Back to Maryland

Yay for Mike & Lyds!
Our 4br Condo, Baltimore traffic, W boys, I'll Make Love to You, Late night Sake, Pancakes and omelets, Cherry Blossoms, The Leung Tour Bus, Turkish tapas, and of course... the spotlight stealer, Miss Jocie. :)

Busy catching up with work... and there's so many photos... so I'm going to be lazy and just post Sam/Carol's flickr photoset since we all compiled photos from the weekend anyway. (thanks lees!) http://www.flickr.com/photos/sleepysammy/sets/72157600049056184/
To the newly married couple... we had an awesome time. Can't wait for our next reunion (hurry manson!)

so cal

the last leg of our vacation...

hi mom! guess where I am?

absolutely perfect weather for a bike ride...

surf's up! our second time surfing...

man, surfing is SO HARD. i don't know how people do it.

but in any case, the wetsuits are pretty cool.

what else do you do in california? EAT of course!

here's one of our favorites - yellow tail collar at Sushi on Fire

never heard of free starbucks before...

when in doubt, make jewelry!

sarah with the california chongs

San Jose

we took a beautiful drive down to santa cruz

and enjoyed the california weather

these guys couldn't get enough...

fish & chips on pier 39! san fran day trip

nice braids.

we're praying for you, pat & glo! thanks for having us.

we had way too much fun together.

sometimes when you're not looking... the unthinkable happens...

the future

my email to our program director at WashU:

hi brian,

so after much thought and deliberation, my wife and i think it's best for us to stay in st. louis for the next few years. i'll take the spot if it's still available and accept the offer for 2008. thanks so much for your patience with the whole thing - let me know what i need to do to finalize everything. i'll be back in town the night of march 16th.

josh

Keystone

Like a bullet

All of a sudden it seems... we have a big decision to make.

Please pray for us. Josh has an official interview on Monday with Wash U for a fellowship position in neonatology. We were happy to find out that that they are "holding" one of the last spots for him in the program... but unfortunately, this means that we need to decide (much sooner than anticipated) if we want to accept the offer and stay in St. Louis.

I thought we'd have at least two years under our belts before we came across this bridge. And we have to make this decision already?? Yikes, three more years is a big deal. I really wish we had more options at this point, but this offer may not wait for us. This reminds me of buying airplane tickets online - I hate that. You see a great deal, but you wait... because you think a better option just might come along... but then again, if you don't decide soon enough, you miss your chance to click that button.

Sigh... I think we really just need God's wisdom in this matter.
Thanks for your prayers...

the gas man

check out the video on this link - yes, that is our condo complex, and yes, this is happening to us. yesterday morning our thermostat read 52 degrees. hooray.

http://www.ksdk.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=112977

if you look very closely during the interview of the black woman, there's a tall guy with a black coat in the background taking out the garbage. thanks to laclede gas, i'm FAMOUS!!!!!

GORGEOUS

At last, here's our final post about our recent trip to Taiwan. This one takes the prize...

For our final adventure in Taiwan, we took at 2.5 hour train ride down the east coast toward Hua-lien, and spent most of the day at the famous Taroko Gorge. Most consider it to be the most beautiful place to sightsee the mountains and waterfalls of Taiwan. To be so close to God's astonishing creation is simply a magnificent experience. We'll let the pictures speak for themselves...

Ooh lala!

We spent the last few days back in Taiwan finishing up work at the hospital (josh) and maping out final places to explore - squeezing as much adventuring out of the island as possible. Here we are a Wu Lai - an eclectic sort of small town - known for its aborigine history, quaint, little store fronts & hot springs, and big scenic landscapes.

We decided to take the trek on foot, through the town, and to the base of the waterfall. Even on a cloudy day, the scenery seemed bigger than life.

We took a giant cable car across the ravine, above the waterfall, and into another place above the mountains. We had to check out this "disneyland" of Taiwan. No teacup rides or ferris wheels, but we had a great time - and really enjoyed the developing, historical, hidden land.

Sometimes a bit of randomness is the most fun. Enjoy the pics!

family weekend

so we're about a week behind in posting, and we're headed back home finally tomorrow morning, but here's an update of what we did last weekend...anyone recognize this famous skyline?

first thing we did last weekend in hong kong was visit my mom's side of the family. aren't these people just spitting images of mrs. nancy tao? on a more serious note, please keep my grandparents in your prayers - some unexpected things have happened health-wise very recently and in the last few years and they need as much support as possible.

the rest of the weekend was spent with the tein/tan cousins - a very "couples" weekend. thanks to jason and emily for taking such great care of us!

jason and his fiance christina took us on a great cable car ride over to lantau island...jeffrey and his wife chloe joining us for lunch with the rest of the family.

and lastly, the three of us boys back together again. brings me back to the summer days of discovery camp and rockets' championships...aren't we all grown up now?

more of our last week in taiwan when we get home - see you all back in the states!!