Well, it's time for a fanny pack

Day 81:

We've been eating breakfast in our room. I brought gallon ziplocks with snacks for each day, Kees knows there are marshmallows in each bag, but I've been making him at least eat breakfast first.  It's vacation, so mid morning marshmallows are a go!!!

Yum.

He likes to share, most of the time.

Can't deny that face.

Sweet girl!

Today something uncool happened.  We went for a walk to check out what was around our hotel on the other side that we hadn't seen yet.  We took the stroller and I *thought* I put my gray purse underneath the stroller in the basket thingy.  I will unravel the clues and hints, you see if you can solve the mystery of where we (I) misplaced it.  I'd like to make Doug Tomlinson culpable in some way if I can, but let's be honest, he wasn't around for any of the million times I lost library books, allowance, jackets, text books, homework, keys, and various other items growing up.  So, maybe, just maybe the problem is me. I'd consider buying a fanny pack, but I vaguely remember losing one of those at Walt Disney World.  Again, maybe the problem is me. ;)

We ended up hiring a driver to take us to "On the Rock", it's a restaurant that's right on the water.  I didn't notice my bag was gone until we got there.  We had basically walked up and down a small stretch of road and then gotten into his vehicle. So there weren't that many places I could have lost it.  I remembered having it as we were walking out the door of our room upstairs, but there was a slim chance I sat it down to pick Kora up.  We've been keeping our stroller in the lobby downstairs, so we won't have to carry the stroller all the way up the two flights of stairs before you make it to the elevator.  Doug and I both thought we remembered that I had put the purse under the stroller.

So our driver took us right back to where he had picked us up, Doug waited and I retraced my steps, and prayed.  I had money and the copies of our passports in my bag, so it wouldn't have been too terrible if we hadn't found the bag, but it was still upsetting because honestly I do lose a lot of things and it made me feel like all those times as a kid that I lost stuff and nothing has changed.  I was thankful throughout the whole process, for a couple of reasons, one my kids were safe, so losing some stuff on vacation is far from the worst thing that could happen, number two, I had my ipod with me and I hadn't packed all our money, just what I thought we'd need for lunch, so there was still money in the hotel and Doug had our ATM card.  On the LONG ride back to look for the purse, we stopped and prayed as a family and thanked God for his provision, that we even have stuff to lose.  Then as I was walking, and not finding it, I was praying that God would use our misfortune to provide some type of opportunity.  And of course, he did, while I was gone, Doug chatted with the driver and explained why we are here, and when we found the bag, we said, "praise the Lord", but it in Thai. ;)

Notice as we're on our way to the lobby, I have the bag.

Notice the empty compartment, if you DID notice, wish you'd have been here to let us know. :)

Starting our walk.

Watching cars drive by.

Wet road

The company that drove us, "KT"...that's my initials and Kees and Kora's!!!

The truck we rode in.

On our way, still oblivious to the fact that we have no money to pay for this ride.

Very rarely, she snuggles, and I love every. single. second.

She's cooperating for a picture! Yay!

Notice the snuggles have ended and the exploring has begun.  Told you it doesn't last long.

KEES!

You can see Doug looking back at that gargoyle head or whatever you call it in English.

Kora was pretending these wheels were her steering wheel.

Yup.

Okay, so after the long walk and not finding it, I had Doug go to the ATM so we could pay the driver. Then we all went into the lobby of our hotel and I immediately saw my purse behind the counter. And honestly I was most sad about losing the actual purse because it was the one Kees picked out for me for Mother's day. So when I saw the bag, I ran right over to retrieve it!

Checking my purse.

All my money is still here!!!

After re-uniting with my unruly bag, that grew legs and walked away, we headed back to the restaurant with the same driver.  The restaurant view was amazing.  My food and virgin pina colada were so yummy!  Doug liked his seafood platter, but in his book nothing has compared with the seafood he had in the gulf of Mexico, some years back before he ever met me.  I feel like this is a personal affront to me.  All his "best moments" should include me.  We still have a few more days left, hoping we find something here that will top that sorry seafood from the Gulf of Mexico that is trying to steal the heart of my one true love! (Doug says I take things too personally, I say he exaggerates.)

On our way to "On the Rock"

Almost to the restaurant.

"On the Rock"

Doug's food.

Kees drinking coke.

Notice the view....

It got so foggy, then rained for a few minutes.

This makes me so happy.  I was able to enjoy my lunch with the use of BOTH my arms.  It's a mommy miracle.

Geography lesson. Explaining about how water covers most of the Earth.

When she woke up, this happened.

After eating our lunch, we walked along the shore for about 15 minutes, then walked back to the Dino Mini Golf place. I had the genius idea of just having Kees play and the rest of us watching him.  We still had to pay a fee to walk around, but it saved us some money and Kees got to be the center of attention.  Kora just walked circles around everything.  She liked the dinosaurs, she'd point, but if she got too close, she'd want someone to pick her up and she'd squeeze tight. That's what she does when she's scared. It's so cute.  Her favorite part of the whole place was the horns sticking out of the ground. She kept hugging them and didn't want to leave.

It was a very short walk out to the beach and there was no one near us.  So fun!

Apparently Kora and I have a problem focusing.

Trying to get all of us in one shot.

Kora's foot prints.

Outside Dino Mini Golf.  Kees calls this place "The Dinosaur Club".  He's already asking to go back.

Ta Da!

Teranodon!

Little golfer.

These things were so cool!

You've gotta get it just so.

We're so cool.

It's a miracle Kora didn't plunge into any of these open water areas.

LONG neck.

Kora's reaction to these dinosaurs was hilarious.  She was so excited, but she was kind of scared of them too.  So she'd want to see them, but she wanted us to hold her.

Learning from a pro.

There was a tiny tunnel you had to shoot the ball through and they got it on the first try!

Kora's favorite place all day!

She kept hugging these horns and didn't want to leave.

So exciting!

She's been making this face lately.

Ahhhh!

Doug loves Tarzan, and Peter Gabriel music, and pretending to be Tarzan. This picture makes my heart smile.

Waterfall

Hmmmm....

Finishing up!

On our way out I noticed there are NO Americans on the leader board, Dad, you have to come represent!

And then, we went to the little restaurant attached to the Dino place and had ice cream.  I paid DOUBLE what Doug paid for his because I was going to share with Kees and they had a Choco Marshmallow sundae. I assumed it would be twice as big or have a crazy amount of marshmallows on it.  It literally had half of a large marshmallow in it. That's it!  Same amount of ice cream, and Doug's even had nuts on it.  I was wishing I'd just brought some of the marshmallows from our room and added them to a sundae.

I had Kees tell me his favorite part of the day and we wrote it on the napkin.  Notice my manicure is still in tact!  Another mommy miracle!  His napkin says, "I had fun doing the club. The best part was the one in the cave, the one that had green lights and went up the hill." Sure wish my friend Heather from college was here. Her handwriting is ridiculously good.

Kora writing on a napkin.

Drawing pictures.

Doug's butterscotch sundae.

Kora was getting ready to drive.  I'm not ready, "Jesus take the wheel!!!"

Inside the skull.

Kees insisted I get in.  I hit my head, I'm so clumsy.

On the way back. This truck was much nicer and smelled nothing like cat urine.

We came back to the hotel, and this time I took the kids to the play place and did some laundry in the hotel laundry facility.  We only had 30 minutes till the play place closed, but then the kids had fun playing with these little wooden games that were in the pool/ping pong area.

Play place.  It closed about 20 minutes after we got there, so we played with the other stuff that was still available in the game room area.

Um, can you say choking hazard?  Kora, please don't eat those!

We moved them up so Kora wouldn't get them.

Such excitement in those eyes.

She's too big. Make it stop.

This kept her interest for about 10 minutes.  Wow, that's the third mommy miracle of the day!

Kees wanted to play too.

He sorted them by color.

Kees and I took a quick run to 7-11 and bought a roti with nutella from a street vendor.  I didn't take my camera, but I wish I had. When we got back we enjoyed our snacks, then the kids got a nice bath. Love having a bathtub for the week, just really wish I didn't get sunburned the first day.  I'm much better today, so hopefully tomorrow I'll get to enjoy it and read a book!

Bath time, fun time.