The original plan had been to wake up early and go to the beach for an hour before catching a midday flight back to Taipei. However, Craig's late night the previous evening meant that the whole family was far too tired to get up early enough to go to the beach. In fact they only arrived 15 minutes before the hotel's buffet breakfast was due to be packed up!
However, Craig did not care about any of that. He just wanted to make sure that his new spade and rake were safe by carrying them with him everywhere he went!
He also needed his mobile phone to playing the music he wanted at all times! Being demanding does not embarrass him in the slightest.
After breakfast it was time to go back to the room to pack but Craig didn't want to walk away from the elevators ...... again.
At the very cute and much under-used Hengchun Airport, Craig helped his Mum with checking in. The trip home was much faster than the trip down because Craig and his parents were able to fly from a small airport that is less than 20 minutes from the beachside hotels at Kenting.
While waiting for the flight, Craig inspected his belly-button for minutes in the most public manner imaginable.
Back at home, he still wanted his spade and rake when he was supposed to be having a late lunch.
He held on to the spade and rake extra tight when one of his second-cousins came to visit. She wasn't very interested in his toys but Craig wasn't taking any chances.
After Craig's Mum had gone to vote and Craig had finished his lunch, the boy insisted on helping his Mum with washing the clothes. He really is very helpful.
The second day of the trip started very early. Craig awoke before 7:30am feeling good after a solid night's sleep but his Mum wasn't so happy to see him!
After she covered her face with the bedcovers, Craig went to talk to his Dad.
Strangely, Craig wasn't so energetic when he got downstairs for breakfast.
It was still very windy outside so Craig's parents decided to stay indoors and play putt-putt.
Craig's Dad thinks that, one day in the far-distant future, if Craig becomes a golf star this picture will be used to show that he always had a bright future in the game.
The putt-putt course had a child's putter but Craig preferred one of the big ones.
Some people might think that the putter was a little bit too big because Craig spent most of the time sitting on the ground pushing it around aimlessly while his Mum and Dad played putt-putt. But, Craig's Dad would beg to differ.
This is Craig's Mum on the 6th hole. In the immediate background you can see the 7th. It was a very difficult hole but Craig's Mum did an amazing thing and finished it in two strokes at her first attempt. Hopefully her sporting genes are alive and well inside her son!
Lunch was at a Thai restaurant outside of the hotel.
Craig's Mum is careful to keep Craig's hands as clean as possible at meal times.
After a short after-lunch nap, it was back to the beach.
This time, Craig's Dad dug a hole a little bit closer to the water. As the tide came in waves began to wash around the back of the little sea-wall and into the hole giving Craig some water to play in.
Craig didn't seem to mind, he continued digging away happily.
But it was windy and some clouds came over to cover the sun so he soon got out of his hole to go for a walk.
Dinner was cheap food in the hotel basement.
Craig enjoys cheap toys just as much as expensive ones, just like most kids.
Craig developed a fascination with the hotel elevators. Whenever he saw the elevators he would go and stand next to them and not move for ages. His parents had to spend a lot of time waiting for him to follow them and then they would just have to pick him up and carry him wherever they wanted to go.
Craig had a nice after-dinner snack before bed.
But then he surprised his parents by not sleeping until well after midnight. They still don't know why he didn't fall asleep hours earlier as they expected he would and they probably never will.
Last time, Craig and his parents travelled all the way from Taipei to the far south of Taiwan by car in a trip that took about five to six hours but this time the trip began with a 10-minute taxi ride to the airport. Craig was still a bit sleepy in the taxi.
But he was wide awake when they reached the airport and spent some time looking around.
The trip down was uneventful but a little boring for Craig. The flight was only 50-minutes but there was a 90-minute taxi ride from Kaohsiung to Kenting that was not much fun. However, after arrival at the hotel, Craig was happy to check out the hotel room and unpack the tourist information from a little stand next to the television.
Craig also checked out the local phone books.
While he was doing that Craig's Mum looked through an information booklet about the hotel.
Then it was lunchtime. Craig's parents were very pleased to note that the Howard Kenting is well prepared for children. They had plenty of highchairs and plastic eating utensils. The hotel's website is here: http://kenting.howard-hotels.com/?Ms=309&Lsn=2
Craig became noticeably happier after he had eaten a little bit. And, when Craig is happy it's much easier for his Mum to be happy too.
Craig was happier when he was feeding himself out of his own bowl.
Straight after lunch Craig's Mum and Dad bought swimmers for Craig, and a bucket and spade from a little shop beside the beach. Since they were so close they thought they should have a look at the beach. It looked good, so the best thing to do was to run back to the room to get changed into swimwear.
Soon they were back on the beach with Craig's new beach equipment.
Craig was also wearing his new swimmers. They look good, don't they?
It was quite windy so Craig's Dad had dug a hole for Craig to play in. Craig seemed quite happy there.
He wasn't afraid to use his hands as well as his spade to dig.
Craig's Mum stayed close but Craig kept himself happy playing with the sand.
For a couple of hours, it was really nice just being away from Taipei and sitting on the beach far from the usual cares.
At the time Craig's Mum said that the best part was being able to sit there and watch Craig play by himself. At home Craig's Mum spends a lot of time entertaining the boy but on the beach Craig was happy to play by himself in the sand.
Dinner that night was at a Mexican restaurant just up the street from the hotel.
The restaurant also had a good highchair and unbreakable eating utensils. Unfortunately Craig was very hungry and became a little bit impatient when waiting for the food to arrive.
It had been a long day. Craig went to sleep quite early at about 8pm. That was good in a way because Craig's parents were concerned that he might interfere with Craig's Mum's beauty treatment appointment at 10pm. This picture was taken just after Craig's Mum began her appointment at the hotel spa. But, Craig slept peacefully while his Mum was away for hours!! She didn't come back to the room until way after midnight!!
Yes, it's Craig helping with the laundry again!! He's really becoming something of a laundry expert now. On this day, the first job was to remove the hangers from the clothes.
There was a lot to do but Craig got busy straight away.
But he had some trouble with the first item he tried to deal with.
After he got the first item off its hanger he went to work on other items but he didn't want to let go of the first one.
Then he decided that he needed to give the whole matter some thought. To assist with the thought process he sucked on one of his Mum's clean t-shirts!
Craig's Dad had to take care of most of the folding of the clothes.
Which left Craig with that first item and a number of empty hangers to play with.
Craig was pretty pleased with that situation, throwing clothes hangers around is a lot of fun.
A rapidly aging person who spends some of his spare time blogging about his sons. I also spend a lot of time thinking about how to spend all the money I never win on Lotto.
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