We woke up on Monday, August 3rd, a little later than usual--and happy that Noah was home! Actually, Terry left earlier to buy a van! He had spent the last week looking online and in person and found the perfect van. Rex, Nanson, and Henry all helped him with it and the owner named Chris was also so kind and accommodating.
Meanwhile, at home we had Mr. Donuts for breakfast and watched Price is Right together, just like old times. Then we gave Noah the official apartment tour.
We even went out on the "dangerous" balcony.
Trying out the beds in Samuel's room - all the beds were one of the reasons we chose this apartment. With that extra twin Ezra can share a room with Samuel so Noah can take Ezra's and have a little more privacy.
Registering the van in Terry's name.
Noah and I walked around the apartment complex to show him everything else and then Terry was arriving with the van. We went out front to wait.
VAN! It's a 2004 Toyota Previa in very good condition. It'll be so nice to have a mini van and not a sedan or van with a teeny third row - this way we have some room for bags.
We fit perfectly!
Noah's delayed luggage was also delivered, so we brought it up.
Then it was nifty gifty time! Noah baked and transported four loaves of freshly milled bread for me. It was still cool when we took it out of the tubs! I miss my flour mill and those loaves third most - first is Noah, second is Trouncer. Noah also brought the boys many Pokemon cards that wouldn't fit when we moved, several Lego sets, and candy for Evie.
The kids played Settlers together. Noah won.
That afternoon, while I was busy making pizza and chocolate cake, the kids played their favorite Nintendo Switch game, Duck Game. It's a ridiculous pixelated game where everyone's a duck and they try to kill each other. They laugh so much. I actually got teary-eyed listening to them enjoy themselves so much.
That night we had family movie night together watching Spiderman: No Way Home, in preparation for watching new one with Noah while he is here.
Next we sang Happy Birthday to Noah (just a little late, his real birthday is April 19th), had cake, and gave gifts. Terry's sister gave the kids all some gifts, Noah gave each of his siblings late birthday gifts, and we gave Noah the gift we made for him back in June at the Lego store.
It was a personalized Noah minifigure!
We all got one way back on June 5, but waited to give it to Noah until he had arrived.
On Tuesday, August 4th, poor Noah woke up at 3 am and couldn't go back to sleep. I didn't sleep great either. So we had a slow morning. The guys played some chess.
We had a light lunch and prepped to go on our first family van adventure in Taiwan! Here's us loading up in our garage. It's so great our apartment came with a parking spot - previously unused except to park Evie's scooter and Ezra's bike.
The timing is amazing. One of the things I told our MTI community during missionary training was that I was grieving was the end our family roadtrips. We sold our old trusty rusty Honda van before we moved. We left Noah behind in the States. But God provided another opportunity in literally the perfect timing for us to enjoy further time together while Noah was here. It's incredible. Here we are all together again for another roadtrip, but this time in Taiwan!
We decided to go to the nearest place, Tamsui, where we had lived for nearly a week last summer. Noah had been with us at the time and was familiar the the place. The bridge over the Tamsui river was unfinished last year. Now it is finished and you can walk or ride bicycles over it, which is exactly what we wanted to do.
Taiwan is small, but it's always been very daunting to venture outside of our comfortable little bubble. How would we know where to park? How would we know how to pay? What if something bad happened? What if we got lost? Where do we eat? Just so many unknowns. It is not so easy as roadtripping in your own culture.
However, we found a parking lot on Google Maps and also a YouBike station. We even found a bathroom and someone who could tell us how to get onto the bridge. So we were off!
We stopped halfway up to take photos and sight see.
We enjoyed this view of the river and mountains, which looked much like the view the windows of the R&R we stayed in last summer.
This is from last year - you can see how the bridge was very close to being finished.
The view from our R&R last summer.
And this year from the top of the finished bridge!
Evie's hat nearly flew off...which would have been terrible. Noah just gave her that hat. It was a complete surprise, since she had lost her original one last summer in the Niobrara River - she woke up from a nap and it was gone, presumably down the river. So Noah found another one at Target and scooped up the last one!
We biked down the other side of the bridge and then underneath it a little, before coming back up the other side. It was a longer and harder climb that direction. Looking out at the ocean.
Looking towards where we'll continue biking.
One more top-of-the-bridge shot.
This was from the shore near the end of the line before we turned around and biked into town.
It was so hot as we biked into town. Cool-looking apartment, though.
At one point I wanted to turn around and go home. We parked our bikes and walked all the way up the hill to go to the cool ice cream store by last year's R&R (where we stayed for a week), only to discover that it was closed. Total bummer. Happens a lot here. So we went into Family Mart for the AC and bought some cool drinks. That revived us.
Pretty blossoms on our way back down to the waterside.
We bought some of the same ice cream cones that we had gotten on our final day last summer.
Last summer's cones!
I know it's like 109 back home in the Hills, but it's a different kind of swampy hot here. High humidity and dew point as well as high temps. It definitely feels like 95 or worse.
We walked along the shops on the boardwalk, but most of them weren't really any good. Evie did find a few things/gifts at one cute shop. Then we walked back along Old Street.
We were very tired by this point.
We went back to the boardwalk and rested on a bench.
Next we got Middle Eastern curry wraps, which we had also bought last year. I loved them and was excited to have them again.
Our final stop was inside an "Israel" coffee shop run by a Taiwanese Christian woman.
We saw these cute cat sculptures on the walk back to the YouBike station.
Most of us ended up with electric assist YouBikes, so we flew the couple miles back to our van. The parking charge for the full day wasn't hardly anything, and then we drove home. Google Maps took us a different route than we had taken down, but it was lovely to drive alongside the ocean at golden hour. Back at home, we washed up and went to bed pretty quickly. We were very tired.
On Wednesday, August 5th, Noah and I slept better, thankfully. We went to En Cafe to introduce Rex and Theresa to Noah, and have some coffee. We also played some Sequence and stayed for lunch.
We took bikes to the big Carrefour... I mean, Prosperity Plaza (lame name change).
Checking in Noah's bike.
Man, my kids are so big. We're walking down to the store.
Evie and I did a little shopping at NET while the boys took the groceries home. Evie has been eaten up by mosquitos recently - she counted over 40 bites one night. So we went to buy some light-weight pants to offer her more protection. At home the kids played some more Duck Game while I got dinner prepped. At 4 pm we visited Amy and Justin's apartment to introduce Noah to them... and their huge Maine Coon cats.
The first time we met the cats we were actually kind of alarmed at their size and fierce appearance.
This time the cats were more relaxed because they were in their home, as opposed to the library room, and they let us pet them more. They are trained to do some tricks like this.
I mean, look at that face. He looks so intense! But he was a sweetie. Not sure Terry would ever let me get one, though 😹
They're mostly fluff and not that heavy.
Amy is a small woman... but still, look at how big they are!
Massive paws.
I wear a size 9 shoe and my large foot is dwarfed by him.
Their apartment is on the same floor as ours, but just down two units. They have a perfect, unimpeded view of the park 😍 Our view is mostly blocked by an under-construction apartment.
Samuel was a happy boy.
I left a little early to finish making chicken pot pie, and then we rushed across the street to the mall movie theater to see the new Spiderman movie, Brand New Day.
We invited friends, Anna and Lydia, to come. We all really enjoyed the movie. Spiderman has grown up.
Then the girls came over to hang out. They enjoyed some leftover birthday cake with us, along with a couple games of Sequence.
On Thursday, August 6th, we went back to the mountainside village of Jiufen.
We had visited it on the last day of the STM trip last summer, along with the rest of our team.
This time Terry drove us directly through Taipei! Thankfully, there was no traffic.
Going past the Grand Hotel.
Nearly there...
Made it!
There was a roadside shop selling only capybaras and blaring the new-to-me Cabybara song. It is ridiculous and got annoying. Capybaras were everywhere last summer, but aren't as much this year.
Beautiful view.
Last year in Jiufen was difficult. It was the final day of the STM trip, we were beyond exhausted, and I was sick. We had a really rough time there. We were ready to redeem the experience!
We remade last year's photo...
...in the same place but with all of us!
We went back to the name chop/stamp store that Noah had been intrigued by last year. He hadn't had time to buy anything.
Today he ended up getting a dragon chop, which is so Noah.
We took better pictures across from the chop shop.
We headed down the mountain in search of the cat shop Evie missed last year. This shop was the cutest.
It was called "Henry" after the husband. The wife hand-painted the cat designs on a variety of items. I liked it so much that I wanted to bless them so we bought a mocha and some cards. They gifted us more cards and Terry gave them a gospel tract. Taiwanese people are so kind and generous!
Cat ears for their shop.
At the bottom.
We waited here for another cat shop to open.
We bought several things from the cat shop and then went halfway back up the mountain to the ice cream shop the kids have been dreaming about for the last year. They adored the waffle cones they shared last year.
This time all the kids got one and Terry and I chose mango smoothies. I'm obsessed with mango.
Back at the top, we passed by a shop selling taro balls. We had eaten them last year, but did not enjoy their taste, plus we had been having a hard time.
At the top!
Heading back down.
Evie decided to get this shirt. Xiao long bao means soup-filled dumpling, here depicted with a cat, which is Evie's favorite. And it's fun to say.
Driving home was the best. We blared our roadtrip playlist, sang along, were super silly, and basically relived all our favorite roadtrips. It was a really fulfilling experience. How good is God that He gave us a van in the nick of time for us to have our good old family singing time, this time in Taiwan?!!
On Friday, August 7th, we chilled. We were very tired. Plus, I had secret plans to prepare for. Secret plans I thought Evie knew nothing about... However, she told us at dinner that night that she knew.
The kids played Duck Game, their absolute favorite.
I sent the kids out to the mall while Terry was at a Cedar Tree meeting so that they could find something to get Terry for Taiwanese Father's Day the next day. Samuel came back even more exhausted and promptly fell asleep.
Playing with Porky. Noah likes him. Says he's more "real" in person, haha.
Meanwhile, I made banana chocolate chip muffins, cinnamon rolls, and pizza... for the secret graduation reception Lillian and I were planning. However my laptop betrayed me while Evie was writing on it, because the messages I was sending to Lillian on my phone popped up on the computer too. An update on the laptop enabled her to be able to see even my Taiwan messaging app, Line. It didn't used to do that.
We stayed home from Bible study that night and played Sequence and Kings in the Corner together.
Saturday, August 8th, was the combined graduation reception for Anna and Evie. Lillian had asked me months before if I'd like to be included in Anna's reception and of course I said yes! But since Evie had a big reception before we moved, I thought it would be fun to keep this one a secret. I wish I hadn't, though, because we could've invited a few more friends. But it went pretty great anyway. We rented our building's basement entertaining room in the last week after I discovered that it could be air conditioned. It never had been before so I didn't think it was possible.
There's also ping pong, billiards, a small gym, and a lap pool down there.
Anna and Evie, the graduates.
Several friends brought snacks to share and we let the girls choose first.
Pretty girl.
Here's all the kids that came! The adults sat elsewhere.
We sat with Lillian and Ken.
Lillian made a beautiful video of both girls and afterwards Terry gave a speech. We gave her a diploma and made it official.
Nanson and Flora came too!
We were already missing a few people at this point, but this was the crew.
I told everyone how the night before we moved, it felt like we were standing on the edge of a cliff with darkness before our feet. But God has provided for us through all of these people. They've been like a soft nest to receive us.
The girls.
Our combined families, minus their son Joseph, who had to leave.
Love this photo I had Lydia take on our way out. Another nice thing about having a car is being able to help others - Terry drove Simcha and Lillian's family home.
Once we were all settled at home, we gave Terry his Father's Day gifts.
Taiwan celebrates Father's Day on August 8, 08-08, because the word for 8 is "ba" and the name for dad is "baba." So it just makes sense!
Shortly thereafter, a squall came through that we assumed was Typhoon Dolphin beginning. It passed very quickly, though, and didn't start raining again until 10pm.
More Duck Game!
The morning of Sunday, August 9th, was still raining, so we took the van to church! We would've gotten soaked trying to walk in sideways rain, but Terry got wet anyway since he had to park so far away.
Noah back in church with us!
For Mother's Day, all the moms were given these beautiful crocheted flowers. For the Father's Day gift, they put a metal scraper on top of a stick so it looked like a flower. So funny.
While the kids were at youth group, our IKEA delivery came!
Having Noah here was the last straw for the purple loveseat we got for free back in February.
We made it work until now, but it's always been so uncomfortable - it leans back too far to give any back support.
Goodbye, purple couch! We won't miss you! It will go sit on the curb for a truck to pick it up and dispose of it. It's so nice to have use of Noah's muscles again.
So we bought a super cheap couch from IKEA and had it delivered.
Terry and Noah put it together.
Boom, baby.
It's so lovely! And it feels and looks a lot more grown-up. 😂
Shortly after returning home from youth group, Justin, Terry's English student, came for a final visit. Terry gave him a couple gifts, one of which was a Bible.
Justin is moving to the States for college. We're sad to see him go but excited for him. He's become like another son. He even got to play Duck Game with the kids.
The guys played one last round of Settlers with him. Justin beat them again. Then we prayed for him and said our final goodbyes!
Porky spent the evening getting acquainted with the new couch 😆
We spent the evening chilling with popcorn...and each other!
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