With an almost 2 year old and a very soon to be 4 year old, I have decided that I need to make a new attempt at documenting the lives of our two incredibly interesting and enjoyable children, each of whom make my every day such a joy!
Elliette and Sawyer are on their first Round-the-World adventure this summer. When we originally beginning planning our summer holiday we realized that we wanted to visit both sets of grandparents. Nonni and Gramps and Uma and Papa. How could we see everyone? Well, with a little creative internet searching we found our flights. Taipei to London. London to Portland, Oregon. Seattle to Taipei. Not a short little trip but one we hope will be full of adventures. So far, Elliette and Sawyer have been amazing little travelers. We spent our first day meeting Lauren, David's cousin Emma's daughter who is in between Sawyer and Elliette in age. We were able to enjoy a blue sky June day at Windsor, talking the boat along the river past Eton College and walked to the gates of Windsor Castle. Beautiful, magestic and steeped in history it was a wonderful start to our visit in England. Our second day in England we meandered with very little plan through the Midlands and Shrophshire countryside visiting Ludlow Castle (where Catherine of Aragon spend her honeymoon to Henry VIII's brother) and Iron Bridge Gorge. The English countryside was at it's finest and Elliette and Sawyer loved running around the ruins of the medieval Ludlow Castle.
We were able to spend a few days with David's aunt Alison, cousin Rebecca and her daughter Jessica who is the same age as Elliette and Sawyer. Our first morning in Northwich, Elliette woke us up at 5 am to tell us she "really like this hotel", which was actually Jessica's bedroom full of toys. No surprise there, right? One of my personal highlights of visiting the Cheshire area was traveling to the beautiful Peak District to see Chatworth House. This stately home was the inspiration for Mr Darcy's home in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, which was also used in the filming of the movie version of Austen's novel. Elliette and Sawyer were not as interested in the house as they were the Adventure Playground and Petting Zoo. Sawyer was particularly fond of the goats and the sheep. Elliette was a little more timid but warmed up to the idea of petting them as well.
Our animal adventures did not end there, in fact, we also went to the Chester Zoo with the Taylor Family. Chester Zoo is undoubtedly a world class zoo which David remembers visiting with his grandparents when he was a young boy. I have to say the Chimpanzee's (about 20 of them) were the most incredible to watch. I can begin to understand how Jane Goodall was able to spend hundreds of hours observing chimpanzees, the behavior is truly remarkable. And, I think, our little adventurers could relate closely to the behavior. Throughout our entire trip Sawyer has kept saying "amibals" instead of animals. It is very cute. He also has taken to saying "citing" for exciting, anytime we are close to stopping the car. I have much more to add to our adventures but will continue again soon, with photos.
We took our friends Anson (Chien Chien) and Evie to the Taipei Zoo a few weeks ago. We thought it was going to be a fairly cool day but it ended up being very hot and our mom had to carry us a lot of the way. We loved the Black Bear and the Meerkats and the Madagascar Animals. We'll have to wait until October or November to go the zoo again as it is too hot this time of year. 
Sawyer with his darling friend Tian (hamming it up for the camera at 8 months) Tian is Sawyer's Kindermusik friend and was born 3 weeks before Sawyer. They both have older sisters so they understand each other quite well.
Well, it is nearly the middle of March and we are just replying to February. What a month it has been! Sawyer popped out 6 new teeth last week, Elliette suffered from tonsilitis, we went to Bangkok over Chinese New Year, and David returned to Bangkok last week again for a school trip. Oh my! In between the regular February doldrums we did manage to have quite a bit of fun. 
"The new UN Spice Girls" (an American, a Kiwi, and a Brit)
These too love spending time together more each day. Sawyer takes a little (supervised) stroll in the baby stroller and hangs on to his favorite toy (the maracas)
