I have passed this car hundreds of times since we moved here to Singapore and laugh every time. I have never seen anything quite like it. Small cars are everywhere in Asia but this one tops them all. It reminds me of the Smurf's for some reason. I don't think Smurf's drive cars but if they did, this is what it would look like :)
December 2009
December 25, 2009
Halloween
Halloween was so much fun this year! Abbie and Natalie were the cutest little witches. William was thrilled to be Batman. I cracked up every time he put on his bat mask and cape and would run around the house.
Halloween is my favorite holiday next to Christmas and I had to dress up with the kids. My friend had this great Dorothy costume complete with a Todo in a basket and I was sold. We met up with some other families from the ward for dinner (thanks Southwick's) and then some insane trick or treating. The kids had so much fun. It started to rain and thunder at one point and Natalie called it quits but Dustin stayed out with Abbie and Will and they came back with plenty of candy in their bags. Another memorable Halloween!!
December 24, 2009
Thanksgiving
This year we got together for Thanksgiving with a couple of great families in our ward. Brady and Kristen Southwick are amazing hosts and we so kind to let us all come over for a wonderful Thanksgiving feast. For some reason I didn't take many pictures, I was probably too stuffed to remember I had my camera. The kids had so much fun. Luckily, I did manage to snap of few photos of the kids eating.
I was enjoying my wonderful meal when I turned
around and saw Natalie coming down
the stairs wearing this hilarious wig. She was obviously having a good time :)
We ordered our turkey through a man who works at Abbie's school and it was great. It was so nice to have some real turkey and gravy. I thought about cooking my own turkey but then quickly remembered how small my oven was :) We had a great Thanksgiving this year and have so much to be thankful for but we definitely missed being home for the holidays!
December 23, 2009
Happy Birthday William!!
Okay, so I know I am a little behind on my posting but I am trying to catch up for the New Year. William turned 3 in October and I cannot believe it! He is adorable and so much fun to be around. He is constantly on the go and loves to run and jump off anything and everything. Seriously! This is probably do to his obsession with Spiderman. I attempted to make him Spiderman cupcakes which turned out pretty good. William was a not feeling very well but cheered up when he saw his presents and cupcakes.
He can run surprising fast too so I am pretty much on the move with this little man. William's favorite game is hide and seek. He could play for hours. His favorite place to hide is in the kitchen cupboard and I always crack up when I see the door open and him grinning from ear to ear. He loves to play with trains and trucks, teasing his sisters and being tickled. William spends a lot of his time in the water whether we are swimming or in the shower. He loves it! Here are the three things I love most about William.
1) When he puts his hands on my face and kisses my forehead
2) His thoughtfulness about others.
3) His adventurous spirit. Will is truly fearless!
Happy Birthday Will and we are so blessed to have you a part of our family.
Rider's Lodge (October)
For those of you who might not know this already about Singapore, it is located on the tip of the Malay peninsula. So, it is very easy to cross the border into Malaysia and is about a 20 minute drive to the border. We have been looking for an excuse to go to Johor Bahru, Malaysia to check it out. My good friend, Elsa, a lover of ALL animals but especially loves horses, has been looking for a place to go horseback riding. Through a friend in the ward(thanks Becky) we heard about this great lodge about 45 minutes across the border that was just what we were looking for.
We planned a trip for the weekend and we were off. We had a great time with Elsa and her family. We signed the kids up for riding classes and had a blast. We spent quite a bit of our time down in the stables checking out the horses. Abbie and Natalie were so happy to be around horses and loved every minute of it. They got to go down to the stables 30 minutes before their lessons to meet and groom their horses.
It was kinda hard with William because he was too little to ride the horses but thoroughly enjoyed watching his sisters ride the stallions :)
I would definitely recommend a day trip any time but the accommodations were a little on the shady side :) All in all we had a great time. The highlight of the trip for me was going on a horse trek out on the plantation with Elsa. We did some trotting and galloping and my thighs were killing by the end but it was worth it. Thanks Elsa and Sebastian for a great time!
Krabi Day 4
I am finally getting around to finishing blogging about our Krabi trip, whew!! Our last day was a lot of fun because we finally got to ride an elephant. We actually would see elephants on the side of the road while driving and I knew we had to go for a ride.
Abbie meeting her elephant. The trainer said that
you can tell how old an elephant is by how many
spots it has on its nose. This elephant was around
40 years old and so beautiful.
We had 3 elephants with Dustin and William,Cheryl and Natalie and Abbie and me.
I was expecting a pretty bumping ride but
was rather surprised at how agile and quiet they moved. We had
to cross a river at one point and I was a little nervous :)
We went for a 45 minute jungle ride on the elephants and I don't think I will be trading in my car keys anytime soon.
At the end of the ride each of the kiddos got to feed their elephant
some pineapple.
Way to go Natalie!
Right before we left this guy came out with his pet spider. It totally gave me the creeps!
We had such a great time visiting these amazing
animals and were sad to leave for the airport to come home. We will definitely be
coming back to Krabi!
December 20, 2009
Krabi Day 3
One of the great things about living in Singapore, is all the great friends you make. Luckily for me and my sanity, I met Cheryl and became fast friends. We love hanging out with her adorable family. When I found out the she enjoys rock climbing as much as I do, I knew a climbing trip needed to be planned. There is no better climbing than Krabi and with over 600 bolted climbs and a 90 minute flight our trip was planned.
I love this awesome picture of Cheryl! She claimed she hadn't been climbing in 9 years but you sure couldn't tell :) We had another climber in our group who was from Ireland and was a good sport to put up with all of our picture taking.
The scenery was absolutely beautiful! It was awesome to get to the top of a climb and turn around and see a breathtaking view. We did four climbs in the morning and than took a much needed break for lunch. After some yummy chicken and rice we headed off to the Khoa Luk Choee cave. It was HUGE!
We did one climb outside of the cave and than put on our head lamps and did a little
spelunking.
The day just kept getting better and better.
After exploring a bit and hearing blood sucking bats, I was ready to get back to climbing. We rappelled down out of the other side of the cave and did our last 2 climbs.
I am so glad that Cheryl and I were able to go on this adventure. It was a dream of Cheryl's to one day go climbing in Krabi and I'm so glad that I was able to be there for it to come true.
Our last climb was the best! The sun was setting as we climbed on adding to this surreal experience. We did a total of 7 climbs and I was definitely in need of a massage.
This was the crew. Tek was our amazing guide and Collin the Irishman who put up two crazy American women :)
This was definitely a highlight of my life and I realized that I need to push myself more out of my comfort zone in order to grow stronger and better. Dustin was the best. I couldn't ask for a more supportive husband. I was gone all day and he was so excited to hear how our day went when got back that night after spending all day with the kiddos. I am a lucky lady!
Krabi Day 2
On our second day we decided to do a 4 island hopping tour through the hotel. We went to these beautiful islands and had a blast. The girls snorkeled and swam while William played in the sand with his shovel and bucket. At one point there was a line of 5 or 6 people waiting to take pictures of Will playing in the sand. Poor William, he is pretty much used to complete strangers taking pictures of him by now. It still makes me a bit uncomfortable at times though :)
Our last island that we went to is called Railay Beach, it was by far my favorite. It is also where I went rock climbing the following day. When our boat came up on the shore our tour guide told us we didn't need our shoes because the sand was so soft, and she was right!
This sign was very comforting :)
Luckily, no tsunami came our way!
I loved these long boats selling yummy snacks. It all smelled so good.
We all got our share of sun and sand in. A warm shower never felt so good!
November 11, 2009
Krabi
This past week we packed up the family and were headed back to Thailand. The kids are getting pretty good at traveling now which made things much easier or they are finally getting tired of my lectures =) When we arrived at our hotel it had been raining and Natalie in her excitement to check things out slipped on some stairs and yes, cut the back of her head open. Ouch!! I felt so bad for her but luckily it wasn't deep enough for stitches. That reminds me, I need to ask mom how to do butterfly knots (family joke). Well, we started our first day off with hike to Tiger's Cave. It is Buddhist temple where monks live and people go to for meditation purposes. It is high on a mountain top, actually 1237 steps to be exact. Whew!!
This sign is a little misleading because it doesn't
tell you that each stair is a different height and width. At times the stairs were literally straight up like a ladder. We hadn't gotten too far when Dustin stopped to give William his favorite sippy cup and a sneaky monkey swiped it! It started its way towards me and I tried to get it to drop it but then it bared its teeth at me and hissed. I decided he could keep it. William was very upset to say the least.
Here are a few pictures we took along the way.
The kiddos were such troopers and Abbie did the whole thing without complaining which is more than I can say for Dustin =)
I thought this sign was funny. It never occurred to
me that someone would use a different Deity with this phrase. Our next pit stop was the Emerald Pools. We definitely needed to cool off after our stair master work out.
These naturals pools were beautiful. We had to hike
on a trail for about 15 minutes and then right in the middle of the jungle were these crystal clear pools. We all enjoyed swimming around and taking it easy after our hike.
There was a little platform that you could jump off
of and Abbie said she would only do it if I did it with her. And yes, that is the natural color of my pasty white legs.
Natalie was even brave enough to jump to me.
As of late, she has become a little fish. I love it!
Natalie had enough of taking pictures.
Next we were headed off to some hot springs to help loosen up our sore muscles.
We were all tuckered out after our first day in Krabi and headed back to the hotel for some dinner and a yummy banana split.
