Taiwan!

After traveling by car, plane, bus and taxi, we finally made it to Nathan's and Teri's place in Taichung, Taiwan the Wednesday before Christmas. Despite the long day of waiting and riding and waiting some more, the boys did really well with it.



Incheon Airport

Our first in a series of outings was a trip to the Museum of Natural Science. It was a pleasant walk from the Hines residence.

Olivia and Brody



We always make time for a climb

The next day (Christmas Eve) was spent at a pottery place.
 

Teri, Nathan and Sophia

It was such a beautiful place and we were practically the only ones there. I could have wandered around the grounds for hours. I think this was one of Zane's favorite activities from the trip. I'm hoping we can find something similar near home.

The only downfall to the day was when Brody accidentally knocked over a stand holding a large pot. We ended up shelling out $100 for it. But honestly, it would have taken a lot more than that to ruin my day, the place was that wonderful.

Brody's attempt at acting distraught

Christmas Day was pretty low key. We did the gift thing in the morning. Although I will say we got off to a late start since our kids decided to sleep in until 8:30 or something crazy like that. I almost had to go in and start jumping on some beds. That afternoon we went to a nearby park to just run around.

Our little daredevil

That evening, Abe and I had the pleasure of experiencing Thai massages for the first time. I wouldn't say their method is all that relaxing, there's a lot of feet, elbows and knees involved, but at $80 total for each of us to have a 2 hour massage, I'd definitely do it again.

Sunday was spent at the Art Museum where we met Treva and her husband Tony. They made the trip up from Taipei. Treva is the sister of our friend, Tyler (one of Abe's old classmates in Denton) and their mother was our vet way back in the day. This museum was a lot of fun. Most of the time was spent in the children's art room which was a smaller version of any children's museum we've ever been to. There were a lot of hands on activities for the kids.

Including dressing up in Mermaid and Prince costumes. Brody did not want to be a Prince, as you can tell from the photo. And he was not happy when someone stole his crown but everyone needed a turn and there just weren't enough crowns to go around.

Apparently he doesn't need a crown to be charming. I don't know what his secret is but he certainly has a way with the ladies.

After the museum we went over to Statue Park.

On the weekends they have food vendors, game booths, pony rides, a bouncy house and a giant inflatable slide. And on top of all that it is a beautiful place to simply walk around.

This is Zane with a friend he made back at the Art Museum, Jason. When Teri told Jason's Mom that we were headed to the park she decided to join us. These two got along great. I'm hoping they can become pen pals. Heck, a couple more years and they can probably start emailing each other.

The next day we had the pleasure of painting our own wooden figures.

Even Daddy got into it, seriously into it. Actually he ran out of time to put the kind of detail into his piece that he wanted to. The kids were all done and waiting on the adults, for a change.

Our masterpieces!

It was a nice evening to go exploring so exploring we went.

What did we find?

A burning pile of dirt. Really, that's what this appears to be. I would love to know what's going on here but have come to accept the fact that I will probably never know what's going on here.

We ended the day with a Mongolian meal.

We had goat prepared a variety of ways, to include a banana and goat wrap thingy that was excellent, beef, shrimp, octopus, rice, noodles and probably some other things I'm forgetting. It was fun watching the boys try new things. Speaking of which, a couple nights prior to this we went to a restaurant and had quite a variety of foods to include lamb, rabbit and boar. And to my surprise, Zane loved the boar. That's a big deal for a picky eater like him.

I guess Abe's day did not end with the Mongolian meal.

He managed to squeeze in a new tattoo.

Our last morning we ate at my favorite place, Sun Egg. We ate there three mornings but I would have been happy to eat there every morning, it was that good.

Doesn't that look yummy? It's called "huo tuay cheese dan been". No, I don't know how to pronounce it. Nathan and Teri took care of the ordering for us. But what it is, is ham, egg and cheese wrapped up in a flaky tortilla kind of thing. My description and the photo don't do it justice.


The "goofy face" group shot

Time to head back to Korea.

We decided the train to Taipei would be faster and more comfortable than the bus. And it was.

So that's our Christmas vacation in a nutshell. I have to say Nathan and Teri were excellent hosts. The best part of visiting Taiwan was spending quality time with them and their precious girls. They are planning to come to Korea while we're here and I'm already looking forward to it.

When you have the time, be sure to look at the rest of our pics in the "photo collection" on the right. I hope you all enjoyed the holidays and are off to a great start in 2011.