Stake Conference

Jack had Monday off. Yay! I LOVE when he doesn't have school some days, and it is making me even more excited for summer when we don't have to plan our days around a fixed time table. Pretty much everyone here is leaving for the entire summer, so I'm sure we'll all miss a lot of our friends, but it will be fun to spend time with those who are here, hopefully get away for a few long weekends, and enjoy some fun activities with just us!

So, with Jack's free day, we met our friends Heather and Scarlett at the new IPC clubhouse. IPC is the name of Jack's school, and they just opened up a new branch that is turning into to somewhat of a community center. They offer gym classes for kids and adults, a fun playground, a small library, and of course a salon and massage parlor. Jack has started going regularly on Tuesdays after school for a gym class and he LOVES it. It's now his favorite day of the week. We decided to check out the new facilities and see what they wanted to do. It was fun to visit while the kids played on the playground, Heather got a wash and blow, Jane got her toenails painted, and they offered an impromptu gym class for the kids who were there, so we splurged and let them do it.

Jane is such a girly girl sometimes. I didn't even think she was going to do it, but she just got in line and the next thing I knew she was getting painted RED! Good thing things like this are so dang cheap here!

I usually don't get to see Jack in his gym class, so this was a treat for me. Because it was a little less formal, they let the parents in, and the class was all different ages. I felt like it was the perfect day to spend the money on this because it is probably the only time Jack and Jane could do it together, which they both loved.

They did tumbling, games, singing, and they loved the parachute. I wish I could do that with my nursery kids! This was during one of the courses they set up around the room. Jack was coming off the balance beam, as Jane had just done, but instead of moving onto the next station, she decided to try and catch him. I love my kids!

I went to pick Jack up from his Tuesday class, and Jane decided she was up for a haircut. I never know what to do with her curly/not so curly hair in this humidity. But, as I've discovered with my hair, less is better. She thought this was great, and they even give her a treasure when she's done!

Spent a little time with Brandon this week. These two are two peas in a pod.

A while back, we decided it was time for Jack to finish out the night in his own room. He would always go to sleep in his room just fine, but for some reason, always ended up on our floor by morning time without waking us. When morning time started to get closer to evening time, we decided it was time to make this a priority. As soon as we talked to him about it and told him we could go see a movie if he started staying in his room, he's been a champ. He just likes to sleep on his floor now. No complaints here.

Our friends, the DeJesus family, stayed with us again last night. We absolutely love when they come to stay. They are fantastic company, make themselves right at home, and help around the house more than I should probably let them! We woke up to a hot breakfast and kids happily playing this morning. I didn't even hear Jane wake up, Crisse just got her out of bed and let us sleep. Wow!

Off to Stake Conference this morning. I don't think Jane knew what to do with all this energy these boys had this morning.

As we were walking out of our apartment complex, Jack and Curt just put their arms around each other. This was our best attempt at a picture of it as they were exiting the guards station.

I love Stake Conference. Jeff was able to attend the Priesthood meeting yesterday afternoon, and then I went to the adult session in the evening. This is always my favorite meeting of the year, and this one wasn't a disappointment. Elder Rasband was presiding and his talk was phenomenal. I was so glad that he shared that this was also the same talk he gave in the October 2000 conference, shortly after he was called to the presidency of the Seventy. Sunday morning, we all went together to the Amari Watergate Hotel for the general meeting. We arrived an hour early and got fantastic seats which made a huge difference in how much we could get out of the meeting while keeping Jack and Jane entertained! This is as the ballroom was filling up.

Many of the talks for all 3 meetings were by our area authority, Elder Wong, Elder and Sister Rasband, as well as the Hong Kong Temple President and his wife, Brother and Sister Goo. This is me, Jane, and Preeya with Sister Goo. Her daughter's family were the first people Jeff got to know in the Bangkok ward when he was here on business. They invited him over a few times, took him out to eat, and made him feel really welcome. They went above and beyond the usual, "welcome!", and as a wife at home, I was happy someone was taking care of him! They are awesome! When we found out we were going to move here, they passed along several items we would need, and shared their most valuable Thailand find, Preeya! Preeya worked full time for them and got to know the parents well too, so when Sister Goo was in town, Preeya was thrilled to be her guide. I was happy to get to know Sister Goo a little too, and can see why her daughter's family was so generous, and why Preeya adores her so much. Preeya has worked part time for us since we moved into our apartment and she is fantastic! It's so nice to have help around the house, and someone to help with making calls to random Thai places I normally couldn't communicate with. She has been priceless, and a fantastic part of our Thailand family! I was so happy she wanted to attend this meeting with us to listen to President Goo's talk. It was fun to mesh those two parts of our life.

Jack and Jeff playing while waiting the hour for it to start. My boys, aren't they cute? (taking pictures at Stake Conference probably seems weird, right? It is/was totally normal here. I regularly take my camera to church, of course only using it at appropriate times, but I am certainly not the only one! I'd hate to miss moments with our church friends, just because we mostly only get to see them at church!)

These kids certainly do have fun together! I love having Curt over, and I still can't figure out where he gets all his energy. He was going, going, going, then, when the meeting started, I looked down the row to see him passed out on the chairs. He slept through the entire two hour meeting! We weren't so lucky, but they kids did do well, especially with Ashley, Vibushen, and Preeya sitting by us. Plus, people around us just kept handing us food for the kids. We were in survival mode, so we thought it was fantastic.

Jack was SO tired at the end of the meeting. I could hardly stop laughing because he was reminding me of that Seinfield episode where Jerry's girlfriend cries about every little thing. "My frankfurter....". It really was that ridiculous. Anyway, we insisted he take a nap, and he happily agreed, except this is what we found him doing instead. He said he took a nap in his tent, but no, he didn't. He was having fun though, so what can you do?

Finally, I got the music to our video added in. It's always the last thing to do for some reason. Thanks for the recommendations. The ones I didn't use for this one, I'll definitely use for another. My videos are all pretty similar, but I continue to make them because it's such a great way for the kids to be able to go through photos and remember so many people we love, yet don't get to see very often. Jane's spent the majority of her life in Thailand now, and won't remember seeing Grandparents for Sunday dinners, or having a cousin come to stay for the weekend, or even walking across the street for a playdate. But, she will remember fantastic trips to Utah where we crammed in as much Grandparents, cousins, Aunts, Uncles, fun and LOVE as we possibly could. We absolutely loved this trip, and are already counting the days until we can celebrate being together as a family again!