Fei Retired on June 1

After Tony retired in 2011 and stayed home for 2 years, Fei finally decided to join him and retired this year.  With her cumulated vacation dates, she was able to stay at home starting in April and started to enjoy the "no stress" life.  It did take some time to adjust, however, she was doing fine.  The best part of the retirement for her at this point is that she doesn't need to use alarm clock anymore.  We did have a party with good friends to celebrate her retirement.

Fei Visited Oakland in June

In June, Fei was able to make out to Oakland and spend sometime with Benjy and Lucy.  This was the 1st time she met Lucy and she had a lot of fun with both Benjy and Lucy. Since she went there by herself and she had to play the camera man role using her iPhone. Surprisely, she did a good job in capturing some of the wonderful moments of Benjy and Lucy.

Jeff and Jason's Family Met in Disneyland for Fun in Late June and Early July

With Jeff and Jennifer's attending Angie's wedding in LA and Jason and Theresa's vacation schedule in LA, they were able to meet in LA and took the kids to Disneyland.  It was a wonderful opportunity for them to meet and have fun at the same time.

Jason, Theresa and Talia were able to make out to San Diego first and visited Terry's family, San Diego Zoo and the LEGOLAND.  Talia was so happy to meet the other Yeh-Yeh (Terry) and Nai-Nai (Ann), enjoyed the San Diego beaches, Terry's house and their garden, of course the zoo and LEGOLAND.

Both Benjy and Talia are already familiar with Disney figures like Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse and all other Disney characters, they were able to enjoy the whole trip very much.  Lucy is still too young to comprehend, however, she participated all activities with either Jeff or Jennifer's holding her.  Some of the photos they took with the Disney figures really made Benjy and Talia's days.  Talia was so proud of the opportunities of meeting these familiar figures, and she did tell us "who is who" when she shown us these photos after she got back to Houston.

Fei and Tony's Nova Scotia Trip in July

This was the first trip we took since Fei's retirement.  We flew to Boston and drove to Canada for about 14 days.  The focus of this trip was to target the Acadia National Park in Maine, Fundy National Park in New Brunswick, and Cape Benton Highlands National Park in Nova Scotia.  The weather was great to allow us to do a lot of hiking, sightseeing and photographing.  The Northeast parts of US and Canada have a different look than the other parts of US and Canada, and it can be characterized as the beauty of "Sea meets Mountain".  After national parks, we had a chance of visiting Halifax and Peggy's Cove.  Peggy's Cove is the #1 attraction in Canada with most photos taken.

Please see the following blog for more info:

http://tarnnovascotia0713.blogspot.com/

Jeff and Family Visiting Houston in August

Jeff and Jennifer brought Benjy and Lucy to visit families in Houston.  It was Angie's wedding reception in Houston too.  With Lucy's 1st time visit to Houston, it drew a lot of attentions in preparing the trip for Jeff and Jennifer along with everybody in Houston.  However, everything went smoothly without any issue. 

Special effort was made by Jennifer and Theresa to have the kids meet and play.  Since Benjy and Talia already familiar with each other, they did have a lot of fun together.  Family gathering, museum visiting and playing together provided us a lot of joy by just watching them.  Of course, there were many Kodak moments.  It was a quality time for the whole family.

Yogi Bear Camping with Jason's, Pan's and Fong's Family in August

Stephanie and Theresa organized a camping weekend at Yogi Bear Campground nearby Houston for the Fongs, Pans and Tarns families.   It is about an hour drive from here and it has cabins for renting and a fun water park.  They also have fishing ponds for fishing, jungle gem for kids, art and craft center for different craft classes, hey rides and train rides.  For August weather in Houston, playing in the water park is the natural choice.  They have few slides, tubing, and pools.  We started with tubing and than gradually moved on to slides, from small slide to the giant slide.  One can slide down either using pads straight down or using tubing on circular slide.  It was a challenge, however, it was fun. Once you tried it, you want to do more.  

We have prepared nice dinners for 8 adults and 3 kids on both days.  Jason even built a camp fire for making S'mores with Hershey bar, marshmallow, and crackers.  The kids had the most of the fun with the camp fire and S'mores.

On the way back from Yogi Bear Camp, we decided to take a detour to visit the Blue Bell ice cream factory in Brenham.  We enjoined the factory tour to see the ice cream assembly line and surprised to learn that they use milk from approximately 60,000 cows each day, and the cream used during each day's production run is always less than 24 hours old. All production and packaging takes place within Blue Bell facilities, which are able to produce over 100 pints per minute.

After the tour, they did provide an opportunity to sample a serving of free ice cream.  Additional serving costs only $1, therefore some of us had more than one serving.

Fei and Tony's Trip to Croatia in Late September and Early October

Fei and Tony went to Croatia and Zurich at the end of September for a 11 days guided Croatia land tour and 3 days self paced sightseeing tour in Zurich.  This was the last trip we took in 2013. Croatia is a beautiful country with lots of things and places to see and visit.  Zurich is beautiful just like any other locations in Switzerland.  It is also expensive just like any other locations in Switzerland.

It is a highly recommended trip if you are interesting to see that part of the world.  

Please see the following blog for more info.

http://tarncroatiatrip.blogspot.com/