The Tomlinsons: And then I rode a unicycle at the sun

Day 57:

This week is going to be quite different for us! Doug is attending a conference that begins tomorrow a little after lunch time. It's being held in Chiang Mai, so he'll be sleeping at our house, but that's about it. It begins at 8:30 in the morning and ends at 9 pm. The final day is Friday, the conference will end at 9 pm, and the following day, Doug will be driving 12 hours to help one of our friends move into their new village home. So, basically, we won't be seeing much of Doug until this time next week! In my mommy mind, that means today is a good day to run errands, catch up on housework, organize home school materials, take a pre-emptive nap, prepare food as though the zombie apocolyspse is eminent. In Doug's mind, today was a good day for a family outing. And let's face it, I'm a fun loving, life of the party, push over. So I agreed, and gosh darn it, I don't regret it. I'll be stuck at home with no vehicle for oh, 7 days, I can clean and organize till my little heart is content, but today, we had fun. Such great memories!

I should say, the outing we chose was to a water park. Okay, well we thought it was a water park. It's pretty near here and didn't open until 2 pm. So I actually did prep the school room, and get a few things done. I didn't have my ipod handy because I was "working", so I missed some great moments with Kees. He had a piece of thread hanging from his shirt and I helped him pull it off. He was curious about why the string was blowing and figured out the fan caused it to blow. Then he experimented from a distance to see how it would blow and tried all three fan settings. On the lowest setting it didn't blow when he was far away, but it still blew up close. Wow! I love stuff like this, fun, fun...who needs a water park?

Okay, the water park is called "The Sun". I didn't make that up, they have a sign. As usual, I asked Doug as we were leaving if he knew where we were going and he replied with his typical response, "Yeah, basically". Which means, he has looked it up and he knows the general area we are heading, but we'll just have to drive around and find it when we get close. This works out perfectly because Kora was due for a nap, the aircon in the truck is amazing, and the longer we are looking, the longer she gets to sleep. Win, win, win! I also had fun taking pictures along the way! :)

His head kept bobbing. He bonked it on the door at least twice. I kick myself every time he falls asleep in the car for not bring the booster with the sides back from America. Car seats are not required here, and this one he has we are borrowing from co-workers.

I improvised.

She's sleeping too!

Okay, I bought these new sunglasses at the market for a little less than $2. I think they're fun, but Doug isn't crazy about the pattern on them. He says it really doesn't matter what he thinks, but I feel bad if my hubby doesn't like something that's ON MY FACE! What do y'all think? Should I just keep wearing them or make Doug go help me pick some out.

We got quite lost on our way and ended up in an industrial park. This is one of many "dead ends"

I took about 10 pictures of all the construction vehicles and road work on our way. We kept laughing because there is no warning or instruction about what you should do, so people just have to kind of fend for themselves. If you're not careful you might drive right through wet cement. (I only posted the one because I have a limit of only 7 trillion photos per blog post and I didn't want to waste any space on construction vehicles...my kids are too cute.

I don't know what this is, but it made me so happy.

We finally arrived at "The Sun"! There were approximately 4 cars in the parking lot and TONS of these garage door looking stall thingys, all of them CLOSED. We had been driving around quite some time and I was worried we'd be heading back home to play in our own kiddie pool instead. We say one family get out of their car and decided to follow them. We trekked up this paved incline and EVERYTHING looks like it's still under construction. Hmmmm.... they've allegedly been open over a month, but we couldn't figure out what was going on. There was a place to pay and we got in. I saw a merry go round, and we eventually found a pool area, but I was starting to doubt its existence. The wierd thing about entering the pool area was you had to walk through this shallow warmish icky water. Doug refused to do it. He sort of inched along the side. I played along because I don't believe in germs. It was odd, to say the least. There was also a sign saying you had to wear swim attire and you could RENT swimsuits if you didn't have one. Is it me, or does swimwear seem a little too personal to share? I was already in my swimsuit, so no need for a rental! (On a side note, which is weirder borrowed swimwear or shoes when you go bowling...)

Spirit houses at "The Sun"

Favorite picture from the day, why are we awake, why are we facing the sun, why are you taking a picture, mom, please, please don't do anything embarrassing while we are here...like try to ride a unicycle.

Do you see the sign that says "The Sun", you have to look closely. Also, we didn't walk out to this part, but look at all those sheep!!!

No joke, I said, "Doug, put the kids over here in their stroller so I can get a picture of them next to this sheep. He flat out said no, hurting the sheep's feelings of course and I had to kiss it all better.

Um, where's the water park? What are all these garage thingys for? Are there other people here? Hmmm.....

There was a work crew installing water to this fountain thingy.

Kora is unimpressed.

Finally I see a pool!

Weird hot water cesspool. Funky feet required upon arrival at the pool.

Would anyone like to rent a floatie or swimwear?

We swam for a while and then we decided to eat because as a matter of fact I was starving all day. Doug always acts surprised by this and I question his intelligence because of it. I KNOW he's heard me explain my eating schedule more than once...it's every two hours and don't skip ANY. We had french fries and fried chicken...so healthy. ;) The owner's of the place we picked to eat at had a little boy just two months younger than Kora, but he was about half her size. He was a cutie! Wish I got a picture of the two of them together.

After our snack time we enjoyed the rest of the park! When I planned my attire, I thought we were going to a water park, like the kind in the states where you wear your swimsuit all day because you go from one wet activity to another. This was not like that, at all. I only packed clothes for me and the kids as an afterthought. I took Kora in a pajama shirt, and Kees was already dressed in his swimsuit when we left the house, so was I. As we were leaving I decided to go ahead and grab clothes for me and Kees and I grabbed a pair of shorts to go over Kora's swimsuit. So glad I did because we went on a bunch of rides. Unfortunately, I packed a dumb dress thinking it'd be easier than putting together a whole outfit, then I had to be careful all day trying to play with the kids. I think I did okay, but next time I'm packing pants!

I'll let the pictures speak for themselves well along with my captions of course.

First ride, we thought they could go together and we'd watch.

Kora's thinking, "Hmmmm, have they really thought this through" Next thing we know she's standing and guess what....

Mommy got to ride. I had to do everything from then on out, but it was fun!

Kees moved to the helicopter in front of us.

He liked this ride until these things started moving up and down, instead of just around. I wish I'd gotten a picture of his initial shock, but the bottom one at least shows his displeasure.

Jump house, I went in to watch Kora. I fell over at least three times.

Kora took a little rest

Nothing says fat foreigner like squeezing your big self onto some kiddie rides.

Love!

She was clapping.

One of my favorites. Doug loves rollercoasters. This is Kees's first "real" roller coaster ride. They wouldn't let Kora on, so Kees actually rode three times! Twice around with Doug and once with me. He didn't love it, but he didn't cry and he was willing to go back with me! Yay!

AHHHH!

Kees really enjoyed this! He rode with Doug and then with me. They let us ride a long time. There were hardly any people around. It was nice for Kees to be able to do all these new things without an audience. He hates attention from strangers.

There was a mechanical bull. I will be riding this next time when I'm not wearing a dress.

Kees checking out the ATV.

This was Kees's favorite thing from the day, the boat ride was the second.

Doug's smiling!

Kora fell asleep.

Sad this didn't turn out clearer. He didn't actually ride this, but maybe next time.

They had skateboards, hove boards (or whatever you call those things), roller blades, and this unicycle. This was my favorite thing. I really want one! Okay, and technically it's a unicycle with training wheels...in affect making it a tricycle, but I thought if I posted that I rode a tricycle people might make fun of me. A unicycle cannot be made fun of...period.

Everything was so fun! One of the best days ever! So thankful Doug thought of doing this knowing I'd need some fun to sustain me through this next week. On the way home, it was just getting dark and then there was a downpour of rain! Even the timing was just right! Y'all be praying for us as we head into the rest of this week. Pray that Doug would learn a lot about translation at his conference (I'm shooting off the cuff a little, I'm not really sure what all it's about...I'll have him guest blog next week some time!). And pray that I would be a kind patient mother. I know all of my posts and pictures make it seem like I'm such an excellent happy go-lucky mom, but there are many times I lose my patience and I don't do the right thing with my kids. I am far FAR from perfect, so pray that I would pour extra love and attention into my kids since I'm unable to formally study Thai (with Kruu Jeab). Speaking of which, Kruu Jeab is testing this week to be a nurse assistant. Doug decided last week to attend this conference and when he told Kruu Jeab, she was so relieved because she wasn't going to be able to teach us this week anyway! Talk about God's timing! AWESOME!