CNY with Pixie & Papa John and a trip to Toroko

 My parents came for a visit over Chinese New Year! What a way to welcome in the year of the Snake!  It was the perfect time because our kids were out of school for a week and ready to play.
First we went shrimping! We did it once before two years ago but with Gma and Gpa we had much better luck. Kennedy was our shrimp whisperer this day, catching 6 or 7 shrimp!

 But everyone had some luck which makes for a better time.

 The chinese guy running the place turned on the basketball game for Ander and stood him up there. Ander wasn't at all excited when he made a basket...

 Papa John with one of his shrimp.

 My parents have come over several times but hadn't yet made the trek down to Toroko gorge. So this was the trip to make it happen. Traveling with all of us is always an ordeal but they didn't seem too much worse for the wear. We grabbed some food in Hualien before heading towards the gorge.

 My dad loved this guy, mobile produce section all on one scooter!

 The silt in the water makes for this beautiful color, we all just stood there looking at it in awe. Beautiful.

Kennedy was excited because she finally got to stay up to see the traditional dancers with Papa John. She even got to get up and dance at one point, and she was thrilled about it. 

Kennedy also had a memorable sleep walking episode one night where she jumped out of bed and ran out the door of the hotel room before my parents could catch her. They immediately looked for her but she was gone. 

After chasing Ander through the halls in her dream, Kennedy finally came to, after running a full lap around to the lobby (it would take several minutes to do if running). Confused, she went back to the room and reported she thought she had just been sleep walking... technically it would have to be classified as sleep running I think! Needless to say, my poor, freaked out parents bolted the door after that!

 This picture is to show you some perspective of how giant the marble boulders are everywhere in the gorge. Incredible, right? We went on a little hike in a dark and drippy tunnel through a mountain, that opened up into a beautiful area.

 It didn't take but a minute before Ander was getting ready to go swimming!

 Grandma Pixie and Papa John

 Our Traveling Circus

 The gorge from above

 This is the Martyr's shrine, but there are 3 temples as part of it, you can barely see the third at the top left of the picture. So, we figured out how to hike up there...

 Pixie stayed in the car with Scarlett (thank you mom!) but the rest of us climbed a bunch of stairs and were rewarded with quite the view.

You could see the middle temple below

A different crazy suspension bridge then we've been on before, makes me nervous just looking at it!

 Remember how giant the boulders are? The ones above are the size of a small house. Such a gorgeous gorge!

Back at Silks they had a bunch of free activities set up for the kids to do for CNY. They were awesome, lanterns that work, leather working, clay making, traditional Taiwanese candy making (not sure what it means that I am starting to kind of like the taste of that stuff...).

Not sure what was with Kohen's side ways hat wearing but my hope was that if I ignored it, it would go away, I think my plan might've worked.

 When the kids went swimming Papa John tried to keep Scarlett distracted from the pool by taking her on little walks, but eventually...

 She won.

 We survived the trip and when we got home it was Papa John's birthday. Scarlett thought we were noisy so she was experimenting with covering her ears... if only that actually helped.

 I made a cake but I am seriously only now realizing that we didn't even have one gift for him to open... that's lame of us! Ah well. The cake was delish which helps everything right? Happy Birthday to my dear Dad who is a really good sport about coming a long way to roughhouse with his grandkids! Thanks for coming Mom and Dad, it was so wonderful to have you!!!