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Category Archives: Photos

Beach Party! 

18 Nov

In late October, Tita — Jayden’s helper, who spends a fair amount of time with Nyan on playdates and walks home from school — had a birthday party down at East Coast Park, not far from our place. We headed over, along with Jayden, Jonnie and Lily.

Kids being kids, they spent a lot of time getting bucket of water to dump on the sand.

 

The main reason for the buckets: on the beach was the remains of a huge bonfire from earlier in the day. It was still smoldering a bit in places, so the kids were trying to put it out. Nyan someone came up with the name Ash Destroyers, which I think he meant to be related to what they were doing. Sounds pretty cool, even though it doesn’t quite make sense.

 

The kids also decided they would dig tunnels in the sand. Jayden wanted to dig all the way to Indonesia; Nyan was feeling a bit more ambitious and thought he’d dig all the way to Iowa, and then pop up in Grandma and Grandpa’s kitchen to surprise them. Didn’t quite make it, though.

 

Bonus: A week before this fun beach party, Daddy and Nyan had taken a stroll down to the beach to play for a bit.

 

 
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Posted by on November 18, 2017 in Photos

 

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California Dreaming

03 Jul

We spent a few weeks in the U.S. in June, starting with a few days in the lovely Bay Area of lovely California. There was some serious jetlag going on, of course, but we didn’t let that get in the way.

Our first full day, after some multi-hour midday naps, we climbed into our rental car and headed west from Silicon Valley, over the mountains and down to the coast at Half Moon Bay, where we played in the chilly surf and enjoyed the bright late afternoon sunshine. And took goofy pictures.

As mentioned, we had some major jetlag, which involved Nyan waking up at 2 or 3 am (and thoughtfully waking up Daddy too!), then playing or just goofing around inside our rental place. Then, around 5, when the nearby coffeeshops would open up, Nyan and Daddy would go for a pre-dawn stroll and marvel at all the gorgeous flowers. We do love California.

Finally, a few random pics from this leg of our trip. Notice a sleeping theme going on?

Up next: more California fun, with giant redwoods and moon rocks and more. Stay tuned!

 
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Posted by on July 3, 2017 in Photos

 

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A Little More Taekwondo

15 Jun

Time for a periodic check-in on Nyan’s progress in martial arts. The short version: slow but steady progress.

The long version: here are some pictures and videos.

He has fun, but he also works hard at the various exercises and routines.

Oh yes, they still do the warm-up routine where the teacher dumps balls on the ground, and the kids run around picking them up.

Here’s Nyan practicing his moves, and being a little silly, one week when a substitute teacher was in.

Some sort of running exercise, with a little silliness thrown in for good measure.

Sometimes he catches Daddy taking a video. Oops.

All that hard work paid off when, in May, Nyan went for his grading exercise and passed! Here’s his teacher, Mr. Lee, awarding him with some new badges for his belt. Next stop: Yellow belt! Mommy and Daddy couldn’t be more proud.

Next up: Because Nyan is about to turn six (!?), he moves out of the “kinder” class and into the real intro class. Stay tuned!

 
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Posted by on June 15, 2017 in Photos, Video

 

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Another Playdate with Kyle

23 Nov

One of our favorite recurring characters on this blog is Kyle, Nyan’s former classmate whom he’s stayed close to even though they don’t go to the same school any longer, and in fact get to see each other but rarely – once a month at best. But they definitely make the most of the time they do get to spend together. Like in mid-October, when Nyan spent the afternoon at Kyle’s new home.

Much of the action took place in the lovely swimming pool, where the boys played all sorts of games.

And splashed in the water.

And goofed around using a hollow swim noodle:

It being nearly Halloween, there was of course a skeleton hanging around.

But mostly it was just about two pals hanging out.

 
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Posted by on November 23, 2016 in Photos, Video

 

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Nyan Walks, Pinkly

19 Nov

 

One of our first activities after returning from our ‘round-the-world travels during August and September was to take part in a 5k family walk for breast cancer awareness and fundraising. It took place around Marina Bay, the waterfront area in downtown Singapore.

We had tried to do the same event last year, but horrible air pollution — haze from rainforest fires in nearby Indonesia — forced its cancelation. This time, the air was fresh and there was no need to wear air masks. But Nyan had brought his own mask, and happened to bump into this friendly Imperial Stormtrooper.

(What do Stormtroopers have to do with breast cancer awareness? Great question. We have no idea. Nyan was happy though.)

A five kilometer walk is a decently long stroll, and Nyan got tired about halfway through. Luckily for him, Daddy’s shoulders were right there. He didn’t look too tired as soon as he got up there, though. Hmm.

So Daddy ended up with a little bit of a sore back – the kid ain’t so light any more! – but all’s well that ends well. And it was for a good cause, too.

 
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Posted by on November 19, 2016 in Photos

 

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Nyan Thomas and the Pumpkin Patch

15 Nov

We were in Iowa for much of the month of September. Usually the weather is starting to cool down as the calendar heads for autumn. That wasn’t the case this year as it was hot pretty much the entire time we were there, but some autumnal events were already  ongoing. Like the pumpkin patch: farmers harvest their crop of pumpkins ahead of Halloween, and also offer games, corn mazes, tractor rides and the like. It’s all very Americana, and it’s also a lot of fun. We took Nyan there late one warm afternoon.

Here are some of the old tractors on display:

A fun little ‘train’ ride pulled by a tractor:

They also had a ‘sandbox’ of sorts – except instead of sand, it was filled with corn kernels.

Nyan loved it. Check out these videos:

More bits of fun:

And more scenery:

See all those pumpkins? That’s the real reason for the whole thing, of course, so we had Nyan pick out a pumpkin to take home.

He made sure to strap it in for the ride home.

Back home, it was time to carve it up. Nyan was enthused until he learned he had to stick his hand inside and pull out the pumpkin’s slimy guts. So Grandpa ended up doing most of the work.

A fun way to spend a late summer afternoon!

 
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Posted by on November 15, 2016 in Photos, Uncategorized

 

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Fun Times with the Iowa Fam

21 Oct

Nyan always has a great time whenever we’re able to visit Iowa. And why not? It’s clean, spacious, plenty to see and do, and lots of family members to dote on him. He certainly had fun this fall with Grandma and Grandpa:

And with cousin Mia too:

And he had a blast at Uncle Scott and Aunt Maggie’s too — where Uncle Scott made him a nameplate in his wood shop and Grandpa let him drive the lawnmower.

In fact, Nyan enjoys Iowa so much that he’ll often say he wants to live there! When we mention that it gets really, really cold there, he shrugs and says ‘I like the cold.’ No, son, not this kind of cold you don’t. But still – great to see him embracing his paternal roots, for sure.

 

 

 

 
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Posted by on October 21, 2016 in Photos

 

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Nyan Thomas, Airport Aficionado

18 Oct

We spent a lot of times at various airports this summer and fall as we flew from Singapore to London to Detroit to Iowa, and then reversed ourselves and flew back the other way. A few shots from the long, long journey:

The flight from Singapore to London Heathrow. It was about 14 and a half hours. Despite catching a little can nap, we still got a little loopy by the end of it.

Chilling at the car rental place with all our luggage, waiting for our car to be ready:

At Heathrow, watching the planes as we wait for our flight to the US:

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Post-transatlantic flight, passed out at the Detroit airport. Jet lag!

And finally, weeks later, back home at Singapore’s Changi Airport after a long two days of travel:

Welcome home, world traveler!

 
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Posted by on October 18, 2016 in Photos

 

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Springtime in Singapore, Part Two

07 Jul

Continuing our look back at the first part of 2016, here we have a bit of what Nyan got up to in April. Plenty of action this month – birthday parties, playdates, Phwa Phwa visiting, and we even got a visit from Uncle Jeff at the end of the month. Not bad at all.

 
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Posted by on July 7, 2016 in Photos, Uncategorized

 

Springtime in Singapore, Part One

28 Jun

Yes, we have seasons here in Singapore, sort of. It’s slightly less hot at certain times of the year, and the wind blows more strongly some months than others. But no, there are no seasons as they’re known in the temperate parts of the world. Which suits us just fine.

Regardless, we’re taking a look back at the month of March (to be followed soon by a look back at the month of April). Like most months, March was full of fun, play, goofing around, being outside, reading, and so on. In no particular order, then, we give you: Nyan Thomas in March 2016.

 
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Posted by on June 28, 2016 in Photos

 
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