Dinner with Aunt Ann, Beth, and Dave!!!

I am back in Virginia for some meetings and to attend a class and had the great fortune of being in town when Kristen's Aunt Ann and cousins Beth and Dave were also in the area for work. It was a miracle we were all in town at the same time and we had a great evening sharing a meal together at Macaroni Grill and catching up on life. Seriously though, it was a small miracle since we are all spread across the US as well as the world! Mom and Dad, Mark and Heather, as well as Ann's brother and his wife and daughter were there as well. It was a real treat to get to see everyone, though I felt a little guilty the whole time that I got to be there and not Kristen. Sorry Tweeter, you were missed greatly!!!

Heather, Mark, and Beth

Me, Dave, and Aunt Ann

The fellas: Dad, Mark, and I having a little chat outside after dinner

Snapshots

Kylie got to hold a sweet little girl, Cadie, for the first time last night - and she thought it was so cool! She did a great job and was so sweet...she kept patting Cadie with her little hands to keep her soothed :)

Pretty piggy toes

Me and my Budge

Jack's teacher at school made an origami camera for him to take home this weekend, so he's been taking "pictures" of everything...including our feet - but then I made him get our real camera so we could take a real picture!

Megan's picture of Mr. Chris enjoying a Vanilla Coke and Icy Pop

Cutie Jaya (an up close and personal shot by Kylie)

Ms. Ro and Baby Cadie - taken by Kylie

Ladies Movie Night

This past Thursday night we had a Ladies Movie Night at our church - sponsored by our EW ladies bible studies! Around 35 ladies came out for it - along with 2 sweet little babies :) We provided the soda, popcorn (2 different kinds) and copious amounts of candy! Oh, and pickles! Apparently in Texas you can get huge dill pickles at the movie theaters, so Angela brought a jar of homemade pickles to share with the ladies! So fun!

We watched Love Comes Softly and it was a great night - if you haven't watched it before, I highly recommend it!

Little Bush Deer

This past Thursday Megan's 2nd grade class put on a play for the parents! They were finishing up their unit in Africa by performing Anansi and the Moss Covered Rock! Megan played Little Bush Deer - the only one who doesn't get fooled :) Kylie and I came in to watch it and got to have refreshments at the end! She did a great job and then read us her own fairytale she had written, with a twist! Little Ray Riding Hood was a great story about a little girl going to see her grandmother in the African bush...and running into a lion! The pictures turned out terrible - but Megan did a great job!

Dan's Sermon

If you have iTunes and an iPod - you can download Dan's sermon from this past Sunday! Here's how you get it: go to this link HERE.
It's called Counterfeit Idols: My Complex Idol and it was from Sunday, April 18th, 2010.
It's FREE!!! And GREAT! And, as my Dad says, "Free is better than cheap - I say no more!" Woo Hoo!!!

Songkran

This past week was Songkran here in Thailand! Click to here and here to see what Songkran is! School was out and Dan was home, so it was a great week. Lots of hanging out, playing, riding bikes, swimming, riding around in Amy's golf cart, playing games, having friends over for dinner and gaming, learning how to play "Ticket to Ride", playing the xBox, watching Little House on the Prairie (and Twilight and New Moon for Dan and I) and reading! Most of our friends were gone for the week to places like China, Norway, Vietnam, Nepal, Chiang Mai and the beaches of Thailand! It was nice to be here and have the neighborhood pretty empty. Most of the restaurants were closed around here, but the ones at the mall were still open :)

We got to show Dan a bit of what Songkran is here, but it was definitely very low key compared to last year - and crazy to read through our account of last year's Songkran, because I'm sure you've heard about the protests downtown again by the Red Shirts...Anyway, we got to show Dan Songkran, experience it on Amy's golf cart (with guards squirting/hosing us down with water), swim in 3 different pools, my friend Elena took the kids one night and let Dan and I go on a date!, we saw 2 different movies at the movie theater (How to Train your Dragon and The Princess and the Frog) and just had a good time being together!

Jack, Megan and Kylie getting ready to go get lemonade from their friends selling it!

The lemonade stand - where Kylie got pink lemonade and Jack and Moo got orange koolaid

Bugga and Daddy cranking out Guitar Hero (Kylie's playing on her bat)

Songkran-ers

Our Windshield

Dan and the kids on Amy's golf cart getting sprayed by kiddos

The crew on Amy's golf cart (thank you Amy and Ken)!

Had friends over for dinner and the ladies (well, except Cadie who was home asleep) went to pick up ice cream for dessert - the littlest actually belongs to the lady in the orange/pink shirt, not the one holding her :)

The girls out for lunch at Mos Burger

The boys at Mos Burger (sooo yummy and we just realized that it's in a mall nearer our house than downtown! it changes how i plan our downtown trips now...not that we are going downtown with the protesters, but still)

A processional of Thai drummers and pretty Thai girls dressed up...

...and handed these Thai flower things to Kylie and a little boy handed one to Jack! Megan was disenfranchised that she didn't get one...but they smelled wonderful!

Dan and I on our date night :) And I got a new phone out of the night!

An LG Cookie...in Pink!

We ate yummy Dunkin Donuts (which was a first for us in Thailand)!

And Dan practiced Friday and Saturday and then preached today at church! Our church was doing a series based on Tim Keller's Counterfeit Gods and he got to wrap up the series! He did a great job! (and wore a polo and khakis for today, not shorts and a Mt. Dew hat like he did for practice!)!

And he got to fool around on the drums at church while no one was there :) Too fun!

Sawatdee Pee Mei Kah!
Happy Songkran!

My Tweeter

The announcement in the bulletin this past weekend at church announcing Dan as a new elder - pending his confirmation at the Annual Meeting in May!

The Banyan - Hua Hin...part 3

Kylie diving for rings on the bottom of the pool!!!

The Banyan - Hua Hin...part 2

Our Backyard on Vacation

The Pool

Back in March, when Dan first got home from his big trip, we went to Hua Hin for a vacation. I posted pics of our time there, but not of us in our pool at the house - so here's the follow-up only 1 1/2 months late!

We had a private pool in our backyard, which was sooo fun! It was the perfect size for our family! Jack and Megan had a great time running around the outside of the pool trying to find a good time to jump on Dan and wrestle him and Kylie had a great time diving for rings on the bottom! The kids and I don't love sunscreen - or getting sunburnt - so our favorite time to go swim is around 3:45pm! No sunscreen required and we stayed in the pool until 6:30pm or so...and we also swam in the morning, but we love it when we can swim without sunscreen!

We also bought an inflatable raft to use in the pool - it was a hit with the kids!

Kylie living the dream

Megan and Jack hanging out

Daddy and the kiddos (Bugga with the "fist of rock")

Watering the plants with pool water

Jack taking a giant leap to land on the raft!

What happens when Daddy tries to jump on the raft while Megan and Jack are on it...

...and he jumps too much! He flies right over it!

Smootching Bugga in the pool

Kylie diving for rings in the pool

And finally one last one to assure you that I swam, too!