Grandma's 90th!

We were blessed to be back in the States to celebrate my beautiful grandmother's 90th birthday with her and so much of her family!  She is such a blessing to all of us, a true prayer warrior!  We love you Grandma!

Grandma with two of her kids (her other kids have already gone to their Heavenly home).

All of her great grandchildren sang "Jesus Loves Me" to her.  It was too cute!  Notice the youngest had some help from her dad.

Our family with Grandma and my parents.

Washington

Our first stop in the US was the beautiful state of Washington where we visited a few churches and met up with lots of friends from seminary days.  The best part was that Grandma Barbara was in Washington at the time so we got to spend all 3 days with her!

The trees were BEAUTIFUL!  So many colors!

Our view of the Puget Sound from the home we stayed in.

The kids with Grandma.  Check out the beautiful red leaves in the background!

Heading Home!!

November 1st we left our house to begin our trip back to the States.  We spent that night in a hotel because of our early flight, so to get the excitement out of the kids so they'd actually sleep, we headed over to the flight museum next door.  What fun!

There were lots of planes outside the museum.

And lots of planes inside to "test out"!

Even Ellie had a good time!

Most importantly it worked!  They slept great and we got up extra early, but refreshed and ready for the long flight to Seattle (well, as ready as you can be for a long flight)!

I Love My Kids!

I'm not going to lie, my kids can drive me bonkers.  They're not perfect, but then again neither am I (I'm pretty far from it)!  I sure do love them, though!  They bring joy to every day!  Yesterday was "one of those days".  I had low expectations when we left the house and expected lots of grumbling.  Instead I was surprised to have happy kids who actually wanted their pictures taken!  We had so much fun despite our colds!  I was reminded again of the wonderful gift the Lord gave me when He gave them to me!

Day in the Sun

We got out and enjoyed the beautiful sunshine and pleasant temps today despite the 5 of us battling colds.  It was GREAT!  Seriously, sunshine is GREAT medicine!  My kids were surprisingly willing to have their pictures taken, probably due to the fun walls/"windows"!  We hadn't brought our good camera, but made due with my old one, and the pictures didn't turn out too bad!

Ike found a spot to "rest".

So of course we had "monkey see, monkey do"!

Elle found a vase to pose in!

We had some happy kids when they found rocks to climb on!

Ike even worked on his photography skills and snapped a pic of Mom and Dad.

It was a beautiful day for a walk around the lake and the perfect medicine for our colds!

Moon Festival

One of the big holidays here is Mid Autumn Festival, otherwise known as Moon Festival.  It's pretty fun to walk up and down the streets and talk to all the people grilling in front of their homes!  We celebrated like almost everyone else by grilling.  Yum!  

Ocarina Lessons

Isaak and Noelle started taking Ocarina lessons at school last week.  Practice time is noisy, but it's fun to watch them play!

Push-up Fun!!

First Day of School!

Back to school time!!  Joey is now in Kindergarten, Ellie started 1st grade, and Isaak started 3rd grade!  Joey is now the only one in Chinese Kindergarten, and Ike and Elle are now at the same school.  Next year they could possibly all be in the same school (which would be nice)!

Ocean Fun

To end summer on the right foot I took the kids to the ocean for some good old fun in the waves!  This was the first time we've gone without Andy, and while it was a little more "stressful" because I was the only one watching them, it was still a great time (we were literally the ONLY ones on the beach that day)!  The waves were great and the kids had a blast just laying on their kickboards and letting the waves take them to shore!

Waterpark Fun

A couple of weeks ago we spent a day with friends at a waterpark.  The kids had so much fun!  We loved it because it was just big enough that they had fun, and just small enough that we could let them run around on their own (mostly)!

The boys having fun on this huge slide!

Ellie about to plunge into the pool!

Swimming Lessons

It's that time of year again!!  This was the first year that all of the kids have had swimming lessons and they are loving them so much we decided to have them take another 2 weeks of lessons before school starts!  Really it makes us all happy....the kids get to play in the water and learn a great skill while I (Mom) get to read a book for an hour!!

 

Ellie and Joey getting the basics on how to breath

Ike's doing laps....kind-of

Someone lost a tooth!

A certain little girl just lost her first tooth on Friday!!  She's pretty excited about what the Tooth Fairy left her!

First and Last

Rice Harvest

Ike, Ellie, and I went to Ike's school to help with the rice harvest.  It was a great learning experience for all of us!  The kids got to participate in cutting down the rice like they did in the 'old days'!

The group ready to get started.

Ike and Elle working hard!

My Graduate

Ellie and Joey's Program

Yesterday Ellie and Joey had their end of the year program at school which also meant that Ellie graduated from Kindergarten!  It was a fun (and LONG) program!

Ellie all dressed up and ready for her graduation!

Joey ready to dance!

Ellie receiving her diploma.

Joey dancing with his class.

 

Joey with his teacher

Ellie with her teacher

We spent another Saturday afternoon on a deserted beach!  It was rather hot out, but it was so windy that it didn't feel that bad (though I did come home with a sunburn...oops)!  Lots of fun!

The kids love playing in the sand!

The coast is lined with all these gigantic wind turbines!

And of course I just have to put up a picture of this adorable girl!

Grillin'

The kids got to help us make supper the other night by grilling their own hot dogs.  Needless to say, they were pretty proud of their work!

Recital Time

Ellie had her ballet recital Saturday and did a great job as usual!  It's so fun to watch my little girl dance.  She's so happy up there on stage!

Anniversary Escape

Andy and I got to escape to the beautiful mountains in Miaoli County to celebrate our 10th anniversary while our kids stayed home with my uncle and aunt (who also live here in the ROC).  It's a rare treat to get away without kids, especially living so far away from the majority of our family.  Thanks Mike and Dodi for watching the kids for two days!

The view from our hotel room

The scenery on our hike!

We even saw a Formosan Rock Macaque on our hike!  We've only seen one other one in the wild and that was nearly 4 years ago!

Our anniversary dinner of sweet and sour fish (plus some other stuff)....delicious!