A Ride On High

This is how we felt this morning when we finally boarded the cable car to take us to the top of a mountain, after an hour plus wait. It was well worth the wait!


Here we are at the top of Gunung Machinchang.

Aah, the hugeness of it all, the smallness of me!

The views were amazing, down to the Andaman Sea and over the island. There were a number of lookout places and a fun bridge to walk out on, as well as a little burger stand where we grabbed some lunch.


Riley was especially captivated by the deer in the little animal farm that was also on the grounds.

5 very tired people rode the taxi "home". I think we will sleep really good tonight!

Christmas

Christmas Eve was a special time. Austin brought pizza in to our room, which we thoroughly enjoyed. We watched Polar Express and drank hot chocolate in our nice cool air conditioned room. The boys were very excited to open the last window on our Advent Calendar before falling asleep to the sound of Christmas music (which we brought with us).


Christmas morning they were up long before dawn. I heard Pruitt slip out of bed and try to find the little gift he was giving to Riley, so that he would have it beside him when he woke up. It was fun to surprise them with some things they had ooed and ahhed over when we found a Toys R Us in Kuala Lumpur. Later we took snow man candles down to breakfast with us. The breakfast buffet was serving pasta, salad, baked beans, toast and fruit, to mention some of the things. It was the unusual Christmas breakfast, but very tasty!


Later we went out on the beach again. We all played volleyball with an imaginary net and the boys dug for Pirate treasure. So far they havent' found much!


I have missed my family and friends a lot this holiday season and it's been difficult to be so far. Yet I am so grateful to be able to experience the beauty and warmth of Asia. Sitting on the balcony at night, listening to the wind rustling the palm leaves and letting my thoughts tumble out as I talked with Austin, I realized again how much I have right now. My soul is breathing in gulpfuls of life as I let all the questions and "bigness" of the future slip away. I have today, and today is beautiful.

Sand Angels and More

We've been having a lot of fun exploring, trying out new food, swimming and, in general, relaxing. Though I must say that it is a challenge to relax when you are on a vacation with 3 active boys!


The boys decided to make sand angels, since we obviously won't have any snow to make snow angels this year!


They have such vivid and creative imaginations. The other day they found the pile of disposable slippers in our room and made some kind of a game out of throwing them at each other. They said they were "toasting" each other, which I guess meant that you were out if a slipper hit you.


The place we are staying at has a fantastic pool, as well as being near the beach. It has been a nice place to cool off during the hot afternoons. It has a waterfall on one end, which is where they are all chilling out as I am writing.

Sand Castles

Here is the big castle my guys worked on this morning. For some reason, they were much more interested in building it when their dad got involved! Not that I'm surprised, everything is more interesting when he is around!


Here is Riley's volcano.


And the finished product. There is even a moat going all the way around, though it's hard to tell from this shot, and bits of mother-of-pearl decorating the tops.

Ahh, my heart is full. We've made it this far. We are all feeling well, which is huge! There is so much more I could write but my boys are in from the pool and are hungry!

Corn, Jellyfish and Sand

Lets see, where were we... breakfast. Pruitt was the first to spot the corn and soon made up his mind that that was what he wanted for breakfast. Soon he and Riley were devouring cups of buttered, salted corn while Jensen and I hunted down some pastries and poor Austin had to settle for a little of this and that. We soon found a taxi and headed to our hotel. I didn't know quite what to expect since I had spent hours trying to find a place and every place said they were either full or were not suitable for a family. I had finally found one place that had room and sounded big enough for us all so I reserved it. I was quite happy to finally get to our room and find it exceeded my expectation. The best part is the balcony with it's view of the mountains, and the fact that it's a 5 minute walk to the beach.


We have been spending a lot of time by the water and are loving it! The boys have been a little freaked out by jellyfish, which we've been seeing from time to time but that hasn't kept them out of the water for too long. The locals don't seem to be bothered by them and there haven't been very many.


This morning they all spent some time building castles in the sand.

Food, Trains and Ferrys

Here is a view from our hotel window. We walked through this fruit market a few nights ago and ate some delicious local food. Jensen wasn't too keen on the curried noodles but the other two have been pretty adventurous and Pruitt even ate, and liked, squid. We found some papaya salad today and it was soooo good. We've been eating lots of fried rice too.


We took an overnight train to an island. The boys were pretty impressed with the berths. Riley was so wound up, despite the fact that he barely made it through the long wait to board the train. He thought he had to have a top berth so we put bags around him to make sure he wouldn't fall during the night and he was on top of the world! Our Malay neighbors got a kick out of it all! Before he finally drifted off to sleep, I heard him singing to himself, "You better not shout, you better not cry, you better not scream, I'm telling you why..." The boys all slept soundly, while I kept waking up to the sound of people walking through the car and announcements being made. I was glad when it was morning and Austin brought me a cup of coffee from the train's restaurant and I sat, watching a beautiful Malaysian morning come to life. Ahh, what could be better than coffee and seeing the sun rise over palm trees and mountains. Well, you may call them hills but compared to what I am used to seeing, they were mountains!


We had a 90 minute ferry ride across to the island and the boys entertained themselves for a while before announcing that they were sea sick. It all ended well, though I had my bag ready, just in case. We were very happy to disembark and find some breakfast.

The Fun Begins!

We are thoroughly enjoying our vacation in Malaysia! Our flight out was delayed at least 10 hours due to fog, but I was happy because we were able to sleep in our own beds all night instead of getting up and trying to drag ourselves to the airport in the middle of the night! We left around 2 pm and had a good flight. We then spent a couple of days in Kuala Lumpur, shopping, looking around and enjoying places like A&W, as seen above.


The famous "Twin" Towers of Malaysia. We found some great shopping and eating places in the basement mall. Dunkin Donuts and Toys R Us made for some very happy boys! Oh my goodness, you would think that our boys have never been in a toy store, for all the commotion they raised! It was very exciting for them and they couldn't understand why we couldn't buy them everything they wanted!


Oops! These were supposed to go on first but I still haven't figured out how to switch things around. Anyway, a couple of days before we left, we spent the day at the Millers, celebrating "Christmas" with them. Riley always enjoys sitting on Grandpa's lap, especially if he gets to take pictures!


Jensen read the Christmas Story and we passed out presents. The boys remembered how Grandma used to have piles of presents and they used to take turns passing them out. She didn't disappoint them and the fun lasted for quite a while! We are so blessed to live so close to family. We spent the rest of the day eating yummy food, including goodies my mother-in-law brought out of hiding, like cashews, honey roasted peanuts, cheese balls and all kinds of chocolates! It didn't feel like we were thousands of miles from "home." I really miss the rest of our family and friends. Some days I walk around with a big ache in my heart. Yet I am so grateful for the family and friends we have on this side of the world.

Christmas Programs

December has been quite busy so far. The boys have each been part of a Christmas production at their school. Here is Jensen as an innkeeper.


Pruitt was a sheep.


And Riley was a shepherd. He is still as ornery as ever!


Here is Riley with more of his classmates.

Other highlights have been making Christmas cookies, taking some friends Christmas shopping and getting to know some of our neighbors better.

Green Space

We all loved being able to get out of Dusty Dhaka for the weekend. While the adults were in sessions, the kids found lots to do outside and had a blast. Riley spent hours "fishing" for a crab in this little pool. Pruitt fell headfirst into it and was soaked! Frisbee, soccer, the muck at the river were other highlights.


For me, it was the flowers, the open green spaces, the trees...

Overloaded

Overloaded. That is how life feels right now. And I'm not staying on top of things very gracefully. Riley just got over Shigella, or something like that and now we are fighting a stomach bug of some sort. He and Pruitt were both home yesterday and Pruitt had to miss school again today. They have been such good sports through it all, though their mother is becoming rather worn out!

On the bright side, I was able to get out of the house this afternoon to go to parent teacher conferences. Even though half of the time was spent sitting in fumes or bumping along on rough roads, it was a nice break. It was so encouraging to speak with their teachers and to hear such positive reports. They have been thriving in the new class room environment, have made such good friends and are really being stretched in so many positive ways. They are all practising for Christmas programs and I am hoping that seeing them will put me in a more festive mood. Dust covered palm trees just don't have the same effect as a white blanket of snow! Most of our neighbors are getting ready to slaughter an animal for the coming Eid holiday, while I know back home most people are putting up their trees, hanging lights and going crazy with all the shopping and parties. Somehow it just doesn't feel like Christmas yet... time to dig out those cookie cutters and start playing some carols. We'll get in the spirit of things yet!