Sabbath in the Sunflower Field

The girls and I had the opportunity to go to a sunflower field this afternoon with some friends.

As you can tell by the look on Madeline's face, they soon tired of my requests to pose for pictures. However, they sure enjoyed roaming the field and examining the sunflowers up close. How beautiful are God's creations!

Life is Good!

Life is filled with lots of simple pleasures . . .

Like holding and feeding a newborn.

Katie got her turn a few days later, but I didn't get a photo of it.

A backyard picnic with friends.

And the joy of losing teeth. Katie's other front top one is loose, so we'll just have to wait and see if it makes it out before the other one grows in!

Our Annual "Get-Away" Weekend, 2009

One weekend a year, Ryan and I try to "get away" from it all, including our dear children. We have been blessed each year with family or friends who are willing to care for our children for 3 days. This year we have Kari, Monte, and Vanessa to thank! You each are much appreciated!

We are also rather obsessed with adding stamps to our passports, so we decided to leave Thailand this time and venture off to a place neither of us had been before . . . Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. In this photo we are riding the express train from the airport into the center of KL, a distance that takes an hour's bus ride but only 28 minutes on the train. Time was saved, but money was definitely not saved, so on the return trip we caught the bus!

We stayed in a hotel that was advertised as "5 star quality for 1 star price." The catch is that you have to pay extra for a bunch of add-on's. So if you want towels, air-conditioning, etc, you pay extra for those. We found the place clean, comfortable, but VERY cozy! The space between the wall and bed was literally a foot on each side.
Notice the beautiful "art work" over our bed?!

One of 3 advertisements that graced the walls of our hotel room.

We spent part of one day in Putrajaya, the government seat of Malaysia.

We were impressed by the beautiful architecture, the peacefulness, and the orderliness of this planned city.

A mosque in Putrajaya

From another angle

Some public restrooms, where you paid as if you were getting a soda from a machine, in order to enter the facility.

A yummy roasted eggplant, tomato, and mozzarella cheese pizza.

We ate two meals a day while there . . . a late breakfast and an early supper . . . with a few indulgences in between times. Amazingly, I didn't take many food pictures of this trip! This picture is Ryan posing with our desserts at Sweet Recipe, a chain of restaurants that Deanna introduced me to one memorable day in Bangkok.
The restaurant we kept returning to (3 meals there in 3 days = half of our meals in KL were eaten there!) was "Bakti Woodlands," a South Indian restaurant where taste and price meet to produce an irresistible concoction!
Ryan and I each ordered a set plate (he got masala dosa and I got idly, for those who are interested in the details) and mango lassis, and we paid less than $3!

It was a weekend full of relaxing, adventuring, and reconnecting with each other.

Fall Break

We took the opportunity during the school's fall break to head down to Bangkok and spend 4 days with my sister and her family.

We went to a water park located on the top of a shopping mall.

The only thing was, we didn't realize they required everyone to wear swimming caps! So guess what we now own?

Jonah, seriously wishing he was getting some of that ice cream sundae!

The girls enjoying their balloons.

Aunt Alana made some blue jello for the girls. I think the teacup and saucer are the cutest!

My sweet Katie, ready for church.

35 years old now!

35 years old now . . . seems like just yesterday that Ryan brought home a cake that said "Happy Quarter Century" . . . and now I'm 10 years old than that!

Let's change the subject!

My sister Alana, her kids, and my family went out for pizza and ice cream to celebrate my birthday.

Notice all the teeth that Katie is missing!

Jonah, being the youngest, and only boy, gets lots of attention.

The girls were all pretty happy about their ice cream!
On my actual birthday, sweet friends brought me yummy, homemade food.
Thanks everyone, for making my day special.
I feel extremely loved and blessed!

Cultural Sabbath

Having a "cultural" Sabbath at our church has now become an annual tradition.
We had barely gotten up this morning and started eating breakfast, when some neighborhood girls were knocking on our door. They were already dressed for church and were wanting to help our girls get dressed up. This was just a little after 7am! I think there was more than just a little excitement in the air!
I had planned on the girls wearing "American" dresses, as that's what this is - a day to represent your own cultural. But the girls and their friends had other ideas. Lia ended up in a sequined pant suit (and as it turns out, she was the only "American-clad" in our family), Madeline wore a Chinese dress, and Katie an
Indian outfit.

A row of kids all dressed in their finest, sitting in church.

One side of Katie's primary class.

Some of the kids in Lia and Madeline's class.

The littlest kids in their class.

The beautiful pianist.

Su, in Korean dress, and myself wearing a Thai dress.

A Malaysian and an Indonesian with Katie and Madeline.

A Karen family . . . the girl is in 1st grade with Katie.

A Japanese student helping a Mexican student with her head scarf.

An Iranian staff member with my girls.

Ryan (wearing a shirt from the Philippines) with all his women.

Two of my girls with some of their friends.

Food and Sleep

We recently made a quick run into Bangkok for some medical and dental visits. We squeezed in a new restaurant while there as well. My sister and her husband introduced us to it, and it's definitely going to demand a few more visits! It's a Japanese all-vegetarian restaurant, with plenty of mock meat dishes. We ordered 8 options from the menu, and I liked all but one.
The atmosphere was equally as fun. They seated us in a little room that had a low table with cushions instead of chairs to sit on.

As you can see at the bottom of this picture, we removed our shoes before entering. The kids thought this was the greatest thing!

We got this picture with 4 of the 8 serving dishes on the table, and once the rest of the food arrived, we were too busy eating to take another picture.

The younger girls asked me to set up their "play house" recently, and when Katie got home from school she saw it and said "oh, I used to love to play and sleep in there; is it okay if I sleep in there tonight?" I said sure, and just had to sneak in and get a picture of her once she was asleep - not quite fitting anymore now that she's such a big girl!