The Nth Degree

Happy, Crawling Girl

2015-02-16T04:46:00.000-05:00

With all of our kids, I have felt like they were all pretty good and happy babies. My parents have always told me that I was their "happy baby", but I always wondered if it was because I was the youngest and their memories of me were the best. After I gave birth to Scarlett, it seemed like she was a pretty content little thing from the get-go. I felt like the Lord had really blessed her and me because she was so easy during the transition from the U.S. to Japan over the Summer and Fall. Now that she is going on 7 1/2 months, I just can't get over what a happy baby she is. It takes almost no effort at all to get a smile from her. For the first 6 months, when I would go lay her down for bed, she would tuck her little arms underneath her body and she would almost never cry. She is a lot more active now, so sometimes it takes her a little while to relax to go to sleep, but even still, she is a really good sleeper. A lot of people that meet her and hold her always seem to say afterwards, "she is just a really happy baby, isn't she?" I can tell she is going to be really social and she seems to really enjoy interacting with anyone and everyone around her. All my kids have pretty much been that way.

Scarlett loves her brothers and sister, and when the boys get home from school and she sees them, she likes to rapidly start kicking her legs out of her sheer excitement. She just started crawling and she seems pretty determined to get it down so that she can start exploring more. Her personality reminds me a lot of Clark's at this age. We all love her to pieces, even when she spits up all down the front of her AND me. Twice.

President's Day Out

2015-02-16T03:33:00.001-05:00

Tanner had President's Day off from work, but the boys still had school, so we took the girls out for a stroll in the Azabu-Juban neighborhood. It has some cute streets and a playground. We ate lunch at "Eat More Greens", which is a Vegan cafe. It was pretty good, and then we went and played at the playground, and then we had to hit the French Bakery on the way back to the Metro station. The weather is getting a little warmer so it is starting to feel like eventually winter will end! It is fun to have some time out with just the little girls!

Andrew Loses 2nd Tooth...sort of

2015-02-13T17:14:00.000-05:00

Andrew lost his second tooth tonight! I was interested to see how this one was going to come out since it is his fused tooth. The weird part is that I thought when he lost that tooth, the huge whole thing was going to come out all at once, but apparently they have separate roots, so it actually broke off where it looks like it was fused, so just a tiny little part came out. Luckily, the Dentist predicted correctly that his permanent teeth would not be fused, so that's good! The other side of the fused tooth is now also almost ready to come out...so it looks like he will have another visit from the tooth fairy soon!

Andrew's 7th Birthday Celebration

2015-02-04T17:28:00.000-05:00

Tanner was out of town for Andrew's birthday, so we waited until he came home to celebrate. Andrew once again requested a rainbow cake, but I secretly decided to up the ante and surprise him by filling the center of his cake with M&Ms...because there wasn't enough sugar or artificial flavoring already going on in this thing. He loved it, and we had fun together as a family playing his favorite games on Wii. Happy Birthday, Andrew!!

Bed Rest

2014-06-27T14:27:00.001-04:00

I have now been in the hospital since Monday, June 23rd on bed rest. My doctor didn't like my blood pressure readings (shocker) and I had started to have headaches and be short of breath. Everything with baby Scarlett looks great though. Once again it's just my body that can't seem to handle late stage pregnancy very well. Tanner is holding down the fort well with the kids at the hotel around the corner and they came and visited me on Wednesday and will come tonight to hang out with me during dinner. The kids have been really cute about me having to be in the hospital. Audrey keeps saying "Mom, when is Scarlett coming? You are taking forever to come home from the hospital!" She has kissed my belly everyday for about the last 3 weeks in anticipation for her little sister to arrive. The boys are really excited too, and I am so looking forward to watching them all interact with her in their own way.

Last night, Melanie was able to come and visit me and she brought two beautiful bouquets of flowers from herself and Tricia. They really brightened up my room!! The hydrangeas remind me of Tricia's house and the others remind me of Florida. We had a great time chatting and the nurses on the floor got confused at one point thinking Melanie was a patient!

While I wouldn't necessarily recommend bed rest, I do think it has been good for my body to be forced to take it easy. If I had to be here longer, I think I would go crazy...but my doctor told me this morning they are planning to induce me on Monday unless she comes on her own this weekend. I was super excited to hear that news! I will be just under 38 weeks. Audrey came at 36 on her own and Andrew was induced at 37 so I am getting antsy! I am grateful for supportive family and friends, and great doctors and nurses. The countdown is on!

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Designer Onesies

2014-06-19T14:55:00.000-04:00

Melanie's boys were able to come and spend the day with us at our hotel so that she could go to her medical appointments in D.C. We had a great time and they boys had fun playing Legos, games, and watching movies together. At one point I busted out a gift I had been given at my baby shower. It was a packet of 6 white Onsies and fabric markers so that my kids could design their own onesie for their sister. I knew only Clark would be interested in this activity but I thought Truman, Elliott, and Nolan would like to do it as well. It was so fun watching them each design their own for their respective baby sister. Lots of rainbows, flowers, and suns!

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1st Day of Kindergarten

2013-08-19T08:51:00.000-04:00

Andrew was very excited to finally get to go to "the big school" with Clark. There was only one thing he was worried about...that it might be such a long day and he might want to take a nap because he might get tired. Andrew is a little quieter, a little more pensive, and a little more steady in his outward display of his emotions. In short, Clark is like me, and Andrew is like Tanner. My friends and I stood around a kitchen island while Clark and Andrew were eating a bowl of cereal and my friends were peppering them both with questions. Clark was super chatty and just full of detail and emotion, and every time Andrew got asked a question, he answered it, but it was short, quick, and to the point with little fanfare. We thought the difference was so stark and so funny and at one point my friend exclaimed, "this is just like having a conversation with Tanner and Cherylyn!" So true.

I didn't worry as much about Andrew going to school as Clark...not being the oldest, he has the advantage of seeing his older brother in action and knowing what to expect. I had fun getting my boys up together this morning. In years past, Andrew would usually sleep in and wake up after Clark had already left for school. They had fun eating breakfast together with Clark telling him some of the rules of school and how the worst thing that could happen to anyone at the school is to get sent to the principals office so don't do this, that, and this other thing. Andrew walked out to get on the bus as if this is what he does every day, except that he stopped before he stepped on, turned around, and gave me a wave.

Because we live across the street from the school, I ran over to the school to meet the bus, and because of traffic, etc., I beat them by a few minutes and so I was able to get some pictures of them getting off the bus. Clark was explaining more rules about how until 7:20am, everyone has to hang out in a designated area behind a yellow line, "just like at the airport where they check our passports...remember mom??" Clark walked Andrew down to his class and I followed behind my two little towheads. That was the one part that got me a little emotional was seeing both of them walk down the school halls together. Andrew found his classroom, Clark said bye and rushed off to meet up with his friends, Andrew pulled the door open, gave me another wave and a "bye mom!" and he was good to go.

I spent the rest of the day playing with Audrey. We went swimming at the club, she hung out on the tennis court while I had my lesson and she made sure to tell me to "be careful" every time I hit the ball in the net. Hilarious. We had such a fun time together, just us girls, but we were also excited to see the boys get off the school bus this afternoon and hear about their day. The first thing Andrew said to me after he ran up to me was "Mom, it was so fun, I didn't even get TIRED!" He already has a "best buddy" that he met today, and is excited for more fun tomorrow. Yahoo for school!

1st Day of 2nd Grade

2013-08-15T09:25:00.000-04:00

Clark started school today and he was pretty excited to go. His teacher this year is Ms. Tseng and we have heard nothing but wonderful things about her. Clark and I got up together at 6:15am, and while he got dressed, I went down and made him his favorite breakfast: Eggs, Bacon, and Toast with milk to drink. He ate it on the "Special" plate and was ready to go meet up outside with his best friend Annie before they had to get on the bus. I made him take some pictures, and every year it surprises me how much he has grown up. Sometimes it is difficult to notice the changes when you are doing the parenting thing day in and day out 24/7, but I think that is why I like specific milestone days like the first day of school, because it is easier to compare how they were last year on the same day to how they are now and see the growth.

Sometimes I worry about Clark on days like today because he is so much like me. I remember times while growing up building up specific events in my head, and then when they didn't turn out quite like I imagined or if I ended up having a bad experience when I was expecting or had planned for a good one, it would really do a number on me emotionally. I don't know, maybe everyone is like that...but I see that part of myself in him a lot. However, he got off the bus this afternoon all smiles and had nothing but good things to say about his teacher and school.

I had written him a love note and drew a funny picture on it and put it in his lunch box. I thought it was weird for him that he didn't mention it at all, and when I brought it up, he was like uh, yeah that was funny. I finally learned why as I was tucking him and Andrew into bed tonight, and I said "I am glad you had a good day today." He said "Yeah, it was good, except when a couple of kids stole my note from you and started laughing at me because of what it said...but it was my own fault, I should have just kept the note to myself and not shown it to anyone...I had only wanted them to see the funny picture you drew." I almost burst into tears, I felt so bad. I am not sure if this was the best parenting moment for me (aka no judging), but I said to him "you know why those kids were laughing at my love note to you?" and he said "Why?" and I said "Because maybe they were wishing their mom had written a love note to them in their lunch today." He said "Do you know that because you learned that at Mom school?" And I said "You Betcha." I asked him if he wanted any more notes or not from me, and he said "I will like any notes you want to put in my lunch any day you want to send them, Mom." One of the many reasons this experience was so precious to me, is because I realized that if this had happened to Clark a year or two ago, this incident would have probably caused a royal meltdown at school, but it didn't now, and he said he just grabbed the paper back and shoved it into his lunch box even though people were still asking to see it. I am just happy that at least today, Clark handled himself well through an unpleasant experience that should have been a pleasant one...and really experiences like this are at least half the battle of life, right?

Dancing Girl: Part 2

2013-03-25T20:09:00.002-04:00

So we have now gone to Ballet class 4 times and Audrey refuses to dance every time. She likes to watch the other girls dancing, but she WILL NOT get up and do it with the rest of the class. Finally on the fourth time, I told her we couldn't just sit there, and it was time to go home. She was okay with this until about half way home, she realized what she had done and started bawling. Later, in her broken 2/3 year old English, she told me "I like dancing, but girls scare me." I thought that was hilarious.

Anyway, we are taking a break, and I am thinking about trying to start her in another class maybe after the summer to see if she is ready...but who needs class when you have Barbie and the Twelve Dancing Princesses??? Try to watch her and the screen at the same time...it is kind of ridiculous a) how many times she must have watched this show and b) that she has pretty much memorized all the moves. I like how she uses the entertainment center as her bar.

Like Mother Like Son: Part 2

2013-03-20T13:18:00.000-04:00

So as if the lost shoe episode wasn't evidence enough of how much Clark is like me, we had another fun little experience today that took me down memory lane from my days of yore.

Ahem...another story my family likes to torment me with is about when I was about Clark's age (I know I knew how to read!), my parents bought me a new pair of shoes. When I got them home, I was in the bathroom putting them on, and when I looked back into the box, there was an extra little present in there...just for me! Except that when I picked it up, the outside packaging read "Do Not Eat". I remember actually having the thought that I really could eat it, but whoever put that little treat in there probably just wanted me to ask my mom and dad first. I felt the little pouch and I thought for sure it was Pop Rocks. Score! Yeah right I was going to bother to ask mom and dad...these were my Pop Rocks and no one else was going to eat them but me! So I opened them and tried a couple. They didn't taste like Pop Rocks, and I immediately had this feeling of dread and fear wash over my whole body. WHAT THE HECK WAS I THINKING???!!! It said "DO NOT EAT"!!!

Of course I quickly ran and found my mom and confessed what I had done, and I remember she gave me this look like "You CAN read, can't you?" My little 6 or 7 year old brain couldn't fully express why I had done what I did, but I just knew I needed my mom to make it better...fast. I don't know if she called Poison Control or not, but thankfully, I did not die, and I learned the important lesson that if something says "Do Not Eat" on it, it probably means that it is more likely to be ummmm...Silica Gel and not some awesome candy like Pop Rocks.

Just in case any of you are interested...Silica Gel really isn't harmful to eat.

Moving on...ohhhhh almost 25 years later...Clark asks to go over to a friends house after school. That friend lives in our neighborhood like 6 houses down. He had only been gone for about 10 minutes and I was on the phone upstairs when suddenly I hear the friends mom downstairs calling my name...in THAT tone. You know, the one where you immediately drop the phone and run (more like trip and fall) down the stairs because you think your kid must be bleeding something fierce? Yeah, that one. When I got downstairs however, Clark was teary eyed, but there was no blood that I could see. My brain then immediately thought he must have done something horrible to someone else, but before I could get out the words "WHAT DID YOU DO!?!?" My neighbor starts frantically telling me about how Clark came over and she heard the boys in the kitchen getting snacks when she heard her 10 year old say "No Clark, don't eat the crystals!" She jumped up and ran in just in time to see Clark take a bite and swallow some home grown science kit crystals they had made. All she knew was that it had chemicals in it and they used gloves when they were mixing it all together so she was kind of freaking out a bit about what Clark had just ingested. I looked down at the remnants of the piece of crystal she was holding and then I looked at Clark and said "Why did you eat this??!" He responded "I thought it looked like a cookie with sugar candy on top". And then he burst into tears. We quickly got online and found the instruction booklet for this particular science crystal kit and sure enough it said "May be harmful if ingested or misused. If ingested, contact your physician immediately". Well, that didn't sound good. So I quickly got the guts to call Poison Control and the man was very nice and let me know that Ammonium Phospate MonoBasic is apparently not dangerous at all in those quantities.

So my child will live. Bonus!

As soon as it was all over and we had decompressed, I asked Clark what he learned from the experience and he said in true boy fashion "DO NOT EAT that!" We had to flesh that out a little bit and talk about how you never just eat something without asking when you are at a friends house, and in addition, if you are not quite sure what something is, don't eat it until you find out exactly what it is. I was more annoyed at his manners than anything else, but how could I, Silica Gel girl, be really mad in this instance? I couldn't, not if I didn't want to be a hypocrite anyway. I want to tell Clark my Silica Gel story...but I know what will happen...he will say something awesome like "What the heck mom? Why would you EVER eat something that says DO NOT EAT all over it?"

And I am just not sure if I can take that kind of judgment from my 7 year old.

The Lost Shoe

2013-03-14T10:46:00.001-04:00

My family can attest, as they like to do on numerous occasions, that I was a disorganized mess when I was younger (don't even get them started on how we found a hand-mixer beater in my underwear drawer). Tanner may attest that I am a disorganized mess when I got older too, but let's not go there. I managed to lose practically everything when I was little. My first memories of it began when we moved to England when I was nine. Looking back on it now, I think the stress of moving and living in a hotel for like three months may have had something to do with it (thanks mom and dad! yes I blame you. I should have called child-line. ;-)). I managed in quite a short period of time to lose my shoes, my textbooks, my fountain pens (at least 3 but if you ask my dad, it's like 15), my cardigan, my backpack, and most famously, my track and field underwear. To add insult to injury, said underwear was found by my sister outside on the track at school. I don't quite know how it got there, but whoever said there is no down side to labeling your clothes with your name, hasn't talked to me.

23 years later, my 7 year-old comes home from school while I am out running errands. When I get home, my maid tells me Clark came home with only one shoe.

Me: "How did he come home with only one shoe?" "What happened to his other shoe?"

Siti: "I don't know...but he only had one shoe."

I go find Clark.

Me: "Clark, how was your day at school?"

Clark: "Fine."

Me: "Did you come home with only one shoe today?"

Clark: "Yeah, I lost the other one."

Me: "How did you lose your shoe?"

Clark: "Well, when I went to Tae Kwon Do (his after school activity), I took my shoes off, but when I went to get them back on when it was time to go, I could only find one shoe and one sock."

Me: "Did you look around the gym for it?"

Clark (getting upset): "YES!!! IT WASN'T ANYWHERE!"

Me: "Okay, that's okay. So did you just walk barefoot from the gym to the bus and then to the house?"

Clark (sounding very proud of himself): "OH NO OF COURSE NOT! I put my one shoe on one foot and the one sock on the other. So both of my feet were totally covered mom!"

Awesome.

It's been a week and he says he can't find it in the lost and found. I think I am going to have to go over to the school and look myself.

Maybe I will find it on the track.

Dancing Girl

2013-03-01T09:12:00.004-05:00

When I was little, I lived in my bathing suit. I actually remember going on errands with my dad in my bathing suit. I remember thinking that if I dressed in my bathing suit in the morning then at some point that would mean I would HAVE to go swimming...which was my purpose all along...not to mention the time I would save not having to get undressed from regular clothes into my bathing suit. I was all about efficiency back then. ;-)

Fast forward 28 years, and now I have a daughter who is 2 going on 3, and guess what, she is all about efficiency too! She pretty much demands to wear her "dancing dress" every morning complete with her ballet shoes. Princess crown is optional. I know she is thinking, "If I get dressed like this, it means I am going to get to dance all day long!" She is also very particular about making sure the little elastic ties on her ballet slippers stay in a bow...all the time...and I am here to tell you, those things come untied...all the time. She prances down the stairs, puts on the 12 Dancing Princesses Barbie movie (not a huge fan of barbie, but I am a fan of this movie, mostly because of the classical music). She has the beginning memorized and pretty much copies the ballet moves as they happen on the screen. She tells me that I have to come dance with her, but a lot of times when I do, she proceeds to correct my every move. "No no Mom, not that way...thiiiiiiiiiis way."

I always told my mom that if I had a girl, I would make her be a tomboy like I was, and I would make sure that she was dressed in track suits every day. *Cue look of horror on my mom's face*. And maybe if she had come first in the family, I might have done that, but after two boys, I was ready for my own little princessy, pink skirt twirling, crown wearing, dancing girl. Thank goodness that is what I got. I am starting her in ballet class beginning next week.

Celebration of Learning

2013-02-28T09:13:00.000-05:00

Today I attended a “celebration of learning” day in Clark’s class. They have all been learning about Matter and how you can change the states of Matter. It was actually a lot of fun to see Clark so independent and learning so much. We did an experiment together and I just continue to be amazed by the amount of technology kids are learning in 1^st Grade! The kids have all learned how to use Quicktime, PhotoBooth, and the basics of iMovie this year. Clark had a poster he created about matter hanging outside. There was a QR code on it, and when we scanned the code, a QuickTime movie popped up with Clark explaining his poster and why matter is so important. He showed me how to do it all. I felt like such an old fogey. And don’t even get me started on the kid’s skills with the Smart Board. Our experiment was mixing milk and oil and shaking it up and seeing what would happen. He was convinced the oil would float on top of the milk, but when we shook up the bottle, he got a little concerned. I told him we should go read his science book and then go back in a few minutes to look at it. When we came back, he was so excited and happy that the oil had separated and was floating on top of the milk. See, Mom’s are good for some things! For everything else, there are QR codes. ;-)

Indoor to the End

2013-01-27T09:05:00.002-05:00

So apparently during Primary today, the music leader had the children sing all the verses of "I am a Child of God." The kids were rusty on the last verse, so as she was teaching them the words, she asked the children:

"So what does "endure" mean in the part where we sing "Celestial Glory shall be mine, if I can but endure?"

Clark raised his hand and said "Does it mean that all we have to do to be able to go to heaven is stay in our houses all day long?"

It took them a second to figure out what he meant, and then when everyone realized what he was saying, a discussion took place about the difference between "endure" and "indoor."

Clark's teacher leaned over to him and said "I'm with you, I wish it were that easy."

I am sure Clark was thinking, "Hey, I am down with this if I can stay indoors all day and play wii and still make it to the Celestial kingdom." I was just happy that he wasn't cracking some joke about the word "but" in the song.

This story was particularly funny to me because this morning, the boys were asking why we had to go to church and why we couldn't just stay home and watch movies and play video games all day. I said "because watching movies and playing video games doesn't make you a good person, going to church helps you become a good person." Surprisingly, I didn't get any argument with that response and they happily got in the car to go to church.

Andrew has lately been obsessed with the war in heaven. He seems shocked that Jesus and Satan are brothers and that their father is Heavenly Father who is also our Father. He asks me almost daily, "If Heavenly Father is Jesus and Satan's dad, then why did Satan become bad?" I keep telling him that Jesus and Satan both had to make choices and Jesus made good choices, but Satan decided to make a lot of bad choices. He then always responds with "well then, I am only going to make good choices because I don't want to be like Satan." We are still working on making the connection between all this very deep spiritual stuff and the daily trials of getting along with his brother and sister, but we are just taking things one day at a time!

The Most Fun Thing I've Ever Done

2012-12-08T10:03:00.000-05:00

Tonight as I was tucking Clark into bed:

Clark: "Mom, when I am like 12, 13, or 14 years old, like a teenager, I don't want to have any more birthdays. I just want to stay that age."

Me: "Why wouldn't you want to have any more birthdays?"

Clark: "Because when you become a Mom or a Dad, you don't get to play with your friends anymore."

Me: "But I get to play with my friends all the time. I get to play with Katie, Ellie's Mom, and I get to go play tennis with my other friends."

Clark: "But most of the time, not just sometimes, you don't play, you just TALK with your friends, and that isn't nearly as fun as playing."

Me: "But the most fun things I have ever done in my whole life have happened since I became as old as a Mom."

Clark: "What did you do?"

Me: "Me and your dad had you, Andrew, and Audrey. That is the most fun thing I have ever done, and even though sometimes we get mad or sad at you, we have the most fun doing stuff with you guys."

Clark: "Really? I thought you were going to say something you have done fun with your friends!" (and then he sheepishly laughs while grabbing me around the neck and hugging me.)

Me: "Nope, you are definitely the most fun thing ever!"

Andrew's Got Moves

2012-12-07T14:09:00.000-05:00

Andrew had his year end Holiday Concert at his preschool today. The theme was "An Adventure in Outer Space". They had darling costumes and scenery, and his dancing stole the show. Of course, we got half of the dance and then our battery died. Classic. I will get a full copy from another parent, but in the meantime, enjoy the preview. I particularly enjoy his tongue action while he dances.

Happy Thanksgiving

2011-11-24T10:03:00.000-05:00

Clark and Audrey walking home from his U.N Day concert on Thanksgiving Day.

Because he attends an international school, they still had school on Thanksgiving Day! We pulled him out after the concert so we could go meet up and having our Thanksgiving Feast with our good friends, the Dettmans.

U.N Day

2011-11-23T09:43:00.000-05:00

So just before U.S. Thanksgiving, Clark’s school holds a U.N. Day where all the children come dressed up in some kind of native attire from their country and perform a concert for the parents. There are also country booths set up in the cafeteria that are manned by parent volunteers and parents are also encourage to do country presentations in the children’s classes some time during the week. It was fun to see all the different countries that are represented at our international school and it was fun being an American amidst all of it too. I baked chocolate chip cookies for the USA booth, and I had a blast going into Clark’s class and talking about the founding of America and making statue of Liberty crowns with all of the kids. They loved them!! There are 19 kids in Clark’s class from at least 13 different countries. It’s amazing.

(I love that they put us and Canada next to each other )

Bali Getaway

2011-11-16T09:13:00.000-05:00

So when Tanner told me that he was going to have to go to Bali to help out prior to the arrival of President Obama, I immediately asked “Can I come too?” When he said “yeah, probably”, I took that as a YES! and pretty much booked my ticket within the next 24 hrs before anyone could change their mind. The last time we went to Bali, it was fun and nice, but different then how Bali had been ‘sold’ to me by the many people who had been there. This time, we were going to be in Nusa Dua where a bunch of resorts are so I was excited to explore a different aspect to Bali.

It was pretty much awesome. I lounged around all day while Tanner worked and then we would meet up in the late afternoon and spend the evening together. I was only there 2 1/2 days and wished I would have booked it for more, but such is life for the parents of 3 littles.

(guess where we stayed??)

One evening we took a ride out to the tip of the island to where the Hotel Nikko is located. It is an awesome resort hotel, and if I could stay anywhere in Bali, this would be the place. The pools were ridiculous and the sunset was amazing.

The following evening, we rode out on our motorbike to the other side of the island to Uluwatu. It is a temple on cliffs overlooking the ocean. We went to watch the sunset and it was gorgeous. There were also a ton of monkeys around and they tried to steal the hat right off my head…TWICE!!

Best getaway yet!

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-31T09:29:00.000-04:00

We had a fun Halloween this year. We had a ward party at our friend’s house, and Tanner dressed up as Anakin Skywalker because Andrew wanted to be Darth Vader. Clark was Iron Man and I was Lightening McQueen. Audrey was a cow and she was cutest little cow you’ve ever seen. She even had a cow bell so everyone always knew where she was. Unfortunately, I don’t have any pictures of my kids (worst mom of the year award), but I do have one of Tanner with some of the other members of our ward. It was pretty hilarious to see how many adults showed up in some kind of muslim/middle eastern attire. Our Relief Society President showed up in a full Burqa. Yeah, it was awesome.

Andrew decided he wanted to change it up for his school party and he decided he wanted to be Mario.

Sushi!!

2011-10-20T09:20:00.000-04:00

Yeah that’s right peeps, I learned how to make Sushi thanks to my awesome Japanese neighbor Kaori. We made tuna rolls, salmon and avocado, and even some fried eel! They were all super yummy, and it is surprisingly easy, once you know what you’re doing!

Mekong Delta

2011-10-15T08:31:00.000-04:00

For our last day, we took a trip out to the Mekong Delta to see the floating market in Can Tho and take a tour of some of the areas within the Delta. It was a beautiful day, and it was an interesting drive out there seeing all the rice patty fields. Once we arrived, we hopped aboard our boat to take a ride out to the floating market, which was kind of a disappointment. I think it is a lot busier on Sundays. Apparently, these boats bring in their specialty crops and the come to trade crops with other boats. It seemed like it could be interesting to watch if it was busy, but there just wasn’t anything going on, so we just enjoyed the ride. Next, we stopped at a place where they make pop rice and rice candy to ship all over Asia. It is amazing to me that in these small tiny little villages, people are working away and then their product shows up in a store in Thailand. The candies were really good and we ended up buying quite a few packages to bring back as gifts for friends. The kids loved seeing the rice literally pop like popcorn and it was fascinating to watch and learn how they make rice paper and how they use coconuts.

Rice Paper

Candy

Pop Rice

After that, we took another ride and on the way had some of the best fruit ever! Audrey particularly loved the coconut water! But I am not sure Andrew loved everything he tried, but we ALL loved the mango.

We also had fun lounging in the hammock on our boat. There was a nice breeze and very relaxing!

When we arrived at our next destination, we hopped on a smaller boat and rowed through some canals and areas that were beautiful.

We stopped and walked around for a bit and then ended with lunch at a small restaurant. We were a bit nervous when we saw what they served us. HUGE prawns and this fish,

but it was actually quite delicious…and none of us got sick so YAY!! It was a full day out on the river and it was beautiful last day of our trip in Vietnam.

When we returned back to our hotel that evening, the sunset over the city was awesome. It was a fantastic trip!

Chu Chi Tunnels

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We arrived back in Ho Chi Minh and this time stayed at a different serviced apartment. It was also really nice and had some phenomenal views, but it was further out from the city.

The next morning, we were greeted by our tour guide who was going to take us to see the Chu Chi Tunnels and the Cao Dai Temple for the day. It was a lot of driving, but we got to see some of the countryside and at least we had our own private van instead of trying to wrangle with 3 kids on a giant tour bus! The Chu Chi Tunnels is the underground tunnel system that the VietCong created during the Vietnam War to help smuggle supplies and people throughout the area. It is in a densely forested part of the country, and they were pretty successful in thwarting U.S. forces there initially. These tunnels were teeny tiny and it is amazing how they were made and that people actually lived in them for quite some time. We were interested in seeing them because of the historical aspect and also because we knew the boys would love to crawl around some tunnels!

Tanner tried to get into one, but his shoulders wouldn’t fit. At first the boys were freaked out by it wondering what they were climbing into, but after seeing both mom and dad do it, Andrew was game…and then so was Clark.

After exploring a bunch of tunnels and seeing some areas where the U.S. was able to bomb out the tunnels, we headed over to where the gun range was. We weren’t allowed in the area where people were shooting targets, but Tanner went and had someone take a picture of him while he had a go! They had an area where you could watch a movie about the role of the tunnels during the war, but we skipped it. We decided we had had enough of the anti-U.S. propaganda.

That tunnel was barely taller than Andrew, so the rest of us were hunching over to get through!

After Chu Chi, we drove to Cao Dai Temple. It was an interesting place, but I am not sure if it was worth the drive. The religion is pretty fascinating. It is pretty much a mesh theology from 4 or 5 religions…and it’s SUPER colorful! We arrived just in time to see them doing their prayer service that they apparently do 5 times a day. It’s like a mix of Chinese, Vietnamese, Christianity, and Buddhism. They also have 3 saints: Sun-Yat-Sen, Victor Hugo, and a Vietnamese poet. Random, I know. If you want to read more about Caodiism, see here!

By the time we got back to HCMC, we were all tired, so we ordered in, and just took it easy. Fun day out!

HOI AN DAY #3

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So our flight (thank goodness we had booked a flight back to HCMC) back wasn’t until later in the afternoon, so we decided after checking out that we would start to head to the airport and stop off at “The Marble Mountains”. I had read mixed reviews about the place, but in the end we were glad we went if only for this one picture.

So we hiked up just a little ways (and by hiking I mean climbing these stairs…yikes)

and then when we would come to each small mountain with its own cave. Anciently the people built Budda’s in the caves and that is where people came to worship. The first one we went to was the most spectacular because it had the openings up above and the light was hitting perfectly so that rays were streaming into the cave. It was pretty spectacular.

Also, along our way, we came across this creature. The locals around us were totally freaked out and wanted to make sure we kept our kids away. After reading up later about The Vietnamese Centipede, we were glad they told us to stay far, far away, although it’s not like we were looking to cozy up to it!

Audrey missed all that action since she was doing this:

It looked super uncomfortable, but she was totally konked out. After visiting a few more pagodas and seeing some cool Budda statues literally carved out of the marble in the mountain, it was time to head to the airport.

When we arrived at the airport, our flight was delayed…a really long time. We had arrived pretty early too, so I asked if we could get on the waiting list for the next flight. We were the 2nd on the list, but we needed 4 seats, so it wasn’t looking too good. The whole family was exhausted and we all fell asleep in the only available place…outside (it was hotter inside).

We were able to get on the earlier flight, a mere 6 hours after we arrived, but at least 1 hour before our original flight finally took off. We loved Hoi An, even with the struggles getting to and leaving from, but we were also excited to be back in HCMC because for our last two days we had a few fun things planned.

HOI AN BEACH DAY #2

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More beach fun today. More cute pics of the kids.

I don’t know if you can tell from the picture below, but there were a number of fisherman that were out rowing in what looked like a bowl.

After the beach, we walked back to the resort pool and played for a while. Our resort was awesome. The pool and the grounds were amazing. The buffet breakfast was amazing.

Back behind the tree line in the first picture is where the beach is. Notice in the hammock picture, Tanner was little heavy for it I guess!!! After all that play time, Audrey was exhausted and when we set her down on the bed after getting her dress, she fell right to sleep. The boys were having a grand ol time jumping around her, and she never woke up.

(yeah, those are a pair of shorts on his head—that kid cracks us up)
Eventually, everyone went down for a nap and afterward headed into town for a late lunch/early dinner while it was still light out. We had fun walking around some more and bought some ice cream and some fun souvenirs.

Those boys have always loved sitting on the steps of a porch since our days in our Virginia house. Afterward we headed back to the hotel for bed. The kids had fun watching a show before lights out.