Life During Week 4

We passed the 4 week mark last Friday and we celebrated by trying to watch a movie very unsuccessfully! We clearly didn't have a great internet signal, but we DID have yummy popcorn! :)  Here are some of our recent pictures and adventures!!  Keep an eye out later this week for a post about our visit to a Buddhist Temple.

We are official!  We now have Thai Drivers license's!  I (Steph) have yet to experience driving here, but soon I will have my chance!  The scooters....ALL parked outside of a grocery mall...yah there really are that many crazy scooter drivers out here!!!  It's NUTS!!  Also a couple of pictures of a meal we enjoyed with friends!

Isaac LOVES to play...he's latest, "Daddy will you play with me?" He loves to have us make a "car slide" aka ramp for his cars, as well as tunnels out of Legos for his train to go through.  We haven't been able to make it to the pool much we have been SUPER busy since we got here!

Friday night was our epic fail of a movie night...but we sure enjoyed the popcorn!!  Saturday night we took Isaac to golf again!  HE LOVES IT!!  He is somewhat of a novelty...the blonde haired, blue eyed, farang (white kid), hitting balls at the driving range!  One of our most enjoyed (and cheapest) family activities (it only coast a $1 per bucket of balls)!   

The boys outside playing soccer...or soccer ball as Isaac calls it!

New Adventures

Wow, tomorrow will mark 3 weeks of us being in Thailand!  How long and short these weeks have been!  So many new experiences and lots of exploring and learning.  Here are some pictures of our adventures in the last week!

Our new Saturday morning tradition.  Watching Isaac hit buckets of balls at the driving range, while we drink an Iced Latte! 

Our Visit to the Saturday Night Market...food, music, crafts...all sorts of stuff!

We visited a fruits and veggie market yesterday...these things were also there!  It took us a while to recover from all of the new smells we experienced!

Our "catch" from the market yesterday.  We got lots of garlic, cilantro, corn, carrots, tomatoes, chiles, onions, avocado, banana's, and limes.  I have already roasted the Chiles and Tomatoes and they will be a part of my Green Chile tomorrow!!

We painted the downstairs of our new home this past week...here is Nate hard at work in the kitchen, a before and after picture of color...and in the top Left we have the fabulous spider that was HUGE...Nate killed it!!!! And the bottom right is a kitty that has frequented our front porch.

Our First Week!

Two weeks ago we were preparing for our last few days at home, and now here we are living in Chiang Mai (CM) Thailand.  Our travel went really well, better than expected!!  Isaac did great, all of our flights were on time and ALL of our luggage made it!  

We had a house waiting for us, and boy was it nice to be able to unpack and unwind from our days of travel.  We didn’t have much time to enjoy our new home before we headed to a conference for the week.  It was in the the city where we got to see and do some of the “touristy” things.  We got to enjoy the night market, new restaurants, and enjoy local transportation.  

After our conference Isaac caught a cold and we are hopefully on the mend!  Please continue to pray for healing for our little boy and specifically that this cold does NOT turn into an ear infection.  

We are excited to keep you updated on our life here in CM.  Thank you for all of your prayers and support, we so appreciate you all!!

Here are some of the photos of our flights and our first week here!

The "War" Room

The luggage cart at DIA

Isaac on our first flight to LA

The Plane we got on in LA

Isaac brushing up on some airplane safety :)

Isaac sleeping on our way to Seoul

Watching a movie

CM Night Market
(this is the tame picture....this is only the shops on the streets)

McDonalds delivers here :)

Enjoying some chicken nuggets

Taking a Tuk Tuk back to the hotel in the rain!

We got to see fireworks on the 4th!!

Fun with friends!

Miguels....pretty good Mexican food!!

The Moat in the city

Isaac's School

  

Let me start by saying that Isaac has never been in school before!  The only school type experience he had had was the church nursery or MOPS nursery.  So when we dropped him off at a strange place with strange teachers and kids he didn’t know, he was not the least bit impressed!  He cried and cried for the first week when we dropped him off, maybe even two weeks!  Slowly but surely he began to not mind school so much, in fact, he LOVED it!  He now runs in every morning and we have to beg for a hug and kiss :)  

He has learned so much in school!  They have a new theme every week!  One week was colors, one was transportation, animals, countries, and a few more but I can’t remember them all :)  They also learned a new Bible story every week, they learned about Noah, Jonah, Jesus feeding the 5,000, Moses, and this week is Zacchaeus.

He has learned so many new songs and enjoyed songs he already knew!  Two of his favorites are Zacchaeus (you know....Zacchaeus was a wee little man and a wee little man was he...), and 5 Little Monkeys. 

He has made so many friends and loves his teachers!!   

We have had so much fun watching him grow and learn over the last two months, it’s amazing the amount of information that his little brain can hold onto :)  he seems to remember everything!!!

Here are a few of the pictures that they have taken in school along with one of Isaac ready to head out to school!

Washington D.C. Visit

On Saturday we were able to visit Washington D.C. for the day.  Here are a few pictures from our visit.

Isaac's First Metro Ride

White House

Isaac sleeping on the job too :-0

World War II Memorial

Washington Memorial from WWII Memorial

Isaac at Vietnam Memorial

In Front of Lincoln Memorial

Inside Lincoln Memorial

Our home...for now.

We are coming up on the mid point of our time in Virginia and thought we would share what our home is like.  We share a building (quad) with living quarters for four families.  We all share a great room.  Our apartment includes two bedrooms, bathroom, dining area, and a kitchen.  The property we are on is around 250 acres with a lake and some great areas to walk around.  Everything we need is located here.  We attend all of our classes in a building that is about a 2 minute walk from our home.  Isaac's school and cafeteria take about 5 minutes to walk to.  All of our meals are provided for us and our schedule seems to revolve around meals.  Breakfast at 7am, lunch at 12pm, and dinner at 5pm.  Everything else is in between.  Isaac and our school is normally between 8am-3pm.  

In front of our Quad (Home)

Isaac's Room

Our room.  We had to push two twin beds together.

Our dining room with bulletin board full of Isaac's art and cards from home.

Shared living room.  Can you tell that two 2 year olds live here?

Kitchen

Playground closest to our quad.  There are a total of 5 playgrounds and a gym to play at.

Isaac on the slide.

Overlooking part of the property.  

Farm on the property.