Fabulous Girls

The girls have had a great start to their new school year. For the first month, masks were still required, but everything else was back to normal. Then, in September, masks were made optional at school. They're still required on transportation, but it definitely brings a collective sigh of relief to not have to force children to wear masks as they're running around, being kids.  About half of the students have chosen to keep masks on, but both our girls took them off as soon as they were allowed to.

All performances are up and running again too, which means our performing artist had a very busy fall.  First up was the talent show where she performed with the choir and sang a solo cover of an Adele song with another student playing on the piano.  She managed to take some time out of her performing schedule for photographs with her biggest fan.

There was no rest for the talented though. The next day she was off on her first international trip without the rest of us. She left for a choir exchange at the International School of Bangkok.

We all got a kick out of the fact that her first trip was to ISB. She didn't see anyone she knew, but she loved the food. All the pandemic use of technology has also facilitated remote communication, so we were able to watch the final concert being live-streamed from Bangkok to our living room.

Elena has been keeping busy too. She passed her karate test and now has her yellow belt.

She also has no problem assembling various costumes for whatever creative idea she currently has.

She really wanted special nail colors though for her planned Halloween costume, so I took her to my favorite nail place.  She had no hesitations about occupying the big armchair and thoughtfully looking through her color choices.

She was very pleased with the shades of black and red that she picked and that will go with her "Little Devil" costume.

Viv and I put in some mall time too, but for a slightly less glamorous purpose. Her next travelling adventure after Bangkok was her GAP (Global Action Program) trip.  This is an annual trip that high schoolers take to learn more about the region and do some volunteer work.  Viv needed a few more pairs of pants that she could work in and get dirty.

Before she went off on her trip though, she performed in her first high school play, The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe.  Since we're all members of the Vivi fan club, we got her some fancy flowers to celebrate her awesome performance.

Elena also made a flower offering out of playdough.

She has rediscovered the joy of playdough.

She also discovered the fun of crocheting, so back to the mall we went to try and find her some crochet supplies.

They had a big Harry Potter display, so we took some time to check it out and take pictures.

There was also a pop up stand selling fancy, sparkly dresses, so Elena spent the rest of the weekend dressed like a princess and crocheting her heart out.

She often needs a calm weekend to recover from all the fun at school. Recently they had a field day, which I got down to watch for a bit. There was plenty of running and jumping, and she was worn out by the end of it.

We've all been keeping busy and enjoying ourselves. Life is starting to feel pretty much normal again, which is a gift we don't take for granted.

St. Regis Langkawi

After our separation during the summer, we wanted to take full advantage of a long weekend in September and have a family vacation. I had originally looked at the St. Regis in Langkawi as an anniversary destination for me and Jeff, but I realized that with some maneuvering of points, I could get two free nights for two rooms, instead of three free nights for one room.  AirAsia domestic flights are reasonably priced, so I bought four tickets, and off we went!

In the spirit of a fun family adventure, we decided to try the kids snack box on AirAsia.  As expected, it was mostly sugar, but also some shrimp flavored chips. Elena actually ate some of them.

Our fancy room included airport pickup, so we made a quick stop at the airport duty free to pick up alcohol, so that we wouldn't have to pay ridiculous hotel prices, and then we hopped into our waiting van and headed off on the short ride to the hotel.

The vegetation around the hotel was lush and beautiful.

The hotel lobby was lovely, and since we were early, we spent a bit of time waiting for one of our rooms to be ready. We had booked a sunset villa for me and Jeff, and that was where we were planning on spending most of our time, so I had just gotten a regular room for the girls, but the hotel had upgraded them to a suite, so we felt extra fancy as we were waiting.

They brought us some pink lemonade while we waited. It was delicious.

Eventually, they got all the information they needed, and they told us they would let us know as soon as one of our rooms was ready. In the meantime, lunch was just starting to be served, so we walked out the lobby doors towards the beach to try out the beach dining option.

The pool wasn't very big, but it had some interesting sculptures. We got a kick out of the durian one. There were also seats that you could only get to by going through the water.  The girls, of course, took this as a personal challenge.

We got one of the dining tables on the beach, but Elena HAD to get in the pool.

By this point, I know to keep our bathing suits with us rather than handing them off with the rest of our luggage, so I took Elena to one of the bathrooms and got her changed.

The pool was lovely, but clearly set up for privacy rather than keeping an eye on your children.  There weren't a lot of seating areas, and they were all off in little corners without a good view of the pool. Jeff insisted that Elena wouldn't drown, and I should come sit down and eat something.  By that point we had gotten a guacamole appetizer, but Viv had pulled her hair back, because the wind had picked up and the clouds looked ominous.

I had also gotten my glass noodle salad, but the sky was darkening, and we thought we felt a few drops.

The restaurant staff encouraged us to make a run for it and said they would bring our food. One of the people escorted us to the main restaurant, which wasn't technically open for lunch yet, but they put us over in a corner table out of the way of the cleaning staff and brought us our food.

Sure enough, the skies opened and there was quite a rainstorm, but it passed pretty quickly. As we were finishing lunch, they told us that the girls' room was ready, and it was just across from the restaurant, so we finished up our food and headed to the room.  It was absolutely lovely.  They had a good size sitting area, a big, king sized bed, an enormous tub, and a covered balcony.

Their sitting area had a view of the beach, so we hung out for a while and kept an eye on the weather.

Once it seemed to have rained itself out, we all changed and headed down to the pool and beach area. There was a little kids pool with a good seating area, but of course the girls wanted to go to the big pool as well. They were the only kids we could see in the whole place, so we told them to make sure they kept it civilized.

Jeff and I lounged, enjoyed the view, and read.

Eventually, the girls wore themselves out and came and rested for a while.

Finally, our villa was ready. It was a bit away from the main hotel, so they took us there in a golf cart, which we got a kick out of. Since I had told them it was an anniversary trip, they had done the bedroom up.

It was a great "villa". There was a full dining area and living room, but the best part was a large, personal pool with a great view and a seating area. The girls jumped right in to try it out.

When we got hungry again, we ordered room service.

It was an infinity pool, so Jeff spent a lot of time getting pictures that let the pool and the water around it merge.

There was a lot of lounging and looking at how beautiful everything was.

The girls would play games like Vivi doing a handstand while Elena swam under her.

They would get hungry, and we would feed them.

Vivian especially loved the hotel's mushroom soup and got a kick out of the container it came in.

The room service breakfast was ridiculous, and that provided snacks for most of the day.

It rained off and on the whole weekend, but when the weather got too crummy to swim or be outside, we played inside with some of our decorative anniversary balloons.

Everyone's favorite activity though, was watching the sunset. One night was too overcast to really enjoy, but on the good nights, Jeff got a couple hundred pictures, so we felt like we got our money's worth.

Once it got dark, I would take the girls back to their room to tuck them in.

The nice man driving the golf cart would ask us what we had done that day and if we had gone anywhere or explored Langkawi. We always felt a little bad saying, no, we just enjoyed our fancy room, but we have done a lot of the sightseeing things in Langkawi before, and this was the first time we had a sunset villa all our own to enjoy, so enjoy it we did.  It was a wonderfully relaxing long weekend, and we were a little sad to leave and fly home.

We were gifted one more lovely sunset on the plane though. This is definitely a vacation we would consider doing again if we have enough points to make the room free.