Clark and Audrey walking home from his U.N Day concert on Thanksgiving Day.
Because he attends an international school, they still had school on Thanksgiving Day! We pulled him out after the concert so we could go meet up and having our Thanksgiving Feast with our good friends, the Dettmans.
So just before U.S. Thanksgiving, Clark’s school holds a U.N. Day where all the children come dressed up in some kind of native attire from their country and perform a concert for the parents. There are also country booths set up in the cafeteria that are manned by parent volunteers and parents are also encourage to do country presentations in the children’s classes some time during the week. It was fun to see all the different countries that are represented at our international school and it was fun being an American amidst all of it too. I baked chocolate chip cookies for the USA booth, and I had a blast going into Clark’s class and talking about the founding of America and making statue of Liberty crowns with all of the kids. They loved them!! There are 19 kids in Clark’s class from at least 13 different countries. It’s amazing.
(I love that they put us and Canada next to each other 
So when Tanner told me that he was going to have to go to Bali to help out prior to the arrival of President Obama, I immediately asked “Can I come too?” When he said “yeah, probably”, I took that as a YES! and pretty much booked my ticket within the next 24 hrs before anyone could change their mind. The last time we went to Bali, it was fun and nice, but different then how Bali had been ‘sold’ to me by the many people who had been there. This time, we were going to be in Nusa Dua where a bunch of resorts are so I was excited to explore a different aspect to Bali.
It was pretty much awesome. I lounged around all day while Tanner worked and then we would meet up in the late afternoon and spend the evening together. I was only there 2 1/2 days and wished I would have booked it for more, but such is life for the parents of 3 littles.
(guess where we stayed??)
One evening we took a ride out to the tip of the island to where the Hotel Nikko is located. It is an awesome resort hotel, and if I could stay anywhere in Bali, this would be the place. The pools were ridiculous and the sunset was amazing.
The following evening, we rode out on our motorbike to the other side of the island to Uluwatu. It is a temple on cliffs overlooking the ocean. We went to watch the sunset and it was gorgeous. There were also a ton of monkeys around and they tried to steal the hat right off my head…TWICE!!
Best getaway yet!
We had a fun Halloween this year. We had a ward party at our friend’s house, and Tanner dressed up as Anakin Skywalker because Andrew wanted to be Darth Vader. Clark was Iron Man and I was Lightening McQueen. Audrey was a cow and she was cutest little cow you’ve ever seen. She even had a cow bell so everyone always knew where she was. Unfortunately, I don’t have any pictures of my kids (worst mom of the year award), but I do have one of Tanner with some of the other members of our ward. It was pretty hilarious to see how many adults showed up in some kind of muslim/middle eastern attire. Our Relief Society President showed up in a full Burqa. Yeah, it was awesome.
Andrew decided he wanted to change it up for his school party and he decided he wanted to be Mario.
Yeah that’s right peeps, I learned how to make Sushi thanks to my awesome Japanese neighbor Kaori. We made tuna rolls, salmon and avocado, and even some fried eel! They were all super yummy, and it is surprisingly easy, once you know what you’re doing!
For our last day, we took a trip out to the Mekong Delta to see the floating market in Can Tho and take a tour of some of the areas within the Delta. It was a beautiful day, and it was an interesting drive out there seeing all the rice patty fields. Once we arrived, we hopped aboard our boat to take a ride out to the floating market, which was kind of a disappointment. I think it is a lot busier on Sundays. Apparently, these boats bring in their specialty crops and the come to trade crops with other boats. It seemed like it could be interesting to watch if it was busy, but there just wasn’t anything going on, so we just enjoyed the ride. Next, we stopped at a place where they make pop rice and rice candy to ship all over Asia. It is amazing to me that in these small tiny little villages, people are working away and then their product shows up in a store in Thailand. The candies were really good and we ended up buying quite a few packages to bring back as gifts for friends. The kids loved seeing the rice literally pop like popcorn and it was fascinating to watch and learn how they make rice paper and how they use coconuts.
Rice Paper
Candy
Pop Rice
After that, we took another ride and on the way had some of the best fruit ever! Audrey particularly loved the coconut water! But I am not sure Andrew loved everything he tried, but we ALL loved the mango.
We also had fun lounging in the hammock on our boat. There was a nice breeze and very relaxing!
When we arrived at our next destination, we hopped on a smaller boat and rowed through some canals and areas that were beautiful.
We stopped and walked around for a bit and then ended with lunch at a small restaurant. We were a bit nervous when we saw what they served us. HUGE prawns and this fish,
but it was actually quite delicious…and none of us got sick so YAY!! It was a full day out on the river and it was beautiful last day of our trip in Vietnam.
When we returned back to our hotel that evening, the sunset over the city was awesome. It was a fantastic trip!
We arrived back in Ho Chi Minh and this time stayed at a different serviced apartment. It was also really nice and had some phenomenal views, but it was further out from the city.
The next morning, we were greeted by our tour guide who was going to take us to see the Chu Chi Tunnels and the Cao Dai Temple for the day. It was a lot of driving, but we got to see some of the countryside and at least we had our own private van instead of trying to wrangle with 3 kids on a giant tour bus! The Chu Chi Tunnels is the underground tunnel system that the VietCong created during the Vietnam War to help smuggle supplies and people throughout the area. It is in a densely forested part of the country, and they were pretty successful in thwarting U.S. forces there initially. These tunnels were teeny tiny and it is amazing how they were made and that people actually lived in them for quite some time. We were interested in seeing them because of the historical aspect and also because we knew the boys would love to crawl around some tunnels!
Tanner tried to get into one, but his shoulders wouldn’t fit. At first the boys were freaked out by it wondering what they were climbing into, but after seeing both mom and dad do it, Andrew was game…and then so was Clark.
After exploring a bunch of tunnels and seeing some areas where the U.S. was able to bomb out the tunnels, we headed over to where the gun range was. We weren’t allowed in the area where people were shooting targets, but Tanner went and had someone take a picture of him while he had a go! They had an area where you could watch a movie about the role of the tunnels during the war, but we skipped it. We decided we had had enough of the anti-U.S. propaganda.
That tunnel was barely taller than Andrew, so the rest of us were hunching over to get through!
After Chu Chi, we drove to Cao Dai Temple. It was an interesting place, but I am not sure if it was worth the drive. The religion is pretty fascinating. It is pretty much a mesh theology from 4 or 5 religions…and it’s SUPER colorful! We arrived just in time to see them doing their prayer service that they apparently do 5 times a day. It’s like a mix of Chinese, Vietnamese, Christianity, and Buddhism. They also have 3 saints: Sun-Yat-Sen, Victor Hugo, and a Vietnamese poet. Random, I know. If you want to read more about Caodiism, see here!
By the time we got back to HCMC, we were all tired, so we ordered in, and just took it easy. Fun day out!
