Birthday February

Aaron and Betsy both have birthdays in February. Here are a few of the things we have been doing in celebration. This is a month's worth of pictures! And since a picture is worth a thousand words, I'm more than making up for the last 4 weeks!

The biggest present Betsy and Aaron received was a visit from Gigi & Poppa/Mom & Dad.

Aaron received many presents from many different people, so in order to increase the fun we spread the gift giving over many weeks. This way he was able to enjoy each new toy for a while before becoming overwhelmed!

This is a toy that we have been looking forward to playing with for a long time! Aaron is becoming quite the handy-man, taking apart his car and tow truck, then putting them back together. He picks out the proper tool, flat-head, philips, socket, allen wrench, or hammer, then puts them to work!

Gigi and Poppa didn't want Aaron to question where he is from. Proud to be an American!

Aaron also got his first chance to go bowling. He loved it. We had to help him with the ball at first, but by the end he will collect it, walk to the lane, and roll it himself. He even got one strike!

Aaron's favorite gifts were Thomas trains. At Christmas he received a couple of engines, but no track. For his birthday the lack of track was taken care of!

It started with a simple figure eight set from Mommy and Daddy.

Then a package from Grandma & Grandpa came!

Then Gigi & Poppa got him a bridge.

He LOVES playing with the track. And most of the time we love it too!

Another thing we did quite a bit over the past month was swimming. Aaron is becoming quite a little water dog. He loves every aspect of being in the water!

Flying

Jumping

Sliding

Dunking

Aaron talked over and over about the "big green bucket with the elephant dumped water on my head."

Learning to drive.

Playing with his excavator at the beach.

Oh, some more swimming, this time at the ocean!

And, with all this going on, Betsy and Danny also got a bit of time to themselves while enjoying the free babysitting!

Love you all! Will fill you in on school next week!

Return to "Normalcy"

The three week Christmas vacation was a great time for me.  I really enjoyed all of the extra time I was able to have with Aaron.  I miss him now that I have had to return to teaching for the new semester.  Here are just a few pictures from our last outing of the holiday.

"Oh don't you see, there's a bird on me."

Aaron LOVES trains!

 

We planned on swimming in the water park, but it was closed, so we played on the obstacle course instead:

  

 

  

It was a lot of fun.  I can't believe that he is almost three years old already.  He has grown so fast, and every day he gets to be more and more fun!

  

 Love to you all, hope your January has been splendid!

Tis the Season

We've celebrated many Christmases.  This was one of our favorites!!  Aaron was so much more involved in everything this year.  He helped to decorate the house, hang the ornaments, and even put presents under the Christmas tree.  Daddy showed Aaron one of his favorite things to do before the tree got full of presents.  When Daddy was a kid, he would crawl under the empty tree and look up at all the twinkling lights. 

Aaron's favorite part of Christmas day was the unwrapping.  Only he called it wrapping.  So, here he is "wrapping" a couple of gifts.

He was very meticulous about handing us each scrap of paper to put in the trash.  No mess to clean up when he was done!

  

This was one of Aaron's stocking stuffers.  He really likes Thomas and Friends.  He would use stickers of Harvey that his Gigi (Betsy's Mom) sent to help his toy trains to get back onto their track.  Now he has a real Harvey the crane to do the job! 

  

This was truly a memorable Christmas.  We wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!

A Father's Disneyland Adventure

I thought that this week I would share my look at our time in Hong Kong (Disneyland).  It was a blast!  What follows are a few of my highlights:

The Buzz Lightyear ride was my favorite.  It was basically a big video game!  Each car had to laser guns and a joystick to rotate the car.  Betsy would hold Aaron so that he could control the spin of the car while I got to shoot the evil emporer Zurg and his minions!  I think I rode this ride about seven times (including by myself a couple of times while Aaron was napping or riding a different ride with Mommy.)

 

Thankfully, on both Tuesday and Wednesday, some of the other ICS staff members were also at Disneyland, so we were able to pass Aaron off to a babysitter so we could ride Space Mountain.  (Incidentally, this was the only ride that Aaron could not ride.)  The best part about this ride was the line.  Note in the picture how many people were in front of us.  There were none behind us!  We typically had a five-minute wait!

  

Of course, I also had a lot of fun with Aaron, I loved watching him watch and study things.  Here he is watching the clock on the "It's a Small World" ride.  He loved watched the face tick-tock back and forth.

  

 We also enjoyed Tarzan's treehouse.

  

And of course, the train.  I was able to ride next to Donald (he is my favorite) for 7 of my 8 rides on the train!

Of course, the trip wasn't all fun and games (for me).  It also included the conference.  I really enjoyed the chance to connect with other Christian math teachers from around Asia and share ideas about curriculum, computer aids, and Biblical integration.  Plus, I enjoy the puzzle of figuring new things out, so the 6 train, hour and a half commute each direction wasn't really that bad!  It meant I got to see some of Hong Kong, I got to people watch, and I got to spend a lot of time reading from the Scriptures.

OK, here is one last picture.  On our last night in Hong Kong the three of us went to a nearby area and road these cable cars over the water and into the hills (I almost called them mountains).  It was wonderful to actually see mountains and hills unlike anything we have seen for a long time.  (I'm pretty sure that the highest elevation in Singapore is one of the banking buildings.)

Now we are back into normal life with 8 more days of school until Christmas vacation!  Love you all!

Trip to Hong Kong

Danny needed to attend a teaching conference in Hong Kong last week. So, we just had to stay at the Disneyland Hollywood Hotel so Betsy and Aaron could visit Disneyland 4 days. Yeah, we got to go to Disneyland 4 days in a row! Danny joined us for the first two days. Then he commuted into the city for his conference. Here is our hotel!

This fountain was just outside the entry into Disneyland. According to the math-brained husband, the fountain did a little show every 12 minutes. What a fun "Hello" from Mickey!

So, what was Aaron's favorite ride? Well it was a toss up, but the carousel won by a nose (no pun intended). He spent most of the rides on the carousel alternating between talking about how fast it was going and watching the mechanics and attempting to figure out how it worked.

After the carousel, Aaron asked, "Can we ride the elephants?" Danny was happy to oblige. We told Aaron that the Elephant's name was Dumbo. He would ask to ride Dumbo from then on. He discovered the joy of being able to control his ride. "Go up and down!" Yeah, that was tons of fun!

Next ride? Teacups please. Mommy said, "If you want to ride the teacups, you better do it today and tomorrow with Daddy. Mommy doesn't ride the teacups. Ever!" So Aaron got to ride with Daddy a couple of times! Mommy happily stood outside and snapped pictures!

The last ride of the first day: The Carousel.

The Small World ride was a cacophony of all things mechanical. Aaron had to study them every time we rode. Smiles and excitement outside the ride quickly faded as he tried to take in all the mechanical dolls and scenery. You can just see his little brain working, usually going on overload.

This Disneyland was perfect for Aaron. All the lands were very close together which made it easier for Aaron to get around. Most of the rides were geared for his age, so he could enjoy them repeatedly! This picture is of Main Street. We enjoyed all the various, spontaneous events. For example: The Disneyland Band, and even some Christmas shows.

On Thursday, Friday, and Saturday Danny commuted into the main part of Hong Kong for a teacher's conference. The public train system there is very similar to the trains we use in Singapore. But the first leg of the trip was on a train that only serviced Disneyland. Boy was it a nice train! It made him spoiled to the rest of the packed commuter trains. The windows were Mickey shapes, and statues of the various characters were stationed periodically throughout the cars! Danny's favorite is Donald Duck!

Stay tuned for the next set of pictures. We have many more to share with you!

Favorites

Aaron made some new friends at the zoo last week.  A family of lemurs gathered right by us in the butterfly exhibit.  They were calm and quiet.  So Aaron gently touched the closest one.  He just looked at Aaron like, "So what?  I'm just hanging out!"

 

This little guy even helped Aaron with an early bath.  Aaron turned around and said, "Mommy, he eating me!"  I checked for tooth marks at warp speed!  No, just a friendly little lick.  Aaron giggled at that.  He talked about that one for the rest of the day!

  

Boredom set in amongst the lemur group.  So they decided to go raid the butterfly sugar water.  Aaron thought it would be a good idea to go try to corral this "unruly mob".  Not a chance!  Instead, Mommy found a "Kodak Moment".

  

The new area for children has some great landscaping!  Aaron really wanted to ride the "grass train" as he called it.  Mommy had to break the sad news that this train did not take passengers.

  

Mommy's favorite moment of the day was Aaron's first pony ride.  This is Rosie.  She was kind enough to do a lap around the pony trail toting Aaron, plodding beside her wrangler.  Aaron was excited to try this new form of transportation.  Mommy wasn't sure if he would be brave enough to get on Rosie.  But, he reached out to the man leading Rosie. ready to hop on and see the world.  Rosie's leader said Aaron was so clever as they traveled.  He was busy pointing out all the sights along the way.  Mommy even convinced Aaron to touch Rosie's soft nose.  Brave little guy!!

  

Here a a few pics of the Elephant show.  It is called "Elephants at Work and Play".

Work:

(knocking logs into the water, a logging task)

  

Play:

"Hey, wake up!  No sleeping on the job!!"

  

As evening approached the other day,  so did a thunder storm.  Betsy grabbed the camera and started shooting.  As luck (AKA God) would have it, she captured this strike!

  

Sometimes, the evening lights remind me of Christmas.  This is one of my favorite skyline shots!