New Places...

We've been finding that since we have now been here for a while, we always end up going to the same places and doing the same things. So, the last couple of weeks, we decided to try to find some new places and activities that are family friendly. This is extremely challenging in some ways, but in other ways, Thailand is an awesome place for a family. It's finding the balance, like always.

Last week, I went to an amazing market and saw an advertisement for a new place just off of one of the MRT (Subway) stops. So, I thought, we could try it out. Anything just off of a train stop already gets points because we know we won't have to fight the traffic to get there. So nice! It did end up being a nice, new place with a bowling ally, lots of places to eat and shop, a movie theatre, and our favorite, an ice skating rink! We would have been crazy to try and ice skate, just our family (I can't skate plus hold Jane, Jack, and Jeff all at once!), but it was fun to go in and remember what the cold feels like. The tables surrounding the rink were made of ice! “Cool?” as Janie says. Jack wants to go back when he's five to try skating, and I think I'll challenge Jeff to try it too. Any words of encouragement for him would be greatly appreciated!

This is Janie doing one of my favorite signs... cold. You can't really get the full effect of her intensity, but I think you can at least see that she is hilarious.

We were surprised when we noticed that we were some of the only Farangs there! By the time we left, I think we saw one group of teenage boys who were probably American, but everyone else was Thai. We always like places that are a little off the beaten tourist path like this. This was a fun place, but we weren't in the shopping mood, and there was no place for kids to play, so we didn't stay long. But, it's nice to know it's there!

Here's half of us at the Mexican restaurant we found last weekend. Janie is such a poser lately, and don't you love Jeff's cheesy grin to match?

So, I thought the kids were just too cute in their Sunday clothes last week. Aren't they just the cutest pair ever?

Janie loves her swimming class! This is her waiting to get in the water. She has a few little friends she looks forward to seeing every week. We even met a nice family last week, the mother is Thai and the father is from L.A. They were great, and I think we are going to get together with them for lunch on Tuesday. It is SO nice sometimes to talk with someone who speaks “American”. Don't get me wrong, I love talking to people from everywhere, I prefer it in many cases, but sometimes I will go all week without talking to someone who's first language is English, besides Jeff, of course! Anyway, Janie is doing so well, and it is so fun to see her warm up to her teacher, who loves her. What a fun time together for both of us!

Janie is super silly lately.



Wow, lots of Jane pictures this week, lucky you! Here's Jane doing what we do twice a day while we wait for Jack's bus to pick up and drop off. This is a big fish pond in our lobby downstairs. She loves to watch them and all the staff here get such a kick out of her. They always crowd around and hold her, afraid she will fall in, even when she isn't even close. Am I just WAY too laid back, or is it that I know my kid's limits? Thais are way more worried about my kids than I am sometimes. I don't quite know what to think of that.

I just thought she looked really grown up in this picture, like she's starting to lose her baby fat. I know it has to go sometime, but I will miss those cheeks!

Thursday was a holiday in Thailand, so we decided to also take Friday off and play all weekend long. In the spirit of wanting to discover new places, we found a new place in our Bangkok book that looked promising. We had to take a taxi to get there, but quickly realized it was worth it! It was a HUGE mall (It's actually called, “the Mall”) with all kinds of affordable shopping, great Thai food and desserts, and a huge play place for the kids, next to a water park on the roof! It was perfect!

Outside of the play place, there was lots of “rides” that the kids could play on. Jack decided to use his coin to go on the big motorcycle. It was like an area for bumper cars, but it was right by where people are walking by and shopping! Luckily, they went really slowly, but it was still hard to keep him in the right area. He thought this was pretty cool.

This waterfall area surrounds a huge floor of Thai food and goodies. Wow, they know how to do sweets here. There were so many good things to see, and so many I've never seen before! It was never ending. I thought this waterfall was beautiful, and from what I could tell, all the plants were real. Pretty impressive.

We didn't have time to see everything, so we decided to come back the next day to try Fantasia Lagoon, the small waterpark on the roof. It was anything but crowded when we got there, and it is probably because Thais know how to predict weather much better than us newcomers! It rained almost immediately after we got our suits on! But, that didn't stop us. The kids didn't really even notice, and it let up after about 20 minutes. Luckily, the rain here is still really warm!

They make everyone wear swim caps, so we were looking like hot stuff! Janie was in heaven with her floaty ring, I was amazed at how quickly she caught on to using it!

Here's one of Jeff, if you haven't seen enough of his famous faces. Yes, he's hot stuff, especially in the handsome cap!

Jack was enjoying himself so much, he wasn't very happy when I said it was time to go. I felt bad because he found the only English speaking kids in the park right before we had to go. But, he did have a good time with a BIG Thai kid we found that loved the big water slides almost as much as Jack! He was so fun and it was fun for me to attempt a conversation with him in Thai! We really liked this place and plan on going back sometime soon. It's nice to have another place to add to our collection of kid-friendly destinations.

On the way to “the Mall” Jack was entertaining us with his new favorite song from school, The Grand Old Duke of York. He came home singing it one day with a little drum around his neck and was so excited. I don't know all the words to this song, but I'm fairly certain that “na na na” was Jack's special adaptation. I love it.