Wulai Waterfalls and Hot springs

Here's an outing we did back in February to a little town close by.  It was a pretty hazy day at first, but the weather cleared up in the afternoon and it turned out great.

Some of our friends joined us for the waterfall fun.  Tami and Jeremy Klomp are great people and they have really fun kids that get along great with our girls.

This is an aboriginal village so they were selling native art and clothing. Usually people take pictures of and with the native people in their traditional gear.  This day, all the cameras were snapping pictures of our girls instead.  So funny.

We road a gondola up along side and then over the waterfall. By this point the haze had cleared and it was a great view.  On top is a whole little world of things to discover from lakes, to hiking trails, bridges, rock climbing walls, and even a wierd haunted ride.

Elli and Evelyn

It was such beautiful, serene, calm atmosphere.

After exploring that area, we headed out to another waterfall and hiking area near by.  Also a beautiful spot.  The water hear is special mineral water that is said to be amazing for your skin.  It was very blue and looked good enough to drink.  

The only problem with some hiking areas in Taiwan is that everything is too clearly marked and even fenced off.  It makes it so you really can't walk right next to the waterfall which is sad because it takes away a lot of "in nature" type of feeling you could get if it wasn't so blocked off.   Todd and I were debating about hopping over the fence to get right next to the waterfall, maybe even put our feet in a bit, but we were pretty sure that we were already conspicuous enough.  I already had every other person telling me I should put more clothes on my children!  I promise NONE of us are cold!! It is humid and warm outside!! It's funny how bundled up everyone was- like they were going skiing, especially the kids.  After the sun went down it was a tiny bit chilly, and guess what!  I put sweatshirts on my girls, because that's when it makes sense to wear a sweatshirt.  In chinese, the way I tell them my kids aren't cold is "Ta bu pa leng" which literally means they aren't afraid of the cold.  This is greeted by exclaims of amazement that I have such miraculous children that aren't afraid or affected by the cold.  It's very comical most of the time, a little annoying other times.  

I did get scolded quite fiercely one time by an old chinese woman who couldn't fathom why my children didn't have jackets on at night in the LOBBY of my apartment building.  Did I mention I had to wake them up in a rush when the fire alarm went off and had to carry both of them down 9 flights of stairs on my own, since Todd wasn't home?  I'm sorry I forgot their jackets but I think they will survive the 5 minutes of being outside without them especially when its still 70 degrees outside.  That lady got close to being punched.  That was the first time I have felt anger about that issue before- usually I just laugh it off, but something about alarms going off, perspiration dripping down my head, crabby children, and finding out it was a false alarm because our ovens have no proper ventilation system, made me a little less patient.  But I digress.... Where was I?

Oh yes- in beautiful Wulai.  

That makes me feel better. 

We went back to the town to enjoy our own soothing hotspring bath.

So in Taiwan, they have communal bathing areas like you would think of for hot springs in the states, but more often you get a private room for two hours and enjoy the hot spring bath by yourself or with close friends.  This was perfect for our girls because we could make the water the right temperature and enjoy the mineral cleansing water all together.  

A very nice full day of family fun and a very nice memory.

Little Stories

One of the saddest things about living abroad is that everyday our little girls do the cutest things and no one is around to see them.  All our family and closest friends are in the States.  So, I wanted to share a few small things with everyone that we find humorous.

Elli loves all things princesses, especially Disney princess movies.  Sleeping Beauty is her favorite, and it's not unusual for her to refer to herself as Princess Elli Aurora.  The other day, she called Heather "Your Majesty" all day.  We think she got this phrase from her favorite movie.  Well, this lasted until Elli became upset when Heather told her she couldn't do something, and Elli stormed off to her room.  When she came back, she stopped calling Heather your majesty, instead using that title on Sienna.  It was Elli's way of punishing Heather.

Elli also calls any person, animal, or thing that she likes her own name.  For example, she sees a pretty girl walk by in a purple dress and she will say "That Elli, that Elli."  She's watching the cartoon Olivia, and Olivia gets on a ballet outfit and  starts to dance.  Elli then turns and emphatically says, "Elli, Her Elli."  Her favorite baby doll is also called Elli.  Sadly, she might be a tad superficial since she likes to be the step sister in Cinderella more than Cinderella because the stepsister wears a purple dress.  "Her Elli, K daddy?"

Heather and I often call Elli Sweetie or Honey.  Recently, Elli has started to use those terms of endearment on us and Sienna, too.  It's pretty cute.  "Can I watch movie, Sweetie?"  "I don't want to nap, Honey."

Elli is trying to make sense of her world and has also finally figured out that people are speaking another language around her and its not just that she doesn't understand them. We realized her view had reached greater clarity when she was playing with her dolls and one doll said to the other "Nihao, I take Chinese class."  Up to this point, she has thought that most Chinese speaking people's names are XieXie which means thank you, because that's pretty much the main words Heather used when we first arrived here.  Now, she still uses this title with them but more as a category of people much like we would use the term Taiwanese or Chinese rather than their name.  It's fun to see her growing and understanding.

Elli's vocabulary is expanding quickly at this age too.  She often parrots words that she hears from us, mostly Heather since that's who she's around all day.  She doesn't quite get the words right, but she's close.  Here are some examples:
- "I want to wear my swim soup (suit)."
- "Let's ride the alligator (elevator)."
- "I saw the kolala (koala) bear today."
- "This is ree-DIK-oolus (ridiculous)!"
Of course, along with the good, Elli's also picking up some words we wish she wouldn't.  "Crap, I spilled it!" We definitely have to start watching the words we say!

Sienna is not saying as much yet, but what she does say and do are so adorable.  She says "thank you" and uses it correctly on her own.  She counts to 10, in her own way but you can definitely here 1,2, 4, 6, and 10 very distinctly.  We play hide and seek constantly since this is Elli's favorite game.  Sienna loves it too and she will often hide in the curtains or behind something and then come out and say "P a boo!" She loves books still and will do a little turn and plop herself down in your lap for reading time.   She is also very brave.  We went to the water park the other day and Sienna wanted to climb up and go down the the slide all by herself.  I let her do it mostly alone, but was still there as a backup.  The Taiwanese were quite awed by the fact that such a little thing was attempting such big feats.

Elli and Sienna actually play really well together and Sienna gets SOOOOOO excited when Elli wakes up from her afternoon nap (Sienna only takes a short nap in the afternoon,  whereas Elli takes a long one then).  Sienna will scream and jump up and run to Elli and give her a kiss. It's really sweet.  If I have to wake Elli up early from her nap, I send in Sienna to do it and this guarantees that Elli is almost never grumpy or upset when waking up early if Sienna is involved.

Spreading American Values on Elevators

Overall, Taiwan is a great place to live.  The food is good, the weather is mostly fine, and the people are nice.  However, anytime you live abroad, it's inevitable that there will be moments of frustration with the local culture.  Heather had one such experience a few weeks ago with the elevator.  Here's what happened.

A two minute walk from our house is one of the best malls in Taipei.  Heather was running errands at the mall one afternoon with Sienna when Sienna, being tired, started to get fussy and cry.  It was time to head home.  Heather was on the fourth floor and so headed to the bank of elevators.  She pushed the button and waited for the elevator to arrive.  And waited, and waited.  The mall elevators are notorious for taking forever to arrive.  One can literally wait 8 minutes for the elevator; there are four of them in this one area, so it's kinda ridiculous that it takes so long.

As if the waiting with a crying child was not enough, right in front of the bank of elevators was a small vendor with a lot of balloons.  Sienna desperately wanted the balloons, and cried all the louder to get one.  Meanwhile, Heather was still waiting for that stupid elevator.

Finally, after enduring several minutes with a fussy, screaming baby, the elevator arrives.  And it is jammed packed full of people.  And I don't mean that it's full of old people with canes, pregnant ladies, or kids with broken legs, it is full of people all fully capable of using the escalator (which is located right next to the elevators).  To fully understand how frustrating this is, you must understand that the Taiwanese have a love affair with elevators.  If the Taiwanese have the choice between walking one flight of stairs, taking the escalator, or waiting 10 minutes to take the elevator one level, they will take the elevator.  For parents like us that often have a large stroller with two kids and bags, it is aggravating to have to wait for 2-3 rounds of perfectly healthy people to go on the elevator so we can finally use it.

Normally, Heather would've taken the escalator, but this time, she had the large stroller and it was loaded with groceries, so taking the escalator would've been challenging.  So when the elevator finally arrived after enduring a solid 6-7 minutes of a blood curdling screaming Sienna, Heather was a bit peeved to see it was packed full of perfectly healthy people.  But she gritted her teeth and forced her way on the elevator.

Of course, now that she was on, the "too heavy"  bell sounded when the doors tried to close.  Everyone looked at Heather expectantly since she was the new comer.  Heather ignored them.  Finally, someone in broken English said to Heather "too heavy" and pointed to the door, trying to tell her to wait for another elevator.  And that was the last straw for my Texas fire ball.  Heather roared back loudly to all in the elevator with big hand gestures, "I HAVE A BABY STROLLER!!!"

At this subtle hint, the other passengers on the elevator finally understood.  Several of them sheepishly muttered "of course, of course" and got off the elevator to allow Heather (the mother with a baby stroller, screaming infant, and bags full of groceries) to ride the elevator.

This is just another example of how we have shared America's cultural values, such as common courtesy and thoughtfulness, with the locals.

Elli's Disney Princess Birthday Party

For Elliana's 3rd birthday party, we decided to throw a theme party.  And what other theme could there possibly be besides Disney Princesses?!

For years, Heather has been somewhat daunted by the birthday celebrations that my mom used to do for us kids and that my sisters and sisters-in-law do for their kids.  Birthday cakes in particular have been a source of trepidation for her.

But when she decided we were doing a princess party for Elli, boy did she deliver.  And she put together a party that would've made anyone proud!  Here're the details.

The preparation began days earlier when Heather and our friend Ariel decorated cupcakes to look like princess dresses.  After hours of grueling intensity, here are the women with their works of art!

This is the cupcake we made for the one boy who was coming to the party.  A while back ago, Heather started teaching pre-school for Elli and one other boy in our ward, Ander, two times a week.  So Elli and Ander have become great friends, and we definitely wanted him to come.

Here's the decorations for the party!!  Elli helped mommy make the chains.

Our happy birthday princess!!!

For the party foods, Heather got super creative.  She connected each dish to a Disney princess.  Here's what she came up with:

- Tiana's Frog Swamp Balls (meatballs)

- Cinderella's Cheese and Crackers (for her mice friends)

- Jasmine and Abu's Bananas and Fruit

- Snow White's Poisoned Apple Juice

- Belle's Enchanted Roses (strawberries, see pic below)

- Ariel's Gold Fish

- Arora's Forest Nuts

- Fairy Wands (see pic below)

After everyone arrived, Heather started the first activity, which was kissing the frog.  Each girl got to put on lipstick (with Heather's help).  Then she was blind folded, spun around, and had to kiss the frog on the lips.  This was a big hit with the girls.

Elli explaining how it will be done!

Elli Aurora Princess was very helpful- putting on lipstick is a 2 man (2 princess) job! 

 

After the frog had been thoroughly smooched, it was treasure finding time.  We hid beads and a special gem in three bins full of rice.  The kids got to hunt for them and once they found enough, they went inside to make a bead and gem bracelet.

With their new jewelry done, it was time to go to the roof for dancing and chasing bubbles.  This was a great chance to get out some wiggles.  It was such a simple activity but it was so much fun for everyone.

 

Finally, we got to the the most important and anticipated part of the party: eating the princess cupcakes.  Fortunately, every girl got a princess that they were happy with.  Elli got her favorite princess ... Arora.

Lastly, we opened presents.  People brought some very nice and thoughtful gifts, which we really appreciated, and Elli loved.

My wife never ceases to impress me with her creativity and thoughtfulness, especially when it comes to anything related to our girls.  Can't wait for my next birthday ... I'm hoping for super hero themed!

                                                                    My Princesses