Apparently HOME is where Richard Gere is...

Day 122 (Wednesday):

I was gonna wait and just do two days worth of blogs tomorrow because that's what I've been doing the last week or so.  I figure I've got a good excuse since I'm moving internationally.  But my mom sent me this...

I could make so many jokes about this photo, but I'm censoring myself, I hope you appreciate that MOM!

How could I pass on an opportunity to share this gem? I could not sleep until I knew this was brightening YOUR day.

Do y'all remember my "home" magnet I said I lost, guess where it ended up? (If you missed that post, you can check it out here.) I guess I took it "home" to my parents house when we had Kora and it never made it back to Thailand.  Not sure why Richard Gere gets top billing, but I guess he ranks somewhere in my mom's world with Vince Gill, Kenny Rogers, and Elvis Presley. I think it's because of the movie "Shall We Dance", but I guess Richard Gere is kind of old and there's a good chance my mom "liked" him before I was ever born. (Not gonna lie, I googled him to make sure I was spelling his name right, that's important when you have a name that's often misspelled, anyway, apparently he's the guy in Pretty Woman...who knew?)

Moving on, today, we checked something off my Thailand bucket list, which is actually rather short and not that creative.  One of the two things I was wanting to do before we left was take Kora to the aquarium. We've taken Kees a couple of times and I'd been wanting to take Kora.  So, today we went. They had made a few changes since we were last there and we had such a fun time.  The ride there and back was nightmarish. We borrowed a friend's truck since ours sold already, but after Doug's need for sensory deprivation and general feelings of stress, we decided to just hire a driver so Doug wouldn't have to navigate the crazy traffic.  What he didn't count on was having to navigate the crazy Kora.  You'll have to ask him which is worse. 

Before we left Kora found lipstick, didn't notice she got some in her EAR until later in the day.

I'm gonna leave all my funny observations from today in the comments under the pictures, so be sure and read them. Wouldn't want you to miss all the good stuff.

Notice Doug is holding her shirt so she won't climb up front.

Batman. He wore Superman underwear, can't decide if that makes me an awesome parent or a terrible one.  I'm leaning toward terrible, gonna have to do better about getting the right super hero underwear with the shirt next time.

She has one pair of shoes and we lost one in the move.  Hoping to fix that problem tomorrow.

Getting on the van to go to the aquarium. It's inside the zoo, but we only paid to go to the aquarium, so they drove us straight up there.

The boy.

Kees was excited to find this "magazine" in the van. He kept it. Notice Kora pilfering through stuff in the background.

We stopped to let another family on the van and Kora wanted to jump out so bad.

Do you see the crocodile?

Checking out the turtles.

Turtle!

She tried to stick her hands in the water.

Fishies.

Glad we stopped her. (I'm a little bit teasing, this was a different fish tank, I don't think the other fish would have bit her)

There was a group of ladies behind me that wanted Kora to acknowledge them, that's why Doug is doing the dorky wave.

No matter where we go, Kora is always the main attraction.  I'll miss that. (I think she'll be the main attraction at a few grandparent's places, so at least she won't completely forgo the royal treatment)

She looks too big!

Spider

Eating live maggots, highlight of my day.

Checking out a horned toad.

Kora had adverse reactions to 3 things: the spider, this snake, and the sharks.  And before everyone starts claiming it was in response to my reactions, I didn't react, at all, to any of them.

Fact: I love jellyfish, they're gorgeous.

Trying to get a picture...

I love Kees's expression in this one.

I am not even making this up: Kees was afraid because there was a HUMAN in the tank with the fish. What?!?  We explained that he was a friend of the fish and he was feeding them.  He is so funny.

Oh no, it's a human!

This guy is wearing a Dallas Cowboy shirt. If you knew me in junior high and early high school, then you probably know I was a huge fan back in the day. My room was decorated with Dallas Cowboy stuff: curtains, sheets, posters, the works.  Don't track with NFL at all anymore because I'm too busy being a Sooner fan.

Don't eat my babies!

Lady baby.

Outside the aquarium waiting for the van to pick us up. Kees is building up his tolerance to orange soda in preparation for spending time with Mamaw. (That's my dad's mom who lives with my parents, she might actually spoil our kids worse than our parents, but it's hard to say).

The Furama hotel, we stayed here for a few nights after my surgery when I was pregnant with Kora.  They had a bathtub and easy access to lots of food options.  I waved good-bye.

Yep.

Kora wanted to drive so bad. Doug kept telling her no, so she settled for jabbering and patting the driver.

Trouble.

After we got back, we went to lunch at a duck soup place, one of Doug's favorites. Then, we hung out in our room a couple hours so Kora could nap. After that, we went swimming and our friends the Stewarts came over to hang out one last time and say good-bye. 

At lunch, Kees had to go to the bathroom, can you guess what's behind door number 1?

Kees said, "Oh no, a squatty potty, only Daddy likes these. I don't like this kind!" (When I told Doug this, he laughed)

My noodles, I had pork not duck, but based on the dog's reactions, I'm hoping it was indeed pork.

Doug's duck soup.

Yeah, that's not suspicious.

This restaurant doubles as a barber shop. Lunch and a haircut!

Like father like son, Kees put this mask on and wanted to hide in the dark cabinet. Guess he was wanting a little sensory deprivation too. :)