Wrapping up Thailand

This is officially the last post of Thailand: all of the random shots from my phone. The good news is I have pictures from those first couple of weeks after we got back. The bad news is I don't if I've taken pictures with the DSLR since my dad left Seoul. 

I was impressed by the Christmas decorations in Incheon Airport. I don't know why I was surprised, though. That's just how things are done at Incheon. Our plane hadn't even left the gate before Cade had his sunglasses on. He was ready for sun!

When we booked our flights (in July!), we had a four hour layover in China. In the months between, our flight changed and we ended up with a nine hour layover. Then our flight was delayed by two hours! 

Needless to say, we were all pretty antsy and miserable. There was only one, fairly small terminal for the international departures. We weren't willing to do the whole immigration thing just so that we could find better restaurants, so we settled for the interesting food we could find.

It's pretty incredible to me how far we've come in our experience of traveling by air. Two years ago, our children had never been on an airplane. Eric and I had only flown twice in our entire marriage. Now, I cannot even count the number of flights we've had in the last year (mind-boggling!). We've learned a lot!

Dad frequented one of the restaurants on the beach that had live music. The night that I went, he even agreed to sing on stage! It was pretty funny!

I think one of Cade's favorite parts was breakfast in the morning. He got fresh fruit and bacon every single day, alongside a bowl of cereal, of course!

It was so relaxing that most days we spent an hour or two just relaxing, drinking coffee, and chatting at the breakfast table. In five more months, we're headed to Hawaii...can't wait to see a warm beach again!

The sunset over China was beautiful on our way home. When we arrived at Incheon and got our messages, we had one from our nanny telling us that she'd been unable to get into our apartment when she'd stopped a few days before. So, it was the middle of the night, we were lugging bags through subways and then up and down the streets of Seoul on the way home--and all the while, we weren't sure that we were going to be able to get into our house when we arrived! It was stressful, but thankfully we had no problems getting in when we finally did arrive.

And, since this post is all pictures of Cade, I will end with the fact that during this trip, Cade finally decided that he is fully potty trained. He shared a room with my brother, and he was inspired. He decided that he is now officially too big to wear pull ups to bed. I remember a year ago when Eric and I finally decided that that his kid needed to wear underwear. I thought he would never be fully potty trained! He has definitely had a few nighttime accidents, but I'm thankful that he took the decision out of my hands...I may have never let him lose the pull ups! We are officially free of diapers! Yay!

Last Day in the Sun

On our last day in Dolphin Bay, we savored every last moment of relaxation.

We enjoyed our last leisurely breakfast of omelets, bacon, fruit, and whatever Thai dish was available.

We enjoyed sitting in the morning sunshine. Even with pink eye.

And we spent our afternoon lounging on the beach.

The kids worked hard on a sand castle with some of the kids they had met. This family's vacation lined up exactly with ours, so we saw a lot of them while we were there. They are international school teachers in Beijing.

The kids worked very hard on the details of their sandcastles.

For hours...

and hours...

and hours...

while we sat back and watched them. (another token picture of me. yes, I was there.)

I thought it was strange that Kennedy didn't want to put her swim suit on. She played in the sand in her dress.

And even though Cade was ready to go home, he still seemed to have lots of fun at the beach.

One last trip into the ocean...

And our trip was done.

Cade fell asleep before dinner again (actually it was after we ordered and before our food arrived), so we enjoyed our last meal in the comfort of our room, and then we got up dark and early (around 4:00) the next morning to head to the airport. I'm already looking forward to our next trip!

Heading into Hua Hin

On the day after Christmas, my family took off to explore the rest of Thailand. It was sad to see them go, and it was disappointing that we couldn't travel around more, but it was best for us that we didn't try to stretch the kids too much more. They were already starting to get tired, and Cade especially was ready to go home since he hadn't been feeling well.

So that afternoon, we reserved a taxi to take us into Hua Hin, about a 30 minute drive from Dolphin Bay. My goal was to see a bit more of the culture, have some authentic Thai street food, maybe see some elephants, pick up some Thai ingredients in a grocery store, and maybe get a few souvenirs.

Eric went to the front desk to sign us up for the taxi. They told him they would take us to the "market village". That was perfect. Exactly what I wanted. I thought.

When we arrived, I discovered that it was not at all a market village. It was "Market Village". A mall. Full of expats. Full of white people. With a Starbucks right in front. I laughed out loud. Literally.

So we checked out the mall. It was a lot nicer than a Korean mall, but it wasn't particularly exciting. I told Eric that I wanted to go for a walk down the street outside just to see what we could see.

As it turned out, we couldn't see much of anything. It was hot in the city. Really hot. So, we walked up the street a little bit and basically turned around and headed back as soon as the kids started whining.

We ended up having some boring ol' pepperoni pizza. It reminded me of some of our experiences here in Seoul. We leave the house with these notions of what our experience will be and end up settling for something incredibly ordinary. And then paying way too much for bad pizza to make up for it! It's always some kind of experience, even if it's not the one pictured in my mind!

After lunch, Kennedy and I went to the grocery store while Eric and Cade picked up tacky souvenirs in the mall. We checked out the interesting snacks (15 baht is about 50 cents) and we got some satay and curry seasonings--things that are hard to find here in Seoul. Then we went to meet our driver.

We relaxed a bit on the lawn when we got back to the resort.

We let the kids play with some of the kids at the resort even though we probably shouldn't have since Cade still wasn't feeling well.

We had a light dinner at the resort that evening.

I had Thai iced tea with nearly every meal I had in the resort restaurant, so Eric thought we needed my picture by the sign. As you can see, I was pleased.

Cade managed to stay awake through the meal, but he wasn't even hungry enough for chicken satay. He put in a special order for toast with jam, and they were happy to oblige him, thankfully.

The beach was really beautiful in the evening, especially once your eyes are trained to look straight past the ugly green fence!

I've spent the entire day poring over my students' resumes and cover letters, so that I can assign them jobs for the big research project we just began. It turns out that it takes quite awhile when not only do you have to determine whether or not they are a good fit for the job they applied for, but you also have to grade the resumes and letters themselves. It took me all day to get through one class, so I still have three to go, which does not bode well for my weekend!

Christmas Eve at Dolphin Bay

Somehow I have managed to get an amazing out of work done today, so I'm rewarding myself by spending time doing less-than-important things. I had dinner made before 10 am this morning--I love the crock pot!--I've started dinner for tomorrow night, I've planned my lessons and written my rubrics for next week, and graded and entered the assignments I had...it must be about time for bed, right?

Christmas Eve was the big day at the resort. We had to make reservations for our table, and they had spent the last several days decorating and setting up for a big dinner in the evening.

As it turned out, Cade never really recovered from this nap he took in the afternoon. We quickly discovered, even without a thermometer, that he had a temperature and I headed to the little store at the resort to find some ibuprofen (or fever syrup as it turned out).

The kid was in bed for the night by about 5:30, I think. Obviously he wasn't going to dinner.

Gretchen offered to give up her evening and stay behind with him, which was really sweet. Eventually everyone took their turn...well, everyone except for me. Guilty Mom Award. Again.

Dinner was a buffet of all types of imported favorites: turkey, gravy, dressing, mashed potatoes, vegetables, even cranberry sauce. It was pretty good!

After dinner began, a group of students from a nearby school came to sing Christmas carols. It was really sweet! It was difficult to understand, but it sounded pretty good for a bunch of Thai students that had probably only heard the songs in order to learn them!

Kennedy enjoyed listening to the carolers. While they were singing, Dad headed back to the room. We assumed that he since he had already brought Gretchen a plate of food, that he was probably going back to hang out with her for awhile. We headed back to the table to finish eating after the carolers were done.

Soon, we heard the announcement that Santa was on his way. Eric took Kennedy up to watch while Travis and I sat and chatted. Not long after, we heard the "ho, ho, ho" of Santa's arrival. Travis and I joked for a second about how it kind of sounded like Dad. It seemed so unlikely, that we sat back and continued to eat.

It wasn't long before he actually started talking, though. Now we knew it was Dad. There was no mistaking it this time. So, we jumped out of our chairs to go and watch...and try to get a picture!

Travis headed back to the room, so that Gretchen could see Dad play his part. She told us that they had just asked him that morning...apparently, after keeping their eyes out for a good candidate for Santa all week. I'm sure the decision wasn't too difficult since Dad was one of the few grandpas with young grandkids there.

Needless to say, Kennedy figured it out immediately, and she was very excited that her grandpa was Santa Claus!

As it turned out, the room where Dad changed was right above our room, so he was able to sneak in to see Cade in bed before he changed out of the suit. Even in his fever-induced state, Cade still said, "That's not Santa. That's Grandpa!" It made for a special Christmas Eve for these little kids!