden.

What's Up Lately

What've we been up to lately? Well...

I understand that in Idaho they are still getting snow. Having said that, I'd now like to complain ( to the understandable rolling of eyes from many of you) that it has been one of the coldest winters in Taiwan. We had a week off two weeks ago, randomly, and it was rainy and SO COLD the entire time. We ventured out a few times but bundled up in a way that would have made anyone enduring a real winter, laugh their heads off at us. 

If you aren't familiar with these books ^ I recommend them, they are hilarious and fun to read with your kiddos. We have them at home but Kohen's class did some stuff with them. He has started drawing the characters on his own which Nathan and I both love coming across. Love when you can tell your child was inspired by something at school.

 Kennedy wanted to chop her hair so we recently said goodbye to a good 6 or 7 inches. Cute, cute.

 You know what's weird? Walking through a department store and randomly finding your child pasted up in stores and on walls. It's kinda fun, actually.

 In case you're wondering, after the last post, why we don't just buy department store clothes, it's because they are so expensive. The outfit Ander is wearing here is probably upwards of $150. Not that cute!

 Also, we've had a visitor! Maddie, our oldest niece who is about to graduate H.S. and head off to BYU, came to visit for a couple of weeks. We have so enjoyed having her, my kids especially have been in heaven. Maddie even came with us on our trip to the Philippines this last week. Once I've gone through the gobs of pics I will post some!

Taking a Knee

Clothes tend to be a bit of a problem for us living overseas. Generally you have two choices. Find night market clothes which are ill fitting and fall apart. Or go to the big department stores and pay $50 U.S. dollars for a t-shirt. Pass.

So that is why I shop like a mad woman during the summers. Trying to guess and gauge what children will need and what sizes they will be is stressful. Though for the most part I did an accurate job.

Kohen usually has a growth spurt around the beginning of a new year. I didn't want to buy him a bunch of new pants last summer when I knew he would grow out of them right around the time it turns into short weather. Consequently he has been sportin "capris" these last few months, and there ain't a thing I can do about it. (Note: I had bought 2 pairs of jeans in the next size up but they are like 5-6 inches longer than the previous size, what's up with that?!)

 Then over the last month or so I noticed an alarming trend. Holes in the right knee of - as of today- literally every pair of his pants. I have no idea what exactly he is doing but since even his pajama pants (far right) were not spared, it has to be something I've witnessed before, right?

 It's just interesting the things that you let go and that you find don't really matter. When I lived in Boise especially, I felt a pressure to have all of my kids neat and tidy and perfectly dressed and pruned- especially for church. I love that there are no pretenses like that in our Ward here. We go to church with some of the most humble men and women and I honestly feel ashamed if I catch myself worrying about one of my children looking or dressing a certain way that I "never" would have let happen in the States. It's so superficial it kind of makes me sick.

Not that I don't love my children to dress nicely in clothes that fit and that don't have holes in them! And I loves me a matching bow to go with any Sunday dress. But I feel like 2 years ago, letting Kohen go to school with a small hole in the knee of his "capri" jeans would have been completely unacceptable. And though I don't enjoy it now, it is what it is. 

I think of the Filipina women that I know who work in a different country than their children to be Domestic Helpers (aka: work their buns off) just to send home meager $ to their families, and it humbles me right down to size. Especially when they graciously take Kohen's holey, worn out jeans to send to their own children. 

At any rate, for Kohen's sake, I'm hoping for short weather soon. I have a feeling whatever he was doing to the knees of his pants, he isn't going to be doing on his bare knee more than once.

ej's b-day 2011

 Well, it's official. I'm one year older. I remain doubtful about the 'wiser' part.
Cakes in Taiwan are beautiful. They are decorated with no detail overlooked. But they taste like... well, more like bread actually. It is one of the great Chinese cruelties from a Yankee's point of view. Where we use Cups of Sugar, they are using Tablespoons. It makes beautiful looking cookies and doughnuts really, REALLY disappointing.
This year Kohen had a great idea though, he suggested Nathan make me one of his Dutch Oven Cobblers for my birthday cake. Completely selfless intentions on Kohen's part I'm sure. But, it was a great idea either way.

 Sooo we got to share the best cobbler ever- apple, if you want to be specific with what you drool over.

It was so tasty that it was a darn good thing there was enough to share!
(In case your thinking I hit that magical age where I suddenly let everything go, that's not quite the case. The pj's and au' natural look were courtesy of me feeling a bit under the weather. Nothing a little cobbler couldn't overcome. Sorry, my self esteem just turned a year older and demanded this disclaimer.)

Ander @ 18 months

If I were being honest, part of why Ander has been M.I.A. from the blog lately is because he is way too busy to sit still, let alone smile and look towards a camera. When I try I end up paying for it:

 Why does he look giddy? Because he just whacked my keyboard as hard as he could, a favorite past time of his. And yes, he always is that proud of himself after.

 And otherwise I get a lot of shots of him running this way...

And running that way... Riveting stuff, ya know?

**Overall, at 18 months Ander is a really great kid. A few things that I've found to be atypical is that he doesn't play with toys. I mean, occasionally he will play with a hotwheels car at church for a few minutes, but inevitably that turns into hurling the surprisingly heavy piece of metal at the Chinese guy's head, sitting in the pew in front of us. 

**Which brings us to the subject of throwing and kicking, most of the time, balls. But if he has the phone in his hand and he decides to to pitch it, you can kiss that phone good bye. Because this boy can throw, and kick, and he does it all the day long. 

**As I mentioned he doesn't like toys. So that leaves house hold items. He wasn't fooled by the fun little tyke-ish phone he got for his birthday, he only wants the real deal. He doesn't leave the phone alone for anything. He turns the answering machine off and on constantly, makes our IP phone beg for mercy and/or retirement. He runs from cupboard to cupboard taunting us that we haven't put child safety locks on them, and he really enjoys rearranging the kitchen while I'm cooking. I do hope our belongings can hang on until he moves on from this stage!

**Ander is a rough-houser and a wrestler. If any of the kids are sitting on the floor he will come up from behind and jump on their back, hoping to get something good going. We've been told they have to watch him in Nursery because if Ander sees an opportunity (so, any poor babe sitting on the floor) he will try to climb on their back. Kohen will indulge this kind of play anytime, anywhere so Ander lucked out there.

**One problem is that Ander figured out how to tackle Aly, and in the beginning he even got Kohen a couple times when he was caught off guard. But Ander comes up behind Aly, hugs her around her waist, then drops his weight and twists to one side, taking Aly down EVERY, SINGLE time. The thing is, Aly usually falls right on top of him so we've had occasional tears over that but it doesn't seem to stop the kid. 

I've tried several times to get video of this but it happens pretty spontaneously. Kennedy was being a good sport one night and letting him "get her" and you can get an idea of his tactics. 

**Another thing I'm hoping is just a phase is recently being accident prone. Nothing serious, but I have glued his eyebrow shut twice in two months, and he also fell and bit into his lip pretty badly. It took several weeks to heal (which seems a long time for a cut in the mouth) and is the first time I really waffled about him needing stitches. Of course all of these things seem to happen when Nathan is not home. Let's hope it's just a phase, shall we?
**Talking? This subject should be easy- Ander doesn't speak. "Dad" is the only word he will say consistently. He knows a few signs regarding food and he seems entirely satisfied with that. He is capable of saying about 10 words but he just won't. So there you go.
**Lastly, Ander is a serious mama's boy and I adore it and eat up every second. I've never had one of my children be this old but still climb up in my lap and snuggle in to watch 30+ min of a movie. He just plugs his fingers in and snugs and I eat it up, willing these moments to stamp into my memory! There is just something about a person who goes 100 mph all day who will only stop for a snug from you.

**So to overcome the picture problem we've been having, I took the camera into his room when I went to get him up, because he is super happy and gloriously contained! Wahlah!

PS- contrary to what this post would have you believe, Ander does in fact own clothes and even wears them on occasion.