A lot of luggage

We're leaving for America! Lizzy and Hayden are so excited to see Grandma/Grandpa. Mom and Dad are also excited but it's gonna be a looooooong flight before we get there. We have three planes to catch with two fairly long layovers. It'll be a good 24 hours before we arrive at our destination. Here the kids are (fighting over who gets to pull the pretty pink luggage), they've both had a good nights' rest, and we're ready to go. This is a lot of luggage - but we've paid for 4 tickets (first time Hayden gets a seat as he is now a 2 year old, yay little Hay!) and we're gonna get our money's worth in terms of luggage allowance. Goodbye China, we'll see you in 6 weeks, just in time for the Olympics!

did this work?

posting vids is always touch and go. you win some, you lose some. trip to the zoo to see the bear.

Oots

Sandra Boynton is one of our favorite board book authors. In this book, the animals wear "red hat, green hat, blue hat," and then the turkey wears the hat wrong, and the line is "oops". The week Hayden spent at home with Daddy, they developed a routine of reading before bedtime. This was one of his favorites and he loves to say the "Oops"! Except when he says it, it sounds like "oots". I love it, and tried to get some footage. He wasn't being particularly cooperative, but it's still cute. Oots!

Meet Grumpy Bear

A ayi took Lizzy to the mall and bought her a bear from Build a Bear Workshop, where the bears are made in China, but stuffed in Taiwan. She named him "Grumpy Bear". Grumpy Bear became a big part of our trip in Taiwan. Much of Lizzy's imaginary stories centered around Grumpy Bear. A ayi broke her budget this month by purchasing GB an outfit, a pair of shoes, a pair of sunglasses, and a skateboard.

Naturally, we needed to have a birthday party for GB. The invitation list was quite exclusive, but if you asked nice enough, you could usually get yourself invited to GB's birthday party. Here is the "cake" (it is composed of a cube puzzle and legos for candles)

Ta-da! The whole set up for GB's birthday party, complete with happy birthday sign (this was a coloring contest from the hotel where we were staying at celebrating their 15th anniversary - what are the chances that happened to be the same time as GB's birthday party?!)

Gao Tie

Lizzy and I went back to Taiwan. This was our first time to take the "Gao Tie", the new railway that superspeeds from Kaohsiung to Taichung in 50 minutes, and another 50 minutes up to Taipei! As soon as we got off the plane, Ah-gong picked us up with (from my very specific instructions) a big old cup of my favorite Boba tea. :)



What's a road trip without a BlueSky show?

Cave

Lizzy and Hayden built a "cave" using cushions from the couch and our toy kitchen.

Best friends