Smiling

Jersha asked for some pictures of my smiley boy so we took a few and here they are!!!

He is quite easy to get smiling. It is lots of fun getting him laughing!!!

Little India

On our last day in Singapore we went to Little India which was quite a fascinating place.

We first came to a hawker center where we had a great lunch of Indian food. Near that was a fruit and veg market where we found these fruits called Durans. They are very strange big fruits that stink. They are not even allowed on the subways, though there isn't a fine for having them there.

On our way to see some of the different temples that they have in Little India we saw men like the one above parading down the street the celebrate Thaipusam. Thaipusam is celebrated by the Hindu Community and commermorates the devotion of Idumban, a devotee of Lord Subramaniam, who received great burden of offerings to pay homage to his deity. Today, it is believed that any devotee carrying a kavadi in fulfillment of vows will have their wishes granted.

I did know that this festival would be happening close to the end of our trip and was kind of happy to see a little bit of it. I was fascinated by the thought that people would pierce themselves and then walk down the street for 3 km just to celebrate some guy's/gods birthday. Yes all of those steel rods are poking into that man.

Reading more about it putting this together I find that their is much more then even this that they go through, I guess to get some wish granted. I know there has got to be an easier way.

Because of all the crazy crowds, and the heat, that temple in the back ground was the only one we were able to see.

However we did take the back roads a bit and I loved to see how very different the buildings were from other places in Singapore. I love how colorful they are!!!

Well I guess that ends our Singapore adventure for now!!!

Hopefully we will be able to go back there someday for a much longer trip!!!!!

Chinatown

We did finally make it to Chinatown on Monday night.

We found a lively and crazy market going on which was far to much excitement for Jamie!!!!

There were also the lights up for the Chinese New Year!


These are the cute Chinese outfits that we got for the kids, we sadly bought them before we went to Chinatown and therefore paid more for them then would have.

Sentosa Island

Singapore is made up of many islands. We visited one of those islands, Sentosa, which is just off the southern coast of the main island. Sentosa has many different attractions for children. Here is what we got to see there!!!

We started be going to a butterfly park where much to our surprise there were birds that they let us hold. If you look closely you can see Jamie in the back of the stroller, he really is in most of these pictures!!!

We both held these birds and would have loved to play with the birds longer, but Lizzie wasn't as fond of the birds as we were, so we figured we had better keep going!!

We finally got to see some butterflies. Lizzie seemed to like them a little better.
After the butterflies they had a display of different bugs that are found in the area. I didn't take pictures of them because most of them I don't want to be reminded of, or ever meet in a dark alley.

After that we went to the Underwater World and was able to ride a conveyor belt around with fish and sharks swimming above our heads. As you can see from Lizzie's face she found this quite interesting.

With the Underwater World ticket they had a dolphin show. These dolphins have pink bellies. Sadly this picture doesn't show them very well, but it was very interesting to see dolphins with such bright pink bellies.

We then went on a short nature walk where we walked through some tropical rain forest type growth. They had fun statues, mostly of dragons, like this one. It was a really fun walk until the end where we had to go down many wood and dirt stairs with the stroller. I still think it was worth it, even though Brian may still wish I hadn't convinced him to go!!!!

We ended the day by going to a song/water/light show. I was very amazed at the pictures that they were able to project on to water spray. The one above was the most amazing. Check out that detail, on water.

The Singapore Adventure Starts

The first outing we made was to find Chinatown. We only made it to the river where we took a cruise of the river and had dinner.

Here we are on the boat in front of the Merlion, which is the symbol for Singapore which is the Lion City. Check our Lizzie's funny face!!!!

This is the skyline across the river. The lights at the bottom are riverside eating areas for the restaurants, that is where we had dinner. It was nice to be able to sit outside without getting cold.

Just thought I would throw in a cute picture of the kids all ready for our swim, again outside!!!!

One really fun thing we did was go to the Night Safari when we took a tram ride as well as one of the three walks offered to see nocturnal animals when they are more awake. We also went to a show with some of the animals. It was fun to see how very interested Lizzie was in it all, even though it was past her bed time!!!

Jamie's blessing

Jamie was blessed on the 30th of December by Brian.
His Grandfather Hunter and Uncle Joe were able to be in the circle for the blessing!


This picture is of Jamie in his blessing outfit which Brian convinced me didn't have to be white.

Christmas Time

Well I am finally getting around to putting on the pictures from Christmas. Some weeks it can be very hard to find time to get on the computer at all. So better late then never I guess!!!


Lizzie really liked to play with the ornaments on the tree. Thankfully it was a little above her eye level so she wouldn't get into it to much!!

Christmas morning with our little family!!!

But it was very nice to have more then just our little family here for the holidays. Brian's Mom, Dad, sister Christa and her husband Joe came to celebrate the season with us!!!! It was great to have family around this year!!!

This year Lizzie even helped a little with the unwrapping, though once the first box of toys was open she was ready to just start playing!!!