Take A Hike

Sorry for the lack of updates lately but I didn’t want to post more blogs without pictures. Speaking of which, this website BLOGGER sucks for photo options. It took me two hours to try and organize photos on here and it just wasn't happening. It either moves my text into weird places or puts all the photos at the top or bottom. So you are stuck with it looking ghetto until someone tells me a better way to do it. I got my camera back from the shop yesterday, so it’s game on. As you can see Jenny’s belly is growing fast and she looks great. I will try to get a better photo of it tomorrow, she is too tired tonight. She hasn’t been sick once during the whole pregnancy and the only real complaint I have heard from her is that her feet hurt after work- which is to be expected. She has cut down the hours she teaches and quit her kindergarten job because it is too hard to constantly be squatting, bending over and chasing twenty 5 year-olds around. They are also constantly sick which worried us. We don’t want them passing something on to her.
The baby is kicking up a storm and we are pretty sure he or she is party ninja. We are heading to the doctor’s office tomorrow morning to find out if it is a boy or girl and are both very excited. We bought the crib this week and it was delivered yesterday. Every time I walk past it, a wave of excitement and happiness runs through me. We are trying to figure out how to decorate the nursery. Any theme ideas? I am thinking "Blade Runner" meets "Snoopy."



I am doing pretty well. It is ghost month right now though. The Taiwanese believe all the ghosts in hell get to come out for one month of the year to party. (Seriously.) To keep the ghosts from hurting them, they avoid swimming, whistling at night, placing their shoes together and a ton of other strange things. Alas, to further protect themselves from the sinister ghouls of the netherworld, they burn truck loads of their toxic ghost money. This has once again given me bronchitis and a sore throat. So when Andrew asked if Jenny and I wanted to go for a hike with him and his girlfriend Sammy in Tainan County- we were all in. Sammy has a car which makes it easier to get out of the city. I can’t drive long on the bikes because my back gets too sore. I realized today I need to get out of the city more and check out the rest of Taiwan. It has been a stupidly long time since I got out of the neon jungle and had honestly forgotten how beautiful Taiwan was.
After about 45 minutes of driving, we were up in the mountains, parked the car and armed with a bottle of whiskey started walking up a jungle path to what we were told was a swimming hole and waterfall. I was a little worried about Jenny hiking at almost 6 months pregnant but she plowed on without complaint and just waved away my concerns. We eventually got to a nice spot at the bottom of a ravine. A small creek winded its way through the slate walls and thick tropical foliage climbed up both sides. The rest of the way would require both hands and feet to navigate. Jenny was happy to just rest by the creek. So Sammy, Andrew and I scaled the river bank another 15 minutes and got to a beautiful waterfall and a small little lagoon cut into the rock. It was a little piece of paradise and would have been even better if I hadn’t left the whiskey back with Jenny. Andrew and I dived in and found that you could actually sit behind the waterfall. After cooling off, we headed back down to Jenny.



Speaking of swimming, the kids go back to school tomorrow, which means I can finally start swimming at the pool again! I am very excited to get back into shape. Before summer vacation started, I was in the best shape of my life but haven’t been able to swim laps the last three months because the pool is so crowded.