the water fountain

As we finished vacation and waited to board our international flight back to the mainland, we saw something we never see here: a water fountain. You know, the drinking kind. (How developed and first-world of them!)

I chuckled when Grace asked me what it was. Seriously?! How could she not know?! But then I remembered, she really doesn't recall ever seeing one before. Grace wanted to try it out so I explained how to use it. And reminded her not to put her mouth on the nozzle. Ick.

"MOMMY! This is a-maz-ing! Look, you just push the button here and the water keeps coming! It's so cool!! And it's free!! You don't have to pay a thing for this water!!" She pretty much repeated this mantra 12 times in between gulps. After a few minutes, I finally tore her away from her new discovery, water completely soaking her shirt.

And it dawned on me, Grace doesn't remember much from our time in the States. When we first moved back to Asia in 2009 Grace was the exact age that Trinity is now, just shy of 3 years old. How in the world can that be? For the first year or two, Grace remembered quite a bit about American life. Now she remembers hardly anything except family members and friends.

This summer we'll make some more memories in the States. I can hardly wait to hear what comes out of her mouth. :)

our time away

I tend to neglect blogging about the day-to-day aspects of our life, but give us a trip and I'm on it. Somehow in the blogging recesses of my mind I must highly value the vacations we take and people who come to visit. But, I also want to remember our day-to-day happenings. So, note to self: blog more about our daily life. Whew, with that done, here are some pictures of our trip to T-land. We stayed at a resort (term used loosely depending on your personal definition) geared for expats like ourselves. The girls loved the fact that we stayed in a "tree house." It was perfect for our family and for young families in general with playgrounds, a pool, and instant friends running around. Grace played with so many girls her age (one just 3 hours older than her), and visited other friends' tree houses almost daily. I enjoyed a break from my usual role of social director/craft coordinator and loved simply watching Grace and Trinity play with other kids who speak English.

Somehow, in Thailand, Trinity decided to allow me to fix her hair almost daily. With hair this wild, anything that's not sticking straight up is considered success. You should see her morning hair-it's awesome!! Kevin and I say her hair really matches her personality: spunky and a little on the wild side.

We were B-L-E-S-S-E-D to see friends we hadn't seen in over 2 years. With 3 families' schedules and some of our friends dealing with sickness, vacation looked a little different than we thought it would but we savored the time we had together. SK5 and JD2+2, we love you!! (BTW, seeing my girls next to baby L. and baby S. made me realize how big they are getting! Sniff. I'd be lying if I said this didn't lead to a little bit of baby fever. Just a little bit.)

This little guy was sick for much of our time together and was such a sweetie. He wanted daddy to hold him when he felt bad but it was fun to see his personality come through when he was feeling better!

At the zoo, the girls got to experience their first-ever pony rides. It was by far the best 66 cents I spent on each of them all day.

How much do I love this pictures of these sweet 2 year olds? Very, very much...ice cream face and all.

Trying to get all these kids in one place reminded me a bit of herding cats...but a cute bunch of cats.

Here's just a random picture I took that I absolutely love. Pretty stinkin' cute if I do say so myself.

And this picture just makes me laugh because it's a common scene around here. Who says boys are the only ones who love to wrestle? I blame this on their MMA-loving dad.

Who doesn't love a good play land? This dollar-entry playground was our kids' favorite destination. Go figure.

Aside from the zoo, we also went to a night safari at a separate location, except we went to the night safari during the day (confusing?). We loved it better than the zoo and had close encounters with all kinds of hairy friends. Trinity got to feed a giraffe. Brave.

There were lots more highlights, but honestly I didn't take my camera around as much as I thought I would. But you can ask Kevin about his mountain-biking adventure and he will inform you that gravity is indeed alive and real. If you need a cheap pedicure in T-land, I'm your woman. Just don't ask me to bargain for you at the night market because I'm terrible. We flew home on the last night of Chinese New Year, Lantern Festival. As we were landing we looked out our plane's windows and saw fireworks exploding all over the city. That was a fun memory. Thank you, Lord, for time away and a chance to recharge.