A Swing'n Good Time

Warm California Sun

We stayed at the Lawrence Welk Resorts for a week and played in the sun a lot. Bryce is a water baby and enjoyed playing with Asher and sharing pool toys.

Running through the water park.

Grandad has big toy's too. Bryce riding the ATV.

Fishing with family and friends.

Quite a Splash

Bryce had a great time at Sea World. He loved Shamu and would not take his eyes off the acrobatic whale. He is even making a big slash at home in the tub with his new rubber "mamu" and "mamu" towel, thanks to Grandma and Grandad Hurt.



We were fortunate to go two days. One of the days we spent at the Sesame Street play area. We saw larger than life Elmo, Abby and Cookie. Bryce was so happy till we got a little too close. He does not like mascot costumes, maybe in a few years.

Eureka, Back in The States

We first visited San Diego, California on our trans continental trip back to America. We visited family and friends and made new friends with baby Asher, our friends Kurt and Vanessa came to stay with us in the timeshare we rented this year.

A special thanks to everyone who traveled to see us as we did not really leave the hotel to do much visiting. My sister Laura again made the trip from Las Vegas, her girls have grown up.

Waking up at Grandma and Grandads.

San Diego mini train museum and Balboa Park train.

Can you tell he is a a toddler boy? He loves trains. We even bought him a ultimate deluxe Thomas the Train set and mailed it back to Thailand. That will probably only entertain him about two years.

An Adventure to Remember

Bonnie and Ramiro have successfully completed our first adventure race. This was also our first team race which meant we had to stay together for the duration of the race. This particular race took place in Chang Mai and consisted of trail "running", mountain biking, swimming, kayaking for a total distance of about 35 to 50 Km ( about 20 miles). The "map" of the course before we started was "follow the orange ribbons from start to the finish; if you don't see a ribbon go back to the last one and try again". So with high spirits, two camel backs, some gel for fuel, two helmets and off we went into the unknown.

The course "runs" consisted of climbing up the side of a couple of mountains. There was even one point where we were using ropes to pull ourselves up the side of sheer cliff to get to the bamboo ladder to climb the rest of the way up the inverted cliff sections. During the kayak, we had to stop and get out and climb a tree (although Ramiro was tall enough, no climbing was involved), use a cargo net to get up a bank of the lake and even use a sling shot to hit the metal plate in the tree (which from a seated position in a kayak is not as easy as it sounds).

The nice thing was since the course was quite steep, it slowed us down so we could really appreciate the view. There was one part where a waterfall was shooting out about three or four feet from the side of the mountain before falling probably about 50 feet. Then there were panoramic views of the countryside overlooking lakes and vast lush forests.

So after about six hours of site seeing, we finally came out of the woods and back on the road to finish. We are still waiting on the official results, but we think we placed fourth or fifth in the mixed (man and woman team) division.

We did not bring our camera as we did not want to chance getting it wet or damaged. We did take a picture of the map, with our cell phone, when they reveled it the following day. The order went as follows, run, bike, swim, kayak, run, swim, and finally bike to the finish line (the only section we did not do is the red as this was the extra added for the extreme level). When we crossed the finish Bonnie exclaimed "I loved it" followed by Ramiro's "Never again." We see more adventure races in our future!

Funarium

There is a new indoor mega playscape in Bangkok.

First Day of Preschool

Bryce started preschool today, he will go one day a week for now. He was excited to put on his uniform for the big day. Mommy and daddy walked him to class but he broke free of our hands the second we took off his shoes. He ran straight into his class which we previewed on Wednesday of last week. I spoke to the teacher and she commented on how comfortable he seemed, "Most kids cry." I thought, its probably because I am standing right here. Also, he walks by the school everyday, he wants to come in. Daddy and I gawked and took pictures to remember the excitement of the moment.
Daddy had to go start his day. I stayed to ask a few questions and finish the paperwork. After they shut the door I wanted to get a picture of him through the door sign, he saw me, a few seconds later he started to cry. I had to leave and believe that he will soon enjoy going to school as much as his friends do. Four of the kids in our building are in his class and that makes him more comfortable.
The day we previewed his class all his friends came over and with toddler body language, smiling and patting his arm, saying hey buddy good to see you, are you coming to school? . So I know he will fit right in.