time to celebrate a year of marriage

times of rejoicing, thanksgiving and praise

times of forgiveness and humbling our ways

times of incredible laughter and incredible tears

times of seeking understanding in this joyous first year

times of new discoveries and moments so random

times side by side and others at tandem

times of fitting into new roles

times of raking over the coals

times that are mirrored by one another

times of journeying together for the better

times of understanding what love truly means

times of putting on a new pair of blue jeans

times as mama and papa to cats

times of overcoming those little spats

times of cuddling and caring and trodding

times of new ground that needs sodding

times of making amends

times of ever after as best friends

He makes all things beautiful in His time. Ecc. 3:11

Lantern Festival

A Taipei 101 lantern in the foreground, with the soaring 101 with a mysterious glow behind. It was a bustling Saturday night in the city.

The band is playing welcome to the year of the ox/cow/bull. Cow in Chinese is "niu" and it's pronounced like "new" in English. This is the year to say, "Happy Niu Year!"

It's a holstein lantern. I niu it! :)
And that's no bull!

Many lantern had a fairy tale theme.

And the lived happily ever after . . .

Maui Picture Slideshow

enjoy! :)

Maui Moments

messages in the sand
silver and gold footprints

our condo, the gem of maui, mahalo means thank you

seeing wonders of the sea, the humpback whales

caution, man-of-war jelly fish!

on a remote black sand beach, we met a family of Let's Talk in English fans!

fun new perspectives with a citrus punch!

a purple peppers moment, a purple mercedes benz and a purple vest

fun friends - batman and dancing darth

new friends . . . ?

jumping for joy above the clouds!

surviving and discovering the road to hana

beautiful flowers

a top haleakala volcano

trees on maui

wonderful times with adam and shannon and baby wilson :)
amazing sunsets
marvelous maui

Maui Oceanfront Marathon

The marathon began at 5:45 am. There were tiki torches and seniors blowing on conch shells right before the countdown. There were 213 people running the full marathon. It was a Maui family affair as Adam, Shannon and Daniel all brought me to the start line. With jet lag we are all up early anyway. :) It was still very dark as the race began and the stars in the sky were twinkling!
Before we began, the race director had a message for us. There was an accident at night that left a power pole and line down on the road which caused a detour at the beginning of our course. This detour added another mile to the run, and that also meant that I didn't run by our condo. I had therefore run 27.2 miles when I crossed the finish line. A marathon is 26. 2 miles. The race director joked that this was now training for an ultimate marathon. :)
Many of us were running together at the beginning of the route. It was interesting to have a few conversations as we ran. This was my first race outside of Taiwan, so it was nice to be able to understand conversations too. And for some reason no one wanted to have English conversation practice :) My cheering section met me at mile 10 and then later at mile 19 and it was so great to see them at the finish line. I also got a cool medal with Maui and the running route on it.
*Marathon Sparkles*
*Right after the race started a man ran ahead of me and I only caught the back of his T-shirt. It said, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” in bold print. That was such a word from the Lord! The man sped off and I didn't see him again. I guess the Lord was strengthening him more than me :) Tee hee.

*A little orange cat ran with me for about 100 meters.

*So many beautiful flowers along the route!

*Actually seeing humpback whales playing in the ocean on my left! They were such encouragement!

*Running with a girl named Alysha for about 10 miles. She was running her first marathon and it was so nice to chat with her.

*The Maui Massage School gave free post-run massages! This made it all worthwhile :)

*We met a man at the finish line who runs marathons like they are nothing! He ran one the weekend before and had several lined up. He also recently ran a 100 km course in 36 hours straight!

*I heart my new running shoes! They are Saucony and they weigh only 250 grams each! We spent the afternoon in Old Lahaina Town. My soreness started setting in, but it was good to keep walking! It was also Chinese New Year's Eve, so it was nice to see part of the celebration on the street of this town.
We had a wonderful and delicious dinner at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. Our waiter was a total surfer dude. He told us the shrimp were actually from Taiwan. The food was delicious and we enjoyed all the movie references all around. It was an incredible day and experience! While running, I thought that I'm never going to do this again. At the finish line I thought, I could do this again :)