Friday, October 10, 2008

Hibiscus and Orchid Park


Living in a large city with very few parks, even a large patch of grass creates an urge in us to pause and take a deep breath. This past weekend we took the kids to a nearby Hibiscus and Orchid park to at least feel like we were in the countryside again. Here is a picture that fails to do the park justice, but is pretty cute of Elijah and Anna.

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Land of Smiles

We just returned from a mini-vacation to Krabi, Thailand. Thailand calls itself the land of smiles, so we decided to see for ourselves. We had the usual ups and downs of traveling and vacationing with two children on the autism spectrum, but on the whole, their were a lot more smiles than tears. Elijah's main cause of distress was that we would not let him swim off into the open ocean by himself! We spent almost every waking moment in some sort of water...the ocean, the swimming pool, or the hotel shower. (Anna was not too certain of the ocean at first, but as long as her daddy held her, she was fine.) There were waves to ride, kites to fly, sand angels to make, seafood to eat and snorkels and masks to try out...what more could two water babies ask for?







Thursday, September 4, 2008

Anna is 3 years old


I don't really have any official birthday pictures yet since my camera is only functioning when it feels like it these days. Our friends and Brad's mom have some cute pictures but I have not downloaded these yet. I think this picture captures Anna's personality much better than a well staged picture of her blowing out candles anyway.

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Mother's Day



Mother's day was pretty low key for us. We get all the excitement we need in other ways without adding to it! We went to the Outback steakhouse and then to a cafe for chocolate cake. I also got breakfast in bed and a really sweet card from Elijah and Anna.

Monday, April 21, 2008

Mountain-top retreat



After living in a very small house with 6 other people (10 of us total)for almost a month, we felt that our mental health (or at least my mental health as the introvert of the bunch) depended upon the most isolated vacation we could find. Thankfully, we found a mountain retreat house that is owned by our company about 3 hours away. It felt like we had stepped out of tropical Asia and into an English garden. It was blissfully cold enough for long sleeves during the day and huddling in front of the fireplace at night. After wearing long sleeves in 100 degree weather, wearing them in 45 degree weather was a welcome change of pace.

The specialties of the area were was Strawberries and tea. Huge sweeping mountain-side tea plantations overlooked smaller "self-plucking" as they were called, Strawberry farms. With another couple of trips to butterfly farms, it made for a perfect family get-away. Our daily schedule consisted of laying around in the sunshine, eating strawberry scones with milk tea and then repeating until the sun set. Then we lit a fire and roasted marshmallows. We needed another year and a half, but sadly had to settle for a week. I'm certain it won't be the last time we are there.

Monday, March 17, 2008

Brad's Birthday


On March 2nd, Brad celebrated his 35th birthday. Since we aren't the most tradition people in the world (we do chose to live in a 3rd world country after all) we decided to have a birthday pie. Also, the ingredients to make cake icing are not the greatest here and frosting tastes gritty like it has sand in it. The kids were very confused, but came around to the idea as long as I promised to put a candle in it.

Monday, January 21, 2008

Emma's first birthday

This past week was our cousin's (Emma's) first birthday. Happy Birthday Emma! Sorry we couldn't be there with you, but we did make you a cake.