koh chang

I love Bangkok but getting out every month or so has become fairly important to my sanity. It's nice to see the sky, the trees and not smell things that shouldn't be smelled, ever. Thailand is a beautiful country and it could be easy to forget if we never left the city. Luckily for us, you can find cheap hotel rooms, especially in the low (rainy) season.

After two straight weekends of cancelled trips we finally escaped and headed out to Koh Chang for the long weekend.

 

It was a four hour drive and 30 minute ferry ride, there. Coming home, it was a four hour wait for the ferry, one hour long ferry ride and a four hour drive. (I'll admit there was a lot of Dinosaur Train watched in the car--I can now sing the Dinosaurs A to Z song from start to finish, something I NEVER wanted to be able to do.) 

It was still worth it.

This is E's T-Rex smile.

This is Vi's beach babe look.

We took a hike in the jungle to this waterfall:

 

Turns out this sign was not a lie.

This is exactly how Rocky looked, just add in Vi in the Ergo and my camera, luckily both on his stomach. I would also like to note that right before he fell, I said these exact words, "Rocky, I'm a little worried about my camera, I think I should carry it." It may surprise some of you, but I have a bit of a rep for being clumsy, I've fallen down a staircase or two or twenty. Rocky's response was to turn and laugh at me, then fall flat on his back.

After making sure Vi and my camera were safe (in that order of course) I informed him I was going to gloat about this for a very long time. And then inform all the people he had ever made fun of for being clumsy (Roman, Cheryl) how stupendous his fall from superiority was.

Can you tell how wet Vi got? She was fast asleep--the second time in her life she was woken up to being doused with freezing cold water. Songkran. She is either going to be very well adjusted or have a crippling fear of water...or sleep...or her parents (I already see this spinning out of control).

There was a small pool near the base of the fall where E could play safely, she didn't ever want to leave. With her hatred of water that is warmer than 60 degrees, she prefers the freezing river to the warm ocean. Also, she is convinced a Megladon will eat her and refuses to go in the ocean anymore. (And this is where her dinosaur obsession goes awry).

The next day we tried a hike to another waterfall. This one was a little deeper and Elie had to be carried. She wasn't so game. It turned into a debate between the two of them half way across. He refused to give up, she wanted to go back, Vi wanted to keep sleeping, the Thai lifeguard kept pantomiming for us to let him carry E across. She won, we went back. 

Vi napping at the beach. Now that she can roll over, she always sleeps on her stomach.

 We love the beach. Especially with a nice breeze and some cloud cover. The weather was perfect, especially for the parents who drag their three month old around Thailand and/or are bad at reapplying sunscreen.

i'm not giving up...yet

Ever since I bought these dresses on a cold day in Istanbul, six months ago, I dreamed about taking pictures of the girls together on the beach. After packing them around for awhile, I finally got a chance to dress them up and take some shots.

This was our best picture:
 

No lie.

 I wish I was kidding.

 "Baby crying? Wind in my face? Maybe I'll pick my nose."

 I had Rocky setting up the girls, while I took the pictures and after a few bad shots, I made him trade me places, as he said, "You just thought you would swoop in and fix everything." That's exactly what I thought--I'm a mother, that's what I do all day. 

 I made it worse.

  Turns out, I am no match for the combination of 'sweat, wind and sticky hair.' Especially when it teams up with its equally formidable side kick, 'nap time.' Just another lesson I'm learning about having two kids.

 "Help me!"

 I gave up.

 I call this one, "Is it worth letting my sister fall on her face to get me out of these pictures?"

 Apparently, the time frame of 'hair in your face driving you to tears,' is only as long as it takes your mom to give up and let you get in you swim suit.

 Ten minutes later, with half the beach on her face, she's totally fine.

Also, since this was happening in Thailand, on a public beach, the entire scenario was being well documented by entire strangers unable to resist the urge to photograph the cute American girls and their angry mother. I only hope I come off half as psychotic in their pictures as I do in the ones Rocky took. I'm not posting any on the internet because I'm sure they are already out there somewhere. Lurking.

I'm not giving up. I will get these pictures and the sooner Elie and Vi realize this, the better.

rayong

Before I forget, here are some pictures from our trip to the beach at Rayong a few weeks ago. It's only a 2-3 hour drive from Bangkok (depending on traffic) and will definitely need to be visited again.We took off for a three day weekend with Dan and Amy's family, my cousin, Devon, and a friend from the ward who was kind enough to come help out with the kids. Elie asks to go back every few days. Vi's probably not so keen as she spent the entire time in the shade and inside and still came back with a bit of a sunburn. The baby loves cold--she sleeps best right under the AC vent. She cries and sweats buckets if the temperature gets above freezing and the air is not blowing directly on her at high speed.

 I brought a bunch of pool/beach toys and the place we were staying had even more, but the kids spent more time playing with Rocky's shirt than anything else combined.

 I'm glad I caught this on camera, since it hasn't been repeated this well yet.

 The world's longest chicken fight.

 The beach was pretty clean, as long as you didn't look to the right or left and only focused at the beach owned by the hotel. The water was crazy warm, at least 90 degrees, shallow and jelly fish free.

fishes

We traded in city life this weekend for a few days on the beach in Rayong. It was nice and cool (88 degrees) unless you were in the water--which had to have been over 90 degree, which is how I prefer the ocean to be.

Rocky caught this puffer fish for Ricker's taxidermy collection. Not really, we found it dead on the beach. It had probably boiled to death in the ocean.

 We tried to buy this fish:

We saw the fisherman pull in their nets on the beach and Rocky tried to buy this beast but we were beat out.  Better luck next time. Silver lining, our car did not smell like fish the whole way home.

 She may have gotten Rocky's face,

 But she definitely got my vertical.

Rocky is still not convinced this picture is not some kind of trick photography.