Taipei Temple & Performance

Here is a map of where we went during the trip. It's kinda hard to see, but Taipei is the most northern city. From there we did a big "circle island tour" going counter clockwise. The red circles are where we did performances.
The Taipei temple is really beautiful. It looks similar to the Portland OR temple, actually. The kids loved the fountains.



Zion and Anjuli really are best friends--even if they don't act like it most of the time.
Family picture minus Izaiah, he was asleep in the stroller. We always had somebody asleep in the stroller it seems.
The stake center is to the right of the temple. We had our first performance there.
This is the Dennis Kim's after the performance. One of the main reasons Dad wanted all of us to go on this trip was to get to know Mom's history and family better. This is the first time the kids and I got to meet Mom's brother, Chi-Feng. He is to the left of Dad.

Taipei

Our first full day in Taiwan! We spent the whole day sightseeing in Taipei. Here we are at the Chiang Kai Shek Memorial. Chiang Kai Shek was the man who helped lead the Nationalists away from the Communists of China.



The kids had fun splashing in the puddles and running around chasing birds--much needed after a full day of travel being cooped up in the airplane.

It was so neat seeing all these different temples. Such beautiful and amazing architecture.
I loved the gardeners hats :) Just like in the movies!

Believe it or not, this is not everyone in the group--we're still missing about 20 people that arrived later that day.
I love this picture...can you see my kids expressions? So bored and tired...they spent LOTS of time in the stroller being wheeled around to different sites. What troopers!




Zeya started walking up the stairs a little bit ahead of us and this woman just picked him up and started talking to him. This happened SO many times during our trip. Everyone loved our kids and were very excited to take pictures of them and touch them.


The Changing of the Guards.
Pretty cool, but it scared the kids a little bit, all the guns and things. Anjuli said it was too loud.


Anjuli is tired of being told to smile by this point. Only a few hours in Taiwan and we'd already taken tons of pictures. Here we are with cousin Jamie.

Later that day Zui took Anjuli and Zeya to the beach with the rest of the Kim ohana. I voted to stay back with Zion and Jasmine and take a much needed nap. Zion slept for 6 hours straight--I couldn't wake him up for anything! Everyone was so sleep deprived and jet lagged.

Zui enjoying a freshly grilled squid--yum! (eww...)
The kids had fun running along the dock.
That night I had a "girls night out" and went shopping at the Taipei night market.
It was so busy and full of cheap things to buy. I bought a watch for $3, a few toys for the kids, and a pair of sandals, all of which broke within 2 days! Gotta figure, you get what you pay for.

Lindsey, me, Lorinda, Jenna, Amy.

Travel to Taiwan

On May 31st we left for the trip of a lifetime. After Zui's mom passed away, Dennis began planning a Kim ohana reunion to commemorate Linda. When we found out we were unexpectedly pregnant we were worried we might not be able to go, even though our plane tickets were already bought and paid for. As an answer to our prayers, Jasmine came early! We rushed the birth certificate (got it in 4 days), then once we received it rushed the passport (got it on the last business day before we flew). She was just over 2 weeks old! Here we are at the airport. Lots to keep track of: three suitcases, two backpacks, a double jogger, infant carseat, and four kids...phew!
We took an 8 hour flight to Japan, then after an hour layover, took another 3 1/2 hour flight to Taipei. The dreaded flight went better than we expected. The kids entertained themselves with the seat buckles for quite a while. We packed lots of toys and fun snacks for them. The best toy we brought was a mini retractable tape measure that I bought at Walmart for $2 (thanks Mom for the great idea!). The kids loved that and were always fighting over it (I should've bought 3!). Other great toys: magna doodle, crayola wonders, and the portable DVD player, what a winner. My Dad highly recommended we bring one and I can't even tell you how many times we brought it out on the trip.
It was kinda tricky having 2 lap children for the 2 of us. Luckily Jasmine got to sleep in the bassinet they provided.

Arrival in Taipei--this is the airport. I have no idea what this silly cow thing is, but there were several of these weird colorful animal sculptures all around. The Yamagatas, Darrell Kim's and Aunty Cynthia were also on our flight.

The kids were exhausted by this point, but we still had to take a bus, then train, then taxi to get to our hotel.
It was pretty crazy trying to get all of our stuff in and out several times. Luckily we had help from family.
Waiting for the train to come.
The hotel enthralled the kids for the first half hour or so. Then they wanted to go home to sleep in their own beds. It was a hard realization for them that we weren't going home...for a LONG time.

One bed, 2 adults, and 4 kids. I had just finished nursing Jasmine when I put her to bed and realized I had no where to sleep! Somehow I squeezed in there, I think I had Jasmine sleep on top of me. Even still, both Anjuli and Zion fell out of the bed during the night. Luckily the rest of our hotels had 2 beds in them. After 18 hours of travel we had finally made it.