Taiwan Date Night

After Louis' turn picking out of our magic bag of countries- it was my go.  I reached in and drew out country 206.  I wonder what the odds of that are, he chose 106, I chose 206. Anyways, as we wandered down the list of countries my curiosity was piqued....what was it going to be...

TAIWAN

I knew Taiwan was a country, but that is about as far as my knowledge of Taiwan went.  So it proved to not only be fun, but educational as well. :)

So, strap on your traveling boots, we're going to Taiwan! :)

"Taiwan is a small island nation 180km east of China with modern cities, traditional Chinese temples, hot springs resorts and dramatic mountainous terrain. Taipei, the country’s capital in the north, is known for its busy night markets, Chinese Imperial art at the National Palace Museum and Taipei 101, a 509m-tall, bamboo-shaped skyscraper with an observation deck"

Capital: Taipei

President: Tsai Ing-wen

Population: 23.52 million (2016)

Official script: Traditional Chinese

Currency: New Taiwan dollar

Official language: Standard Mandarin

Fun Trivia Facts:

 The country of Taiwan national sport is Baseball. Taiwan won the 1995 little league world championship in the US. It is the first time they have one a World Series in any sport

Taiwan is world famous for its one production of Hollywood type movies. It is famous for creating "City of Sadness"(1989). In 2001, Ang Lees "Crouching, Tiger, Hidden Dragon" Are some of its best known titles

Taiwan has the first woman ever to win a world Nobel Peace Prize presented too Lu Hsiu-lein

 Taiwan participates in the Olympics every year but its best year was 1977 when it sent 22 athletes to compete and came back with 22 gold medals for a variety of sports

The land mass of Taiwanese islands are only about the size of Massachusetts in the U.S

Taiwan has some of the most elaborate and authentic historical museums in all of Asia which consist of over 35,000 artifacts from countries around the world. Many tourist flock here for the Regular on exhibit displays of jade, paintings, sculptures of many dynasties

Taiwan has the highest mountain in all of southeast Asia the Jade mountain is nearly 13000ft tall

84% of the people are Taiwanese, with only 14% being mainland Chinese. Most of the people of Taiwan can trace their ancestry to China

Many students wear school uniforms. They are comfortable, athletic looking and have a fluorescent color to them

Most Taiwanese don’t like the rain. It rains often; however, walking in a bit of rain is a no no in the culture, even if it is only for a few seconds. This typically has to do with pollution and fears of acid rain on their skin

Taiwanese girls like to have fair skin and therefore stay away from the sunshine at all costs.

 There are no garbage cans outdoors. Garbage cans are usually kept inside of a house or place of business. The garbage is tossed into a garbage truck when it arrives. These trucks play loud music to indicate their arrival in the streets.

7-11 convenience stores are everywhere, and they are basically open all night with various amenities. These stores are owned by a Japanese company. In these stores, you can print a document, call a taxi, send a parcel, pay your bills and do much more.

Some of the kids have funny English names like King, Circle or Lion

Crying or expressing emotions at school to each other is not an issue whether you are a teenager, boy or a girl

The first presidential election was held in 1996. This was also the time of the Taiwan Missile Crisis.

As China does not recognize Taiwan’s independence, the Taiwan flag is not allowed to be used during sporting events. The Taipei flag is replaced during these occasions.

It takes roughly eight hours to drive around the whole island

 Most people in Taiwan are Buddhist or Taoist. They love to draw upon the wisdom of nature.

****Although Taiwan operates as an independent country, many countries (including the U.S.) do not officially recognize it as one. The People’s Republic of China considers Taiwan a breakaway province of China, and countries who wish to maintain diplomatic relations with China have had to sever their formal relations with Taiwan 

This picture is way out of order here, but this is our bubble tea.  Apparently bubble tea was invented in Taiwans capital city of Taipei, in 1998, I think....

Some of our goodies- rice crackers, mochi balls, hi-chew and the stuff to make three cup chicken- which is fantastic!

bubble tea makin's

Taiwanese pineapple cakes...yummy! :)

I was not a huge fan of some of the snacks, but the bubble tea was awesome as was the main food.

not his fave either.... :)

We were gonna watch a movie, but we didnt....sorry... :(

Easter 2017

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter day, doing whatever it is you and those near and dear to you do.

The girls went up to Idaho City the weekend prior to celebrate with their dad and step-mom, Shellee's, family.  They always have a really good time up there, so thats good. :)

We were originally going to go to my mom's house on Easter and do all of the traditional Easter stuff there, but  last minute, she decided to go out to Ontario to her sister's house.  Her mom and dad went out there, and unfortunately my grandfather is not doing the best, so she wanted to go in the event the situation was different next year.

Anyways, it worked out because we just moved all of our plans up a day to Saturday, which meant fewer lines at brunch and that nothing was closed! :)

We started out with their hunt for their Easter baskets.  It started their first Easter together...the Easter bunny left them each a clue not a basket.  They had to go figure out what the bunny meant on their clue.  Sometimes that clue leads to another clue, sometimes it leads to your basket...that bunny is a tricky guy!

Getting ready to receive their clues!  All super excited as you can tell. :)

When they were younger it was always a trick to get the clues out somewhere for the girls to see, WITHOUT them seeing you do it... BUT since none of them believe in the Easter bunny anymore, it meant Louis got to play the 'bunsen' (yes that says bunsen aka bunny)

As they've gotten older, the clues have gotten weirder and more difficult to decipher....as you can tell by Rachel's face.  I believe her clue, and she only got one this year said- "I'm so sweaty."

hmmm....where to begin with THAT one....

Bella's also on the hunt. All her clue said was "Walksen" aka walk

Zo finally found hers under piles of clothes in the laundry room.

All three cuties finally found their baskets!!! :)  AND if you can't tell- they have Easter Bunny SLOTHS!!!!!  Yes, how awesome is that?!?!  It took every ounce of self control I had not to buy one for myself, but honestly, I think it's weird when adults have stuffed animals- so I opted against it. :)

Trying to bring in the power of Spring to Boise.  Summer dress, wedges, fire red hair...c'mon mother nature...what more do you need from me?!?!

Brunch.  We went to the Black Bear Diner

After brunch, we came home and dyed Easter eggs!

After eggs, I packed the girls a picnic and they went out and about the neighborhood park.  I took their eggs and made devil eggs and potato salad for dinner at my madres.  We decided to have an Easter BBQ instead of the more traditional ham dinner.  A- my mom and I don't really like ham.  B- The girls and my parents both had it the week prior at Shellee's parents house (yes, my parents went too....we all get along in one big communal type of way), and C- my parents were having it the following day, on Easter, at my aunts house.

Even at almost 33 years old, my mama still gets me an Easter "basket". Nothing fancy of course, but it made me smile- she put two Easter hand towels and a bottle of Mexican Vanilla in there.  Thanks mamacita rita

 After dinner, we came home and the girls did an egg hunt... IN THE DARK! We hid their eggs in some difficult places, all on the lower level of the house, and turned out all but one light upstairs, and the OUTSIDE porch light- they found all but one! Thank God for plastic eggs. :)

The hunt is about to start....

This is the last picture I got obviously because of the lighting.  Once they all made it downstairs- that light went out.  No flash lights.  Sink or swim kid....sink or swim! :)

Jordan Date Night

After our French date night we decided to switch up the process of how we choose our next 'travel spot.' Up until this point, we've just been picking whatever tickles our fancy at the moment- that, needless to say, led to places we were familiar with. China and Russia seemed exotic, and they WERE, compared to Greece, England and even France.  I knew if we stayed on the same path we were on, at the end we'd be doing nothing but all those unfamiliar countries that I have no clue even existed, much less where they were, and I am convinced there are NOT enough vowels in a name that long....

Anyways, we decided to take a numbered, alphabetically arranged list of all the countries and pick out all the places we'd already done plus all the ones we knew we just wouldn't be able to do for one reason or another. Then, we cut up all the numbers and put them in a bag- and now we take turns picking random numbers out of the bag.

Louis was the first one to get to choose and he pulled out country number 106 aka JORDAN.

"Jordan, an Arab nation on the east bank of the Jordan River, is defined by ancient monuments, nature reserves and seaside resorts. It’s home to the famed archaeological site of Petra, the Nabatean capital dating to around 300 B.C. Set in a narrow valley with tombs, temples and monuments carved into the surrounding pink sandstone cliffs, Petra earns its nickname, the "Rose City."

Capital: Amman

King: Abdullah II of Jordan

Population: 7.595 million (2015) World Bank

Capital and largest city: Amman; 31°57′N 35°56′E / 31.950°N 35.933°E

Official language: Arabic

Interesting Facts about Jordan:

The official name of Jordan is the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan

Jordan emerged from the post-World War I division of the Middle East made by Britain and France. Known as Transjordan from 1922, it was formally recognised by the UN as an independent sovereign kingdom in 1946.

Jordan has a long history of accepting refugees. Positioned in the midst of turmoil, it has accepted vast numbers of refugees from surrounding conflicts. Most notably, the country has an estimated two million Palestinians and 1.4 million Syrian refugees residing in the country. In a nation of just 9.5 million people, this represents over a third of the population.

Jordan is home to the ancient city of Petra. Known as “The Rose City” it is famous for its unique architecture carved directly into the rock face. It is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the New 7 Wonders of the World.

Unlike the other Arab states in the Middle East, Jordan has no oil of its own.

Jordan is home to many biblical sites including, among others, the Jordan River where Jesus was babtised by John the Baptist, Mount Nebo where Moses died, as well as the sinful cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.

The lowest point on Earth in terms of dry land is the shore of the Dead Sea in Jordan. It lies at 1,378ft (420m) beneath sea level.

One of the quaintest facts about Jordan is that it is considered polite to refuse the offer of a meal three times before finally accepting

If it weren’t for the 26km (16mi) coastline along the Red Sea, Jordan would be landlocked.

The capital of Jordan, Amman, was once named Philadelphia. It was named after Ptolemy Philadelphus (283-246 BC) who rebuilt the city during his reign before Amman was taken by Herod around 30 BC and fell under the influence of Rome.

I'm not going to lie...I was NOT overly excited for this stop on the adventure.  I've never really experienced a ton of food from this part of the world, and not because there is lack of exposure here...I've just never thought I'd really like it..... luckily, I was pleasantly surprised!! And while not everything was my favorite, I really did enjoy it all more than I anticipated I would. 

Dinner: Mezzeh...almost comparable to spanish tapas. We had tabbouleh, cucumber salad, flat bread, hummus, chicken schwarma, and rice with harissah for dessert.  

Movie: Theeb

And of course, here are a few pics- sorry some of them are blurry....did you really expect a post without at least one blurry pic?? :)

harissah- coconut cake

Houses

So, more on the home search. We went and looked at two separate Coleman Homes neighborhoods.

The first is called Bellano Creek. It is out off Ten Mile.  Kinda far off the beaten path, but there is a ton of new building going on out there, and I feel like that area is going to just boom here soon.  Plus with the Ten Mile on-ramp, it isn't that much longer into town than anywhere else in the Boise/Meridian area. This neighborhood was OK.  Nothing great, but it is fairly new, and not even close to being done or established yet. Plenty of options for this neighborhood.

The second is called Fall Creek and it is off the Victory and Eagle area.  It is slightly more expensive for the same house models, and in my opinion, not nearly as good of a location. It also must be a bit newer, it has a very infant feel to it- not at all welcoming.

We do really like the Kirkham floor plan, as well as the Chapman.  Both leave plenty of room for personalization and both are available in both neighborhoods.

There are no pictures for you, but here is the link to the model home in Bellano Creek that is the Kirkham floor plan.  This happens to be over 3000 sq feet and has 5 bedrooms, which is way larger than I want, but like I said, there are plenty of options to personalize. :) Kirkham at Bellano Creek

And here is the second: Chapman at Fall Creek

We also drove around some other various neighborhoods: Foxtail, Paramount, Saguaro Canyon, Oakwood and Century Farms.  There are a couple good ones we saw, but nothing that really stood out too much.  The market is super tight right now, so not a surprise- especially on those established neighborhoods- which have several perks over a brand new house and new neighborhood.

Our next adventures are down in the downtown, north end, Harris Ranch, SE Boise area.  More posts and hopefully some pics or something. :)

Bella's 11th Birthday.

Sorry right now.  I had to get a new phone-long story, but it had all of Bella's birthday pictures on it.  Luckily Louis had some on his phone.  Here are the few we got...