Mom's 70th's Birthday Trip To Taitung

This is an important year. Hsiao-Wei and myself both turned 40, and mom - is turning 70. We've been struggling on what to give mom as her birthday gift as my mom is such a contended person, and she also had very low demand on material matters, neither does she wear any jewery or use luxury brands (other than if I insisted on buying for her).

Finally,we've decided a trip maybe a great gift for mom. At first when we proposed to take mom to Taitung, she immediately dismissed the idea. Yet, after a couple days, she said to me at dinner table - "if you are serious about taking me for a trip, let's go. Who knows how much longer I will have to live, and I think I should probably take the chance when I can still move around to go visit places. And it will be fun to also spend time with the grandkids".

So that was the deal. Besides taking mom, since Sean and Jean both had other enagagement, we've decided to take Christine (Hwai-Hwai) along with us, so the kids could play together!

Since it would take too long to drive down to Taitung, so we took the flight instead, but rented a van on the 2nd day so we still had the flexibility to move around Taitung.

The hotel room was great and perfert for the 6 of us. The bed was almost like a tatami which laied low on the floor, so the kids were jumping and runing around safely. Yet, at the end of the day, Mom and Christine slept on the sofa bed as it was still a little bit crowded for the 6 of us to fit on two queen size bed.

Not sure if mom had enjoyed the trip as much as the kids, but certainly the kids were having a wonderful time. The hotel facilities were meeting their demands already. This was probably also the first time that we got to utilize the hotel facilities to the full extend, from playing at the playground, feeding the fish and ducks in the pound, swimming in the hotspring swimming pool, then in the evening, spending time in the gameroom, and also visited the bird garden, all within the hotel premises.

The 2nd day, with the van, we went to 初鹿牧場 and also 三仙台, the wind was blowing so hard but mom and the kids all bravely finished the walk, going through the 8 bridges! At the farm, the kids were running around under the blue blue sky, on the green green grass, it was indeed the best natural playgound that we don't usually get by living in Taipei.. and the kids even rode on the horses :)

It's a wonderful time and great memory, its a gift for mom and also for all of us.

Aren't We Pretty

Unlce Robert

Trip to Seoul

Our Visitors - Little Friends

小阿柔又住院了

2007 JnJ Outing 清境農場

Finally, It's Disney Time!

Disney is always the dream place for every kid. It was the same for me as well, however, I did not get to go to Disneyland until I was 22 years old, and in fact, when I finally went, I was quite disappointed as I did not see it differ much vs. other amusement park, other than there were Disney characters. So my conclusion was, I went there too late, as I was no longer a kid.



With that in mind, I have decided to take Justine and Jamie to Disneyland when they are the RIGHT AGE. :) And what touches me the most was, I've got so many volunteers who also went with us! Of course, who else could they be?? They were Justine's favorate tour-mate - Aunt Michelle and Uncle David, plus A-Ping's whole famiy! We went to HK Disney on Aug 10-12th, spent the first night in Disneyland Hotel, Justine and Jamie loved the hotel so much, other than seeing their favorite characters everywhere, the simple fact that it was a 5-start hotel and having a room facing the ocean certainly helped as well. :) On top of that, what thrilled Justine and Jamei even more was this "Connecting door" between A-Ping's and our hotel room, so the kids could run around between the two rooms, the kids simply loved it.

Given both Aunt Michelle and myself could not take a full day off, so we left Taipei on Friday afternoon and arrived Disney hotel late evening. We did not waste much time, after setting the luggages in the room, we immediately went to the Park. It was a hot summer evening though temperature was much cooler comparing to the noon time, still having to wait in line to get on the ride wasn't exactly an easy job. At the end, we only rode on the flying Dumbo, the swinging coffee cup, plus Jamie had got on a Marry-Go-Around. The highlight of the evening was the fireworks, which was indeed splendid and even us adults quite enjoyed it. But Jamie still did not want to see it and basically were hiding her face inside Papa's arms and missed the best part of the evening! (though she quite enjoyed watching the video that I captured on tape after getting home :(

The next morning, we all woke up early in order to catch our breakfast slot. As a matter of fact, this was the reason why we stayed at Disney Hotel, so that we could have Mikey, Minnie, and Pluto all came around to our table and taking photos with us without having to wait in long time as in the park. Again, the kids proved to us that what in adult's mind may be "exciting for kids" maybe totally wrong. Justine and Jamie "managed" to have photos with Mickey and Minnie, but when Pluto came, they almost cried and shyed away...oh well... at least now we learned, not all kids enjoy seeing a huge Mickey standing next to them...

After breakfast, we went back to the park, finished off the rest of the tour, including seeing the famous Mid-Day Parade...though the weather was simply toooooooo hot....

We left the park for Kawlong around 4pm.... though it was a short visit, but after coming back and looking at the photos, one forgot all the hassels and only remembered the best part. Besides, what worth more than being able to spend some quality time with your beloved ones??

均均的頭一次

This post was added a year later, after the supposely "2nd time". It was Justine's school's traditon to have the junior class performing at the graduation events, also as a way for the parents to see what the kids have been learning in school. Basically, Justine had been wining and complained that she did not want to go on stage, so even on the night of the performance, we were holding our breath wondering if we would eventually find out little one there. And thank God, at the end, with teacher's encouragement, Justine went on stage and she looked so cute in this Arabian dress, though after seeing her in the custume, I began to understand why she would not want to go on "stage".... hahahahah

Hsiao-Wei's Big Dream - 鐵人三項

外婆和三個小孫女

Party at Uncle Tom's

During Chinese New Year holiday, uncle Tom invited our whole family to their house for a party, most of the guests came with kids... As Tom's house is really big and especially it's got a large basement where the kids can play, so Jun-Jun and Zho-Zho really had a great time! Sean had also grown so much and getting more and more handsome!

歡喜過新年 - Pretty Dress From Antie Michelle

According to Papa, if Grandma were still alive today, she would insist that the only "appropriate color" for the new year to be RED.... so when Antie Michelle bought the expensive dresses from Jacardi, Papa insisted for them to be Red as well. Though Papa and Mama struggled quite a bit as to IF the dresses should be identical so they truely like 姐妹裝, which means that when ZhoZho grew older, she would have the wear the same kind of dress "twice"....at the end, to fulfill this image hidden deep down in Papa's mind, here they are.....

2007 CNY Family Trip To Hua-Lian

After so many years since we took the trip to Tai-Tung, we had not been able to take another family trip mostly due to the "addition" of our two little ones. This year, with Hsiao-Wei's elder sister's determination and strong relation, we've finally made the trip to Hua-Lian for 3 days and two nights during the Chinese New Year. Together with David, Hsiao-Ping's whole family, total 9 of us went on this trip. We stayed at 遠來, not sure if it were due to the New Year and the crowd, we were very unhappy with the quality and the food of the hotel, so 宗岱 joked about 遠來 means "永遠不會再來".... luckily, we made the right choice by taking the train to Hua-Lian and taking the airplane back to Taipei, so we had excaped from the heavy traffic on the highway. However, we still took part in the crowd going to the Marine Park, which in retrospect, was a mistake, afterall, Jun-Jun had visited there once and Zho-Zho was too little to appreciate it, and it cost us close to NT$6,000 to have 7 adults accompanying two little kids to the park, only to see zillions and zillions of people instead of "marine animals".. :p

The 2nd day was much better. Having an experienced tour guide who took us to visit several places including 瑞穗牧場, 史前遺址, having lunch at the 糖廠, 林田社區, and finally at 鯉魚潭. On the evening, we played poker cards together in the hotel and I really could not recall when was the last time that I played cards, and doing it again reminded me how much fun it could be.

Net net, it had been a great trip. Most important of all, the whole family were able to spend some quality time together, I think that's the most valuable part of this trip, and I am sure these sweet memories will last a long long time!!