The End, I Swear

Does knowing that I had 286 pictures to choose from make you feel any better about 3 Thailand posts? This is the last of it. Cross my heart.

Several of the places that we ate at the owner or server would offer to hold Ander for us while we ate. I really appreciated it because inevitably Ander would be fast asleep until they set the food down on our table and he would suddenly pop his little head up and demand our full attention. The ladies always stayed nearby and just enjoyed him, it was really nice.
One afternoon we rented a jet ski for an hour. Nathan took the older 3 out and then I got my turn. We get plenty of looks on the beach with 3 children and then people realize there is a 4th nearby and I saw a few raised eyebrows in our direction. So when it was my turn on the jet ski I did my best Bay Watch run (not sexy so much as the kind where you are suddenly hyper aware you need to adjust a wedgie but you are afraid the entire beach is watching so that's the real reason you are running out into the water- to hide) out into the surf where Nathan threw me the oversized life jacket and I jumped out of the water and onto that jet ski and was off. It was a newer jet ski and I had such a great time out in the ocean by myself jumping waves. It was a stellar 20 min.

Please. Love him!

Random Fact: Ander officially turned 3 months the last day of our trip
It rained off and on the last 3 days and the ocean wasn't so calm and nice anymore but it was still warm and all but one storm was short lived so we played right on through most of it. One afternoon a torrential downpour started right as we headed to our taxi waiting for us. It is a little walk, 5 min, to where he was and we ended up completely soaked even with an umbrella. In the end we waited under a porch while Nathan took the kids one by one to the taxi. Everyone but Ander and I ended up soaked to the skin. The picture below is the flooded streets after that storm. Crazy.
We were headed to the "Aquarium" -quotes are cuz it was a pretty weak sauce aquarium. The only cool thing were these open tanks where you could feed turtles. Funny how the open tank with eels and some kind of shark had a simple sign with a line through a hand. Just a, "Don't Touch" picture. No bold "you may lose your hand to your wrist" or "sticking your finger in a sockets got nothin' on these eels!" just a lot of faith in one picture of a hand. And, I assume, good liability insurance.

I felt better about the tigers conditions, there was a sign here that said each tiger is only in the caged area for a short time each day. Could be lies but they seemed pretty content. There was a really cool bird show - and also a Tiger show as well. If I'm being honest with myself I kinda watched the tiger show just waiting for someone to get their head bitten off- I mean seriously, am I the only one who watched Animals Gone Wild? Seigfried and Roy? Anybody???
The show got cut a little short due to another cloud burst so you could go inside this area and they had an Otter, Owl and these birds you could pay to take a picture with. We people watched until most the crowd had left and then did the pictures and they let us take several which was nice of them.

So, the People Watching. (did you hear that? that was the sound of this tangent shooting off into oblivion) Thailand is also known as a destination for some terrible, unspeakable things. As we boarded our flight to Bangkok I found myself checking out any man traveling by himself, especially ones who didn't appear to be on business. I know I have an active imagination- but the guy sitting behind us on the flight CREEPED US OUT. 100% and ABSOLUTELY (as my BIL would say). I literally almost asked if the 6 of us or 1 of him could be moved. He talked to himself and was sending out a vibe that would make any parent take their child and run.

On our flight from Bangkok to Kohsamui we lost the creeps but gained a fascinating new breed. We saw them all over and eventually came to spot them easily. Older white guys out on dates with their Thai girlfriends. Or rather Older white guys out on "dates" with their Thai "girlfriends". It would be an older man with a really young Thai girl and they would make zero conversation through entire meals and they would bumble around as they went to hold hands etc. Nathan and I realized that as much as we wanted to give these men the benefit of the doubt, we doubted most of them deserved it. Made for interesting people watching though.

I also wanted to show this picture, did you know on International flights they have bassinets for babies? Sweet huh? It hooks right into the wall in front of your seat. Only bummer is having to wake a sleeping baby to put the bassinet away for landing :(
Love this pic of Aly's little feet as she ran off down the beach. Thanks everyone, for reading and sharing our memories of our Christmas this year. I guess there are some benefits of being on this side of the Earth since we couldn't be home with family.

Last but not least, we took pictures of all of our meals, mostly because they were all presented so beautifully. Enjoy.

Elephants & Octopi in Samui

Having all 6 of us share a bungalow that was basically a room the size of a hotel room plus bathroom was just fine. The kids are a little older so they don't mess around for as long before falling asleep usually. We bribed them with a piece of gum- if they were quiet in the mornings they could have one after breakfast. They were all over it. Kennedy would read quietly to Kohen and Aly- it's one of my favorite things that they do. Bribery rocks.
Ander spent a good portion of the week in this carrier. He is the sweatiest baby even in cooler conditions so I was excited to find this Bjorn with lumbar support for me and made of this cool material that is breathable and helps with the sweating. You know the waffle material on running shoes? It's like that. Love it. Having Ander not lose half his body weight in water every time we are out? priceless.

A highlight of the trip was the Elephant Trek. The boys were on one and us girls on the other and we got to ride an elephant through the jungle. It was awesome. Not the most comfortable ride of your life but certainly up there in uniqueness. I think I was amazed/terrified by the elephants sheer strength the most. They would stop and put their leg on a tree about 5-6 inches around and they'd give it a little push and crack! the tree was down. They'd eat some leaves off of the fallen tree and then we'd move on leaving busted trees in our wake.
Another time a coconut fell and the trainer had the elephant step on it to crack it, then use his trunk to hand it up to the trainer who then proceeded to cut out pieces of coconut to feed to the elephant. The trainers did seem very at ease with the elephants and to have a relationship with them. I have seen one too many Animals Gone Wild to forget no matter what these are basically wild animals. Thankfully they were nothing but mellow for us. Before and after the children got to take turns feeding the elephants bananas- to feel their trunks is so creepy and cool- as long as there is antibacterial soap in the near vicinity.

Kohen's mind was blown when toward the end of the trek the trainer asked if he wanted to come sit up front. So next thing I know, my 5 year old son is having the time of his life steering around a 6 ton animal. He played the part well, speaking loudly but kindly and hilariously, "No, not that way silly guy, this way!" He reported on the awesomeness afterwards and finished by telling me the elephant's hair was just a little pokey but that was okay. You may want to enlarge the pic below to see his face if you are a gparent/aunt/uncle and want a closer look :)

Again, the food was something Nathan and I looked forward to every day. Still surprised about that actually. We walked to most places from Coco Palms, the evenings were balmy and gorgeous. Even when it rained. Keeping the kids contained until the food came each night was...special. But we kept the spills in the double digits and managed to only shatter one glass so I feel pretty good about that.
Okay, the "Monkey Show"- and I'm not talking about my children in the backseat of the taxi's. It started out like a good idea and in the end I was mortified we'd paid $ to encourage these poor monkey's lives and living conditions. We went in and bought the food you could feed all of the caged monkeys. These ^ babies had it down. They whine and cry at you like they are starving (could very well be) and break your heart. The conditions...let's just say PETA would not approve. I was ready to leave before the show even started but my children, oblivious to the monkey's plight, really enjoyed the "show".
There were only 6 other people there for the show besides our family. They took a turn letting anyone who wanted get a pic. I was super hesitant to let my spouse or children do this (after seeing the Oprah with the lady who got her face and hands eaten off by a chimp, wouldn't you be?!) but after a few others went without incident I could see my husband and son didn't care what overprotective mom had seen on tv and they went for it. The monkey looks scary but they'd actually get him up there and tell him to yawn to produce the look.

Even Kenna tried, I was outnumbered.
They had the little guys trained to shoot hoops, twirl a baton of fire (while singing the fur on his knees every time he twirled it) he burned his hand and dropped it once and I was ready to walk. Though the show lasted all of 20 minutes I had had enough of the shady place. On our way out the trainer guy insisted we all watch the monkey go up a palm and get coconuts down. It's taking the poor little guy a while, clear up there in these tall palms, all the while the trainers are shouting at him to "HURRY UP!!" He drops one and as they are still shouting he dropped a second one, which plunged right through the trainers tiled bathroom roof. It was awesome. I felt like it was just a little bit of justice jungle style.

We really did spend a lot of time swimming, we were perpetually pruned. It was great. The first half the ocean was really calm and we would go out and swim together and Nathan would dive down for shells. The water was warmer than the pool and very buoyant so you could stay in for a long time comfortably.
Nathan discovered this little octopus (or squid?) in a shell and we found several more "Squishy's" over the next day or so. They would change color and ink when we let them go- they were so cool we spent forever trying to get a picture of them. The video shows how cool they moved, try to ignore how sure I am it's a squid, I don't know what I'm talking about. Try pushing play and if it doesn't work click the part that moves as the video plays, and let me know if the videos are working for you.

Welcome to Kohsamui Thailand

One advantage of living on this side of the earth is that we are suddenly near many places we wouldn't otherwise have the opportunity of visiting. This year for our Christmas we decided to go to Kohsamui, a little island in Thailand. We stayed in our own quaint bungalow and had immediate access to the pool and beach where we spent much of our week.
Nathan and I are pretty sure Kennedy out did herself with this most recent "chuck the kid" picture that is a requisite for any vacation. Check out those lines!
After a day of traveling (one 3 hr flight to Bangkok and another hour to the island) we arrived late afternoon and wasted no time exploring the pool and the beach. We stayed at Coco Palms Resort and we found the accommodations perfect for our little family. The best part is how cheap they were.

So far Ander gets an A+ for traveling. He has been such a champ about messed up schedules and routines. I have to give a huge shout out to my friend Alina who gave me her bassinet when we moved from California. The bassinet part can actually fold up so I just packed it in a suitcase and then we would bring it out poolside with us and Ander would have somewhere to lay. You can lift up part of it to a sitting position so he could see what was going on, or we would lay it down and put up the shade and he would take his naps just a few feet away from where we were playing. It was the perfect thing to have, thanks Alina!

It was such a nice week in that we had no obligations or appointments. We did what we wanted when we wanted and we did it as a family. My favorite part was that we were able to just be together. I caught the above picture through a window as they sat having a conversation.

(I can't write a post about how awesome time with my family was w/o saying that it was real. As in, plenty of meltdowns from tired children and the occasional crying, whining and fighting. I write this in an effort to keep it real, for us as much as anyone. I tend to like to remember good times as purely good times when they are more accurately marbled with the realities of day to day living as a family).
I saw this lady above ^ fishing off our beach while we had breakfast. I thought she was eclectic and fascinating.
Confession: I had never really tried Thai food before. I lumped it all in under the oppressive "Asian" umbrella. A highlight of the trip was when I discovered I in fact love Thai food! Not even on the same playing field as Taiwan food, I am sorry to say. This place below where we ate one day for lunch had good food, however some of the art work had Nathan and I working hard to keep our children distracted from it. One of the things I am learning about traveling and living in different parts of the world is that you can't control everything your children may see (ie- 'immodest' statues, inappropriate advertising etc) . We aren't going to hide from this fact of life but we are learning (trial and error) how to use those types of things as teaching moments for our children.

Lot's of tailor places in Kohsamui, all sporting mannequins in their windows wearing sweet priest collared suits like from the early 90's, so radical. Nathan found this place particularly questionable, check out the second line below. Ahh well, service is overrated.

Okay, at this restaurant Kohen kept begging to have this coconut drink he saw a picture of in the menu. Food is also very inexpensive so we finally said, sure, have your creepy coconut drink. The ^ picture is of these two pretending to drink after they'd already tried the straight young coconut milk and didn't appreciate it's icky flavor or strong after taste. We decided to video Aly trying it for the first time. I present- Her Reaction:

You may have to click the little part that moves next to the 'play' button to get it to play. I have no idea why. Let me know if it continues not to play.

If you didn't catch what she says, I'll write it in the comments.

stay tuned for more on Thailand...

Kennedy at Christmas~

I caught this look when I was trying to make Kennedy smile for a pic and I asked if she thought she'd been good enough to get what she hoped from Santa...

Taiwan Christmas Pageant 2009

It can be difficult to feel the Christmas spirit when you live in a place that doesn't really celebrate it. The warm weather -though glorious- throws me off too. I never thought that I would actually miss the commercialization of Christmas but I've realized that all of those decorations starting mmm, October 1st, really help with anticipation.

The Christmas Pageant our Ward and community does every year is something everyone seemed to look forward to so I was excited when the weekend finally came. The first two shows on Saturday I helped with the make-up, Nathan was a Wise Man and the children were in the children's choir.

The stage is elaborate and the costumes make everything seem more realistic. There is an adult choir, a children's choir and a choir of Missionaries who all get the chance to sing.

Below is Aly with Benji, he's in our Ward and a sorta famous local I guess you could say. He was in China's version of American Idol and made it into the top ten before he was "cut", as they wouldn't allow a foreigner to win. For the pageant he sang a song backed up by the children's choir.

Sunday's two shows Nathan and I played the part of Mary and Joseph. The part of the Donkey was played by an old horse (he's blind in one eye, it's clouded over white and Kohen has included the horse's eye in his prayers ever since) that I ride and Nathan walks us through the crowd on our journey to Bethlehem.

Since being seriously "heavy with child" is still quite fresh in my memory, it was very sobering to imagine how terribly uncomfortable riding a Donkey all day in that state must have been. Playing Mary was very humbling and as I rode up to the stage the realization of what she faced: no comforts, no home, no extended family to support, literally no where to have her baby- all hit me and I struggled very hard not to just start crying in sympathy. I figured a bawling Mary wasn't what they were looking for so instead I focused on the task at hand- getting off of the donkey/horse without letting my baby bump fall down or my gown come up to reveal my 21st century jean shorts underneath.

There is narration and the choirs sing as we enter and then I sit on the steps with the horse while Nathan goes around the stage trying to find a place for us to stay and as you know, he is turned away by everyone.

This picture ^ is Nathan coming back and telling me he couldn't find anywhere to stay. You may think the look on my face is primo acting but really all Nathan did to incite such emotion was tell me, "I'm sorry but you have to have your baby in Taiwan". All genuine from there.

There are Roman soldiers in the cast and singing angels in the sky, Shepherds, Wise men- it really is quite the production and the audience was overcrowded each performance which is great. In the picture above you can see the Saturday Mary and Joseph played by Ben and Sally- they did great.

Everyone wondered if we were going to use Ander as baby Jesus but the show is actually fairly long and though he has a great temperament even he has his moments and you could bet one would've been in the middle of the show. So some sweet women from the Ward snuggled him up during the performances and a doll was cast in the role instead. Thank goodness because the doll was about 12 lbs lighter. It was an incredibly crazy busy weekend but it was fun and really helped me to feel that ever elusive True Christmas Spirit, perhaps more than I ever have before.

Aly Indian Dance

Aly recently had a Christmas program at her school. Each class had several song/dances to perform and may I humbly say, she killed it. Here is a short clip of her India one to validate.

Now I see where tuition goes, to all of these costumes! Quite the program.

Problem Solving @ It's Finest

One of Kohen's responsibilities after school is to vacuum around and under the kitchen table. This week he had a strange streak of accidentally whacking his head on the table (seriously, 3rd day in a row- thought for sure he must be teasing- nope.) Poor kid was crying with big 'ol tears running down his cheeks... shortly thereafter he found a solution.