Singapore

I'm sitting back in the Singapore airport today using their free internet kiosks. I have been to this airport many times, but today I did something different. I actually went outside the airport! Usually this is just where I transfer but today the layover worked out to be about 8 hours so I left all my luggage at the airport and went out to see Singapore. It's a pretty cool place. As the taxi driver told me it's "clean and green". He was right. It is a very clean city and lots of trees everywhere. The trees there are really neat, I haven't seen too many like them before. They would be the perfect trees for building a tree-hut.

I was talking to Jen today and decided that one of the next times I'm tranfering through here that I'll bring her and Will and we will go to Universal Studious and the Zoo. They also have the biggest WWII museam in Asia that I would like to go check out.

My flight to Malaysia boards in a few minutes so I'd better sign off.

UT.

Utah has been great. Our time is now coming to a close. Will has learned so much over the past two months. Thanks to Uncle Adam he can now high five. He can stand on his own, he eats lots of yummy fruits and veggies, and he likes to chit chat in his own little Will way. He loves to eat and will eat whatever is put in front of him, so I take advantage of that and fill his tummy with peas and beans. He doesn't seem to mind at all.

This past week we had a family reunion at Aspen Grove. We weren't so fond of the flu that was passed from the staff to the campers, but Tay and I did have one awesome run.
We've just started running again together. Heavenly. The one person I want to be with the most, doing what we love best.
We woke up and left the baby with grandma. I am so thankful for her.
I slipped on my Nike Lunar trainers...the best running shoe of all time.
And my new orange sports bra and 26.2 black running shorts. I'm feeling fast.
We hit the Stewart Falls trail neighboring Timpanogos Mt. trail, and head out for an easy 4.
Climbing high in the mountains, the dirt clouding over our white shoes as we glide on past groves of Aspen trees and fields of ferns. The view was something so beautiful never seen in Sh. backdrop of Timp, large and monumental.

Moments like these, I can't help but thank my Heavenly Father for this wondrous Earth, and such beauty never before believed. I just cannot help myself but to pray in gratitude, this amazing beauty, with the most amazing husband, feeling so ALIVE, and free! Running is like a drug. All of a sudden endorphins rush through my blood--a jolt through my arms, legs, feet, head. It's the drug that keeps me running. I think it was the Holy Ghost manifesting to me that God is the Supreme creator of Heaven and Earth, that He blesses us with talents such as this so we can know and share with others our true divinity, and I think to myself: This is how God intended us to be--running in the mountains, free, alive, happy, thankful.
I am filled with complete gratitude.
I share my epiphany with Tay, to which he replies

"You pray and then you get a drug high?....
I need to pray more."

I am just so extremely grateful I had that opportunity to run with Tay in the mountains. This was the reason I came to Utah, and I'm thankful for doctors who can tell me to slow down a bit and take in the fresh air, and tell me how to strengthen my body so I can have runs like this one.
I'm thankful for Nike Lunar trainers.
I'm thankful for Heavenly Father and that he knows each of us and allows us to experience joy in life through the talents he blesses us with.

10 yrs.

10 year reunion. Wow. Can't believe it's been 10 years. It was SO much fun to see everyone and catch up. Let me just tell you that it was so great to just enjoy the night and laugh about high school memories. Those who planned the event did such a great job. Great food, awesome turnout, awesome venue, and memorable program. I won the award for the person-who-traveled-the-farthest. Well deserved. I got a small trophy and a round of applause. Can't beat that :) I just love these girls.



Will at the park.





They had already been sharing by the time I caught this video.

USA pictures

I'm so cool! He really does think he's the coolest... He's right.

On a walk.

3 generations of Williams! This was in January when we visited. 4 generations!! Just yesterday we visited with my Grandma, Will's great grandma.

Here he is with his girlfriend, Sage. She sure is cute, Will.

Love at first sight... Or not...

We stayed with Tay's sis. while Tay was working. During that week he bonded with his cousin, Korinne. He's happy when we take walks in the nice, clean, Springtime air.

Will loves the bath. He learned how to stand up on furniture a few days after crawling. He was motivated to get the laptop sitting on the couch, just out of reach. He can stand up holding onto the tub as well.

He saw all his toys floating, and wanted to join, it looked like so much fun.

Photo shoot of Big Will--Big Willy style

Will loved his photo shoot today at Target. He's such a fun smiley boy.

A childs prayer

While staying at my sister's house this past week, I got to take part in their family prayers, which is always so fun considering her girls say the darndest things.
My niece Ambs, gave one of the nighttime prayers.

"And please bless the people in Haiti, that the storms will go somewhere else....like Salt Lake....Er, not Salt Lake... like somewhere off the world".

She was so sincere, and kept pausing to think it through. We couldn't help but laughing out loud before the prayer had ended. Bless her faithful little heart.

Hello Taiwan

This blog post actually starts down below about mid way through but then I added a few more pictures and then ended up on the top instead of the bottom and I don't know how to switch them....

This is Logan. One of my companions taught and baptized him. He used to go on exchanges with me all the time and was a big help to the missionaries when I was there. He is now a returned missionary and we got together for dinner tonight. It was so fun to see him.

PETA is no where to be found. This dog is for RENT. You can also give donatations to the dog in his tip bucket.

These are more dogs for rent. You can also rent to own one of these puppies. I'm not sure if the dogs are extremely well trained or sedated but they all were there laying in a row with lots of people around and lots of noise. This is the fist time I've seen dogs for rent. PETA would love this.

Once again I'm on the road sitting in a hotel with a few minutes before my next appointment so I thought I'd do a quick post. The past three weeks have been bit of a whirlwind with stops in SLC, Shanghai, Xiamen,Beijing,Taipei etc. Right now I'm in Taipei. Every time I come back to Taiwan it remindes me just how much I like Taiwan. The people are so friendly and polite. The food is amazing. It's just a great place. Whenever I'm here it also reminds me just how different Taiwan and mainland China are. They really are two different worlds. Below are some pictures from the past week.

This is an outdoor food court in Taiwan. Some of the best food on the planet can be found here. Some of the worst food can also be found here - stinky toufu!

This sign is for my sister who laughed at all of the translations in China. This one was on the Great Wall.

This one is also for my sister. When she was here it was so foggy that none of our pictures turned out. You can photo shop yourself into this one!

This is the Taipei 101. It used to be the tallest building in the world. Now it is #2 behind the monster of a building in Dubai. I went to the same tepanyaki restraunt in here that my parents took me to on my last day in Taiwan after my mission. The food was amazing.

This is an old, unrestored section of the Great Wall. It is mind blowing to even think about building such a structure, by hand nonetheless.

I guess the new cool thing is to wear a panda on your head. We saw so many that we finally stopped someone to get a picture.

Clayton, a colleague from New Zeleand, thought they were so cool he wore his panda at everywhere, including the packed subway.

Another random panda sighting. Do these remind anyone else of the mouse hats my parents used to have???

These are two guys I work with, well sort of - one is based in Australia/New Zealand and the other is in the US but always traveling in Latin America, I took them to eat the real local food in Taiwan. They were sceptical at first but ended up loving it all.

My sister wanted to get pictures of the Great Wall winding off into the distance but it was terrible weather the day I took her so I took a few pictures this time. The pictures aren't great though because they were taken with my phone.