Doing a Cyber-Tango

Even with Tracy having a broken foot, we could not get out of being a part of the annual dance show at ISKL.



In the words of our youngest, "Mommy and daddy were so silly."

Nothing Like a Playground for a Backyard!

It is wild to watch Rania grow up, right before our eyes. We are blessed with cute kids!

Swim Carnival

At school, there was a swim carnival to celebrate a lot of the fun times from the year. Reeve, as you can tell, sure had a fun time!

Little League

We had a fun season of little league baseball. Reeve did great and every Saturday morning was a fun time to play with friends.

A last day at Angkor

It is absolutely mesmerizing seeing massive trees dwarfing the ancient temples. Angkor Wat has the incredible combination of places such as Machu Picchu and Petra -- the stunning ancient ruins in the midst of magnificent natural beauty.

We couldn't get enough of the massive trees dwarfing the walls of the temples. There is definitely much more to explore, and two days was just a teaser. Hopefully we will be back in the not too distant future.

Banteay Srei - One of many temples

Instead of overloading on pictures, here is a short video showing some of the highlights at this site with so many beautiful carvings.

Angkor Wat

FRIDAY, MAY 1, 2009


To celebrate Labor Day, we took a break from our labors and had a wonderful two-day journey to Siem Reap, Cambodia. After arriving at the airport, we were greeted by our driver, Chin Vanna, who was excellent in taking us to many of the sights for the day.

Angkor Wat truly lived up to its legendary wonders of the world reputation. What breath-taking scenery!

We started our tour at Angkor Wat itself -- the largest of dozens of temples that are scattered around the area and were built between the 9th and 13th Century during the height of the ancient Angkor Empire. A wedding ceremony added to the color.


We then went to the temple of Ta Prohm -- one of the most awe-inspiring sites on the planet -- perhaps better known as an the Lara Croft Tomb Raider place (not that I have seen the movie). Feeling like an explorer from Indiana Jones, it was absolutely stunning to witness the massive trees that had over-taken the temple ruins.





We finished the day at Pre Rup, a temple high above the plains, with a commanding view of the sunset. With Tracy managing incredibly well on her broken foot, we opted for the elephant ride to the top -- quite an experience!

And this post is further evidence that Doug will never become a photo editor. The "less is more philosophy" is hard to capture the realm of experiences we had on our first day.

Mexican Theme Staff Party

MONDAY, APRIL 27, 2009

Somehow I was cajoled into walking around with a hilarious skirt, stolen from the costume closet, pouring lemonade for the staff party on Monday after school. Brian and I (and a handful of others) tried our combination of silliness.

. . .at least a chance to halba Espanol.

Bubble Fun

SUNDAY, APRIL 26, 2009

What fun to be playing on the street. The kids had a blast making the huge bubbles and then chasing them down and popping them. After a heavy rain, the weather turned very nice and cool -- what a fun evening with neighbors.

Party at Cosmos

SATURDAY, APRIL 25, 2009

Reeve had a fun birthday party at Times Square Mall where the kids had a blast especially riding on the bumper cars. It was fun to help a friend celebrate his birthday.

Earth Week Assembly

FRIDAY, APRIL 24, 2009

Reeve was a star with his performance at the Earth Week Assembly for 1st grade. Reeve had a big line, which he stepped forward and said with gusto! "Then one day the boy came to the tree, and the tree said,"

I'm sure he has a big future in show biz.

And did we ever mention how cute our kids are? (It's tough finding a time when all three are happy in front of a camera!)

Strawberry Picking

As Doug's siblings will quickly point out, this is not your traditional Oregon strawberry picking experience. For starters, there were no berry fights. But you also did not have to get up at 5 am, didn't have to kneel down, there were no row bosses, and your punch cards did not show your $1 earnings from 7 hours of tedious, back-breaking labor.

Instead, we relished in the beautiful strawberries -- and brought a whole bunch back. Our kids may also have a romanticized opinion of strawberry picking after a few minutes of choosing the best strawberries, which were then purchased by the parents.

The colors of the tea plantation and rolling hillsides were quite impressive, and I would further doubt our kids understand the challenges of harvesting tea -- despite the rudimentary self-guided tour of the old factory.

How can you walk on hot coals

Stumbling across the Hindu festival in a rural village was a very memorable experience. Here is an attempt at showing some of the incredible footage.

Walking on Hot Coals and Hindu New Year

The festival to celebrate the Hindu New Year was a stunning festival of color and pageantry -- tucked in a tiny little hillside village. People came from many areas in Malaysia because their parents or their grandparents had once lived in the village and worked on the tea plantations.



We arrived shortly after 11, and talked with some of the men preparing to walk on the coals. They were tending the fire, and we finally witnessed the coal-walking about 1. The participants -- including a handful of women -- had been eating only vegetables for the previous week and watching them walk across the hot coals was quite an experience. The color was impressive, and all of the women and girls were dressed with their beautiful saris. We merely stumbled across this -- and felt we were immersed in an obscure National Geographic Special.

Cameron Highlands

In April, we had a fun weekend jaunt to Cameron Highlands. It was fun to get to some higher ground and cooler temperatures. We had high hopes of visiting a tea plantation and seeing a tour of the facilities. But when we arrived at one of the tea plantations offering tours, we enjoyed a hike in the area and some spectacular views.

But we found the tea factory tours were closed since there was a Hindu festival and the nearby village was celebrating. So we traipsed down the hill and enjoyed the festival (see next post).