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Category Archives: Photos

Nyan Thomas on the Fourth of July

04 Aug

Though he lives overseas, Nyan Thomas was indeed born in the USA, and this was the first year that we were actually in the US on July 4. So of course we had to celebrate.

Nyan got the day started by dressing in red white and blue, and then by turning a paper grocery bag into a knight’s costume. As you do on Independence Day, of course.

The highlight of the day, though, was a trip to downtown Iowa City with Mommy, Daddy, Grandma and Grandpa, for an evening of fireworks over the Old Capitol, the classic building at the heart of downtown that was once the capitol building for Iowa but is now part of the university. It was an absolutely lovely and warm summer’s evening, and we managed a good seat even though the crowds were out.

As dusk settled in, the fireworks started. Nyan had never seen fireworks in person before, and when the first (extremely loud) barrage started, he was a little startled and got momentarily upset. But, as you can see by these videos, he pretty quickly settled in and very much enjoyed the show.

Here are some still photos of Nyan and Daddy enjoying the fireworks:

Finally, please enjoy these shots of the fireworks. It was a pretty impressive show, and a great way to end the day.

 

 
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Posted by on August 4, 2015 in Photos, Video

 

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At the Park

02 Aug

Down the road from Grandma and Grandpa’s house is a nice little neighborhood park called Willow Creek Park. Daddy spent a lot of time here growing up, and Nyan has as well. It’s maybe a 10 minute stroll from home, and it’s got lots of playground equipment, huge fields, forests, and of course a creek. Daddy took Nyan there one sunny afternoon back in June, and they worked on Nyan’s soccer (football) skills, which remain as comical and as work-in-progress as ever. But he has fun, and that’s what counts.

Maybe the best illustration of his skills comes from this pair of paired shots, showing our hero racing up to the ball and then… missing it altogether, bless him:

We also played with a balsa-wood airplane, and just vamped for the camera.

And we hit up the playground equipment too, including the swing:

Fun times, indeed.

 
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Posted by on August 2, 2015 in Photos

 

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Nyan Thomas, Apple Farmer

20 Jul

A few months back, we somehow got it in our heads that it’d be fun to plant a tree at Grandma and Grandpa’s house. Grandma and Grandpa have a lush, beautifully gardened back yard that’s full of flowers and trees, but they were happy to make room for another tree. Nyan wanted to plant an apple tree, and because of the need for pollination and whatnot, you can’t just plant one apple tree; gotta be two.

So not long after we arrived in Iowa, it was off to the garden store where Nyan picked out a pair of apple trees. And not long after that, he was out in the garden, digging holes and filling them up with apples.

The trees actually already have a few small apples on them, and they should bear full-sized apples within just a few years, if all goes well. But Daddy’s hope is that in a few decades, Nyan can make a trip back to Iowa City and can stop by his Grandma and Grandpa’s old house (assuming it’s not still in the family, of course) and sneak into the backyard to take a look at the trees he planted.

 
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Posted by on July 20, 2015 in Photos

 

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Nyan Thomas in April

01 May

We had an action packed month, filled mostly with traveling to Tokyo and Hong Kong. You can read about the Tokyo trip in a previous post, and you can read about Hong Kong in an upcoming post. Here, just a few random shots from the rest of the month. Eating a sushi roll, riding his scooter, showing off his artwork, playing in the dirty laundry with Kyle… just Nyan.

 
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Posted by on May 1, 2015 in Photos

 

Our Boy

23 Apr

Just ran across this collection of intimate portraits of Nyan from late February, about two months ago. Presented without further comment, other than to just shake our head and say ‘yep, that’s our boy… Our silly, silly boy.’

 
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Posted by on April 23, 2015 in Photos

 

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Chinese New Year

13 Apr

The Lunar New Year, or Chinese New Year (or CNY), is a big deal out here in Asia and in Singapore — two public holidays, huge parties and family get-togethers, much symbolism. And, in Singapore at least, a big festival down at Marina Bay. There were carnival rides, carnival food, giant inflatable peacocks, acrobats — standard festival fare, really.

It was a beautiful evening:

And a lot of people came out for the colors, the fresh air, the inflatable peacocks.

Phwa-Phwa (Mommy’s Mommy) was in town so she joined us.

We ate a fair amount of rather lousy food (carnival food, what do you expect), including a lime-green popsicle for the young man.

Did we mention there were carnival rides?

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There were carnival rides. Including this sort of kiddie roller coaster (okay, that’s maybe stretching it a bit) featuring lots of cars and trucks going up and down a twisty track. Nyan loved it.

There was also a train. Nyan got to sit in the front, along with several other random boys. They all happened to be wearing orange t-shirts, purely by coincidence.

Yes, Nyan had a blast. He absolutely loved it. Happy belated Chinese New Year, everybody!

 

 
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Posted by on April 13, 2015 in Photos, Video

 

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Nyan Thomas and the Singapore Flyer

08 Apr

We’re going back in time a bit for this one: July 2014, when young Nyan Thomas was not yet three years old, and was still new to Singapore. One Saturday afternoon, he took Mommy and Daddy to the Singapore Flyer, a huge Ferris wheel down by the shore. It’s 541 feet tall, and was for a time the largest Ferris wheel in the world, until a couple years ago when Las Vegas opened one that’s 9 feet higher.

It’s obviously a tourist attraction, but not a terribly popular one: it was in bankruptcy when we visited, and has since been bought out by someone. We could see why: a nice bright Saturday afternoon and we had the place mostly to ourselves. It was a bit pricey, yes, but beyond that, we can’t really figure out why it’s not more popular. It’s certainly scenic:

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(Photo taken from the Internet; the rest of the photos in this post are by Daddy)

And some great views from up there:

Also great for family selfies:

And back down at ground level, they had cardboard airline pilot cut-outs for Nyan to stick his face in:

All in all, it was a fine way to spend an hour or so. Would we recommend it to visitors? Sure we would. Would we return ourselves? Eh, maybe. Wouldn’t go out of our way to go there, but wouldn’t refuse outright. (And let’s not forget that it’s a great landmark that Nyan loves to point out when we take the bus from our apartment in to the city — we go right over that bridge you can see in the middle background in the first picture, above.) We don’t mean to sound too lukewarm on the Singapore Flyer, though I guess we do sound lukewarm. Well, call a spade a spade: it’s tall, it’s a little pricey, it’s got great views, it’s just fine. Nothing more, nothing less.

 
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Posted by on April 8, 2015 in Photos

 

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Nyan Thomas in March

06 Apr

Here’s an assortment of photos showing our young man in all his glory during the month of March. As you can see, we did a lot of art work, we swam, we goofed around, we ate, and once in a while we even slept a bit. In Mommy and Daddy’s bed, of course.

 
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Posted by on April 6, 2015 in Photos

 

Recent Photos of Our Boy

27 Feb

We do this every once in a while: load up a bunch of recent photos in no particular order. This batch is from February mostly, with a handful dating back to January. No real theme here; just wanted to highlight our boy in all his (sometimes goofy) glory.

 
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Posted by on February 27, 2015 in Photos

 

More Artwork by Nyan

26 Feb

Nyan recently received a lovely Valentines Day card in the mail from Grandma and Grandpa. He loved it – so much so that he wanted to take it to school the next day to show his friends and teachers. So we packed it into his backpack and set off for school.

At the end of the day, when Daddy picked him up from school, Nyan pulled a piece of paper out of his backpack that his teachers had put in there for it to be taken home. It was some art he had made, a picture of My Grandmother: the paper had black lines on it to show the shape of Grandma’s body and head, and Nyan had added her facial feature and colored her hair.

He opted for a monochromatic green effect, which was an interesting artistic choice, art critics agree. Nevertheless, the end result is both charming and loving at the same time. Enjoy.

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Click to enlarge and enjoy all the detail.

 
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Posted by on February 26, 2015 in Photos

 

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