Lunch visit to Daddy

Mason and I went over to visit James during lunch hour down the Duan-Hwa South Road, I brought some taco salad for lunch and it was like the city center so we cannot find any park to dine and we decided to eat in the middle of the road and I mean it literally. It's a 8 lanes traffic road but there is this beautiful pathway along the road and we had our lunch there. It was unusual having a meal in the middle of the road but it was simply fun to have a family lunch in the middle of the day and in the middle of the busy Taipei road. 

Fathers & Sons Camp

Over the weekend, Mason and James went up to the mountain for their first camping trip. Its officially Mason's first camping experience. I wish I can see more pictures but the battery died on them so I can only imagine his face expression with the things he experienced there. James said that they had so much fun, he was so focus on the camp fire that he found it so fascinating that melting mush-mellow was not that attracting to him. We were worried that he may not sleep well because he is very attached to his own bed/room. Turned out, he was so beat by mid-night, he requested to go to sleep and went into the tent himself. Again, I wished there were more pictures for me to see but I supposed this part of the memory is really between father and son's. 

Easter egg hunting

Thanks to our friend-the Headquist who again hosted the Easter party, Mason got to experience his 2nd Easter egg hunting and he actually was running for them this year instead of us carrying him. At first, he had no clue why he had to get the eggs so he got them in the basket but then immediately dumped them out. Until we showed him that there were candy in the egg, he started to hunt seriously. It was such a fun party for the adults and especially for the children. Mason was hyper for a while but it was great that he got to burn them out with other kids and some fun activities. 

My special day

                President Walker; sister Walker; Carrie and Julie
                 In front of the temple entrance

A day I had been longing for since my baptism, I was able and worthy to receive my endowment in the temple. I was told and had prepared to be overwhelmed but the experience still took me over. After the baptism to the church, I'm truly thankful for the blessings I have received and I am amazed of how much I am having each day. After the temple visit, I simply unable to comprehend the amount that Heavenly Father loves us, there're so much more blessings for us. I am truly loved and blessed to be in the temple for the first time with so many loving friends who are all family to James and I though none of our family can be there. I thank all the angels who have led me to accept the gospel! 

My sweetheart' birthday

This was the easiest surprise party I had thrown, my sweetheart didn't have any doubt about his special night. I only mentioned that lets go out on a date for his birthday and he bought it completely. We had good friends waiting us at the restaurant and I'm pleased to see his big smiles when he found out and we loved the food. We especially enjoyed the awesome company we had to chat with that we simply cancelled the following program-laser tag. 

Children recreation center

What a fun day to visit the Children recreation center, Mason had tried his FIRST tire swing. I'm amazed how well he did it and he enjoyed it too. He really had a strong grip for his age (20 mos old) and I love the way he play---he play hard! He also loved his popcorn and he didn't need help with that either. He also loved the swing but he was getting so tired and he was almost falling asleep. He actually fell asleep on the way home on the bike, I had to hold him with one hand and paddled back home with another hand.

H.K. trip

                                       Beautiful light show
                                  Taipei gals + baby James
                              A very unclear picture of me and Cherry
                               with Kay and Leone at the Stantly Market
                               Amazing view at the Repulse bay (from the balcony of the place we stay)

Besides all these fun pictures, the purpose of the trip is to attend the Asia Womens conference and it is again a spiritual journey for me. I truly enjoy all the classes and talks. I'm thankful for all the sisters who had worked so hard to put up such successful conference. I got to travel with an awesome group of ladies and got to see my dear friend from high school-Cherry and her hubby. I didn't do much of sight-seeing this time since I was about 5 months pregnant and I was too lazy to do much so I took it easy around the coast and did some shopping for our little baby girl-Isabelle. I enjoyed the trip and was anxious to get back to my boys.

PingShi sky-lantern festival

I always want to light a lantern and put it up in the sky. We finally get to do it with the invitation of the Robinson.  They are such a trooper! It was super crowded and raining and wet everywhere but we were glad that we didn't skip the fun experience with them. There were stage performance and I think the President was there; not that we care but it sure brought more crowd. As well as a long street of vendors with food, we are in Taiwan, you can AlWAYS expect food in any event or festival. We get to write some wishes on the paper lantern before lighting it and let go in the sky and of course we include "world peace". Every 20 minutes, they light about 100 lanterns and it was really pretty in the sky. Mason also had fun looking at them and playing with Lizzy. 

A pleasant hospital visit

If you have read my cultural shock entry earlier then you’d know that I do have difficulties dealing with people here during day to day life. Of course, it includes hospital visits. Nevertheless, I must put a note to today’s visit. First we had our OB visit, we saw our baby sucking the thumb HARD, the way Mason does it daily. It looks too familiar.  Then we possible have found out the gender, our prayers are answered-its a GIRL!!!! I’m so excited and thrilled.  Then we went to Mason’s pediatrician for a check up, not that he needs it but I simply mix-up with his shot date so I thought we might as well have a check up. He is in good shape!!! Dr. Wang is so gentle and patient with him and us. She is far from most physicians here who are in a hurry and NOT listeners. Each visit is rarely over 2 minutes. Mason likes her too, he keeps talking and smiling at her while she is examining him. Then on top of all these, the nurses are all NICE, they are all smiling and actually nice. Even when my blood sample was taken, for the first time I didn’t feel any pain and it didn’t leave a 3-weeks bruise. 

Wonderful husband of mine

Today James stayed home to rest while I took Mason to church. I was really glad that he decided to do that since he had been sick for a week and had not be able to take a good rest. Then I came home, I found that he cleaned up the house, did the dishes and prepared dinner for us. I think I talk about Mason so much on this blog and forget to pay much of tribute to my darling husband. Thank you Honey for being a sweetie! He made omelets for dinner and I simply love it. When I was working in the exhibition industry, I had to travel frequently to places and it was so tiring and lonely out there. My comfort food was that when the hotel provides freshly made omelets for breakfast. I was all good again to get in the battle of my work.   

Kenting Trip

What a great trip down to Kenting with our good friend-the Grimely; we truly cannot ask for a better company! The 4-days trip began with a Mission Impossible schedule but we made it and we all had fun! We all woke up around 4 am (all of us had late night too or no sleep at all) then we drove down to Aboriginal Village and played at the Amusement park and visited the whole nine tribes villages till around 6pm. Then more driving to Kenting, it was almost 11pm when we arrived at the B&B. We were wasted!!! The next day, we had a laid back day at the beach across from our B&B and went to the night market that was only 3 minutes away. The following day we went to Aqua Museum, which we thought we'd only take  2 hours there but it was a lot of fun and it was like we reserve the museum for the day as there weren’t many other visitors. After this, we anxiously got to a beach and we caught the most amazing sun-set there. We all simply in love with the sandy beach, the boys got to play with the sand and water and we simply enjoy the sun and listening to the waves. We got to enjoy the peacefulness that was taken away from the city busyness. I love that and glad to know that it can be regained again. I have forgotten about it after leaving Canada. Life needs to slow down so that I can appreciate and be grateful for. The last day we were all sad to leave, we visited the light house and very south tip of Taiwan so now we are set to visit very north tip of Taiwan ^^. I especially love this trip because we travelled with an amazing family. Thank you guys, you made Kenting a better place! 

Cooking party

I always enjoy spending girls time with this group of great gals. We had a Chinese cooking party, just in the spirit of Chinese New Year in the corner. We made some dumplings and spring rolls. They were so yummy and mostly I just had a blast cooking with them. The 13 little ones were quite cooperating, they played with each other just fine. Thanks Jen for lending us your kitchen and taking pictures for us. 

My little mid-night Elf

This is Mason woke up in the middle of the night and looking like it is 6 in the morning and that he is ready to discover the world. My darling Mason is always such a smiling boy. When he fell or hurt himself in many ways, he never cries for too long. The shocking ones to me were ones he fell from the stage at the church gym. One is is flat on his rear brain. The fall was so loud that James was on the end side of the church of the clerk room and he heard the fall. It happened so fast that though there were many people in the gym but no one spotted how he fell. He was so brave and he didn’t even cry for more than 1 minute. He saw something else that caught his eyes and he ran for it. It didn’t seem like he had a bad fall but a smiling face chasing after something fun.   

Counting down

On the New Year’s Eve, we have our dear friends Grimley over to have fondu and walk over to the close by river-side park to watch 101 building count down fireworks. We had so much fun chatting and enjoying the chocolate fondu that we barely made it to the fireworks...just seconds in time. There were a lot of post-fireworks in the park. We even stay for over an hour. It was COLD and windy but what a blast!!!