Happy Chinese New Year! It's 9p.m. and the fireworks are not ceasing. We arrived home at 1:00 this morning and were either too tired to hear them or they were finished by then; hopefully the latter. It's great to be home (!); however, I'm already reminded of how exhausting life is here and how much our whole family needed some rest. We praise the LORD with all of our hearts for his loving care for our family!!!

(yesterday) Dolphin Bay, Thailand; 6 days of rest

As soon as Lily turned 3 she quit napping. As soon as we landed in Thailand she began again.

We went on a short boat ride to Monkey Island. We brought bananas and potato chips to feed them.

This monkey seemed perturbed Lily wasn't handing him the bag of chips.

Caedmon enjoying every bit of the boat ride and singing "Row row row your boat."

We enjoyed our time at Dolphin Bay with some friends from China. We all had a great time together.

the boat we rode

Caedmon strongly disliked getting his feet and hands dirty in the sand. He preferred playing with buckets of water instead.

Lily was an expert floaty wearer! She was so independent in the water with these pink dreams.

Steve and Josh watching the Super bowl at 6:30a.m.

The Family Pic (don't look too close, seems like everyone's got a silly face)

After months on end of gray sky, this is quite the sight.
We had fun collecting shells and trying to avoid stepping on little crabs digging holes.

So Lily and Caedmon, what do you do in your free time?

One week in Chiang Mai, Thailand

This is the hotel that accommodated thousands of folks. From a mom's perspective, the balconies were a little scary, so our family quickly adapted a new rule that you had to walk as close to the opposite wall as possible =) (we were on the 12th floor)

clouds covering the mountains
it was great to see so many trees

Cade and his buddy Cameron sharing some fries

Lily & Cade on a train ride; a little shorter than the average

There was a play place in the mall next to the hotel. Most rides were 33 cents. Lily is such a big helper, she volunteered to help Cades with his seat belt.

Who knew this was a ride?

Lily and Cade did!

Caedmon loved to take a running start and then jump and spin right into the balls. I was laughing so hard watching him. The more I laughed, the more he acted silly!

Every day from here on as we walked through the mall Lily and Caedmon asked, "Where's that one bear?"

a trip to the zoo
these hippos were humongous

we caught an animal show
this is a parrot hang gliding with his beak

some sort of mammal hanging from a pole

we chose the center/ front seats and later realized no one else did because of the sun and also the flying birds that swooped right over our heads

more friends from China

silly lily faces

Emily & Sydney...

in the mouth of a lion!

it almost seemed like the zoo builders just put a fence around the jungle, it was so beautiful

Lily, Caedmon, Ian & Noah

fun times at child care

riding in a tuk-tuk

"Dad, that's the millionth picture you've took"

just landed and can't wait for a swim

China
chilled out Cade on the way to the airport
lily didn't want to do anything else but get on the plane

yeay, off to Thailand

Before we left we had some wonderful visitors (!) stay with us for a couple days, Dave & Rachael from La Crosse.

I was wondering where Caedmon went, the house was quiet. Just doing a little reading!