May 24th: Getting to Hualien

On the 24^th we woke up in Taoyuan. Asher was pretty restless throughout the night and since he was in bed with me (along with the three other boys), I didn’t sleep all that well either. Fortunately, we had a yummy buffet style breakfast at the hotel to help start the day off right. For breakfast they had lots of American foods (cereal, hash browns, bacon, eggs, toast) as well as lots of Taiwanese foods (steamed buns, soy milk, vegetables, mango). The kids primarily went for the American food, Rebecca for the Taiwanese food, and me a combination of both. 

After breakfast we had planned to walk to a temple and park. It was about a mile away. It was fun to be out in the streets of Taiwan again. They are so different from the streets in America. It is kind of like walking through the streets of a big city, but they are much narrower, every single first floor is a shop of some type and the above stores are where people live, and there are a million signs sticking out on the buildings advertising all of the shops. As soon as we started walking we were all hit by the humidity. The night before the children were saying that they couldn’t really feel a difference, but today they were saying that they could really feel the air. One mile later where arrived at the temple very very sweaty. 

We looked around the temple a little bit, used the Taiwanese bathrooms for the first time (it seems like the bathrooms now have many more toilets compared to when I was here 18 years ago), and then found an awesome park next to the temple that we played at for a while. As soon as we got to the park we were surrounded by people. They would just tell us over and over how cute our children were and how amazing it was that we had six of them. That has been a consistent pattern ever since. Sometimes in America people will make a comment about our having six children, but it is not often positive. Here in Taiwan, they all think it is the greatest thing and they can’t stop telling us so. Even though they typically only have one or two children, they all love families here and highly value them. 

After the park we hurried back to the hotel to check out by noon. Our train to Hualien didn’t leave until 3pm though. It was very hot by that point, so we tried to just find a park with shade that we could spend some time in. We found a small one with a field and some toys and stayed there for a little while, but we were quickly swarmed again by people commenting on our children. We liked the attention and it was all very positive and friendly, but after an hour it was a little overwhelming so we walked to the train station and found a spot to sit for the next couple of hours. 

The train ride to Hualien was so beautiful! It was about four hours long. The first little bit goes through the cities, but then most of it goes right through the hills and mountains along the east coast. I had really been looking forward to this train ride for some time, but even though the scenery was so beautiful, the jet lag caught up with us and we all fell asleep. We arrived at Hualien at about 7:00 and it was already dark. We had about a mile to walk to get to the place that we would be staying, but I took us in the exact opposite direction and we probably walked 2 miles before we finally arrived. Our place is really nice. We have one big bedroom with four double beds in it. It is probably about the size of Christian’s bedroom back at home. There is also a kitchen and a bathroom. It does feel cramped of course, but I think it is better than we were expecting. That night I went out to the street and picked us up a fresh loaf of bread to eat and a fried fish paste thing called tian bu la.

Morning in the boys' room of the hotel in Taoyuan


This was the sauna in our room that we used the night before.



Outside of the hotel they had a little pond with fish and turtles that the children liked to play with.





Here we are at the Confucius temple.





I have a picture of me as a missionary on this bridge.








This was at the first park before we checked out of the hotel.



This was the second park, after we checked out of the hotel.




We stopped in a department store to cool off on our way to the train station.


They had a cool beados station where you could buy pre-made ones or make your own.





Back asleep in our place in Hualien.

May 22 – May 23: Getting to Taiwan

Well getting to Taiwan ended up being quite the adventure. Going in to it, I think Rebecca and I were expecting a lot of the unexpected, so although things were stressful, we were able to take everything in stride.

Rebecca and I spent all Monday morning packing and doing our final house projects in preparation for the trip. We were both working non-stop, but we had planned it out pretty well and were able to finish everything up in time to pick the children up from school. Once we got them, we drove down to spend the night with Nathanael and Mary-Anne. They were so nice to let us stay over and drive us to the airport the next day. It was fun seeing the children play with their cousins and to catch up with them. Also, they put their smoker to good use and we got to enjoy some smoked chicken legs and homemade bacon! While we were there, I realized that I had forgot to pack our Taiwan money. I had exchanged about $3,500 American for us to have as cash to use as we traveled around. I had kept it in a peanut butter jar and I didn’t recall taking it out of the jar ever to put it in with our luggage. But I couldn’t figure out how I would have forgotten it because I had packed up everything else that I had placed in that spot. Unfortunately, that spot was on the ground and we figured that Asher must have picked it up and played with it and placed it somewhere else in the house. So, we figured we would just have to exchange some money in one of the airports.

Getting on our first flight from Salt Lake City to San Francisco was no problem. However, about ten minutes in to the flight the pilot made his usual announcement. He said that we would be arriving in San Jose in about an hour and a half. Rebecca looked at me and I figured he must have just made a mistake. Surely they didn’t allow us to get on the wrong flight. After talking to our neighbors we found out that after we got on the plane they made an announcement in the terminal. They said there was poor visibility in San Francisco, so they were going to fly us in to San Jose and then bus us to the San Francisco airport. I was a little worried when they announced that, but we had a three hour layover and they were estimating only 30 minutes for the bus ride, so I figured it would be no problem. Well, with traffic the bus ride was 1 hour. That meant that when we got to the San Francisco airport we had two hours to get checked in and to our gate. The day before I called in to let them know that we would have a lap infant. Apparently, for international flights, lap infants still have to have a reduced cost ticket. The ticket itself was $50 for the round trip, but we also had to pay the $250 for taxes and fees. There was nothing I could do about it then, so I bought the ticket over the phone and they said I would have to check him in in person when we got to San Francisco. So as soon as we got there we rushed to find the Cathay Pacific counter. For some reason, they couldn’t figure out how to check Asher in. We spent another hour at the counter while they tried to figure it out. Now we were panicking some. I told them I was worried we were not going to make our flight, but they said it should be no problem. By the time we got all of our boarding passes and luggage checked in it was 12:20 and we had to board by 12:55. I got some quick cash, but only about a third of what we had originally planned because the rates did not seem very good. After that we ran to the security and luckily got to go through the priority lane. It was still a long line though and we made it through all of the security by just before 12:50. So I, with some of the older kids took off running as soon as we got through and we figured that we could stall them until Rebecca and the younger children caught up. When we got there, they ended up being delayed by 20 minutes so we were not late at all.

The plane ride went great. I think Asher hardly cried at all, but maybe I just didn’t hear him because I had my noise cancelling headphones on. We did have two stinky diapers to deal with from him, which wasn’t that fun. But basically, we all just watched movies and did a little bit of sleeping. At first I was worried about getting the sleeping timed just right, but then I realized that the children were staying up pretty much the whole time to watch movies and play games that they would be tired and ready for bed as soon as we got to Taiwan. That was perfect because we were not getting in until 10pm. The food was all pretty awful. There were two meals and I tried to make sure the children ate half of each one, but I didn’t blame them for not wanting to eat any more than that. They said Asher had to have a baby meal since he was a lap infant and so they brought me to jars of baby food. One was applesauce, which he scarfed down. The other was chicken. He ate one bite and spit that out. I tried it after that and almost threw up. We have never fed our children baby food and I am sure he was wondering what we were trying to put in him. For all of the meals I was really hoping that Rebecca and the children weren’t thinking that all of the food in Taiwan was going to be that bad.

We landed in Hong Kong and had an hour to get to our connecting gate. We did have to go through security again, but it all ended up going smoothly and we made it there in plenty of time. When we got on that final plane, then it really started to hit me that this was going to be a real adventure. On the flight to Hong Kong, there were people of all different nationalities and they said everything in English first. However, on this flight to Taipei, we were the only non-Asian people on the plane. Everything was now Chinese first, and then English. I thought it felt really cool.

After arriving in Taipei we had the usual routine of customs and things like that and it all went really smoothly. Then we had to catch a taxi to our hotel. For all the other nights I picked places that we could walk to and use public transportation, but for this first night I couldn’t figure out how late the buses and trains went and if they were even close to our hotel, so I knew we would have to do a taxi. I wondered what they would do for all of us though. They ended up just having us go in two taxis. Rebecca was worried, but I had remembered that the taxis were still pretty cheap and the cost for a twenty minute ride for both of them was still only $30. On the taxi ride to the hotel I wanted to start up a conversation with the driver, but I was really nervous that he wouldn’t understand me. After a minute or two of working up my courage I did though. And the conversation went great. I was a little slow on processing things, but I did get everything that he said. And I stumbled over my words here and there, but I was able to say everything I wanted. I was so happy about that. But then I thought about Rebecca and the three children that went with her. She couldn’t communicate with her driver at all. What if he got lost or couldn’t figure out which hotel we wanted. I realized that I had the hotel address with me. Scenarios were running through my head about needing to go to all of the police stations in the area to see if any lost Americans had showed up. I just realized how much trust Rebecca and the children are placing in me with this trip. I hope I can make it fun and a worthwhile experience for them.

When we got to the hotel we had another unexpected expense. I had thought I purchased two larger rooms so we could all fit in. The rooms were large, but they charged for extra children that were taller than a certain height. So with the two rooms, Rebecca, Julia, Ethan, and I were covered and Agnes and Asher were too short, but we had to pay $15 more for both Elliott and Christian. So Rebecca, Julia and Agnes are in one room on the fifth floor and I am here with the boys on the sixth. There is a sauna in our room, so we did that, then all took baths, wrote in our journals, and then watched a Spongebob episode. They all fell asleep pretty quickly after that.

So a lot of stressful things came up as we traveled to get here, and some unexpected expenses, but I am so glad that we are here and super excited for the morning!

All of us in the car ride on the way to the airport. Nathanael was nice enough to drive us and take care of our car while we are away. They also sent us off with some donut holes and muffins!



At the Salt Lake airport. Ready for the fun to begin.






The first flight to San Francisco (I guess I mean San Jose).





All set on our flight to Hong Kong. You can see the treats and headphones for movies.






In the Hong Kong airport waiting for a plane to Taiwan. You can tell we are all a little sleep deprived here. But, it was only 7pm Hong Kong time (5am Idaho time).





On the final flight to Taiwan!!!

Easter and General Conference Weekend

What a weekend! It was so wonderful to be able to celebrate Easter and watch General Conference at the same time this past weekend.

We had all of our regular Easter traditions. Leading up to Eater we had a special devotional each night where we talked about the Savior and one attribute or characteristic of Him. We also set some goals each day to try to be more like Him, but our follow through on those could have been better. On Saturday we dyed some eggs and had our Easter Egg hunt. We hid all of the eggs in one room and then just let the children search one at a time starting with the youngest. We thought it would make each child have a successively harder hunt, but it actually just gave the older children more time to spy out all the eggs before they were released to go get them. On Sunday we tried to focus our thoughts on the Savior and His atonement. Being able to listen to several wonderful talks about the Savior by our church leaders really helped with that. We also had a delicious dinner of pork chops (we decided to switch it up from our typical ham), rolls, cheesy potatoes, and asparagus. And then for dessert Rebecca made a carrot cake.


Here is Asher getting some of his candy.



Here is another video of him showing off some of his walking skills.







We also got to do all of our regular General Conference traditions. We had cinnamon rolls for breakfast on both days. Rebecca should really open up a shop and sell her rolls they are so yummy. We also went on a hike between the Saturday sessions. The children did treats for one session, legos for two of them, and some worksheets for another. I tried something new this year. Usually I just sit and listen. I feel the Spirit a lot when I do that, but I often forget the messages that I learn. When we were in my brother's church ward last week someone mentioned in a talk that he tries to just write down one sentence/impression for each talk. So I tried that this year. I liked it a lot. For each talk I tried to just write down one prompting of something I could do better in my life. And now I have some quick notes that I can read over periodically in addition to being able to read and listen to the full talks again from lds.org. The impressions that I received were kind of personal, so I won't share them here, but a few themes that stood out to me were the importance of personal revelation, the prophet is called of God, and the church really is moving forward. It was so exciting to be a part of this General Conference - we got to sustain President Nelson, we got to learn of two new apostles (one of whom served his mission in Taipei, was in the Asia Area Presidency, and was a special assistant to the US Ambassador to China), we learned about a reorganization of the Melchizedek Priesthood quorums (btw, I got released by the prophet in General Conference since I formerly was part of the Elders Quorum presidency), we learned that we will no longer have home or visiting teaching, and we learned about several new temples in places like India and Russia. I remember the feeling that I had when we found out about the temple in Pocatello just last year and it made me so excited for the people in those areas of the world.

If you want to watch any of the talks they are all archived here:

https://www.lds.org/general-conference?lang=eng


I am so grateful for my testimony of the gospel. I know that the Savior lives and that through the atonement we all will be able to be resurrected too. I am also so grateful for the personal revelation that I receive to help guide me in my life and the revelation that is given to the prophet to lead and guide Christ's church.

Spring Break

The week before last was our spring break. Originally we were not planning on doing anything because we have our Taiwan trip coming up. However, about a month before we decided that it would be really nice if we could try to have the children see all of their great grandparents.

We started the trip late Friday afternoon. That afternoon we headed down to Utah and stayed the night with Rebecca's brother. By the time we got there there was pretty much only time for the children to eat dinner and head to bed.

We woke up early (5:30 am) Saturday morning and started our drive to Las Vegas to visit Rebecca's other brother. It was a very pretty drive. It was really fun to drive through the first part of Utah while it was still dark out and see several of the temples all lit up. It was really getting me excited to see what our Pocatello temple is going to look like. Hopefully they will pick a spot for it somewhere close to our house or somewhere where we can see it out our windows. The short part of the drive through the northwest corner of Arizona was also very pretty. We got there around 11 and just hung out for the rest of the day. I think the kids and I spent a couple hours in their hot tub. They also have a pool which is not heated and we had contests to see who could do the most in the cold water. Christian won by jumping off their diving board and swimming the whole length of the pool. We also celebrated their cousin, Addie's, birthday and had some yummy pizza that night. We also got in lots of pinches since everyone forgot to wear their green.












On Sunday we had church with them. It was nice and sunny and the children enjoyed walking to church.

On Monday we woke up early again and made the drive to Arizona. We arrived there around noon. We were in Arizona for two and a half days. During that time we got to go to the park with Great Grandpa Swift, go to the library with Great Grandma Rucker, go to a ghost town that was a lot of fun, go to a old movie set for westerns, and go on a few walks in the desert. Julia and Agnes spent the nights with Great Grandpa Swift and so they got to see him a little more. My mom stayed over there with them each night. The rest of us spent the nights with Great Grandma Rucker. It was so nice to see them both! While we were there we also got to see the pageant that they do at the Mesa Arizona temple. It was an Easter Pageant, so it showed the life of Christ from His birth to His resurrection. Besides seeing my grandparents, I think my favorite part was the hikes that we got to do. It felt great to have the sun on us and it was fun to just explore around and see the cactus and terrain that we usually do not get to see.













































We woke up early Thursday morning to start our drive back up to Utah. That was a ten hour drive. When we started at 6 am the temperature was 67. It was sad to see the temperature slowly drop as we made our way north throughout the day. it was another pretty drive and it was fun to see the grand canyon from a distance, drive through some of the mountains, and see some of the forested areas. We didn't get in until kind of late Thursday evening. We first stopped at Rebecca's grandparents house so the children could spend some time with Great Grandma and Grandpa Meibos. It was a short visit, just to say high and for the kids to get some hugs. Then back to Rebecca's brother's house. They made some sushi for us which was really yummy.

We spent Friday with them, hung around their house, and went to the park. Rebecca and I did go to the Provo City Center temple that day. It was our first time going there. We had seen the outside before, but we had never been inside. It was really beautiful and impressive on the inside. That night we had pizza and watched Coco.

Then Saturday we went furniture shopping in the morning. We ended up finding a few really good things for our house. We made it to my brother's house by early afternoon and the children had a fun time playing with their cousins. My brother used his new smoker to make up a ton of ribs for dinner. It was so delicious. On Sunday we spent more time just hanging out with them and attended their church. That night we had a turkey that he had smoked as well. I definitely want to get a smoker after having those two meals.

Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures while we were in Utah. I did get a picture of the underground entrance for the Provo City Center temple, which was really cool.



Then we made our drive home and got back just in time for bed. It was a great Spring Break. It felt like we really did get a break from our usual routine, we got to enjoy the sun, and it was so wonderful seeing lots of family. And, even though we spent over 24 hours driving in the car, the children all did great with each other.

Pinewood Derby

Since the pinewood derby race was scheduled just a couple days after Christian's birthday, we ended up having two boys making cars this year. They had a fun time designing their cars. I made them each come up with three designs and then after drawing each one out, pick their favorite. Christian seemed like he knew from the start that he wanted to do an arrow car. Ethan's kind of evolved as he thought about different options and his final car was a mixture of a few. We got an early start on them so we had plenty of time for the boys to take their time on planning, sanding, and painting. I think the only thing that I did for them was cut them (we only have a circular saw and I don't think they are quite ready for that) and pour the melted weight in them.

On the day before the race we tested them on our folding table to see how straight they ran. Both went pretty well, but then the boys really wanted to see whose was quicker. Ethan's was faster than Christian's and at first Christian seemed a little bummed about that. We tried to fix part of the paint that was possibly rubbing against the wheels and I talked to Christian and Ethan about the point of the races and how it can be fun even if your car gets last place.

On the day of the race when they weighed their cars in, Ethan's turned out to be about half an ounce over and Christian's was about half an ounce under. We added some money to the bottom of Christian's car and drilled some of the weight out of Ethan's.

In our ward they use this racing program where all the boys are randomized into heats and a final winner is chosen based on speeds and how they do in their heats. So there was one race where Christian and Ethan were in the same heat. Ethan's car did end up beating Christian's again, but they were both great sports about it. In fact, they were great sports the whole time. In the very first heat Christian's car got last place and I was a little worried about how the rest of the night would go for him, but it turned out that the other three cars in that heat were the three fastest ones for the night. Christian's car later got first in some of his other heats and he was happy about that. In the end, Ethan got third for his age group and Christian got second for his. But most importantly, they both had a fun time.









Christian's car is the second one on the left that looks like an arrow and Ethan's is the silver one right in the middle.

Christian's Birthday

Back in early March, Christian turned 8. Eight is an extra special birthday and he is super excited to get baptized next week. I didn't get many pictures, but for his friend party he wanted a jungle theme. We played a game where the kids made animal sounds and the person who was it, while having his eyes closed, had to guess who the other kids where based on their sounds. We also did a jungle hunt for some stuffed animals that were hidden around the house, we did hunting where Ethan shot them with his gun while they tried to escape, we played a game where some of them were birds with eggs (balloons) that they tried to protect while the other kids were snakes and they tried to pop the eggs, and we played Don't Eat Pete, but with animal crackers. The kids had a fun time, but it was wild and crazy. There was also the start of a real skirmish between two of the boys, so I had to make sure that those two didn't get too close to each other for the rest of the party.



For the family party day Christian picked monkey bread and bacon for breakfast, we ended up skipping lunch because everyone was full from breakfast, we did pizza for dinner, and a chocolate cherry cheesecake for dessert. My parents were in town for his birthday and we had a fun time just hanging out with them.





A few things about our now 8 year old Christian:

• He loves to write his books. He has a couple of stories that he has been working on that he just slowly adds to almost every day. Typically they are about a family that has different spy adventures as they travel around the world.
• He also likes to read. His favorite series has been the Land of Stories.
• He likes animals a lot, especially bugs and reptiles. He likes to read educational books about them.
• He likes to be outside.
• He is really independent and seems to be just as happy playing on his own compared to playing with his siblings.
• He likes sports, but often prefers to watch Ethan and Elliott play, than play himself.
• He is really smart and does super well in school. He does often know how to spell words that I can't spell even if he has never seen the word spelled out before. He is also one of those kids who knows which days of the week certain days will be. He is really quick with math and logic problems.