February

As I mentioned I got a ticket to Taiwan to visit my sister and her brood. I have to say that flying internationally made me a bit nervous.  All in all it went well. The hardest thing was getting used to the 15 hour time difference. On the way there and home you don't notice it as much b/c you are flying all day which has become two days. But you definitely feel it the next day. I flew into Taipei around 1:30 am and couldn't believe the amount of traffic on the road at that time of night-they are night time people there. I was also there during the Chinese New Year, turns out it lasts for a week. On Monday morning my sister and her husband were having a Super Bowl breakfast party for Jere's co-workers. We watched the Super Bowl but there weren't any American commercials-that is my favorite part. 3 of my sister's kids get on the bus and then at Taryn has pre-school which Brandie has to drive her to at 8:30. Then Taryn gets picked up at 1:30. I have to say that I was in awe that my sister is cruising around a crazy town filled with compact cars and scooters and millions of people. You can't tell where you are by landmarks such as 7-11, b/c there is one on every corner. It was so crazy! I can say that I couldn't last 30 minutes there by myself. Brandie and Jere do a great job navigating around Taipei. 

I visited the National Palace Museum, the Taipei 101 building, a fabric market, The pottery town of  Yingge, The Taipei Taiwan Temple, And Georia Pais Hair Salon-for a Chinese hair wash-the best ever neck, shoulder rub, and hair wash ever! I didn't get very brave when it came to eating weird food. Dumpling are delicious though. Really it was just a great visit with Brandie, Jere and the kids. It was very fun for me to be Aunt Torrie for a full week. I even got to help Ainsley with her math homework. The cherry trees were blossoming while I was there and it was beautiful! My sister has several of these trees in her yard and neighborhood and people drive by just to see the blossoms. I had a relaxing and great time with the Statham family and hope that I can do it again before they leave.

San Fransisco Airport

I am going to get on that giant plane in an hour

Taipei 101, world's 3rd tallest building

Me and the kids, minus Holt

at the bottom



and now at the top looking down

it was a cloudy day but you get the idea that there are a lot of people and buildings down there

 As far as you can go up, who knows what's on those floors

 A view from the top

A giant ball made out od logs in the lobby of the Grand Hyatt, I thought that it looked cool, so did Tye

                                       

This is the National Palace Museum there are 5,ooo year old pots in there. Needless to say no flash photography inside. We wore translator headsets as we learned about the different artifacts and history of the Chinese Dynasties.

As we were leaving the Museum there where these people gathered wearing yellow tunics and having prayer time.

This was a small garden park down the street from the Museum grounds. I thought that it was kind of cool

This was a view from outside a friend of Brandie's apartment. I just thought I'd capture how most people live in Taipei, apartments in high rises.

Another view of the buildings

Mom, this one is for you,

It's a squatter, most of the places we visited had toilets. We were at the Fabric Market and the building was older so no modern toilets to be found. That also means no flushing toilet paper-YUCKY

at least this one was freshly cleaned.



On our way back to the car after the fabric market, it was down by a water front park. Scooters are transportation of choice on the island.

This was a road side temple for worship. People would buy special money to burn and incense and then pray by this thingy.

The day we went to Yingge it was raining. Yingge is a cool cobble stoned pottery town we did some shopping and Brandie was able to get some clay and glazes so she can start using her home studio.

On Friday it was ward Temple night. The Temple has an English speaking session on Friday nights. My camera was not behaving well but that is the Temple.

After that we went to T.G.I. Fridays-yep they have one in Taipei. We ate ribs they were delicious!



Take a Break if you need to I am on a Roll

January rounded out with a birthday of yours truly. Notice no pictures. No cake and no candles. I didn't feel good and I was getting ready to leave for Taiwan-that was the supreme Christmas/Birthday present!!!

January Continued

When I was growing up my Grandparents lived in a small town in Montana. Steve's Grandparents lived in the same town for many years. I remember visits that included seeing The Christensens. Steve Grandparents have been a part of my life for many years before my Mrs. Smith years. I was very sad in January when Grandpa "Jack" died. We were fortunate enough to con Penny into watching the girls for 4 days so that Steve and I both could go to Washington for his funeral. So much family gathered to say good bye to one of the most loved men I have ever known. It was a beautiful service. The burial was humorous in a way that is irreverent but so memorable! We were so luck to have such an amazing man pray for us every night, by name along with the other 64 of his grandchildren. We miss Grandpa but we know he's playing tricks from the other side now.

 A beautiful hand crafted casket for Grandpa

This is Reed and Lora aka Homer and Wart

It was SO cold in Washington!

The Smith kids who could make it-Steve, Rob, Lora, Reed, Ron and Kelli

Spouses and Little man Bryson

And then things start to get interesting...

Brian had to go get the tractor to plow a path for the truck to lower the cement vault containing the casket into the ground

What's that?? The hole isn't big enough? Grandpa was for sure laughing at this because he was not a tall man, and the fact that he was to big for something was just classic. It was dug my hand and the shovels were still on site, so a few of the grandsons dug and dug  and dug until finally the vault fit

And then they got to cover it up. I have to say this isn't your traditional grave side but it was very classic of grandpa and his posterity, working hard and enjoying the work you do.

And in the end, on this beautiful country, road side cemetery, is the perfect spot for

Anton Robert Christensen.

We love you and miss you Grandpa!

Earlier this Year

I admit that I have been AWOL for far to long. I have time today so I am using it to catch up on things. What were we up to in January? Well Ki turned 8. Big deal! In an attempt to say what she means to me,

Eight things I love about Ki:

1. She is very thoughtful

2. She is an excellent big sister!!!

3. She is very responsible with her school work

4. She makes me laugh

5. She is always thinking about how things can be improved or done differently

6. She has an amazing imagination!!!
7. She loves to organize her things and drawers

8. She likes to do crafts and make cards with me

 She has a similar problems as her mother-our eyes don't always stay open when our pictures are being taken

She got her ears pierced, she was given some earrings and was very excited about that

 She got a card from Grandma Lora

The next night, we (just me and her) got to go out on the town and watched Shrek the Musical at Gammage Theater in Tempe-she loved it!

Flash Back to 2010

Steve's Birthday also known as Christmas Day. He made his own cake-ish dessert

It's a oat crusty thing with a fruit jell-ish filling. I try to cook his "sweets" but it never works out so I just let him do it.

 

That pretty much says it all-how do you think he feels about the big 40 being 4 years away?
I love you dude!

How is it that 2010 is already over???

We agreed to forgo beauty sleep one morning to be on the course at 7:30 am.

 I haven't even gotten past the second week of December and it's the first second week of January, 2011. Where did the rest of December go? Well, my family came to visit for Christmas, most of them anyway. It was a packed house but so much fun! I got to take the week off for Christmas/Birthday so that I could enjoy my company. Steve had a Birthday. Yep, one year older and wiser too. We golfed a bunch, and that is always fun(ny). We watched the new Narnia. We watched movies, slept in, shopped, played games, and ate good food. Then we all had to get to work or home on Monday-reality is lame.

Steve, Pops and Reed on the course

 Same day

 Can you tell we are siblings? Only his legs are like 3xs as long as mine!

 The kids must play-yes dear I just called you a kid

 When you run out of floor space in the house you can always turn your garage into a room-Ki called it the "reading room" and we found the girls out there reading ;0)

Colton-a younger but much taller brother

Caleb and Annie. They made it down from Utah to join us, we are hoping that we can talk them into moving to AZ to go to Dental School next year. My fingers, and toes are crossed

Haliey Bailey-the youngest of the Stott Children got a super cute coat for Christmas,

too bad it didn't fit me

Hailey also got a Snuggie, no not from one of her older brothers

-a blanket thingy and Ki loved it

Ki and Steve just before we sang Happy Birthday

Jordan-another younger but taller brother got a Banjo for Christmas

After played around with it a bit he came in from  the "reading room" and

picked "Happy Birthday" for Steve

I have some more pictures of Steve's birthday to post but not tonight. I just wanted to catch up on a few events from December.

If you are still here... My CRAZY brother in-law Jere and my CRAZY husband Steve went together on ticket for me to join my sister and her family in their new home in February.  Remember how she moved to Taiwan a month ago???



My Baby is 5

Yep, it's true El Lynn is 5 today. I hate to think that she's that old already but at the rate she's been growing and the things she says to me, I am not surprised. I think that I should share with you 5 things that I love about El:

1-She's a "lova"-she ain't afraid to give hugs and kisses and say how much she loves you
2-She forgives quickly. She'll be so mad at you one minute but she'll give you a big hug and a kiss the next
3-She's a total girl. She loves to wear dresses and shoes and loves to give me jewelry for gifts, and then she'll say, "Mom, don't you love that beautiful necklace I gave you for your birthday?"
4-She is strong willed. She knows what she wants-she tells Steve at 1 in the afternoon, "you know what Dad, I never got my morning candy"-he'll cave-she's got him wrapped around her finger
5-She is a teaser. She likes to hide when she hears me come in from the garage at night. The other day Steve was being silly at bed time. He told El to smell his armpit, she said okay and then pulled a hair from his pit.

What would I do with out my little one?

I just don't know.

I just love you El Lynn Smith!

*El is also a quick learner, if you recall her last birthday her hair caught a little on fire. Tonight she said, "Mom pull my hair back so it doesn't get burned."

Gingerbread Sister, and Santa Claus

 Gingerbread Sister

 What can I say about that one??

 Ki was thrilled to be with Santa

...If I must...

 I am very comfortable with this Santa

unlike my sister.

Let's chat again soon.

On Saturday we ran some errands and got a ginger bread kit from trader Joe's. The girls made it their "Gingerbread Sister".  We also went to our ward party and Santa Claus made an appearance. Ki and El were in line and Ki walks up to me and says, "I am not sitting on his lap!" I said, "Yes you are and I am taking a picture of it." She did but you can tell how she left about it-never one to hide her feelings. Ki told Santa that she wanted a picture of his reindeer playing hide and seek. El said that she didn't care-you get what you get and you don't through a fit. I think she might really believe that! She was very comfortable chatting with Santa. It is not shocking to me anymore how different my girls are. They make me laugh!