Happy New Year 2018

Christmas was extended for us this year.  Technically 25 days of Christmas extends out to January anyway.  I love the opportunity to blog and go through pictures from our phones and camera.  It shows how much fun we've had and how fun we can be sometime!  Looking through pictures to blog helps me to remember much of what we did over the month

 January was majorly about getting used to our new place we called home.  Zen diamond was by far the most luxurious place we've ever lived at.  I knew it would be a challenge to have a family of 6 live in a 2 bedroom 90 sq. meter hotel suites, granted this is the biggest hotel suite equipped with a luxury kitchen and a very nice living room, it still wasn't our big home we've been used to with a backyard and open to below and tall ceilings.  It was merely for the experience, something Dan and I've never been able to do and now we can check it off our lists.  My sister and brother in law ranked this hotel pretty high.  We enjoyed having the pool, sauna, and the restaurants all within the building and most especially we've enjoyed having free cleaning service 3 times a week.  I never had to wash the sheets or towels or sweep or mop the floor or clean the bathroom.  I was very spoiled for 2 months.  Not to mention that a preschool and international school was also inside the building.  However the preschool is expensive and the international school is $800/month per kid.  We're doing ok with online schooling and extracurricular activities for the kids to meet other kids.

 My cousin came for a quick visit on her birthday so I treated her to a meal at Zen's restaurant.  She cried afterward because she was so touched and have never had such a nice fancy meal.

 Inside Zen's was also a cute souvenir shop and they did such a great job with the lantern decor

 I took the kids on a fun cyclo ride over the dragon bridge.  It was crowded and polluted and expensive, relatively speaking for a native.  Cyclos used to be a method of traveling when I was young but now it has all been turned into tours.  You have to book a tour with them!  Wha???  They are more expensive than taxis and Uber.  So wrong in my mind!!!@##$

 We got 2 cyclos because we couldn't fit in one.  It brought back memories of when my parents, siblings, and I all piled in one cyclo.  I didn't have a good experience with it then so in a way this was a much better experience.

My little Darion has probably had the biggest changes of all his siblings.  He speaks more Vietnamese than any of them.  He says the cutest "banh bao" (steamed rolls) and loves to say "xin chao" to people he meets.  Most especially I love his kisses out of no where

 I think looking over all of our pictures you can say that our happy place is at the beach.  Da Nang beaches run very long and they are so pretty.

 When we were visiting our families in the US my cousin My (My is her name, pronounce ME) messaged me saying she wanted to get baptized on the 7th so within a week and a half of getting into Vietnam Dan and I had to jump on the plane for a ride to Saigon where she was living.  We left the kids for my cousins to watch and escaped for a day.

We had one of the best pho in the airport.  Go figure!

 Cutest little baptismal font.  The baptism was beautiful.  I gave a talk.  The missionaries translated my talk in Vietnamese for my husband to hear it in English.  We loved seeing all of our missionaries and hearing them talk in Vietnamese and hearing how amazing they are at learning the language.  My favorite part of it all though was to see my cousin bore her testimony.  I think every baptism ought to have this.

 Here's the church building

 Saigon was crowded and muggy.  I think choosing Da Nang was a better choice even if there is no family living here.

 Night time downtown was pretty sweet though.  Wish we had more time to roam the city.

I'm still trying to adjust to the shopping in the open market.  Living at Zen diamond meant the market was very close to our home and shopping was much easier than the last place

The fun thing about living abroad is that even the every day activity seems like a novelty.  Living in a new place every few months can give you that rush of excitement and adrenaline. 

We play by the pool, have lots of lego times, tv shows, and books to keep us sane

And visiting the countryside of course for all the kisses and snuggles

And as always we come home with some of the country's best coconuts

Our little baker

The hardest part of living in a hotel suite is entertaining these guys when the girls are doing school and their daddy is working.  We made a lot of movies together and sang lots of songs and made lots of food and going on walks.

Meet the Halls.  We've been waiting for these guys to show up in Da Nang for what seemed like ages.  On the first day of their arrival we took them to one of the best parks in town.  The next day they all came down with the stomach flu from traveling and then had an array of health related problems.  We felt so bad for them but just waited out was all we could do.

They all got better and then we took them out to where I grew up.  It was a special day.  So fun to see a bunch of Americans in my hometown.  What a treat for the locals.  They haven't seen this many Americans since the war!

We came back that night to the most exciting night for Vietnam's Soccer team.  The streets were scary busy with cars full of fans cheering for the U23 Championship game.  Vietnam was doing so well that the entire country gave students and employees the day off to watch this game.  Needless to say it was very loud.  I believe the cheering didn't stop until 2:00 AM.  Even the old ladies were cheering their hearts out.  Ronin and I made a live video for social media where he chastised them for being too loud.  It's hilarious.  Watch it on my instagram!

Our days were much more fun after our friends came.  Ronin and Darion have become besties with their boys Oliver and George.