The Fun in a Cake

Somehow all of my interactions with Candace and Anna involve food (it IS a great world :D) I had a Friday off and sort of invited myself down to their place to play and have fun. Candace was awesome and made a super yummy pineapple upside down cake (I'm not sure I had even had that before), we watched a movie, talked tons, played some cards, slept, went shopping, and had just as much as ever. I love these two girlies and am so grateful they were my roommates this last year and that we can still keep up the friendship!

Candace making sure the product was going to be good :) (or maybe just cleaning out the bowl)

I'm not sure with Anna (of course we never are)

Candace with the CAKE!

The beautiful finished product :)

Cold Shoulder

Mom and I thought that it looked so warm outside with the sun-shining on the backyard and deck so decided that we would have our dinner outside, as soon as we got everything set up we realized that it wasn't quite as warm as we had thought. We ate quickly but as soon as the wind came we grabbed everything and went back inside. We decided that we are looking to getting to eat outside this summer but that we can wait until it is really warm enough to do so :)

Turkey Day 2010

Thanksgiving this year was amazing, the only thing that could have possibly made it better is if Joel, Becky, and Aubrey had been there with us. Last year I was at home and it was just Mom and I, we went to the ward Thanksgiving dinner and then I worked part of the day so that I could get more money. Two years ago I was in Taiwan, so it has been three years since I've had a "real" Thanksgiving.

Nathan, Sallee, and Claire flew in from California and Mom hosted everyone at her house. It was one fun, crazy day with food to be cooked, dishes to be prepared, many different conversations going on, babies to play with, kids running around, food to be eaten, cleaning to be done, etc. but I loved everything about it and was so glad to have much of my family together.

Before the rush of the day began we started with a nice breakfast

Boys will be boys, there were many different "games" to distract them throughout the day (whether it be an Aunts phone, Uncles phone, or gameboy)

Many smiles to be seen! :D

Talking to be done, catching up with those you have seen in a couple of months or a couple of days.

It was so neat the many different "branches" of our family we were able to have join in the fun...besides my siblings and their families we also had my Grandma (Mom's Mom), my brother-in-laws Sisters and Boyfriend, and a cousin from my Dad's side of the family.

You can't get all together without some tickles and loving happening :)

Babies to be rocked...this was Sallee's and Nathan's first time to see baby Alexia.

Getting ready to take a nap...aren't her eyes gorgeous?

Not only did little babies take naps but so did the cousins :D

Ben, Sonia, and Katrina sitting around the table during the "serious" eating time.

Katrina, I can't believe that this little girl is not so little anymore and is going to be 10 in March---a double digit!

Samuel being his silly old self, he came in and surprised us all with his two front teeth missing. Needless to say he got "All I Want For Christmas" sang to him several times.

Madelaine, one of our beautiful adopted sisters.

The remains of the food, I'm not used to having so many different families join in on the fun so by the time we divided up the food there wasn't actually that many remains.

One of the tables...Grandma, Mom, Nathan, Sallee, LaVon, Kyle, and Erick. It was a new experience having to have two tables for everyone. It took some thinking on Mom's and my part to get it all ready and have enough seats.

A cool shot of Kyle with the sunlight on him.

Sara, a very smart and silly girl.

LaVon sneaking a smile without anyone else realizing that I was taking a picture.

My beautiful Mommy, I hope that I have as beautiful skin and hair as her when I get older!

Lily, another adopted sister and her boyfriend Ben (we are all cheering for him to join the family soon :D)

Erick being himself...I have many pictures with this almost exact face. He always takes off his glasses when he realizes that I am taking a picture and then makes this face.

Cute little Claire, it is amazing how much she has changed in the last 3 months since I saw her last. I loved watching her expressions and hearing the sounds she makes.

The piano with the headphones became a favorite of several little girls.

Sam and Uncle Nate, styling in the red, white, and blue.

Half way through the evening we realized that Kyle, Libbey, and LaVon were all wearing the same colored shirt and when we realized it they were all sitting on the couch together.

The only picture taken of me as I was taking all of the pictures, Erick was trying to take it but he needed some help so I actually ended up taking it :D

Samuel, so handsome in his khaki pants and button-up shirt.

Another little girl content playing the piano.

Nathan and Sallee...our cutest newlyweds (:D considering it's almost been 3 years not quite newlyweds but they are the most recent to get married)

Claire with Tia Lily, so cute!

Hanging around just chatting.

Another angle

A Weekend in the City

Last weekend Andrea and I took our last trip to Taipei before going home, we had many things that we wanted to fit into this visit, in the end I'm not sure that we covered all of them but it was a memorable and fun adventure.

Isn't this gorgeous? This is what we get to see every time we go to Taipei, on the way up and on the way down.

Friday when we arrived it took us a little bit of time to find our hostel (there were three buildings owned by the hostel but we went to the wrong one first), but it was still early and we didn't really want to go to bed yet. It was really strange as we were signing in we heard the owners speaking Spanish, and we were both like we understand that. It turns out that the owners (used to be married or are currently married--we weren't sure) are from Mexico, well the guy is from Mexico and she lived there for 20 years.

We decided that we would go on a walk and find something to eat. We asked if there was a movie theater nearby and discovered that there was one only like a five minute walk away, we got something to eat and decided to walk over and see what they had to offer.

We had originally planned on coming Saturday night but there was one starting right then and so we decided to watch it. We ended up watching Letter's To Juliet, it was really cute and I would highly recommend it. I haven't seen any movies lately that I have felt the urge to buy but this is one that I think that I will buy when it comes out on video.

When we got back from the movie it was about 1 o'clock, our roomies were there (we got a woman's dorm room with 4 bunk beds and a private bathroom), they were from England and have been living there for the last year as they work at an English school in Taipei. They weren't the most talkative or friendly towards us, despite Andrea's attempt to ask them questions. They had no problem walking around in their underwear or leaving them out to dry though :(

Saturday was a very long day spent with much walking, shopping, talking, eating, and just having fun. We went to see if there was any other movie that sounded good but nothing caught our attention so we decided to just go home and get ready for bed.

Sunday morning we got up and ready before the roomies were even starting to get up, we left to go back to the Temple and stake center to go to church, it was really weird to hear everything in English and even stranger to pick up the hymnal and find it feel very heavy compared to the English hymnal. After Sacrament meeting we bundled all of our stuff and headed back to the train station where we had a little bit of a wait until our time.

Walking from our hostel to the MRT there was this little park that they had lots of animals made out of stones. I'm not sure what their purpose was, but they made for great pictures :D

Our "humble abode," Andrea and I both decided that this place is not what we would pick to live in for over a year, I don't know, maybe we are spoiled with our apartment but I would not be too excited with the prospect of living out of my suitcase for a year. This is the door to our room.

Looking in from the door, that door on the right is the bathroom, with shower and toilet. The shower was really nice--a lot bigger than ours and it actually has a little thing that separates the shower floor from the rest of the bathroom floor.

Looking from the bathroom.

By the end of the trip I felt kind of like a city girl, or at least that I could live in one if I needed to. I'm still not excited by the idea but I could do it.