the almost overlooked vacation

Ok, here I am posting some vacation pictures...yeah, that one vacation we took ages ago. My grandmother told me that since she's never been to where we went, we had to take lots of pictures for her, so this post is for you, nana!

We caught samantha in a great mood at the airport, and even though we were using the stepchild olympus camera, we got some cute pictures of her!

On the plane on the way - we had intended to take the overnight train down there (I mean, as a child wouldn't it seem fun to sleep in a train? We thought so too!) but due to the usual complexity of booking train tickets here, it didn't work out and the plane was almost as cheap. Emma is eating her most treasured food in the entire world - Dora Fruit Snacks. My parents randomly sent two boxes in a package a few months ago, and I was wise to never tell emma we had them - unless of course, she needed (or deserved!) a special surprise! But then...the dora snacks became the all-encompassing focus of her world. She would ask for them every time she woudl go to the potty, every time she obeyed, every time she woke up from her nap, after every dinner. It was "dora snacks" all the time. If you asked her her favorite food, she'd say (and still will say) "DOOOORA SNACKS!" So, on the trip, she got one package of dora snacks for every day, which she could eat at a time of her choosing. After two out-of-town trips, there still providentially managed to be two overlooked packages in my purse that surfaced the first two nights I was in the hospital in hong kong.
Oh, boy...did we eat! It was nice eating out - and eating western food - but the food was a little disappointing. Maybe we're getting TOO accustomed to eating good western food at home - though it was great not having to do dishes or sweep up the mountain of peas that seem to inevitably appear under samantha's chair! At Tony Roma's...where emma ferociously took out her corn on the cob...almost as ferociously as daddy took out his Carolina Honey's ribs!Playing at the park down the street from our hotel/apartment. Green grass is a lovely sight, I tell you; especially when there's a cute mantha walking in it!

Should this picture go in the food category? Hmmmm...we took this one down the street from a lebanese restaurant we ate at our last night there, and wowza (thanks for the use of the word, rachel!) was it tasty! Too bad we didn't find it the first night, but alas, that seems to be a common thread of our vacation meals! Just mom and the gals by a pretty fountain...One of samantha's first real attempts at playing with other kids, at a public square by our hotel......but she was quickly distracted by the pigeons. I have no idea why asianese love pigeons so much. They feed them, chase them, and showcase them in every park in the country. I'm sure they make an easy buck off the pigeon food they sell, but still...it's so predictable it's funny.But since emma's parents won't buy her any pigeon food (what IS the pigeon food exactly? does anyone know?), this little girl shared her pigeon food with emma and she had a super happy time throwing it at the pigeons and watching them peck at it.
I'm a sucker for pictures...even ones where samantha has that "huh?" look on her face... :) Tourist city + famous river + kids = gotta take a boat ride
Unfortunately the sky was hazy that day - anyone surprised? - but it was fun. The girls got to see lots of interesting boats and waterfront activity on the boat, and it was just long enough to enjoy and just short enough to keep them interested...
Another family picture at little market thing we visited. You would not believe the insane amount of attention we attracted in trying to get a family picture! But I liked the environment - it reminded me a lot of the touristy places near where we used to live in the south.

The serviced apartments where we stayed had a nice warm pool where emma could get more confident in her ability to swim by herself - and she loves it, loves it!

And this was taken on our last day on the way to Toys R' Us! Woo hoo! Emma came out with a big bag of new blocks that have seen lots of action since coming home.

So there you have it - pictures of our nice vacation that almost got lost in my camera.