Valentines; The boys fell in love with a tree

Valentines weekend was a fun one. Chris had Monday off for Presidents Day so it was a nice long lazy weekend. We of course enjoyed our pancakes on the beach on Saturday. We met a lovely couple from Australia whose little boy Archer had fun playing with Sam and Liam. It is crazy the amount of wonderful people you meet abroad, and how much speaking a common language immediately makes you friends ;) Instead of a play place the restaurant we get pancakes at has a monkey.

Fun for the kids-- terrifying for mom. I swear that thing is going to bust out of that shoddy cage and go ballistic some day. Liam likes to chase the chickens around. This would be okay if Cock fighting wasn't such a HUGE thing around here and hence they are fairly confrontational. Thankfully they don't follow you down to the beach. Abby got a little practice sitting up and her chunky thighs got an glimpse of the sun. (It an attempt to keep her healthy and mosquito bite free I keep her covered head to toe).

She is getting better at sitting up but will face plant it every now and then :) Luckily the sand is soft. There are these cool gnarly trees every 100 yards or so on the beach. Sammy climbed one with my help (and prompting) He wanted tog et down as soon as I was done taking the picture :)

I took a picture of the road on the way out. This is the best road around.

And this is actually probably the best strip on it haa! Roads are totally chunked up and filled with pot holes. There are no street signs in the entire city. You have to figure your way around completely based on landmarks. There are probably three or four stop lights but they have been out for the past few days as most of the city has been with out power. We being spoiled diplomates haven't even noticed thanks to our awesome generators! On Valentines day we were invited to a party at Christopher's DCM's home. I took some pictures on the drive over. People shove onto motor bikes and trucks here. It is terrifying to me. Chris says it is nothing compared to Cambodia but I am always afraid someone is going to fall off right in front of me. (This picture is having a hard time uploading... hmmm)

Every evening the streets are lined with locals selling freshly cooked fish that they cook up on BBQ's right there at the waters edge. It will be a LONG time until I am crazy enough-- I mean brave enough to eat from one of them.

It was a fabulous valentines party! When we got there we all got names taped to our back. We were a part of a famous couple and you had to ask yes or no questions to figure out who you were. Christopher was Prince Albert and I was Mark Antonie. I don't think I would have figured out who I was if I hadn't seen another person with Cleopatra wandering around :) The kids played musical chairs and then had a scavenger hunt. Once they went outside my boys couldn't care less about the prizes when they saw the tree house.

It was raining so I was a worried about the boys slipping but Jonathan was so kind and followed the boys up. It really started lashing or they would have been up there the rest of the night.

The party was catered by this delicious local restaurant and although we had to leave early thanks to Abby's super crankiness they sent us off with a plate of cookies and muffins. I am so glad they had this party because to be honest if we hadn't been invited I think I would have totally spaced the holiday. I can't remember the last time Chris and I did something romantic for it... Probably when he and Wes took each others girlfriends flowers for each other because we were in opposite cities! Haaa! Remember that Kristen? That was before we were even married. Hmmmm maybe next year (But probably not)
The boys did enjoy some yummy hot chocolate and Whip cream. Our place comes "furnished" and one such item provided is a golden tea set. Sam has been asking to drink hot chocolate from it since he saw it. I finally bought some and since I found whip cream (an uncommon item) I thought why not throw in some sprinkles. Luckily I had black sprinkles so it wasn't to girly. Sam gulped his down but Liam chose to savor his a little. (A dump a mountain of sprinkles on it while I was in the kitchen!)

Ahhhh happiness