Spring Flowers

Every March the fields across the street from our house bloom. I have grand ideas of a beautiful family picture in them, but we try it and as usual find it extremely hard to get a picture of us all smiling/eyes open/pointed towards the camera. Oh well - it was a fun walk on a nice chilly Spring day!

This year they had 'guards' all around the fields. They roped them off with flags and the guards would yell at you with a megaphone if you crossed the flags. I guess thousands and thousands of people tromping through the flowers to get pictures wasn't what they were going for this year. 

And no outing is complete without getting your picture taken with strangers.

The apartment in the background is where we live. A river runs between the apartments and these flower fields. It is one of our favorite places to explore. 

Look at those pigtails! I love how her hair curls out like little fire works.

The 'best' picture we could get of the two of them

What we did when we weren't on the beach

While we were away we stayed at a private place that provided all your meals and laundry. It was so much fun to have a 'closed grounds' so the kids could play without us worrying. Caed made a bunch of new friends, and spent time with old friends he knew from before. Beia started walking with help, though she is still at 16 months not walking on her own yet!

We did quite a few puzzles, and read a lot of books

Loved going to the pool every afternoon - you can see the ocean in the background

B loved the pool, she learned to lower herself in feet first

cuteness wet baby

we biked to 'town' and drank fruit smoothies - a Thailand must 

what you are not aloud to do in Thai taxis

I spent a lot of time in this hammock on the beach

we walked to a nearby aquarium and watched them feed the fish

bike rides to town

scooter rides to a new beach

on the van ride back B would not sleep, so we semi opened her stroller in the 'aisle' and she fell fast asleep

Beach Time

If you didn't figure it out from all the instagram and Facebook pictures earlier this month we went to the beach. It was our first vacation in a long time and we were so so grateful to come out of such a stressful environment for a couple weeks of relaxing. Here are a few {maybe a more than a few} pictures!

Instagram

Well the majority of my blog absence is due to the fact that I joined the world of Instagram. It is just so easy to do it all from my phone, and I don't have to worry about the VPN being troublesome...

You can follow me there at nicarvin

Here are a few pictures from this last month.

Caed at the river. Our favorite thing to do when we have time is to go to the river. This day we caught beetles and fish. Our apartment is a regular zoo, housing up to 6 things at once.

River

I made these book shelves in Caeds room  finally!!! Post coming soon, it was easy and only a $2 project. Actually I have lots of crafty things to post about soon. 

We had this huge bag of feathers that we brought to the park a few months back. I brought tape and scissors and the kids made themselves into feather warriors. Hours of free fun. 

Last Sunday back at the river again, we discovered this new area and are in love with it. Perfect for a hot summer day!

Joy

We were sitting on the couch tonight making Beia laugh. I looked at Sean and said, "Doesn't this just seem unreal sometimes?" I remember being pregnant and thinking the same thing - "This is really happening?!" Beatrice has lived up to her name thus far, she is an unending bringer of joy to our family. 

While in the States people wanted to see more pictures of our home here. This is what bath time is like, we have no bath so Caed uses a blow up pool and Beia a baby bath. There is no drain in the bathroom, so the guy who put in our toilet cut a tiny hole out of the tile in front of the toilet (see the small square black hole there), so that is fun...

Beia sits up here sometimes when I am cooking to 'help' me

Beia and her friend

Thumb sucker

Tonight on the couch Beia was

making us all

smile!!!