vacation pictures

So what I've got here is a smattering of pictures to share.  We are busy relaxing!  ha!  Actually our entire time here has been amazingly relaxing.  We are staying at a retreat center type place that caters to families like ours and it is kid-paradise.  And we all know that kid-paradise is a recipe for a great vacation for the entire family.

My kids love that they get free run of the entire grounds.  Gated and fenced and full of everything fun (foosball, ping pong, play room, kids' library, swimming pool, swings, playground and piles of friends - most brand new and some lifelong buddies too)

We woke up Monday morning and watched a little Super Bowl .... in our swimsuits, of course.

Later that day I received Happy New Year phone messages from John Paul's foster mama.  We've reconnected with her recently and she is eager for us to come visit her :)  I'm not sure when we'll get up to her province (it's probably a 20 hour drive from our home) but we are thankful to keep this precious lady in our lives.  I snapped this picture of JP at the pool to send to her along with my Happy Lunar New Year message!

Our first day here was extremely windy and the ocean was as rough as I've ever seen it.  By day two it had calmed considerably and these girls LOVED playing in the breakers.

The boys cannot get enough of the sand.

Dig dig dig.  Add buckets of water.  Repeat.

Check out this baby hand of my almost-4-year-old.  Won't be long til he's as big as his daddy.  But not yet! (that's the manager's cottage in the background.  We live in the cottage next door to them.  a retired English couple runs the place.... talk about a sweet job - Isaac wants Matt to get a job here!)

Today the ocean was smooth as a lake.  That's the Gulf of Thailand there, with one of the many many islands out in the bay.  The three girls (Julianna, Lydia, Kayleigh) are out on a sand bar about 8 inches below the surface - and they kept walking further too.  Even the little boys went well past this point!  Crazy to see them so far out in the water!  Julianna asked if they were going to fall off the continental shelf :)

[and yes, we kept an adult close by when all the kids, especially the littles, got so far out]

At sunset it starts looking like this - and the hermit crabs are everywhere!

Not bad for a day at the Juniper Tree.

Oh, and we sleep well too.  really really well :)