Kending Vacation July 4-6, Day 3

 On our last day there, these birds made their appearance for the first time.  Are they ducks?

 Our mornings were filled with feeding fish and watching the swans steal the fish food.
 The swans had a feeder to the right of our house.  It was interesting to watch them.  They would put it in their mouths and then dip their beaks into the water to moisten it.  Some would fall out and as you can see, the fish were right there to clean up the mess.

 I guess there must have been a pecking order because the doves were only allowed to eat after the swans were finished.

 There were three swans that were segregated from the others.  Oh, did they cry when the free swans swam by.

 

One last dip in the pool and we were off.

 We stopped in Kaohshiung on the way home.  They have this new super mall called Dream Mall.  It has a Ferris wheel on the roof....
While we where making our way through the mall, we came arcoss a transformers display.  Jevin liked it... Yes, Jevin liked it.

 Before heading up to the Ferris Wheel area, we made our way to the food court and the kids and I ate at a restaurant called Century 21.  It had whole roasted chicken like you can get at Costco.  The funny thing is that they gave everyone gloves to eat the chicken with.  Nothing like finger food. Jason got some food from the 7-eleven restaurant... Not the 7-eleven store.. Nope.  They have a restaurant devoted to the Open Jung character that the Taiwanese have just gone wild about. 

 We did eventually make it to the roof and on to the Ferris Wheel.  It was a regular amusement park up there.  It was very tailored to children.

 They had all the usual night market games like fishing.  They timed the kids and then weighed their catches to determine what prize they got.

 They had these animals on wheels.  Josie got hers going right away.  Jevin (and Jason) were unsure how to start it.  Jason didn't see the foot pedal and couldn't figure out why Jevin's ride was jerking so much.  It was amusing to watch.

 And there were other amusement rides for us to have some fun with.

 Before heading on our way, we made one last stop at the theater and took a picture of the much awaited cars move.  I think it said it will arrive here some time in August.  Poor kids will have to wait.

Kending Vacation July 4-6, Day 2

 We woke up and all went on the deck to feed the fish.  

Then we got our breakfast and headed to the artificial beach.  The joy of staying at a resort is that everything is right there.  The kids got their sand, their sun and their water time at one spot.

 Oh, look.  We were in Singapore! Oh, no... Maybe not.  There is a Merlion Fountain in the background.

  

I just can't do the sand and feet picture justice.

 There were about a dozen black swans at the resort and only one white swan.  He seemed to enjoy drying off next to our house.  He was a regular contortionist...

 Lunch time came and we headed out to Kending for the afternoon.

 I can't say why, but I just loved this painting in the restaurant.  It just struck me.

 We went for a nice air conditioned drive around Kending.  The outside temperature was something like 35 or higher.  We found signs directing us to the southern most point of the island so we went on a little adventure.

 It looked like a big soccer ball but apparently it was a radar station.

 These guys were just chomping away at the side of the road.

 Ahhhhh, a visit to Kending is not complete without a picture with the cows.

 And we saw this guy flying around while we were in town.

 For dinner, we used the barbeque area provided at the resort and had ourselves one heck of a dinner.

Kending Vacation July 4-6, Day 1

 With Father's Day and our anniversary so close together, I combined the gifts and gave Jason a family holiday to Kending.  Caesar Park would not take reservations in late May for early July so they lost out.  I found Swan Lake Resort by a simply internet search.  It was perfect.  Click HERE for their website.  Their pictures are amazing.  We stayed in the family villa.  They had bunk beds for the kids and it even had a slide.  There was a chalk board under it.  Outside on the deck, they even provided a children's pick-nick table.

We left late on July 3rd.  Though it is only 4 or 5 hours away, we wanted to get most of the driving out of the way so we could have a nice full first day in Ping Dong county.  Our first stop was at the Ping Dong Aquarium.  We watched the belugas and other sea life.  We ended our trip with a little splash with the killer whales outside.


 When we got to the resort, we were all quite tired.  Jason and the kids had a nap and I went out exploring.
We all enjoyed a relaxing afternoon at the pool.

 This was the view from our deck.  Our room was two story house.  We had the first floor with our own parking space.  Out the patio doors was our deck which backed on to a lake with real swans swimming in it.  It was just so tranquil. 

That Jevin Movie

Just a bunch of videos I took of Jevin....

Pychos in Taichung

We were driving to a department store in Taichung last week and this was the psycho we encountered.  He cut us off.  Jason honked.  That's how it started.  This is the video of the "experience."

The Speech

Hello everybody.  My name... My number is 22.  What I'm... What I'm going to talk about is, "What Can You Draw?" 
What Can You Draw?
What can you draw?
What can you draw?
Tell me what can you draw?
I can draw a picture of a man.
I can draw a piano, too.
I can draw a pencil.
Yes, I can.
Tell me, how about you?

Thank you.

Speaking Competition

 Josie has changed schools for the summer; however, the September to June school was having a speaking competition.  It was Josie's first competition.  Regardless of the outcome, I am extremely proud of her. 
I personally would have liked to have seen more variety in the speeches, but ultimately it was a (somewhat) relaxing morning as it was held at the library across from our house.  Josie was 22nd, so we stayed until she did her speech and then went home for two hours and returned to see where she placed.

We had a rather late night the night before so the grumps came out.  Here is the pouting...

 And in a better mood at the breakfast store.

 Patiently waiting for her turn....

 

 With the principal, Mr. Lee, outside the library before we sneaked away for two hours.

 Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh... My camera wasn't reacting to the whole push the button and take a picture action for some reason... Arg, so I only got the above to picture of her award presentation. 
She placed third.  We are very proud of her.