Amber went away this weekend with her parents to visit Jiufen and Jinguashih. She took a couple of photos while seeing the sights there.

Amber had hoped to go to the beach today to give her new shovel and pail a workout in the sand, but the rain changed her plans. Instead, she visited her aunt in Xiluo, a small town in the center of Taiwan, where she still got to play in some water at a local park, and took home a new cat, Momo. Amber wasn't able to take any pictures of Momo today, but she did take these of snaps of her parents in front of the Xiluo Bridge.

Amber and her father went for a sweaty hike this morning in Chung-cheng Park. They took turns taking pictures of each other running towards the camera. As the old commercial suggests, moments like these are priceless.

Amber took this picture of her father after walking up a steep mountain road to a Buddhist temple. Except for the mantis that flew onto her chest, she had a good time!

Amber had a great Sunday afternoon at the Flying Cow Ranch in Miaoli County, Taiwan, feeding farm animals, riding ponies, looking at bugs and photographing her parents and flowers.

This is what Amber likes to do when sometimes when she goes to department stores:

She told her father do put his left hand on the mannequin, and to make a victory gesture with his right hand. Amber knows what she wants when it comes to photographs!

Amber's kindergarten class put on a show last Sunday morning, which can be seen here:




Afterward, she took the camera and snapped several shots of some of the performances by other classes:


Amber insists that this photo of her father is "just right"!

Amber's preschool held a party last night for the children and their parents. This is Amber's mom and dad, along with Amber's classmate, friend and neighbor Jia-yu.

Amber took this photo of a rainbow that appeared in the sky on Sunday in the aftermath of a typhoon that fortunately spared our area. It was a better picture than the one her father took!

Amber hasn't been taking too many pictures lately, but here are a few she recently snapped. First off, her mother and father at the Taichung Folk Park, the weekend before last:



And from this past weekend, at the Taipei Zoo:


This is one three and a half-year old who is more interested in reptiles than penguins!

Amber lives with a black cat named Happy. Amber likes Happy, but the feeling isn't mutual. Whenever he sees Amber, Happy runs off and hides somewhere until the coast is clear. Amber's cousin Dolphin also has a cat, Momo. Momo is far more tolerant of Amber than Happy, and so Amber is always happy (no pun intended) to see Momo when Dolphin is back in town for a visit:

Last week Amber went with her father to have lunch with some of her daddy's students.

Here are a few photographs that Amber has taken in recent days:

Amber's mother at Taichung Harbor.

Amber's parents at sunset.

Amber loves flowers!


Watching Barney the Purple Dinosaur at home with Mom.

For someone who only just turned three years old, Amber has already figured out how to use a lot of things around the house, like the DVD player and her dad's laptop. Furthermore, she can already find her favorite videos on YouTube. This afternoon, she helped herself to the digital camera while her mom was doing housework, and took some pictures of what she was watching:

The other day Amber was using Play Doh and Legos to make "strawberry cake". Afterward, she took a few pictures of her handiwork, plus a scene from a Chinese opera that her mother was watching on her computer.

Amber decided to take the camera and take a few shots of her living room (and her mother!). The results:

Amber spent the Lunar New Year holiday, two weeks in total, in the United States, staying at the home of her American grandparents. While she was there, she celebrated her third birthday, and naturally got a lot of presents from her Nana and Granddad. Another highlight of the visit was getting to experience, and play in, snow for the first time. Amber asked to use the camera many times, and here are some of the pictures she took while in America.

Nana and Granddad.
Mom and Dad celebrating Amber's birthday.

These two pictures were taken at a seaside park near Nana and Granddad's house in Bremerton, Washington.


One evening, Amber went around the house taking photos of people and rooms.


These pictures were taken on the ferry going from Bremerton to Seattle.


This last set of photos was taken at Narita Airport in Japan, while waiting for a connecting flight back to Taiwan. A woman was quite impressed with Amber's pictures.

Amber often accompanies her mother when she goes shopping. One place that Amber likes to visit is the traditional market near her grandmother's house. Many of the sellers there know her by name, and some of them like to give her candy or small snacks. It's no wonder Amber likes to go food shopping! Here are some photos she took this afternoon of the market:

Amber welcomed in 2009 by going into Taichung on Friday with her father. They were supposed to go to the art museum there to check their children's play area. Unfortunately, they got into the city late in the afternoon, and then waited a long time for a bus that never came. After a break for lunch, Amber's father declared it was getting too late to visit the museum, and so they spent the rest of the afternoon walking around the Taichung train station area. They will try again another weekend. Amber did take these two pictures of her daddy:



On Saturday, Amber got to ride the train again, this time going from Fengyuan to Jiji, with both her parents. Before leaving, she took these pictures at home:


While on the train going from Ershuei to Jiji, Amber took the camera and took these shots from the window:

It's Christmas today, and Amber really enjoyed it. And no wonder, for she got a lot of presents - a race track set, some stuffed animals, a couple of books, a Winnie the Pooh DVD. She was so busy playing with her gifts, that she didn't take any photographs. But last Sunday, she did go out with her mommy and daddy to do some Christmas shopping in Taichung, and she took this picture of her parents at the Tiger City shopping mall:


She also took this photo of an elephant that was included as part of one shopping center's Christmas decorations: