IASAS SOFTBALL TOURNAMENT

The Lady Eagles softball team hosted the IASAS tournament on our home field in Singapore this year. It was originally scheduled for Bangkok, but due to the political unrest in Bangkok, the tournament was moved to Singapore 5 days before it was scheduled to begin. Six international schools were represented: Bangkok, Taipei, Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, Manila, and Singapore. We housed two athletes from the Taipei team at our house which was fun. The tournament itself was played over a three day period, beginning with opening ceremonies on Sunday morning, and ending with the championship game and awards presentation on Tuesday evening. It was really exciting for the girls to play at home, because they had a lot of support from the community and from the school. Students were allowed to skip class and attend the games, so we had a huge fan base!

Kasey played second base, her friend Brooke played shortstop, and together they turned some double plays!

Kasey was the lead-off batter and hit a triple her first time at bat. She was SO nervous!


Kasey and Katie

Wesley came to watch all the games

Kasey and Brooke

Acting goofy after winning the championship

Kasey with her biggest fan :)

Wesley and Cory showing their support!

Team picture after the final game

The girls went crazy after beating Manila in the final game. They beat Manila 15 to 6!

EASTER WEEKEND

Our first Easter in Singapore was spent with friends. We went to an early church service, then to our friends Don and Donna's house for lunch, joined by Dennis and Nora and Buddy and Jody and their families. We feel really blessed to have met new friends to share this overseas experience with! The kids after the egg hunt

It doesn't even look like a ping pong table, does it?

This is the same group that we shared Thanksgiving with!

Don and his two sons Cory and Cody went deep sea fishing with Shelby and Wesley on Good Friday in Malaysia. Altogether they caught three sailfish and some gar! This pic is Cody with his fish.

Reel it in, take a photo, throw it back!

Getting up at 4:00am is hard on teenage boys

Here's Cory with his sailfish!

Cory

Cody

Wes holding a gar

CHIANG MAI FINAL DAYS

Our last couple of days in Chiang Mai were spent shopping at the night market. You can find just about anything there! Our best purchases were backpacks (we bought 5) and pirated DVD's. Kasey was obsessed with buying a new piece of luggage and Shelby was determined to help her get the best deal. They went back and forth to different vendors at the market, haggling for the best price. In Thailand it is customary to bargain using a calculator. You can tell the guy what you're willing to pay, then he hands you a huge calculator and you have to enter the amount you wish to pay. He then feigns shock over your price, and proceeds to enter his amount in the calculator and passes it back to you. The bargaining continues as the calculator is passed back and forth. Shelby met his match with a guy who was not about to lose the sale. As Shelby and Kasey were walking away, the man grabbed Shelby and pulled him back into his shop, calling him "My friend, my brother, my homey!" hahaha the next thing I knew, here comes Shelby walking down the street wheeling a new suitcase behind him.......Wesley's favorite purchase was a package of "trick" chewing gum that is intended to shock the person who takes a stick of the gum. It was obvious to me that it was not a real package of gum, I KNEW it would scare me or make me jump, but I was not prepared for what happened next. Wesley begged me and begged me to please take a stick of gum, he bugged me for so long that I finally gave in against my better judgement just to get him to leave me alone (the things we do to humor our children!) and that thing shocked the pee out of me! No kidding, I wet my pants! It hurt! Wesley and Kasey were rolling on the ground they were laughing so hard. Glad I could make their day.......

We took some photographs with us and had some local artists do pencil drawings. They were AMAZING!!!

This is what durian fruit looks like. Durian is called the "king of all fruits" and you can smell it from a mile away. People either love it or they hate it. The smell is so offensive that it is forbidden on most public transportation. It smells like stinky feet! No, I have never tried it, nor do I plan to. I loved the fresh tangerine juice here, and Wesley drank gallon after gallon of fresh lime juice. Kasey made the mistake of ordering a bowl full of fresh strawberries, thinking they were sprinkled with sugar-but instead they sprinkle the berries with a sugar/salt mixture. yuk.

We ate a lot of Thai food here and also found a tex-mex restaurant called Miguel's which was the best mexican food we've had since leaving Texas. We ordered enough food for an army and the margaritas were good, too!

At the night market

Doing our best to bargain

Red Bull and Coca Cola t-shirts in Thai

These two guys work at Haagen Dazs and are students at the University of Chiang Mai. We had fun talking to them, and went to Haagen Dazs five days in a row just so we could see them (and eat ice cream!) One day we walked in and I asked "how are you?" to the guy on the right, to which he replied "Nineteen!" It was so darn funny, his friend cracked up and we all got a good laugh out of it. :)

This sign was at the counter at Haagen Dazs.

Another 4 person scooter sighting and we're still shooting for 5!

The one hour family foot massage was to die for! I think we all enjoyed it except for Wes. Foot massages are a big business here, all up and down the streets. A one-hour foot massage cost the equivalent of $6 US dollars. I also had a 2 hour traditional Thai massage one day at the spa and remind me to stick with swedish massages from now on. That gal folded me up like origami!

BHUBING PALACE, CHIANG MAI

Tonight we went to dinner at the Palaad Tawanron, a restaurant built into the side of a mountain with a great view of the city below. We thought it was kind of humorous that the musicians were singing American songs from the 70's like John Denver and the Carpenters. :)

Wesley got hold of my camera at the Palace today and went crazy taking pictures of all the gardens. We're talking over a hundred pictures of flowers! I've included a few below.

Today we visited Bhubing Palace, which is the royal winter residence in Chiang Mai where the Royal family stays during seasonal visits to the people in northern part of the country. The king and queen reside in Bangkok for the most part. The grounds and gardens were absolutely beautiful, lots of flowers everywhere including a big rose garden because the queen likes roses.

The reservoir and fountains were beautiful, and there was jazz music playing that the king himself composed.

The queen has her own private cottage with rooms for entertaining friends and having tea parties!

Here is one of MANY posters around the city with a picture of the King. The Thai people LOVE their king, and he has ruled for around sixty years.

We had to cover up our legs and shoulders in order to walk around the palace grounds.

Wes looks good in capris; haha!

This was taken in front of the palace