Taiwan

I am a terrible blogger. But I hate the thought of forgetting all these great things happening in our little life right now. So sorry for the over load, but here is an update!

We just returned from Taiwan! And it was one of my favorite 'week and a halves' of my life! I don't know where to start or how to condense every jam-packed, 18-hour day but it was full of fun, thrill, exhaustion and mostly feelings of overwhelming gratitude. Gratitude for the people of Taiwan. They really blew me away with their kindness. They were so generous and over the top welcoming, it really touched me. Grateful for my sweet husband, who worked so hard on his two year mission there that when we returned two years later, people would see him and instantly be overwhelmed with emotion. Grateful to be loved by someone who is so loved by the people he served.  And mostly grateful for the Gospel of Jesus Christ which tied us all together. I cant even put into words how I felt seeing and hearing how the knowledge and testimony of Jesus Christ changed and blessed these people and families. I am so grateful for the Gospel and for the missionaries that share that happy message. I loved picturing Keith there as a missionary and thinking of Clark and Michael on their missions in Argentina and Costa Rica! 

We flew from Utah to Colorado to Arizona to Hawaii to San Francisco to Taiwan all in about the space of a week. Considering the amount of time we had spent in an airport and on a plane (and the 14 hour time difference) we felt surprisingly refreshed and energetic when we landed in Taiwan. We got to Taipei about 9pm, took a bus, then a train, met up with his friend, took another train, meet up with some more friends for dinner, and then at midnight took another overnight train headed south. We didn't buy our tickets soon enough, and it was mothers day weekend, so we only had seats for the first two stops, and at 1:30 in the morning got woken from our deep, deeeep sleep and had to stand or sit on the floor. At 430am, we transferred buses and at about 7 we made it to Jiamings house! I wont go into that much detail for the each of the 12 days we were in Taiwan, except say that every day was full, completely filled. But it was perfect, we wouldnt of had it any other way. Keith and I like our vacations to be so packed with fun that they are exhausting. We like to come home from our vacations feeling like we need a nap, as opposed to feeling well rested, which I know isnt the same for everyone..

 

We stayed most nights with Jiaming and his family. They are some of the nicest people I have ever met. They have the cutest little boy Pang Bao (2) and girl Mei Mei (2 months). Jiaming took us shopping, to Buddhist temples, to the night market, out to duck (which was one of the most delicious meals we had in Taiwan) to the big buddah, to the water park, to keith favorite meal- Shi Tow, to the zoo, to a huge Hindu Temple and so much more. We love this family!!!

Most days we would leave early in the morning and go to different areas that Keith lived. (Yong Kang, SanMin, Jaiyi and Taizhong). Sundays were always such fun days because we were able to see so many people. Keep in mind, I can say hello, thank you, 1-2-3, i love you, i don't know and little sister in Chinese. And not even really that because the tones are so hard for me. So essentially, I know absolutely zero Chinese. Needless to say, it was humorous when people would talk to me and I would have no clue what they were saying. It was especially funny when Keith wasn't around, (pretty much just relief society) In my defense though, I got pretty good at reading body language. And it is incredible how much you can feel and understand without knowing any words.

About half the days we rented scooters (for like 8 bucks!) It was a blast! And it allowed us to cover a lot of ground.  Scootering around Taiwan was CRAZY but so much fun, even  in the pouring warm rain (which happened several times) We saw dozens of people Keith taught and did a ton of sight seeing. 

A big part of our trip to Taiwan was the food. It-was-SO-good (and worth every pound!) We ate, literally, about 12 times a days and some of those meals were HUGE! We ate and ate and ate and I loved it! Well, most of it at  least..                        

 Thousand year old egg-

Chicken foot

Chickens blood

Duck

I loved their rice milk and papaya milk

 
Turkey Rice

 

Hot Pot Qian Ye Huo Guo 

Taiwan has the best mushrooms!

Bing 

Mango Bing (aaah, this shave ice makes Matsumotos look bad)

We were able to see so much of Taiwan. We saw the north, west, south and even some of the east cost of Taiwan Taidong. We spent a day and a half in the south east part of Taiwan and stayed with the neatest family. Both the brother and the sister served with Keith in the Taizhong Mission. Just before the sister was about to start her mission, they found out she had brain cancer. They treated her and told her she had 9 months to live. She really wanted to serve at least part of her mission; they talked about it as a family and despite everyone telling them they shouldn't let her go, they let her go. She served for 9 months and then had to go home for another surgery. The entire mission fasted for her. The cancer totally went away and she was able to come back and finish her mission just three months later. Shes broken all the hospital recorders and truly been a miracle. The spirit was thick when her mom was telling us the story one morning over breakfast. It is people like this, and a church full of almost entirely first generation converts, that I got to surround myself with in Taiwan. It was so humbling and impressive.

I love the green of the rice fields!

Butterfly Creek

 We spent our last day and night with the Jiang family. They have 9 kids, ages 7-18 and are so much fun! They loved Keith so much and were so excited to see him. And they made me feel so very loved.

Keith and I talked over and over about how lucky and blessed we are to have had that time and those experiences in Taiwan. I felt so loved. And in exchange, I felt so much love for the people in Taiwan. It was hard to leave. We love that place. Thanks for a great time Taiwan. We will be back!

Troy Ellsworth Rampton!

April 22, 2014 at 7:19 am my sweet nephew, Troy Ellsworth Rampton was born!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  

 He is absolutely PERFECT. 8 lbs 7 oz, 20.5 inches, 4 days early, and has lots of hair! He is the sweetest thing and I love and think about him constantly. My heart aches to hold him again (May 31!!) Jessica and Bobby are such incredible parents. It was the happiest day. I love you, Troy!

California

After returning from Hawaii we flew out to California with the Sasines. We went to celebrate grandpa Bobs 80th birthday and had a blast! 

                              Tuesday night we had dinner at the famous Pink Hotdogs

On Wednesday we went to 6 Flags. Drop of Doom was my favorite ride, X2 was Keiths. 

On Thursday we went to Disney Land  

Friday we went to Sprinkles Cupcake, shopped and went to Grandpa Bobs Bday 

Johns Quartet Nightlife sang, and it was so fun to listen to them!!! Then Keith sang with them, isnt he great?!?!!!!!!!!

Saturday was Keiths birthday!! We spent the day at San Clement Beach. We surfed (in wet suits, the water isnt warm like Hawaiis..) played volleyball, and had a BBQ. It was all so very fun!

Guam and Yap

Our plans have been C-r-A-z-Y. We thought we were going to the Philippines, but a few days before the flights looked bad. So then we decided to see Keiths friend in Hong Kong, but that didnt work, so we decided South Korea and then changed our minds and bought tickets to Vietnam! So, Friday after Keith took his last final we went down to the Honolulu Airport, checked into our flight and realized, in order to go to Vietnam we need $45 visas. We were bummed about the extra $90 dollars we would have to spend on a short trip so we second thought what we wanted to do. Only problem was, the plane was leaving in just a few minutes. So we decided to get on the flight to Guam, and talk about it on our 7 hour flight haha. We still couldn't come to any conclusion, so once we landed in Guam, we quickly walked over to our next flight leaving for Hong Kong, still couldnt really decide if we should go or stay -but again, the flight was only minutes away from leaving. Finally we decided to explore Guam for the weekend and passed up our flight to Hong Kong. As we were looking for car rentals and hotels, I realized that there was an open flight to YAP. (I thought that was the airport code, but its actually the name of the country) There was also an open flight coming back from YAP early the next morning. So, we decided to go to Yap for the night instead of getting a hotel room! We got on the plane pretty clueless as to where we were going. We literally did not know one thing about the country (or if it even was a country) but on the flight Keith made friends with a Yapese man that taught us a lot. About an hour and a half later, we landed on what was the scariest runway I have ever been on. It was SO short and just after landing we had to make a U-turn. Scary! After landing we were greeted by two thick topless girls who gave us leis. It was the middle of the night and we were leaving the next morning so we spent the next few hours learning about Yap and talking to the people! United Airlines makes this flight like once a week, so the tiny airport was busy with Yapese people the whole time. We learned businesses (mostly selling drugs) fly to Guam every week to sell their stuff. Yap is considered part of Micronesia. Its known for its stone money and  has the same temperature all year long, high 87, low 74 (and it felt so humid compared to Hawaii) the Yapese people are so nice. They kept offering us food and drinks and were so curious as to why we were there. Haha! It was such a random night, but seriously one of the craziest culture experiences Ive ever had! It was definately a night to remember. 

Then we flew back to Guam and rented a car. We drove around the entire island and found some awesome spots, both "secret spots" and touristy spots. We first drove north to the very tip. 

We went to church! They were such a friendly and kind ward and they had an open air building. We got to watch General Conference again (because of the International Date line, they watch it a week late)

We went to Two Lovers Point. It had Billions of Locks... 

Kissing pictures. #sorrynotsorry ..lol

Then we headed South 

Took a nice nap in the sun. 

Found this swimming hole

It was a whirl-wind of a trip, but we had a great time. We slept in our car and then caught an early flight back to Hawaii.