Happy Birthday Miss A!

We were so lucky to have family in town for Miss A's birthday.  We have a Two year old? That's a thing to celebrate!

Dinner at Gloria's Little Italy

Good friends celebrated with us!

This cutie was so happy to be with people she loves!

Thanks to Pinterest, we made a strawberry Hello Kitty cake per birthday girl orders.

This girl is the best sister and sweetest daughter. She LOVES people, trying new things, and clothes. Lately she's been in to swinging and swimming. It feels like yesterday we were holding her for the first time. Every day since I think "Really? This girl is MINE? How did I get so lucky?!" Happy birthday to the daughter who made us parents!

We got to celebrate times TWO because Aunt A was headed to the Missionary Training Center! 

We sure will miss her, but are so excited that she gets to tell people about the happiness that being a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints brings.

She'll spend a few weeks at the MTC learning Portuguese and about teaching, then she'll head out!

Here's to growing up (way too fast) and new adventures!

Home, Sweet Arizona

Being back home was a little piece of heaven.

We relaxed and loved every second of being with family and friends. Traveling across the country and getting used to a new time zone did a number on us.

I took almost NO pictures, but Miss A and Brother were thoroughly loved on and we enjoyed drinking from the faucet, driving in a car, eating homemade food, and so much more!

Brother had his first taste of baby cereal. He decided to love it and never looked back!

We sure love our Knighton family!

Zai Jian, Taiwan

Monday was our final morning of our wonderful holiday. We were sad to say goodbye to Taiwan, but we made sure to go out with a bang!

We had some extra Chinese and Taiwanese money so we went all out on our last meal in Taiwan.

Steamed dumplings and dong gua cha of course

The very  best mango and the cutest little girl

Chicken and curry

Our trip to the US was long, but oh so anticipated!

Oh, the Places We Saw

Walking through the busy city streets, the green mountains buzzing with life, and the quite back streets...it was a dream.

After leaving the Bowens, we had an adventure trying to find the right bus to Lu Gang. It was raining like crazy as we tried to carry our children and luggage through the streets. A nice drink of dong gua cha made it all worth it!

Braving the rain and the hot sun in the same day, we headed out to find the fan man!

We went on an adventure to find a very talented friend in the backstreets of Lu Gang. He painted a beautiful picture of the St. George temple on a fan for us. They served us delicious rou boa and gave us great company!

On our walk we stopped by one of the many Buddhist temples in Taiwan.

The ceiling and walls were black from burning incense and fake money.

 No matter where we went, the view was stunning.

Some rice fields on the side of the street.

Ji Ji: a city on the mountain.

View from the train

Subway station and city lights

Reunions

I know, I know. I keep saying it, but I can't help myself.

Our trip was filled with some really wonderful people. We spent a lot of our time visiting mission companions and dear friends made on Mister's mission.

We said goodbye to the Lee's and headed out for a day of fun in the city!

We had a delicious lunch with Mark Wu and the Zhang family, then we headed to the park with Wayne Zhang, his cute wife, and their new baby!

This adorable new friend helped Miss A on the slides. When we were heading out, he told us we better come back later. If only we could!

That night we paid a visit to another good friend. We enjoyed walking around a mall and trying some of our favorite foods--especially dong gua cha!

Harry Zhuo and the family.

We took the high speed rail to Zhu Bei so we could attend church in that area the next morning. We walked around looking for a hotel. Finally finding one, we had to wait until 10:40pm before it would be ready.

We took advantage and found a place that made Mango Ice!

Poor brother was not quite as excited for this delicious treat as we were!

When we got back to the hotel they were still not ready. We got out poor children ready for bed in the lobby and finally made it to our room.

On Sunday we made the trek to church! It was my first experience being at a church meeting in a different language! The LDS missionaries recognized we were visitors and volunteered to translate for us. How nice! As one Elder was brand new to Taiwan and the other a native of Taiwan, Mister took on the role of translator. :)

My favorite part of church was nursery. This is the church class for 2 and 3 year-olds. Let me tell you, I was amazed. The amazing teacher was a young mother who had the children enthralled in her teaching. They were raising their hands, singing songs, and feeling God's love for them. It was a blessing to be with her as she made sure to translate everything for Miss A. I learned so much from this fantastic woman in just 2 short hours!

Angus joined the church while Mister was a missionary. It was great to see him!

After church we had some other wonderful visitors!

One of Mister's companions, Huang De Kai, came to our hotel room for a visit. He brought the BEST T-shirts ever as gifts.

We had tried stopping by to see Xu Xin Fu and Xu Ting on our way home from church. When they heard of our visit, they made the trip out to see us! We loved visiting with this brother and sister!

Friends New and Old

People are SO good. That is message Taiwan tells me over and over. After a great day in Lu Gang, we headed to Hu Wei where Mister served. The beautiful Lee family (in Do Nan) took us in for several days. It was like home away from home.

They treated us to a delicious steak dinner our first night. Then, they invited friends from the LDS ward over. It was fun to see everyone catching up with Mister and loving on our kids.

What wonderful hosts are these!

The Lees live in a beautiful home that feels away from the busy city. Every morning we had fresh fruits and vegetables from the garden. Miss A LOVED Sister Lee like her own grandma.

While with the Lees, Ricky and his beautiful mother came to see us. Ricky traveled from school and his mom took a day off of work to show us more of the beautiful Taiwan.

Before heading up the mountain, we stopped for lunch. Taiwanese food is just so delicious.

The black thing in the middle of this picture is an EGG--a thousand year-old egg to be exact. I tried it. Then I tried to get Miss A to set the rest so I wouldn't have to. She would have none of that.

The train trip was so relaxing and beautiful.

Red bean ice cream treat in hand, we thoroughly enjoyed the mountain town of Ji Ji.

We saw quite a few of these guys in our travels. They work in construction zones as the sign holders.

Beautiful, right? The mountain was ALIVE with sounds.

We love this family!

 We finished the night with a special visit to Ricky's grandmother, delicious Mango and some more visiting. Ricky's mom took care of my bug bites and just plain loved us.

We love the Lees!

 We could barely hold all of the goodness and love coming from these wonderful friends!

Mister's Mission

Mister served a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints over 6 years ago. He served in Taiwan. How could we pass up a visit to the place that was his home for 2 very important years? We just couldn't.

This is where the Mission President and his family live. They volunteer 3 years of their time to oversee about 150 missionaries in a specific area. (There are over 400 areas with mission presidents-wow.)

On his first day in Taiwan, mister and all the other new missionaries were taken to this spot in the middle of the night market. To get out of their comfort zone, they got to stand on a box in the middle of tons of people and try to share (in Chinese, mind you) about the church. 

 A lot of what mister did while in Taiwan was talk to people on the streets (even in intersections while people on scooters were waiting for a light) about his and their beliefs.

Brother is ready to go!

It was so fun to see where Mister began his time as a missionary. We loved hearing stories and experiencing the night life of Taichung, Taiwan.