Mother's Day Tea Video

Blogger and YouTube are finally talking to each other!  So, without further ado, here's the video I promised over 3 weeks ago of RJ's preschool class singing at their Mother's Day Tea.

Isn't RJ so sweet?

Library Time and Surprise Visitors

Yesterday the kids and i enjoyed story time at the library. The theme was boats. We sang some songs, read some books about boats, and made origami boats. Here's RJ with his creation. He colored, I folded.

We then spent a few minutes in the children's reading room. We picked out a few books and I attempted to reshelve the 20 or so books Ryleigh pulled off the shelves.

Tonight we enjoyed the company of two of Jip's former "shipmates." Actually, only Marshall was on a ship with Jip--they were on ENTERPRISE together. Duncan and Jip were at MIT together. Duncan and Marshall are both serving on a submarine tender that pulled into Yoko for a week. It was great to see them and hear about what they've been up to and to count our lucky stars that Jip never had to do a tour like that--they are technically based out of Diego Garcia but have been so busy that the ship hasn't pulled into DG for nearly a year. Guys that serve on the sub tender do one year unaccompanied (no family can join them) and then usually get the orders of their choice. They are often without Internet or phone connectivity, so it is a hard tour for the guys and their families. They love when they pull into Yoko or other modern ports so they can get caught up with their families via Skype and email. We were glad to give them a home-cooked meal, some tips about what to see in their short time here, and just catch up.

Lastly, just a random thought... Can you believe tomorrow is the last day of May!?! Crazy!!

baseball and brain bowls

Since we are done blogging about the vacation, we need to catch up on a couple things.  First, I got to go to RJ's baseball practice on Monday.  He was having one of his not-so-focused days and didn't do all the activities that were asked of him, but we had fun participating in a baseball scavenger hunt.  Here are some photos from the practice.

Oops.  Missed.  Nice form, though.

RJ being serious for the first photo.

Nice throw.

Let's practice our throwing form.

Better form and longer throw.

Now, let's practice our moves side to side.

Good stop!

All smiles.

Good hit.

Notice who's the center of attention.

A much better photo line up.

And now for the brain bowl topic.  Today, I was part of a "team" from SRF that went over to challenge the Kinnick High School (the DODDS school on base) brain bowl team.  I used to be on a brain bowl team when I was in high school but that was over 20 years ago.  We didn't prepare and didn't practice.  It was just for fun and the last game of the year for the team.  They'd beaten other Navy teams in the past few months.  We were a little nervous and were neck and neck with the high schoolers until the last question when we pulled it out and got the 5 point bonus question correct.  The final score was 155 to 150.  The bottom line is that we were lucky and got some questions that we happened to know the answers for.  Those kids were smart and several of them were extremely fast on the buzzer.  It was good, clean fun, and we had a good time.  

I think we're caught up now.  Have a good day/night.

-Jip

Last Vacation Post--We Promise

We've milked this vacation blog-wise.  So, this will be it.

We had a great time in and by the water while we were in Thailand. 

Enjoying the main kiddie pool at the resort.

Jip, Ryleigh, and RJ are just to the left of that turquoise sign-looking thing.  There were lots of fun things for the kids packed into this little area.

Ryleigh and Mom coming down the slide.  Ryleigh wanted to go again and again.

We all took some turns under the rain umbrella.

The waves were rough while we were there, but RJ was perfectly content just playing in the sand with his toys from the 100 yen store.

Our engineer spent as much time making water change directions as he did going down the slides.

RJ liked the slides that were a bit slower and didn't require Mom and Dad to be nearby.

Ryleigh was saying "splash, splash" with each step.

RJ enjoyed water cannon fights with Mom, Dad, a Russian boy, and a Chinese boy.  No translator was needed for this contraption!

And a couple of videos from YouTube...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oihiAVbZ9C8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z164K8VuI_s

Thanks for bearing with us through all of the vacay talk.  Obviously, we enjoyed ourselves!

The Safari day in Thailand

To milk this series of photos and vacation details for another day, here are some photos from the safari trip that we took.  It was a half day excursion to include elephants; water buffalo; demonstrations of curry making, rice sifting, coconut processing, and rubber making; and a trip in Chalong bay on a boat with lunch included.  The kids were free (yay!), and Amy and I both think that the roughly $100 spent for each of us was well worth it.  We had a great time and won't soon forget it.

Our big girl ready for an exciting adventure to begin!

We have a couple videos of the elephants painting and playing harmonicas, but we're having trouble getting the videos to work.  Try the following links (if they don't work, we'll get them posted at a later date):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=hYCGBZFdlrw


http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=5b-gesZNuVA

Photo Op #1

Photo Op #2

RJ and Amy feeding the elephants.  RJ wasn't too sure if he really wanted to do it or not.

RJ with Amy onboard the elephant.

Ryleigh spent half her time on the elephant looking forward and half her time looking back at Mom.

All of us together with our two elephants and their attendants.

Amy was explaining to RJ how tough, yet soft, the elephants skin was.

Ryleigh, who has no fear, didn't hesitate to reach out and touch the elephant.

All of us in the water buffalo taxi--a.k.a. wooden wagon.

The demonstration on how all the parts of the coconut are harvested and used.

Onboard our Burmese junk.  Lunch was in the middle with plenty of seating all around.

A highly recommended experience if you ever get the chance.
-Jip

Our Villa

Today was a nice, relaxing Sunday.  We are almost back into our "normal" routine. 

Here are pics of life in our villa during our week in Phuket.

Thank goodness I remembered to take a rainy-day activity...

Playdoh!!  And Swiss Mix for snacking.  Both perfect on a rainy day!

A view from the stairs into our living room, dining area, and kitchen.

Our own pool.  I cannot say enough about how nice that was!!

A little outdoor eating area.  We never took advantage of it, but it was a great place for drying out the stroller.

A snail hanging out on our window.  We had a couple that made their appearances during the week.  

The tap water in Thailand is not potable, so the resort provided drinking water in glass bottles everyday.

Ryleigh loved being in the pool.

RJ loved being by the pool.

Pretty girl in yellow waiting to go to breakfast.

The scooter Jip rented for a day to find the bread so desperately needed for PB&Js and grilled cheeses.  Jip was stopped along with all other scooter riders and asked to provide documentation that he had rented the scooter.  This was not the stolen scooter they were looking for.  Phew!

That's it for tonight.  More tomorrow.  (We're really milking this vacation thing, aren't we?)

Thailand Random Pics

We are exhausted.  Travels overnight went well, but we are just worn out.  The drive home was an hour longer than normal thanks to some mysterious Saturday morning traffic.  But, we had good naps this afternoon, some good meals, and hopefully now we'll have some good sleep.

More later, but here are a few random pics of our Thailand trip from the good camera.

Night night!