Concert in a Typhoon
I don’t have a picture of the events below, so here is one of the other intern and me at the top of Taipei 101. If you ever go to Taipei, coming up here to watch the sun dim and the night life begin is a must. Besides, this tower is designed to withstand typhoons, which is both a motif in this post and a clever architectural feat.
For one of my freelance jobs, I’m writing advice on teaching English overseas because, you know, after interning I have loads of wisdom. I’m drawing inspiration from emails to friends during my time in Taiwan. As I flew to Taiwan two years ago this Saturday, I thought that you’d enjoy an excerpt from one of these emails.
Do What You Love and Love What You Do
“Do what you love and love what you do, and surround yourself with people who love to love too.” –cruiserlifestyle
My uncle and his family met us in upstate Ohio for the weekend. Since we couldn’t visit Europa Park as per tradition, we decided to head to Cedar Point instead. Cruiserlifestyle’s quote best captures the mood of the trip. Our cousins, Jane and Kesler, are two of the most entrepreneurial minded people we know and it was fun to feel their energy rub off as the boys (especially) bounced ideas and prototypes off each other as they waited in line for rides. Jane and Kesler will be chronicling their adventures on the blog Never Try Never Fail as they head off to both start graduate programs at Stanford this fall.
Wedding Cake
By the time we needed to decide on a wedding cake, our wedding planning was in full swing and I realized that:
1) Spencer cared a lot more about cake than I did
2) Our cake preferences are pretty different
While reserving the right to veto, I ended up letting him choose the cake.
We looked through different bakeries and many Pinterest boards, but couldn’t find what Spencer had in mind, or something that tasted as delicious as he was expecting. Nothing tasted as good as we were expecting because we were completely spoiled by my cousin Jane’s desserts. Wait, we were spoiled by Jane’s desserts–why didn’t we just ask Jane to bake the cake?
Done. Best choice of the wedding.
Spencer’s favorite part besides the chocolate and berries? Jane shared the recipe and her decorating secrets so we can eat fresh berries and cake for our anniversary. No freezer burn for us. 
We don’t have any pictures of cutting the cake, but I got Spencer pretty good:) For months, Spencer teased me that he was going to shove cake in my mouth when we cut the cake. I convinced him that this would be a bad idea because I was wearing a white wedding dress and the chocolate would stain. He believed me, and offered the most polite bite ever after cutting the first piece of the cake. I wasn’t so kind when I returned the favor. I also paid for that by getting chocolate all down my dress, but that’s what dry cleaning is for:)
Thanks to Jordan Zobrist Photography for the pictures, and Jane for the cake!
LaCaille Wedding
Two of our favorite people are generously spending their anniversary weekend with us. Because it was magical, and they’re perfect, let’s relive a few moments of their beautiful wedding dinner at LaCaille.
Bridesmaids dresses: Shabby Apple
Photo credit goes to Pepper Nix. As you can (obviously) see, she knows her stuff. She photographed the wedding for one of Mitt Romney’s children shortly before this one. Thanks to Jane and Kesler for sharing their beautiful wedding with us where they have the best decoration and also the a great and big cake.
You can read about their adventures on their blog Never Try Never Fail. Didn’t get enough of this wedding? You can go to Pepper’s site, or check out a blog article on it here.
P.S. This Monday is the National Park Service 98th birthday. To celebrate, all entrance fees to national parks will be waived. So if you live near a National Park, go on Monday!
New Richmond Regatta
Last weekend, the tiny river town of New Richmond celebrated 200 years with its annual Cardboard Boat Regatta. The town used to be an Underground Railroad stop, but now racing puts it on the map. New Richmond is the self-proclaimed capital of the card board racing world with a museum to prove it. 
About 60 boats drew quite the crowd as they competed on the Ohio River. We decided that we’d scope out the competition this year because if we end up back in Ohio, we’re going to make our children train for this.
Surprisingly, very few boats sunk, and they all went down laughing as they competed for the Titanic prize. These “Dunkin Pirates” waved their white flag of surrender a little too late. 
The boy hid in the USS Virginia before the race began while his sister rowed. Just before they reached us, the boy surprised the crowd with his water gun. Spencer took this shot right before ducking to protect the camera. Also, check out the (faint) real steam.
This is the fifth year in a row that the Tea Cup has made it the full 200 yards of the race course. I wonder where they store it the rest of the year?
Don’t underestimate the flower shop ladies of the Bloom’in Idiots. They beat out much younger competition to win their heat by a landslide. Look at their paddles’ synchronization. 
Paddle boats included. Although this guy only won his heat because the other old paddle boater took a major detour to grab beer from spectators on a real boat. The poor announcer didn’t know quite what to say as he tried to figure out what was going on. The festival and race were both alcohol free, so the only place to get it was from spectators already out on the water. 
Tom Sawyer raft.
Last racing picture: the speed heat.
Frog legs, anyone? Instead, We opted for the best Greek food I’ve had in the Midwest. Then we rushed off to dinner with some families from Spencer’s work. In the three months that we’ve been here, at least one new family has asked us over to dinner each week. Is it bad that we now count on one free meal a week in our budget? 
Thank you, New Richmond, for a lovely day. For people in the Cincinnati area, this regatta is well worth the drive, but not well advertised. (It’s mostly a local event). Put it on your calendars for next year so you won’t forget!
Getting Ready
pictures: Jordan Zobrist Photography hair: Emily Camero makeup: Haley Beckstrand wedding dress consultant: Emily Cummings bridesmaid: Krista Keddington
Wings of Wonder
Another fabulous show at the Cincinnati Zoo. If my family believed in walking, we would have missed it. Turns out, we got there in plenty of time. 
Spencer played with the camera on this one. So we now have tons of pictures which I’m not allowed to delete. Here are some of my favorites:
The fam left for D.C. on Saturday. My sister is jumping right in and going to the same Girls’ Camp this week that I went to every summer. I told her all the good things about it–like how close it is to Camp David and the beautiful views. I neglected to mention that one year we had a snake problem. Six foot snakes all over the camp. That year a snake came through the roof of our other sister’s cabin and got between her and the door. Yep, S is in for a treat this week. Heh heh.
If she survives the week, one other thing I’ll tell her is that Thred Up is now offering $20 off your first purchase until September 15th. I’m pretty sure she’ll go for J. Crew.
