hua hin

 Even though we don't actually get American holidays off, we decided we needed a long weekend for Thanksgiving and hit the beach with some friends. Since we were bringing Gyrff, my nemises (Dan and Amy's new Rhodesian Ridgeback), we opted for a beach house a few hours southwest of Bangkok, just outside Hua Hin.

Apparently we brought Humphrey Bogart with us. And yes, crocs and a fedora pair very well together.

The beach was full of shells and, for the first day, jelly fish.

Eliot proved to by my daughter after a jumping contest. 

Turns out her friend has a future in the WNBA or profesional trampolining.

This was the highest Elie ever reached.

Dan and Abe brought their bikes, presumably so Abe could get back at Elie for trying to give him all her too-small dresses during the 6 weeks she was older than him. 

He has totally mastered riding a two wheeler. Elie is slowly mastering peddling forward. At this rate she will be learning how to ride a bike about the same time she is eligible for her driver's license. 

The pool was cloudy when we arrived and we asked them to clean it the first night. Turns out Elie opens her eyes a lot under the water. 

And maybe the chemicals were a little too strong the next day.

Rocky made the ultimate sacrifice for a Smart and gave up his sunglasses for an afternoon.

I'm sure it wasn't too traumatic for her...

Maeser proved himself to be the perfect travel baby, falling asleep at the beach. Vi showed her true travel colors and we're now considering canceling our trip home. (Not really, but if anyone is on the same flight with us, they may want to cancel their trip. Unless, of course, they're cool with a baby screaming for 23 straight hours.)

But her ruffle bum is so cute we can't be mad.

We tried to put Vi in the pool a few times but she always cried, the water was pretty cold. 

The ocean, she was okay with. It was about 20 degrees warmer.

The beach was nice and the water was shallow with no waves. We will need to get back there again.

Another advantage, that's Monkey Island in the distance. It's guaranteed to turn your children's dreams into nightmares.