Hanging Around The Ambrose Home...

Thanks, Matt & Tori, for opening your house and hearts to us!!! We loved spending time at your place with all of you!!! Let's do it again, eh?!?

The ice cream truck stopped by at the end of mom's party in the first week... you better believe Hunter remembered that word "ice cream man" whenever he drove by again!!!

My parents spent a lot of time hanging out at the Ambrose's house with us... it was fun having them around so much as well. I think they enjoyed seeing the grandkids together (Evan spent a lot of time here too - but he was usually asleep).

Good ole lazy summer mornings... these kids rarely had time to stop like this... they always had something going on.

Hunter spent LOTS of time in the pool... he really improved and started putting his head under and kicking to us underwater... but since we've been back to Taipei - he's only been in the pool once and it's almost back to how it was before... he's just not as interested. Hmmm... what to do now?

It was fun to have the Cash family come over and hang out with us a couple of times to make use of the pool and the good weather! They've got a daughter born the same day as Evan so we talked a lot about baby stuff. They are a lovely family - we always enjoy visiting with them.

Hunter's bunkmate

Madie enjoyed helping out with Helena and Helena enjoyed being close to her only girl cousin here... these girls will have to stick together!

A couple of times I was home with all five kids on my own... what a revelation that this is what it would be like if I really had five kids!!! I guess it is managable - just noisy! The kids and I played a game called Hullabaloo... it was a little harder for Travis & Hunter but they caught on and we all laughed quite a bit! Especially at Trevor's victory dances!!! Nice moves, Trev!!!

There were lots of wrestling matches around the house... Helena got right into it too! She loved wrestling most with Uncle Matt!!!

Helena's first real spaghetti dinner - the classic baby picture eveyone needs in their babybook (if she gets a babybook this will definitely be in it)!

Lulu, the most patient dog I've ever met! Helena absolutely loved her... and Hunter still mentions her name - "where's Lulu?".

Four Generations

Travis was a lot of fun and he was pretty patient with Hunter considering he's only a year and a half older! Thanks, Travis for all the clothes passed down to Hunter... he looks a bit more like you!

Pre-Flight Walk In the Park

Amber had the great idea (and the persistence) to get us all to Irvine Park at some stage while we were together... so finally on the day we left we made it! Both Tony & I agree that this was a great way to 'end' such a busy trip... we got to experience something new in a relaxed setting with our family... yep - I'd recommend this over frantically finishing the shopping/packing anyday!

Grandpa & Hunter were looking for turtles in the pond.

We had a tasty picnic (thanks, Danny & Pearl) which we thought to throw together just as we were leaving the house... good thing we did - there weren't many good options there!

After lunch it was on to the next logical activity - the train ride!!! The wait took longer than the ride itself, but we made good use of the time. Evan's already looking bigger and stronger than when we first met him three weeks ago.

Grandpa totally spoils Hunter... he scored an engineer's cap and a train whistle... looks like we'll be having some fun dress up games back in Taipei!

Evan wasn't all that thrilled about the train ride, but Helena was giving Grandpa a good run for his money! She's a total squirmer!!!

Hunter and his engineer buddy.

Choo-choo

After the train ride we headed over to the zoo...

It may look as if there's nothing worth seeing based on this photo, but actually the zoo had California bears and even a bald eagle!!! That in itself was impressive to me for some reason! But it didn't take long to look through it all... and by that time, we were ready for some air-conditioning!!!

Amber & Jason - the happy new parents!

In California

There are hundreds of photos for me to sort through and we still have another week here!!! We're having a great time reconnecting with our family and friends here. The kids have finally settled into their overnight sleep routines (that took about a week) and we're working hard to give them a bit of stability during the day... that's a bit tougher. Hunter is absolutely loving his older cousins and all the aunts & uncles and grandparents and extended family... basically, I'm not sure how he's going to cope when we get back... he'll be asking "where's Trevor? where's Madie? where's Travis?" for days, I'm sure... though he has mentioned Michael and Hilo a couple of times so it's good we've got friends back in Taipei! There will be many more posts to come... but just have a spare moment to myself and thought it would be a good way to unwind... now I'm a bit more wound up - I want to load all my photos into my sister-in-law's laptop... but really, I should just go to sleep now!

One More Sleep...

So... Wednesday, July 22 we're off on our 3-week vacation to California to see our family & friends there! We are pretty excited about this... and both Tony & I are really looking forward to a vacation!!! I don't think I'll have much time/access for blogging while home, but there are lots of great things we're looking forward to so you're bound to see the good times when we return:
Mom's 60th birthday! Meeting Evan! Helena's 1st birthday! Family Camping Trip! YAHOO!!!

Where Am I???

You've seen skies like this in my posts about our trips back to New Zealand - maybe there'd be a glimpse of blue in a California shot - but can you even believe that this is Taipei?!? There must be a big typhoon coming... because the skies have been absolutely gorgeous lately... the kind of days when all you really want to do is stay outside. If we were anywhere else, I guess we'd be heading to the beach, river, park, waterfall, lake, etc... but then again, the humidity is very real (and the kids have been sick still - second week) and so we watch the beauty from our balcony... but hey... it's still beautiful and I can see it and for that I am thankful!

Family Photos

At the beginning of May we spent two and a half hours getting our family portraits done from a company called "Shot Dogs" here in Taipei. While our friends Dave & Bev were here a few weeks later, Tony & I spent the same amount of time choosing 10 photos out of the hundreds they took! What a job!!! Our photos have finally arrived - so here you go... in the smaller version of course...

"Isn't she lovely... isn't she beautiful..." this photo makes me want to sing!!

Hunter for President

Hugs

Sweet Siblings

This is my favorite, though we didn't actually order it. It looks like it's from a bridal catalogue...

Our little Taiwanese doll

Not so tough guy

Mama and mei-mei

Happy Family (I like Helena's headband - looks like a halo... and actually she's the only one who doesn't look so happy)

Another favorite

Airplane

Just A Regular Week

Here are a few photos from the past couple of weeks... nothing too out of the ordinary, just a sample of our 'everyday' lives. Too bad I don't take pictures at the doctor's office - seems we spend plenty of time back and forth there - yet I just can't bring myself to take pictures of it... maybe one of these days... Anyway, this week was fairly slow and uneventful because everyone was sick at some stage. It started with Hunter's vomiting episode early Sunday morning - which wore me out all day Sunday. Then Tony came home mid-day Monday with flu-like symptoms after Helena had vomited in the morning waking me up... Another few days of Helena coughing, Hunter acting a bit 'off' and finally it hit me Thursday. Praise God it only lasted 24 hours and by Friday I had enough energy to go outside and clean the bathroom!

In the Clark household we never leave the house without sunblock... maybe Hunter was trying to tell me something!!! I should be told something like "hey mama, don't leave these things in the reach of children"...

The tent made it's season debut during the week for just a bit of entertainment and slight change of scenery. Hunter is also a very helpful older brother most of the time.

After a week in the house I was really grateful that Kevin & Crystal weren't scared off... it was great to have adult company and something to look forward to! Kevin is a buddy from ICLP days... we used to play basketball and eat lunch together regularly, but since Tony's been working and he's been writing a thesis we haven't seen much of each other. He's headed to Columbia to work on his MBA so this was kind of our farewell... and although we haven't seen him much, it's still weird to think we won't see him here again... but this is the way of the expat!

Anyway... we had a fun dinner at a local place and the kids absolutely took to Crystal... Hunter will be disappointed to know that she is also moving to NY... bummer... he could've had a new girlfriend!

It was tough being inside because LOOK AT THAT BLUE SKY!!! Can you believe it! It was the best, most beautiful day of the year and we were only doing short stints outside... in fact, this was the day Hunter came down with a fever that started a new stream of sickness... YIKES! But you've got to love this sky!!!

Before he came down with a fever, Hunter had 'hog fever'... not related to the swine flu... more related to riding motorcycles... He's finally gotten the hang of riding the trike... and now that's what he wants to do everytime we go outside! I like this photo just because it's got the bit of action of him passing me and moving on by himself... he was loving it!!!

Helena turned 11 months old on July 9 (happy birthday, Dillon!)!!! Only one more month til my baby girl's not a baby anymore!!! You'd never know it in this photo, but in the midst of (or the cause of) her congested cough, diarrhea, etc she also cut two new teeth... so that brings the count up to 8 total already!!! And they're all symmetrical now!!! Wow!

She's a real helper too... she loves helping me 'unload' the dishwasher... she especially likes the spoons and the measuring cups!

She's been seen climbing in completely to help 'unload'... but here she looks like she's pulling out the tray for easier access! I love my helpful kids!!

During one of the (what seems like many) 'sick days' we had the A/C folks come to do the annual maintenance... of course the kids LOVED having someone else in the house and Hunter kept following one of the workers around say "hiiiiii". And no matter how hard I tried, he just kept coming back into their space...

But why wouldn't you be drawn to such fun toys as these? Even Helena was caught trying to climb the ladder!

We were out for an after-dinner stroll through 'bark park' but happened upon something other than the usual dogs... a girl had her parakeet leashed to her bike... that's interesting pet maintenance!

New Kid On The Block

Our nephew - Evan James was born 7-07-09

Congratulations, Jason & Amber!!!

In just 2 weeks we'll get to meet him... yipeee!!!