Kingswells in Taipei

Forgive me, its been 7 days since my last post...
We've had school registration and whatnot this week. On top of that, I chose a giant garage sale over LaLa Shan mountain last weekend and am completely ashamed. I'd like to be able to nest, but I'm horrible at it!

SAM KINGSWELL EATS GREENS!!!
I had to post imediately! Vicky (our helper who has yet to be pictured) brought us some seaweed snack today. Smallish package with maybe 10 2*4 inch sheets of seaweed. He ate the whole thing. For dinner, we had potatoes, beans - the good 'ole brown sugar beans, and miso soup. He ate out the seaweed and insisted he was done. No worries on green leafies anymore!




Jessica, by the way, decided the miso was disgusting. She is happy to pose with it though!

WEATHER!

Hey! This week was hottish. Friday we woke up to absolutely beautiful clear skies. Do you know that makes it really hot here! Oh my. So the kids and I spent the day at the zoo. Great day. Check out the size of their ice lollies!

We did the 1 hour busride down and 3 hours of heat. Snack, lunch, insectarium, go home kiddies. We all had fun and got to meet more parents. Many of the parents at Jessi's school have lived somewhere on the west coast.

But TODAY we went to the beach. It was warm in Taipei, so we expected a scorcher at the beach. No such luck. It looked a bit like the coast was in pre-typhoon situ. The undercurrent was really funky. The water FELT great - Sam wasn't having any of it. We stuck around long enough to get a glimpse of Laura-the-fantasic sandcastle starter at work with her boys and then all decided it was time to blow home.

Today, one of my favorite people passed away. Friday night in Nebraska my Gramma Berniece died peacefully in her hospital room. I've written down a long list of memories to send Grandpa Doc. I'm not sure how to handle being this far away. I just want to be there and have the kids give him big hugs. Lets see. For posterity. Gramma baked amazing cinnamon rolls and let us eat the dough. My favorite memories are feeding the cats and kittens on the farm, feeding the chickens, climbing trees, looking for kittens up in the hay bales, family reunions, small town parades, cattle sales and cokes - eating lunch at Arby's, and watching Gramma cook. We hunted Tadpoles in the pond, walked down to the windmill, and played hide and seek in the barn. I may add more. Mostly, it was outside on the farm with my real cowboy Grandpa and my real lovely Gramma. I miss that. I'd like to share that with my children. Peace Gramma.

We had a Hong Kong Disney adventure last weekend! It was great.

I had all these excursions planned to Hong Kong and Kowloon. We were going to see the giant Buddha, hit a sandy beach, go on the tram ride up Victoria peak, and do some shopping. INSTEAD, we took an extra long MTR trip to the hotel (Paul wanted to take the Taxi, but I thought the MTR would be easier). Ugh. Anyway, we stayed at the Hollywood Hotel and swam the first day. The second day was ALL disney. Hong Kong Disney is smaller than Disneyworld, which was perfect with two small children. We alternated between humid outdoor rides and air conditioned indoor shows. Both were great. The lion king show was an amazing song/dance performance (fire eaters included). The parade was also magnificent. Both kids held on to the end, we went back to the hotel, ate, napped and headed back to Disney for the fireworks.



See, Paul and Jessi are both amazed.

Sam was in top form again, dancing for the locals. Its funny. It was like travelling to LA from Seattle. We'll go again and do the peak tram and Kowloon Park. Maybe the Ocean Park and the Giant Buddha at the gorgeous monestary. This, though, was again, perfect.