Vacation

Before I forget, I wanted to post pics of Selah after being painted. I wrote about it in the last update.


Since I last wrote, we went to Indonesia to see Jamie & Eric. I have known Jamie since middle school. It was really fun to get to see their home, meet their friends, eat Indonesian food and go to a cool resort. We spent one week at Jamie and Eric's house, hanging out. Jamie's son got sick a day or so after we arrived, which meant that Selah got sick. Subsequently, Eden and I got sick.

Guitar Hero traveled from Istanbul to Indo

Selah and Hannah entertain the passers-by

The family vehicle of Asia

During that first week, we went to an engagement party, for an Indonesian couple, ate a lot of food (including and amazing Thanksgiving dinner), and went to a really cool water park. Eden enjoyed the water more than Selah did. Selah was a little gun-shy to do anything after standing in the wrong place, at the wrong time and getting a huge bucket of water dumped on her head. Then, she and daddy went down a small water slide that didn't seem too scary from observation, but absolutely was. Selah didn't even want to ride in a tube in the lazy river after that. This was my first experience at a water park with Ryan. We both had momentary flashbacks to high school fun at the water park. We went down 2 slides, 2 times--in a double tube. It was a lot of fun. That's all we got to do this time. Maybe next time, if we can still climb the stairs, we'll get to slide a lot more.

Their oldest, Callie (8, I think)

After being at their house for a while, we flew to a nearby island, really close to Singapore, and stayed at a resort for 4 nights. The idea was to be close to a beach, have a swimming pool and other activities. But, Selah was sick the first day. The second day we got sunburned b/c we didn't think about how much more quickly we could burn being that we were practically on the equator. The third day Eden was sick, but I went to the mall anyway. The kids played outside in the afternoon and we traded off kid duty after bedtime.

Selah flies

Eden and I spent about 10 minutes at the beach, but she still found an opportunity to eat the sand.

Everyone having a good time

Jamie found the way to Selah's heart--suckers.

Their youngest--Hannah (3 1/2)

Selah and their middle child--Creed (5)

Our awesome hotel room...

With a window in the bathroom.

From there, we took a 1 hour ferry to Singapore and stayed for 2 nights. I really liked Singapore. The landscaping was incredible. Driving down the highway just felt like a smooth ride down a nice street with no lights in the suburbs. We used frequent flyer miles to stay at the Hilton on Orchard Road. Orchard Rd. is a shopping Mecca. Mall after mall with lots of bling--inside and out. We enjoyed some barbecue at Hard Rock Cafe on the first night and California Pizza Kitchen on the second night. We also bought Selah a cute Chinese dress and spent lots of time in the pool, which is on top of the hotel.



During the first day we went to the huge botanical gardens and let Selah play in the water at the children's area for a while.

wondering through the banana trees

On the second day we went to the A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. Singapore Zoo. The animal habitats were second to none that I have ever seen. We got relatively close views of some hippos, rhinos, monkeys, and polar bears. It was a fun day, that wore us all out. If only we'd know that there is a kid's water playground at the zoo, we would have brought a swimsuit so that Selah could play.

Look closely, there's a kangaroo behind them!

Eden charms everyone with her smile. This is Ryan's friend holding her.

Selah's first snowman. We've had lots of snow this year, too! But not as much as the crazy U.S.

Our friends that have kids about the same age. Nate is on the left and Peter is on the right. One of their parents was fortunate enough to attend A&M the same time we did. The other (mom) had to go to t.u. ssssssssssss!

I just can't get over this picture. She looks so grown up. All of her warm pants were dirty on this day, so she decided her flannel pajama pants would do the trick.

The smile that melts our hearts.