Beach Bum....

Oscar is the first Merkel boy to NOT have an immediate love for sand.  

Which doesn't bode well for our lifestyle of beach vacations right now.  

The one advantage to the dislike of sand on Oscar's feet 

was it SLOWED him down.  

And on some occasions 

even made him stay on the blanket to play.

But overall he wasn't happy not moving 

and running like his brothers.

And he was also getting to heavy and big 

to carry for very long on a sandy beach.

On our most recent Thanksgiving beach trip 

Oscar tipped the scale on his dislike of the scratchy sand.  

The fun of the waves and getting 

wet & messy convinced him 

to just go for it! 

And he joined the ranks of 

total Beach Bum

 like his big brothers!

Thanksgiving Indonesian Style...

We headed to Bintan, Indonesia for our Thanksgiving weekend.

Jeff arranged for a full turkey with all the trimmings.  

Mom brought the fun Thanksgiving decorations, plates and napkins.

We were so very thankful to have family with us on Thanksgiving.

So very blessed by these three little monkeys.

Also blessed to see that in the craziness of being brothers, 

there is such love & affection there too.

Charlie's Thanksgiving feast at school.
One of the many advantages of an American school:)

Max's first visit to Charlie's school & classroom.

The silly picture of pilgrim boys & girls :)

One of two....

We have two spots that we want to see 

(without the boys) 

before we leave Singapore.  

Vietnam and Cambodia  

It was a thrill to check off one

The first night when we headed out to see the town

 we crossed the busy street of taxis & scooters

I was literally shaking when we arrived 

at the other side of the road 

it was so terrifying to cross thru the traffic.

I was beyond relieved to be in Vietnam 

with just our 2 lives at stake...

and not 3 little monkeys' too:) 

And can I brag to say 

that by day 2 we were such pros 

at crossing those crazy streets.  

The trick?  You walk SLOW.  Can you imagine?  

Slowly walking thru the beeping craziness 

of hundreds of scooters zooming around you...

you simply have to watch out for the taxis 

and the scooters will watch out for you. 

Crazy but it works.

So....Jeff & I snuck away to Hanoi,Vietnam 

when my parents came for a visit.

It was amazing.

The country, the city, the people, the history.

I learned a lot about what being an American

 means to the Vietnamese.

It felt strange and heavy at times to think of the history 

& hear first hand about the collision of our countries.

We shopped in a Fair Trade shop for souvenirs.  

We ate at a restaurant that invests in street kids 

and gives them training in the restaurant profession.

It felt necessary to be careful about what we bought 

and where our money was spent.  

Jeff was able to relished in one of his favorite pet peeves....

POWER LINES!

Their enormous bundles are everywhere...

and are truly something to be seen.  

ALL of our housing decisions have been affected 

by the presence and needed absence of power lines:)

We didn't take very many photos in Hanoi.  We mainly soaked up the culture and actually relaxed quite a bit in our lovely hotel.  It was the best of both worlds for a quick get away.