Suds, Sports and Stuff

The kids are counting down the days to summer vacation (9 & 1/2 and counting), but they've had plenty of fun activities to get them through these final weeks of school. Just last week for Memorial Day, MWR had a big family fun day with a waterslide, an obstacle course, and of course a giant pile of bubbles.
Thankfully, this time the large pile of bubbles was not due to Dad accidentally putting dish soap in the dishwasher. Girls in the foreground, Jordan in between them a few feet further back.

Jordan and the Copeland boys soakin up the suds

more suds...

This waterslide was FAST, which is of course just how Emma

likes it.

The girls and David Copeland conquer the obstacle course.

It was like 93 degrees, but that didn't stop Mom & the girls from

gettin a workout in. Here they're working out to "Zumba".

We also recently had a tri-family softball game with the Bunch's and Copelands. The kids are really into baseball lately and often play in the backyard; but this day we took it to a real field and the kids had a blast.

Andie shows good form...

and Jordan

Emma goes for a more.....creative approach

She was intent to get a hit though and finally did!



We also took some time Memorial Day to remember the troops. We took the kids to Asan Beach, which was one of the landing beaches here where the Americans invaded to liberate the island from the Japanese. In the foreground are obviously American flags, with Guam flags in the background. We are so grateful for those who fought and gave their lives for their country. Freedom truly isn't free.

Andie at Asan Park

Emma

Later that week we took the kids on the Talofofo Caves hike. One really cool thing about this hike is that the trees are a natural butterfly habitat. You can see probably 10 or more in the picture below. Their wings are dark blue but they look like small black triangles in the trees above our heads.

Andie holding one of the many butterflies on the hike

We also recently attended a Luau at our district building last nite (like a Stake Center). The girls love to put the plumeria flowers in their hair.

Finally, all these week's activities wore Emma and Twinkie out!

That's it for now. We're just waiting to see how the next few weeks go. James is scheduled to deploy next week for 4 months, so Shell & the kids may get to come back to the states for a month or two. If you're in Utah and want to see us, just email us at jmdavidfamily@gmail.com

Spring has sprung....

Like we could tell what season it was here, but hopefully it's springing for all of you at least. So here's the latest pics from our March and early April. Enjoy!

April showers bring...out the umbrellas. The kids weren't too adventurous though, they went for zero risk of getting wet by having their picnic under umbrellas in the carport.

Jordan's been practicing his "ollies" and other skateboard tricks. This won't make ESPN, but it makes our blog...

Nice air...I think that's a millimeter of air at least.

The girls recently did science experiments for school.

Here's Andie's experiment. She's measuring the water to see how much it warmed up after being heated by a single peanut!

Emma analyzes the seperating of colors by capillary action....ya know, standard first grade hobbies. Actually Mom and Dad didn't really know how a first grader's supposed to do a science fair....more like parents do it-kids watch.....kinda like pinewood derbies!

The girls may be outgrowing their dolls, but they still make good use of their doll furniture. In this case they make up a bed for our cat Twinkie in their doll crib. Twink actually loved it and took a good nap here. Everyone's a winner.

Now it's outside to the trampoline. This things been worth it's weight in gold. The kids love it, and Dad and Mom often get in on the action. Here Dad, Andie and Jordan form the famous bouncing ring of death. The victim this round was Emma, and since she's the smallest she usually goes the highest....

Just teasin. Dad actually threw Emma up this time, but they do still bounce pretty high.

Now Mom gets on to bounce the kids. But in this case, she's the one who ends up getting bounced

But Mom gets revenge!!!!!

And then everyone makes up.....so sweet.

And not so sweet, as Jordan finds out, is the taste of his hard boiled egg

decorated Easter weekend. How will he like it????

Not exactly a favorite........

Easter also brings the famous Navy Base egg hunt, hosted by creepy bunny man. You'll remember this guy from our blog last year. It's like 90 degrees outside so this guy is either some young sailor being punished for doing something stupid...or a true dedicated American hero.

The girls line up for the egg hunt. Notice their long hair. They've never had a real haircut before, just minor "trims", but later that afternoon after this picture was taken Mom took them to get their first professional haircut, and here's how they turned out:

Emma

and Andie. They both loved it, and love that it can do that flip out thing that Mom does with the curling Iron.

Easter Morning 2009

Finally, we wanted to show a picture of the Jimenez family, taken Easter Sunday. Not pictured is the oldest boy, Alexis. For those who don't know, 16 yr old Alexis passed away from an accident at a youth activity a couple weeks ago. It's been a trying time for our whole branch here, but we're getting better, and the family is amazing. They had us over for dinner recently to tell us that they're at peace. They've started smiling again, as you can see here, and we're all happy and grateful for the great blessing of knowing a young man as incredible as Alexis. "The gospel brings peace" has whole new meaning for us.

Thailand!!

We returned from our vacation in Thailand this week and it was amazing. We spent 3 days in Bangkok, the massive capital of 10 million people, followed by 4 days in Chiang Mai, a beautiful city in the mountains up north. It's a great country with very nice people, good food, and beautiful scenery, like the first picture below of us rafting on a river outside Chiang Mai, but the rest of the pictures below follow the chronical order of our trip so we can take you thru it beginning to end.

River rafting on the last day. But going back to the beginning.....

When we first arrived in Bangkok we wanted to explore the massive city and shop their street markets. This mini taxi called a toot-toot is very popular. These guys don't exactly obey all traffic laws, and use their small size to weave between traffic. Who needs amusement park rides when you can live on the edge with these things?

Our first full day there we visited Dream World, sort of Thailand's version of a mini-disneyland.

Pictured here was a really cool (literally) attraction called snow world. Basically they crank the A/C up so it's like 30 degrees, and that's real snow in the background. Obviously it's a huge hit cause many of these southeast asians have never seen snow, but our kids were almost just as foreign to it as it's been since early 2007 that our kids have experienced winter.

These are little speedboats called longboats that took us thru winding canals in Bangkok. They would pull up to a market right on the edge of the river called a floating market. They don't miss out on any opportunity to sell you stuff in Thailand.

These wood carvings/storyboards were incredible. The carving behind us isn't even close the the biggest or most detailed one we saw. The "rookie" carvers use a drawing over top to guide them along, but the experienced ones can just see it in their mind and carve away.

A 2 hr drive out of Bangkok took us to this bridge you've probably heard of: The famous Bridge on the River Kwai. You can see on the far left how the sections are curved, and the ones right over Jordan's head are shaped more square. It was the square section that was bombed by the allies in WWII and repaired later.

Royal Palace in Bangkok. Thailand still has a king, but it's a constitutional monarchy so, like England, the royalty has no real power, but back in the day Thailand was known as Siam, and the movie The King & I is about one of the past kings of Siam. Lots of gold, lots of statues.

More of the palace....

After Bangkok we headed up north to Chiang Mai. It was awesome to feel cool mountain air again...we almost thought we were back in Utah. This pond is part of a nite safari up one of the local canyons. Lots of animals come out at nite so there was plenty to see.

All that touristy walking left the girls needing a pedicure.

The kids favorite part of the vacation: zip lining thru the jungle tree tops. This place was featured on the amazing race apparently. At the beginning when we were harnessing up a few of the other patrons asked if the girls would be too scared to go......they didn't ask for very long.

The girls go together on this run. There were about 18 lines in all.

Tons of markets. This one went on for over a mile.

When riding on an Elephant, you always feel like you're chair is going to slide off. They're sure footed beasts though, and it was fun.

They loved to "reach" up for snacks along the way. Here Jordan feeds it another Banana.

The elephants were amazing, they drew several paintings right in front of us.

Posing with the kids...

Bamboo rafting on a river outside Chiang Mai.

After all this playing we put the kids to work. Here Andie is guiding our raft along.

3 big monkeys playing with 1 little monkey.

This guy moves a little fast, but he's got good taste!

Thailand is famous for their silk, so we visited this factory in Chiang Mai. We thought the kids would be totally bored, but they were actually fascinated, and for good reason. They showed you the whole cylce, from the silk worms all the way to the finished product. Yeah we're easily entertained.

Finally we wrapped up the vacation with a little white water rafting. The river was low so it was safe enough to bring the kids. Not exactly heart pounding adrenaline rush, but we're glad we got to go as a family.

Decent rapids here..

Emma shows her approval of the trip. She speaks for all of us though. The rafting and the whole trip was awesome. Hopefully the kids are old enough to remeber this. But if not, at least we have the pictures to prove it.

PS. Thailand info: Roughly the size of Texas. Population 65 million poeple. Thailand means free land, and it is a free country surrounded by more repressed states such as Vietnam, Laos, & Cambodia. People: nice, love kids.