Fall Vacation 2011 - Part Two - Bring on the cheese...

We have become that family.  The family whose portraits are comprised of cutesy (or, some would say, tacky) snapshots of superimposed animals or famous backgrounds, or even printed on a souvenir plate or t-shirt.  


See what I mean?...

Us "with" the pandas at the zoo.  I love that Run and Kyla look a little unsure.  

And then there's this one...

Notice that we are "in" with the undersea animals at the aquarium.  Also, would you take a look at our stereo-type Asian peace signs...and who is that kissing Run?

Exactly.  The cheese factor is as high as it gets right now.  But, guess what?  I love it!


My kids look at these pictures and smile!  They have these memories of our vacation and get excited.  These cute family portraits, when looked upon in the future, will bring back those happy memories and stories.  


At least until they're teens...and then they might resent us for them, but, who cares?  They'll get over it.


We had a blast at the zoo and aquarium on on the fourth day of our vaca.  The kids spent their watching sharks and stingrays being fed by scuba divers, admiring white tigers, and seeing all the weird looking sea creatures from their Plant Earth videos up close.  Jeshurun said that he couldn't believe he was seeing real, live Mexican Axolotls.  


By far, that day was probably my fav of our whole stay-cation.  The kids had a fun time, too, I guess...

One of the real pandas.  "Everybody was kung fu fighting..."

Outside the aquarium there was a lake with these floating Zorb balls to spin from the inside.  Run was in his element.

Surprised this guy didn't lose a finger!

Huy with a white tiger in the background.  Awesome!

Fall Vacation 2011 - Part One - Pictures Galore!

Run and Treav hiked up the mountain to the top of a nine-level waterfall.  

What are the ingredients of a camping trip?  

Bugs, check!  

Hot Dogs, check!  

Grill, check!  

Marshmallows (4 bags), check! 

Tents, check!  

Flashlights, check!  

French press (a must for us non-early risers), check!  

Frisbees, check!  

Kids who wake up at the crack of dawn because there are no black-out curtains in their tent, check!  

I could go on and on...

We started off our fall vacation this year with a three day camping trip.  A first for this family of five.  I think this was the 3rd time in my whole life that I had ever been camping.  Apparently, according to Treavor, RVs and Campers don't count.  Camping isn't hard-core enough if you don't sleep on the ground, I guess!

The weather up here in the North of Thailand has quieted down.  No more gigantic monsoons to dampen our trip.  Cooler weather.  (Yes, we put on long socks and sweaters for the 60-65 degree morning weather.  We are used to the tropical life!)  Even the mosquitoes left us alone, for the most part.  

The ants, on the other hand, had some kind of bitterness toward Man that they had to take out on us.  I counted no less than 8 different kinds of ants while we were there.  Thankfully, though, they stayed away from the inside of our tents.  I prayed and prayed and banished any kind of snacks from being consumed inside of them.  Another camper staying under the pavilion beside us said that the ants were all over his head one night after they pitched their tent in the grass, like us.  He moved.  Though, we moved our "eating spot" down the hill and that seemed to work.

We hiked, played Uno and dinosaurs in the tent at night, read stories, captured bugs, grilled food, sat by the fire and stared at the stars.  Kyla loved sleeping in our tent, and kept us up all night with her tossing and turning...and teething.  But, even with less-than-perfect sleep, we had fun and thoroughly enjoyed the great outdoors.  


Creation.  Breathtaking.  Awe-inspiring.  Relaxing.

The campsite:

all our gear.  we had some stuff, and borrowed some things from friends and had all that we needed!

hopefully, one day, my boys can actually help pitch the tents by themselves!  soon!

little man in training

the canopy for our eating/playing place

all tuckered out.  

the boys had one tent, we had another.  at $2 per night, it definitely beats a two-bedroom hotel price.  

awake and happy.

dinosaur fights by flashlight.

some of you may squirm when you see the squatties we used.  but, just think...if there were no bathroom, what would we have to do anyway?  I'd take this over a whole in the ground, any day!

one afternoon, chicken stew was on the menu.

my goofy boys.

marshmallows!  it took us searching four grocery stores to find these babies.  yum!

The scenery:

please forgive me and my fascination with fungi.  i know I'm weird.

a crazy flower we found.

the first level of the nine level waterfall in the park.  i love living here in Thailand!

Huy and I went on a hike up to the second level of the falls.  

the second level.

funny kid.

there's my sweet boy!  can't believe he's almost 4!

Huy and me.  

fungi again.  i don't know why they weird me out but they do.

Just some of the bugs:

awesome mantis!

walking stick!

ants.  how i loathe, thee!

Got any camping stories?  I'd love to hear the good, the bad and the ugly.  Feel free to leave a comment below...

Changing The "-ings"

my real gas gauge.  permanently broken.  we constantly have to guess how full our tank is.  maybe we should take the same cues in life.

In two days, we are taking our first camping trip as a family.  We are in great need of a vacation right now.  I am up to my ears in "to do's" and doings: washing, teaching, picking up, drying clothes, sweeping, mopping, wiping, cooking, organizing, spanking, running errands...the list goes on. Treavor has been busy meeting, praying, worshipping, sharing the good news, studying, encouraging and networking.  A lot of "-ings."  

This next week, our "-ings" will transfer to some more restful and fun activities, for sanity's sake...

Playing, sleeping, eating, reading, being quiet, hiking, making fires, grilling hot dogs, swimming, resting, laughing, sharing, exploring, etc.

After a few days of being in the outdoors (help me, Jesus...I am more of the "stay in the bungalow at the campground type" than the "tent type"...we are sleeping in tents next week)...we are planning to take another couple days to have a stay-cation at our house.  We'll eat out and do tourist-y things around town that we haven't done before: Bug World (a request from the boys), a tuk-tuk ride around downtown's must-see spots, the aquarium, etc.

Basically, we will be filling our tanks instead of emptying them.  Humans were not made to be machines.  We cannot run forever like the Energizer bunny...although we'd like to be able to, sometimes!

If the concept of filling your tank to prevent "burnout" from Life is something that interests you...take a virtual trip over to my friend, Joy's, blog here.  She linked up to a great teaching on the subject.  Also, read some of her other posts.  You will be super-blessed by her vulnerable and honest writing style!

How do you fill your tank?  What are you doing now that empties it more than your life can handle?  Feel free to share in the comments below.  Your answer could shed light into someone else's life as well as your own.

Still Under Water

Please continue to pray for Thailand - still suffering under the effects of this season's flooding.  Almost 400 lives have been lost already and some places have been under water for over a month now.  It hasn't ended yet.  If you haven't caught wind of this on your local news, watch here and start praying!  While you're at it, pray for God's presence to flood Thailand as well.  The difference with Him, is that the flood of His presence can restore even the most broken, destroyed life. After all the water has receded and the clean-up is over, people are still gonna need more.  Not just more money to rebuild their lives, not just hope in a government that will probably fail them as all other earthly governments do, but they (as we all) are going to need more of Jesus.   Pray it in!

"The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual."  1 Corinthians 15:46

Happy Box Day!

Our first (of two) boxes with our new school books from Sonlight came in the mail yesterday!  Happy Box Day!  I mentioned in this post about how hard it is to be patient.  It surely is.  Since finishing Kindergarten with Run, we've been waiting for our next set of curriculum.  During the wait, I did some random school stuff with the kids, went on shopping trips, adventured to the market, had play dates with friends...oh, and I was sick for a whole week!  Who knows what Treavor did with the kids while I was stuck upstairs?  They still have all their limbs intact, so I am satisfied.  


Any-who...the first box (thanks for sending it, Mom!) had all our math books, manipulatives (I always laugh when I say that) and my terribly-large binder of curriculum.  It is a workout just picking that thing up.  By the end of the year, my son will be smarter and maybe I'll have toned arms, who knows?  Mom even threw in some cute clothes for Kyla and Huy's Thumb guard in the box!

Check out that cutie!  New panda princess jammies.  We are entering into the world of girly-stuff.  

Pray for Huy.  He loves to suck his thumb!  Hopefully the Thumb Guard will break the habit!

After we emptied the box, we realized another surprise the box held...it turns into a castle!

They were so excited to cut out this thing.  Sonlight is the coolest.

Close-up inside view

Simple enough, right?

Why not add a dancing baby to your castle-making?

Or a dancing pre-schooler, for that matter?

Almost done!  

The finished product.  After a little duct tape, this sucker is ready to go! Let the imaginary play begin!

It was a fun little surprise to find a castle waiting for us inside the box.  I bet you can make your own!  Looks simple enough, right?  For the crafter-at-heart, this is a cinch...but for the artistically-challenged me, it was an easy way to turn a boring, empty box into a boy's dream.  All I did was cut and stick it together with duct tape, but Run said, "I just can't believe you did this, Mom...you're awesome!"


A great beginning to the start of first grade!