Funny Guy's final field trip was to Sun Center waterpark in Lamphun, a quarky waterpark/amusement park that is still partly under construction. But these first graders didn't care about the semi-disarray. They jumped right in and splashed and laughed the morning away.
After lunch, they got to try out several of the rides. Funny Guy's favorite was the mechanical bull. Though it threw him both times, Funny Guy "yeehawed" and whooped and even held on with just one hand as it lurched around. Definitely a great way to end the year.
On the last day of school, there weren't any sad faces on these three! We celebrated with icecream on the way home.
One of our first summer outings was a bike ride over to the soccer field at Payap University. We played soccer, watched clouds, read, and rode bikes until we were completely drenched in sweat. Then we rode home to shower off and go swimming. Definitely a great first day of summer break.
Another fun outing was lunch with friends at Nic's Restaurant across town. It's the world's greatest restaurant where you can get great food, gluten free cake, and smoothies and the kids can play for hours on the bamboo boat, climbing tower, swings, or trampoline. Definitely a great place to meet up for a play date!
Darling Daughter missed friends already, so invited them over for swim parties and sleep overs right away. I knew I'd be starting work soon, so we crammed in as many as we could that first week of summer.
I also spent lots of time outside with Funny Guy, walking Mochi, biking around the neighborhood, or walking to the pond to feed the fish. Sometimes when it's so hot, it's easy to get lazy and stay inside all day, but we always love it when we get outside.
Our first Friday Fun Day was supposed to be a trip to Sticky Falls, but I was over-confident with my navigational skills and didn't look up directions. We'd been there once before and I was sure I'd be able to drive there again. I took a wrong turn, though, and by the time we realized it, correcting it would have taken almost 2 hours. Luckily, the kids were good sports and decided we could try out this place instead.
It was great. We rented tubes (though the creek was too shallow to do much more than float lazily), hunted for crawdads, caught fish, and built a rock dam. We picnicked and read. It was an idyllic summer afternoon, and by the time we headed for home, the kids were thanking me for my mistake.
My Man hasn't been able to do much paragliding here, but there was one day of magic in June. He invited his whole section from work to come up and the wind cooperated perfectly.
He took off and flew, eliciting oohs and aahs and gasps and applause from the large audience below.
We could see a great storm in the distance, but it never got too close and the wind was enough to keep My Man flying until sunset forced him to land.
My Man took the boys to the archery range a few times across town. Since they already have the bows and arrows, it's only a few bucks each time.
There aren't many places that we can walk or bike to safely from our house, but there is one icecream shop that isn't too treacherous a bike trip and the kids absolutely love to go. They have some of the best icecream in town and the bike trip makes you almost feel like you've earned it.
The Consulate hosted a concert by a symphony quartet from Stanford University that My Man had to emcee. We brought the kids for the cultural experience and everyone enjoyed it. Unfortunately, however, no one was inspired to start practicing the abandoned violin at home.
One of our next fun outings was to Huay Tung Taow lake for a picnic lunch and swimming. About halfway through we were joined by a friendly bird who begged chips and fruit for the rest of the morning. Young Man and Funny Guy also caught a couple crabs and pipe fish for their aquatic habitat.
And then it was time for me to start work! I was bummed to be starting just a week after the kids got out of school, but so excited to be starting work at my first "real" job--not quite fair considering I worked at our business for years and also as a copyeditor and proofreader, but I'd never worked at an office or with a face-to-face boss!
I get to commute to and from work with My Man and most days we get to eat lunch together. I love what I do as the Consulate's Management Assistant, helping with a large variety of projects. I organize events, help out with grants, work on environmental issues, organize English classes, and more. It's definitely busy, but it has been working out well and I am so happy I made the choice to start working.
Just a typical grocery shopping trip. Luau anyone?
Happy Father's Day My Man! The kids made breakfast in bed, awesomely creative cards, and very cool presents, including this awesome rope dragon we got at the walking street market.
I already wrote about our awesome
4th of July weekend and some of our other
Friday Fun outings, but here are some more of our highlights from July:
Since I didn't work Fridays over the summer, we continued to have fun outings every Friday. For one, Darling Daughter and I attended a Consulate community activity to an interesting temple and lunch. It was a rainy day, but it was a fun outing and the hot chocolate was amazing.
Another Friday Fun Day was a trip to the umbrella factory where we got to watch how they make the traditional fans and umbrellas here, from making the paper to the bamboo skeleton. They also have several artisans there who paint the umbrellas and fans, or anything else you have, including the clothes you are wearing! Darling Daughter had her shorts painted, Funny Guy got a sword, and Young Man and I had our phone cases painted. It was great.
When Minions came to town, we decided to organize a big outing to go and had almost 50 people show up! It was seriously one of the stupidest shows ever, but it was fun to get together with friends.
We discovered an airsoft place not far from our house and have gone a few times, including this time for one of Young Man's friend's birthday parties. Seriously can't think of a better place for an airsoft battle than a jungle full of abandoned cars, well, unless it is a place without mosquitoes and 90% humidity. . . .
And then it was already the end of July and practically the end of summer (well, the end of summer vacation anyway, since it's really always summer). Even though the kids didn't want it to end, they all admitted that it was a great summer, full of fun and adventures and just enough relaxing. They had swim lessons twice a week at our pool, Friday Fun Days and weekend adventures, and lots of books, movies, bike rides, bug hunts, board games, and Studio C the rest of the time. Darling Daughter dabbled with baking and produced some stellar desserts. Funny Guy started a YouTube channel teaching kids how to duplicate his awesome Lego creations, Young Man invested in a soccer goal for our front yard, and they all enjoyed walking and playing with Mochi (our adopted dog for the summer).
All in all, I'd have to say the Thai summer of 2015 was a resounding success.
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