Improved Zone Defense at the South China Sea

After Rania was born, we quickly realized that our one-on-one defense had to change. With three kids, we had to move to a zone; too often the gaps were exposed by our fussy kiddies.

Well, this weekend we sure discovered a new-and-improved zone defense. Instead of our 2 on 3 defense (2 adults on 3 kids), we went for a 4 on 3 zone defense. It is incredible what an improvement 4 adults can be. Imagine, while kiddies were asleep in our hotel room, Doug's parents could monitor any wanderings, and Doug & Tracy were free to hang out by the pool and get a piece of chocolate cake.

In addition to some yummy chocolate cake, we enjoyed a wonderful pool, and incredibly warm weather on the South China Sea. We drove about 3 hours across Malaysia to Kuantan, where we stayed at the Swiss Garden Resort & Spa -- quite the swanky name for a decent place. We felt we got a good deal because the east coast of Malaysia is supposed to be in monsoon season about now. Fortunately, we avoided most of the rain.

It was so fun to see Rania laugh and laugh as the waves came in over her toes. It was wonderful to see Gabi and Reeve frolicking in the pool for long hours at a time. Reeve enjoyed his first body-boarding experience; complete with a life jacket, he would let the waves take him in, then scramble up and go at it again. Gabi and Reeve enjoyed making sand castles and having the waves destroy them.

About the only drag was the traffic upon our return and the fact that Reeve ended up with quite a sunburn across his face. We felt like quite the negligent parents -- you would think we'd be more careful with sunscreen when on the beach right at the equator.

As we were driving up these hairpin turns into the mountains, seeing the mist rise off the jungle, it was evident we weren't in Indiana. Then, as Tracy pointed out, we also weren't enjoying any fall colors. I guess that is the trade off for weekend jaunts to beach vacations.