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!

It's my car

Last night Zach and I were going to run an errand. When we got out to the car, he said, "This is my car." I said, "Actually, it's Daddy's car." "No, it my car!" he replied. So I said, "Oh good. Then you can buy the gas and pay the insurance." "Ok!" he replied. "How are you going to get the money to do that?" I retorted. He replied with no pause, "I make graham crackers and get money."

Sounds like a plan to me. :-)

Making Pizza

Last Saturday we went over to have dinner with our friends the Bakers. They did indeed bake... and they had us make our own pizzas. The kids had fun putting on the toppings and eating them too. After dinner we went outside and the kids decided to climb the tree. Liza went up too to keep them from falling. We had a great time.

Screen Shots from "Leland"

Last month I posted a clip from the set up for our first film. Now I have some pictures from the second film we did, called "Leland." These stills are taken from the camera that we used to shoot the film. It's called a "Red One" and is a cutting edge camera that shoots in 4K. I know many of you will not know what that means, but if you think of the highest quality HD TV, it uses 1080p. That would be equivalent to 1K. This image is 4 times larger and can fill a movie theater screen without losing resolution from being blown up like video.

Here are a few scenes from the film....

This is "Jonatha's" house. He is a children's author.

Here is "Seth" at the door coming to visit. He and Jonathan were friends in grade school.

Seth and his wife, Dawn, discuss the fact that Leland, the subject of all Jonathan's books, was the name of Jonathan's imaginary friend in grade school.

Jonathan explains that Leland is in fact real, and still lives with him.

Seth decides that the only way to free Jonathan from the tyranny of his imaginary friend is to kill him. He "feeds" him peanut butter cookies and Jonathan panics because everyone knows that Leland is allergic to nuts. In this scene, he is on the floor trying to revive his imaginary friend.

Cubbies Slideshow

Isabella wrapped up her first year of Awana last Wednesday. They had this slideshow that showed what the kids do... You'll see Isabella here and there. Isabella learned all her verses this year and got all her patches. She did a great job! She will go back next year for the second year, then she'll move on to Sparks the year after that. You can watch the slide show below if you'd like...