Zach's words

Zach has been saying some funny things lately. Every time he says one of them, it makes us laugh...

When he sees a puddle, it calls it a "muddle."

He refers to the pool as the "cool."

The other night when we went to the mall, he really wanted to ride the "alligator," when referring to the escalator.

He also recently started objecting when we tell him no to something. He will say, "Please???? Don't say no, say yes!"

Trip to Krabi

Krabi is on the Andaman Sea in the south of Thailand.  It is really beautiful.  Sunee had been before which is how she decided to take us there again.  I (Liza) was a clueless tag-along.  The best thing of course was being just five minutes from the beach.  I have always been a beach person, and was so happy to share the time with the kids there.  They are water-rats, and could stay in the water forever.  Isabella definitely enjoys the ocean more, while Zach feels more comfortable in the pool.  I'm sure that's affected by his height and the fact that the waves tend to break in his face.

We bought beach toys in Bangkok for a little over $2 per set.  Such a good thing because in Krabi they were over $8 per set.  Yes, they jack up prices in touristy places in Thailand as well.
One of Isabella's new swimsuits.  Needless to say, she really loves "stripey, stripey suit."
Zach and I during a late afternoon walk on the beach, collecting shells.  Although he really preferred throwing them back in the water.
Like I said, Zach didn't always like being in the water, so he would try to climb coconut trees instead.
Our last day walking along the beach.  It was just beautiful!  I am so thankful we could go. 

P.S.--these suits are SPF protected so I didn't have to put suntan lotion on their chests.  You can tell the rest of us got pink though.

Update

Hello again. My blogging got interrupted in Ranong because my roommate on the trip, Matt, got very ill. On the 3rd day we were there, he started feeling bad. He spent two days trying to rest and get better, but just kept getting worse. We finally ended up leaving on Monday night around 9:30 to drive all night back to Bangkok and take him to the hospital. He's been in the hospital now for 3 nights and will be in again tonight. He's been making slow progress, but the stomach infection is still causing problems. We'd appreciate your prayers that he will get better and be able to get out of the hospital soon. I'll try to get some more pictures from our trip and from Liza and the kids' trip too soon.

On a very sad note, my grandfather, Carl Archambo died on Tuesday. It was unexpected and very hard for my step mom, Carla and her mother too. We'd appreciate your prayers for them.

More Pictures from Thailand

Here are some more pictures that were taken by Matt with his really nice SLR camera...

Libby and I listening in class.

Zach with his cool sunglasses.
Another shot of Isabella sitting on the step outside our guest house.

A "Tuk-Tuk" on the street. This is a form of taxi that is unique to Thailand.

The back of a "Tuk-Tuk"
Zach and Matt on the balcony of Matt's room. Zach had really taken to Matt and to Sunee on the trip.
Zach at dinner enjoying his chocolate ice cream.
"Yeah ice cream" he says.
Me teaching film class on our first day of classes.

Off to the islands

Today we left Bangkok and drove about 9 hours to Ranong, Thailand. We are spending the night here and going to one of the islands tomorrow that was hit hard by the tsunami. We'll be doing interviews here in town and then on the island. We'll also get to spend the night there on the island, so it will be a real adventure. The drive down was beautiful. Lots of mountains and sights that you'd never see in America. We were in 2 vans that were very spacious and nice. We watched a great thai movie on the big screen in the van- it really made the time fly.

Liza and the kids flew down to Krabi (said Crabb-eee) this morning along with Sunee and Adalade and Sunee's dad (who lives in Thailand half the year.) I talked with Liza on the phone tonight and she said the kids did great on the flight and absolutely loved the beach. Here are a few pictures from where they are staying. I found them on the internet, but you can see how beautiful it is. If she can find internet service, she'll write from there as well.

We made it through

Yesterday was a long day for Liza and the kids, but we made it through. They didn't get sick again after 8:30am or so. They spent the day laying low and recovering. I took the kids out to eat last night with the team, but Liza wasn't feeling good, so she stayed behind. While we were out the electricity went out in the resturant and an amazing downpour commenced. It was raining so hard we had to call our friend Nu to come get us because the Taxi's wouldn't stop. We did get back without getting too soaked, so that was good. The kids went to sleep around 9 and slept until 5am. Liza got some good sleep too, which is a first for the trip. They were all feeling good this morning, so we went for a walk to the 7-11 and bought some milk and got breakfast.

Tomorrow we leave for the islands and Liza and the kids go to the resort. I don't know if we'll have any internet, so it may be a week before we can write more. We would appreciate your prayers safe travel and safety for all of us while we are apart. Thanks!

Teaching Class

Yesterday we began teaching our film classes. I will teach this afternoon, so there are no pictures of me yet, but I thought I'd post some pictures from the classes so far. We started by having Matt teach camera, then Andrew taught audio. Today Rocky has been teaching lighting.

Matt teaching camera.

The class listening and taking notes.

Andrew teaching audio.

The class looks at the audio meters on the camera.

The class tries out getting audio in different locations.

Hands on training is the best way to learn.

Our new audio crew.

Andrew explains how to change the settings.

Rocky teaches lighting.

Rocky explains using gels and 3 point lighting.

Up and down

Today is our 4th day in Thailand. The kids slept later today- to just about 5am, which is a big improvement. They got up and watched a Veggietales DVD and all was going well. Then, while I was in the shower I heard yelling from the other room. Isabella had thrown up on the top bunk while playing. It was quite a mess. Then, just when we were about to get it cleaned up, Zach threw up on Liza's shoulder. I went out to 7-11 to get some sprite and some cleaning supplies and when I got back Zach had just thrown up again. We don't know what is wrong, but other than loosing their breakfasts, they seem to be OK. They are going to stay in today and try to stay off the beds. We'd appreciate your prayers for a quick recovery and for protection for Liza and I from whatever they may have. Thanks!

Pictures from Thailand

I thought I'd put up several pictures from our first few days in Thailand. We've been busy mostly trying to adapt to the time change, but we've also been learning our way around and figuring things out for the summer. On Saturday, we had our first meeting with the Thais that we will be teaching this summer. Here we are below at that meeting.

Above are Ning, Mam, Nu and one whos name I can't remember. Below are Libby, Rocky and Matt from our team.

Isabella makes friends with Mam and Ning.

Liza and Zach at the meeting.

This cat was out near our building. There are lots of dogs and cats around.

Isabella waiting by our building before we left to go out to eat.

This is from inside the taxi as we drove to the store where we would buy supplies and eat.

While we were eating, Isabella made friends with a little Thai girl and sat with them for a while.

Zach and Isabella played after we got back from church on Sunday.


Sunday night we went with some friends out to a great little resturant. Things are a little different in Thailand... not many seat belts and no car seats.

The kids like the food, which is a real blessing.

Sometimes the food does look back at your though... :-)

Pictrures from the trip to Thailand

Here are some pictures from our 30 hours of flying over to Thailand....


Isabella was very excited when we started. Here she was before takeoff in Austin.
Zach sat next to me for the fight to San Francisco. He did great.

Isabella sat next to Liza. On the flight to Tokyo and then on Bangkok, we all sat in the front bulkhead seat. Those flights were really long, but Isabella slept on the floor for most of the 7 hour flight from Tokyo to Bangkok. Zach did really well too.


Here is Isabella in Japan pulling here carry on and wearing her backpack.

Here we are in Bankok waiting for our vans to arrive to pick us up. We met several Thai staff who came to pick us up. They really like the kids.


Zach loves all the attention.

Here you can see the amazing amount of luggage we all had.

Liza talks with Ning while we wait for the vans. Once the picked us up, it took about 20 min to get to our guest house. Zach was so excited to be out of the airplane, he kept saying, "Yeah Thailand!"

Day 2 in Thailand

Well, last night was a long night. We all went to bed at 8 or so, but Zach woke up at 2am. By 3 Isabella was up too and they were ready to do something. Finally Liza got the dvd player out and let them watch 2 dvds. That helped them to wind down. Zach went back to be at 4 and Isabella finally went to sleep at 5:55 and slept until 8:15. I got very little sleep after 3am. I just couldn't go back to sleep, so I laid there for a very long time.
We went to church this morning at a great local thai church. It was a lot of fun. Liza was feeling bad so she stayed behind, but the rest of us went. The kids had a great time and so did we. We all ate a meal together after the service which was great. It was nice to meet people who are not on staff with ccc and walking with the Lord.

We went home for naps and then out again to a great restaurant. The food was great and the kids enjoyed it. Now we are back home and ready for sleep. My, how the day zips by!


I'll let you know tomorrow how tonight goes. 

Safe in Thailand

Hello all-
I just wanted to send a quick note to say that we made it safe and sound to Bangkok. We had our first full day today and the kids did great despite being exhausted. Isabella is doing really well and enjoying it. Zach is loving all the attention. We are going to bed now- we are 12 hours off exactly from central time in the US. Have a great Saturday!


Pictures to follow when I've had enough sleep to remember my middle name. :-)

Greetings from Japan

Hello from Japan. We made it through the 10 hour flight to Japan... now we just have a 7 hour flight on to Bangkok. :-) Zach did OK. He fell asleep before we took off and woke up crying about an hour later. He cried for about 30 min before we finally got him calmed down. After that he was fine. At 8pm Austin time, we went through their bedtime routine and then they went down and slept until we landed. Now we are hanging out in the first class international lounge. It has this great kids room so it has been a good break for them. I expect a lot of crying from Zach when we get back on the plane, but we'll live. We'll write again tomorrow from Bangkok!