January

After Ari and I got back from Thailand, it was life back to normal.  Zev had a performance with his class at school.  That is his friend Rita behind him. She has been teaching him gymnastics at recess.

The boys and I spent an afternoon painting these hearts and getting ready for Valentine's Day. 

Zev spent his time outside building a hammock. 

Tahl won the third place for the first graders in the pinewood derby.

Here he is with the other first graders. 

Ari recovered our dining room chairs for the new homework room. 

Ari sanded down and restained the kitchen table.  That is it in the center. 

Ari built the desk with the computer on it from scratch.  He did an amazing job. We love our new room do do homework and use the computer in. 

Zev decided to sleep in a box for a few nights. 

Here is Tahl at Sunday school. Music is his favorite part. 

Isaac is so big, he can climb to the top of anything now, and he is really proud of that. 

Tahl had a big 100th day of school. He looked too cute in his hat. 

Tahl let Isaac borrow his Elsa pajamas.  Isaac was very thankful to be using one of Tahl's most treasured possessions. 

Here is Isaac on a walk with his "suitcase." He is too funny. 

And also, the cutest ever. 

Tahl wrote a cute paper for Ari.  This is a picture of he and Ari. 

Here is his paper. It says, "When I am older, I hope to follow in the footsteps of my Dad. Because he is the srongist Dad. and he knows how to fix anything. and he is the gratest person at cooking I know."

Zev finally finished his first round of rock tumbling. He was really proud of his awesome rocks.

Here is Zevi getting his first stripe on his green belt. 

It was a busy January! 

Singapore

Ari and I had a long layover in Singapore.  We left the airport to explore for just a few hours. 

We went to the Botanical Garden first. 

They have an amazing garden full of Orchids. 

I had never seen so many amazing orchids all in one place before.  I guess that is why it is famous. 

This one was my favorite, but I kept finding more and more I loved. 

After the gardens, we took the MRT to Little India. It was so colorful to look at. 

There was this cool Hindu temple there. We also had some Indian food for dinner. 

We found this funny Paw Patrol display for the year of the dog.  Rubble had a fu man chu!

The had the most well organized and friendly subway system I had ever seen.  They had the funnies signs about "Standup Stacy" and all these characters telling you how to ride.  There is also a specific sign above forbidding Durian on the subway.  It was so funny. 

These airport signs were cracking me up too.  It's important to know which toilets have bidet right? 

Isaac Sammy was so happy to have his parents home!

Thanks so much to Karen, Gregg, and my mom for watching the boys while we were gone!  They survived even with the boys having stomach flu!  We had a great time, and we couldn't have gone without our amazing parents! 

Koh Samui

Right when we got off our flight in Koh Samui we went to the Big Buddha temple.

It really was pretty big. 

Then we walked around near Bophut Fishing Village. 

After that we went back to our hotel.  This is the view when you drive up. 

They give you a very nice welcome. 

Ari and I took so many pictures of our room.  I had never stayed in a hotel this nice. 

That night we went to dinner at a nice restaurant. 

It was yummy, but I didn't love that we were both given food with eyes. 

The next morning we hung out around our hotel some and relaxed. 

In the afternoon we went to visit the Na Muang Waterfalls.  

This was the first waterfall that you just park and walk right up to. 

Then we decided to visit the second waterfall.  You have to park down the road, and then walk a short but steep walk to get to it.

On the way we saw some cool spiders. 

This was my favorite waterfall of the trip because I had to climb lots to get there, and it was really empty because people are lazy. 

Our hotel was so big, with each person having their own separate rooms, that we had to take a golf cart everywhere except breakfast.  When we rented our car, they made sure it was only the two of us going in it.  They said if it was more than two our car wouldn't make it up to the hotel. 

The next morning for our last full day in Koh Samui we went on a "luxury boat tour" to the Angthong Nation Marine Park. It is a lot of little islands near each other in a protected area. 

After a two hour boat ride, we went snorkeling in a cove. 

Then we rode some more to another area where we went kayaking. 

Just riding on the boat from place to place was beautiful. 

The last thing we saw was this cove.  We had to climb a lot of very steep stairs to the top. 

The guide took this picture of us on panoramic.  Didn't it turn out awesome? 

We climbed down more stairs, some of which were almost just a ladder to get down by the water. 

This was our view from breakfast on our last morning.  The hotel really was incredibly beautiful. 

We flew out to Singapore that day.  Even the airport has gorgeous mountain views. 

I always love an airport where you have to walk out on the tarmac to get to your plane.