A Saturday outing around town

Here is a small fishing dock. We were looking for the beginning of a waterfront path we can see from our place. We never did find it but Andy enjoyed the boats.


Another outing to find a skate park. Which we didn't find, but we did find some turkeys and chickens in the road.


And a run down old arena where the skate park was suppose to be near. (It still amazes me how they can let such huge buildings and entire malls go to pieces)


Then we went to an older mall BJ where almost the entire 1st floor is fabric. Not exactly the types we would have at home, but pretty impressive.

Ferry Ride

There are two ways to get from our little island to mainland Malaysia the famous extra long bridge, and the ferry. Lindsey and Andy have been wanting to ride a boat for a while, so last Saturday, April 17th, we went for a ferry ride.
View from upper deck


The steps were very steep up to the top deck


When we got the main land we had no real plan, so we went to a local shopping center, and let the kids play on the traditional coin ride area.


Then a little treat before we headed home. That is a pink, chocolate frosted donut Lindsey is enjoying.

More fun at the monkey park

We have started going to the youth park, or monkey park as the kids call it, about once a week. Here are a few cute pictures of the kids, and monkeys having a good time.
April 13th

My little monkey

Weeee

April 20th

Here we were swinging, and a whole group of monkeys went walking right behind us through the park.

Acclimated to Malaysia

I have come to the conclusion that we are truly acclimated to penang. This week Andy was were an outfit entirely purchased in Malaysia. He has grown a lot since we arrived. Not only was he wearing a new shirt and shorts, but was all malaysian right down to his Asadi slippers (adidas like flip-flops) and his Tesco bought Drypers(store brand diapers).

Easter

Well, it was a little hard to find Easter things here, but we managed to have a pretty fun time.
The kids and I made baskets. (Mine is the purple one and Lindsey's is pink)


The kids woke to toys in their baskets, and candy in the living room. Lindsey was very happy that the Easter bunny was able to find us in Malaysia.


After church we had Easter dinner with our Hillsboro friends the Hintons, and the primary president Sister Caitlin.

Kuala Lumpur Trip

We took a little trip to the main land, and the big city of Kuala Lumpur. It was a 3 day trip. First day was driving and the afternoon at the Batu Caves, and the Petronas Towers. Which are the tallest twin towers.



Day two, Sunway Lagoon amusement park.

Day three, Aquarium, and the Lake Garden's butterfly and bird park. Then the long drive home. It was a lot of fun.

Extras

Well, we have recently received some of the little "extras" to make us feel more at home. We got a oven last week. It is a counter top oven, kind of like a large toaster oven that gets really hot. We didn't really have room for it on our counter, so it is sitting on the dryer in the laundry room just off the kitchen. Which is nice because it really heats up the house when it's on. Especially since you have to turn off the AC when it's on or it trips the breaker (at least if you want to cook above 350 degrees when its hot outside).

We also got hot water installed in our kitchen. Which is great for sterilizing the dishes we do by hand. I think because it is so hot here they just don't think about hot water. There is an external heater for the shower too, and now we have this larger on under the sink.

Andy's growing up!

Here is a short one since I haven't written in a while. Andy is growing up so fast, he has several new tricks. He now waves and says bye to all our security guards, they tend to be in the same spots and he looks for them so he can wave. We have been counting in the elevator, so Lindsey could practice her numbers, we live on the 20th floor, and it seems to have rubbed off on Andy. He now looks up at the numbers and "counts" as they change usually the same sound over and over with great inflection. He also runs every where. We really need to get it on video because it is about the cutest thing ever. I'll try and get some videos of each of these moments, but for now you'll have to imagine his cuteness.

Butterfly Farm

We went to the butterfly farm. It was great! Lots of butterflies flying all around, and other bugs and reptiles to look at. We only got a few pictures because the camera battery died after 2 pictures. Andy fell asleep on the way, and slept through the whole thing. I guess we will have to go again some time.
-Lisa

Youth Park

We were told about this great "youth park" with lots of toys, path ways, and a pool. Sunday afternoon we decided to take a little walk through the park. Apparently everyone had the same idea because it was very full of families. Lindsey liked the climbing toys and swings there were three different areas with many sets of toys in each one. She got up there all by herself.

We walked along the path ways and found the funnest thing of all, Monkeys! Most of them were up the hill away from the people and noise, but we found some more right in the park on our way out.



-Lisa

Evening Street Market

If you look up what you should do in Malaysia. "Experience the Night Life" always makes the top ten. This is not clubbing or partying, its shopping. At night in Penang hundreds of people fill the streets with little carts of hot food, fruit stands, and other goods to buy. Not entirely on purpose we decided to walk through one such market with the kids.

As you can see the cars are still in the street, in fact city buses were driving through picking up and dropping off. I don't think we could have done it without the stroller, but it did make it a little scarier when you ran out of sidewalks. The kids did get coconut milk fresh out of a coconut though. It wasn't our favorite drink but how often do you get to drink out of a coconut?


We were told that you always got a great deal at the market, but I think that involves bartering which we did not do, so the fruit we bought was pretty much store price. Tony says maybe he would try a different one with a local friend from work.

There happened to be a beautiful temple above this market on the hill.



The kids were tired afterwards, I was tired afterwards but it was one more true Malaysian experience for us to check off our list.

-Lisa

I Drove!

Today was the day. I drove the car in Malaysia, on the left hand side of the road, on the right hand side of the car, braving crazy motorcycles, and aggressive drivers. I have been reluctant to do it, but today with Tony by my side I drove back from Tesco, the shopping center across the street. And other than turning on my wipers instead of my turn signal (they are reversed too)I had no mishaps. Of course the shopping center is only about a one-two minute drive, but still Today I Drove. I keep you posted on when I have a real driving adventure by myself.

Sand Castles

Yesterday Lindsey got her wish. We went to a sandy beach and made sand castles. The kids had a lot of fun. As soon as we walked on to the beach a group of high school boys asked if they could take a picture with the Kids. Their blue eyes and light hair are a bit of a novelty, not to mention they are so cute. We also had people coming up and trying to sell us horse rides, boat rides, and Jet ski rides. Tony just couldn't pass up the jet ski he rented it for 15 minutes. Then took the kids for a little swim in the ocean. It was a fun day!

First Morning

Well our first day started early since the kids had been asleep since the plane ride. They woke up 3:30am Penang time. We ate breakfast, and tried to stay quietso as not to wake the neighbors or Dad who has already ajusted to the time change.
But the good news is we got to watch the sun rise.
Here are some pictures from our balcony. We are on the 20th floor. A little scary with my climbers.

Flying blind

The kids and I left Seattle Saturday night for San Fransisco we had a short layover there, where the kids got in their pajamas ready for the long flight to Hong Kong. That layover was probably the trickiest part because Lindsey was tired so I had all 3 bags strapped to the stroller and just kept telling her a little further. Once we got our new boarding passes and to the gate it was down hill. At least until they "helpfully" took my stroller and put me in line for early boarding with the other famlies. That last 100 feet to the plane door were very long.
Lindsey was out before the plane took off. They both slept over half way to Hong Kong and were happy to read books and watch movies the rest of the way. The only problem during this flight was I took out my contacts to sleep. When I woke up I went to put on my glasses but a screw was lose and the left lens popped out. I found the lens but no screw. Then I tried putting my contacts back in and lost my right contact. So I was flying half blind.
Lindsey did her best to pull her little rolling "Malaysia bag" when she could. A sweet little grandma in line getting off the plane in Hong Kong said she used to travel that way. She called a young man working at the airport over and said "she has two kids by herself take her to the front on the line" which he did (every airline was good at doing this for us).
When we arrived in Hong Kong 14 hours later we had a 9 hour layover. It was a nice airport though, and time went by pretty quickly. We found a kid TV lounge showing cartoons down one hall, and a small play place down another. We had to walk every so often because I kept almost falling a sleep. Finally Andy started to get sleepy and we went to a resting lounge and laid down for a bit before going to our gate.
The last flight to Malaysia was 4 hours. We all slept the last half. And the kids were out after that. Which turned out to be a good thing. It meant I obviously needed some help. The crew thought they were so cute, and when I explained how much traveling we had done they offered to help. But they all had bags of their own, so they asked if I could wait a minute and they would help me to customs. One scooped up Lindsey and put her in the stroller, 2 others each took a bag and I had sleeping Andy. They took one look at me in customs and filled out my paperwork for me, didn't have a pen on the plane, stamped us without question (which was nice because we didn't have visas in hand, and all other check-ins had said it would be up them). Then there was Tony waiting at baggage claim. He had told a security guard his wife was flying in with two small children and lots of big bags. The guard pointed him to a booth to get a pass, which he was denied, and when he went back to the guard he said, we'll work it out. He ended up letting Tony in when he saw us. Which was a great relief to me, though I imagine the people I had working with me would have continued doing so.
Tony drove us to our new home, and we all went to bed. The kids never did wake up.

-Lisa