Back in Taipei for the last week...

Even though I am now back in Chicago, I want to finish up our trip to Taiwan... It was such a great experience that I don't want to let it slip away by forgetting to write about the things we did and people we visited. Going to the south of Taiwan was so great, but it obviously put me a bit behind on the blogging if you couldn't tell ;) With so much to do and limited internet access (and the fact that I was the only one without a computer, I had to wait until someone was not using theirs and when no children needed me, a very rare occurrence indeed), I got more behind on recording our events than I wanted to.

Back in Taipei since we only had a week left, at nap times I tried to go out more with Jeff, and evenings got full too... which made for less down time to blog, but such great family and adventure time!

The first day back, Jeff and I went out walking around and shopping during nap time, then I stayed back with the kids while Jeff took my parents out the the night market Jeff and I went to before. Jeff must have ate something that was bad, because he didn't feel good and barely got out of bed for the next 24-32 hours.

The second day back in the capitol we decided to venture out (minus an ill Jeff) to the International Flora Expo ... they had some amazing displays of flowers, flower arrangements, and the thing was seriously HUGE. I barely got through a fraction of it with the kids and then headed back to the apartment with the kids and Mrs. Tsai so the kids could go back for naps. My parents decided to stay and spent quite a while walking around the area and said that everything they saw was pretty cool.

In the gift shop there were some signs of the indigenous Taiwanese people groups... the largest group is called the Amis... strange, no? I took a photo for my baby Ami to look at when she gets older, maybe her mixed look will actually look similar to one of the girls on the sign ;)

On a side note, while we were at the Pagoda where Jeff's grandparents' ashes are, Mrs. Tsai was talking to a local monk there who was looking at Ami and asking questions about her and then she turned to us and told us that a typical greeting between Buddhists is something that sounds like "Ami-tofa.' Which is pretty cool, and in the Chinese language is a positive thing that Ami's name sounds like that greeting.... Jeff on the other hand wants to believe it sounds like "Ami-tofu" and has since started calling her that, to my disapproval. It is just kind of neat that Ami's name means so many positive things (or sounds like so many things) in so many languages :)

Flowers everywhere at the Expo, on the sloped walls, around the trees... next to the oblivious baby, HUGE roses, beautiful plantings, vertical gardening and one of the Expo theme characters

Dad was pointing out fish and plants to Chase when....

Chase saw Mama taking pictures and wanted to come over to me :)

1) Dad: Look Chase at those Lilli pads Chase: Look there is Mama

2) Dad: oh now I see what you were pointing at

3) Dad: Careful not to fall in the pond Chase! (as he was getting ready to run over to me)

Trying out the new camera and it's macro functions.... straight out of camera without any color processing... I think it did pretty well.

Little fly on the huge rose... cool

While walking around, another group of teen/college girls surrounded Chase

and of course wanted a picture

I wonder if all these photos of Chase are going to appear of Taiwanese Facebook pages or on billboards or something ;)