The wedding! Matthew and Grace McFadden

Chris, Frankie, Dex, Grazi and I had the joy of celebrating the marriage of Matthew McFadden and Grace Miller on December 9th, 2010 at 5pm at the First Presbyterian Church in Columbia, SC.  Matthew is Chris's middle brother, and the last sibling on either side to get married.  We are so excited to have Grace as a member of the family.





Frankie got to be a flower girl (her comment when I snagged her at the end of her run down the aisle: "But momma! I didn't get to finish all my flowers!")


The bride and groom




Chris was a groom's man, and this happened to his beard (and Michael's beard) 10 minutes before the ceremony


Gammie (Chris's grandmother) came all the way down from Knoxville, TN for the wedding. It was so fun to see her out and about!


It was so helpful to have Grazi at the wedding!


Dex, mesmerized by the organ, sits on Aunt Masha's lap (Michael's wife)

Fire!

The AAA building across the street from the Bruegger's I'm hanging out in in Columbia SC is totally on fire.

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Roger's Pest Control

Anyone know what "Do it yourself ghetto mix" might be? Um, why yes, this fine establishment is down the street from my house.

Haircuts for all

I took the kids to see Tammy today at MK Studio in Kendall. I've been going to Tammy for almost 8 years. She's the best!

A Giraffe Goes to Paris

We stumbled upon A Giraffe Goes to Paris by Mary Tavener Holmes and John Harris, and were in for a big treat!

In 1827 the pasha of Egypt gave the King of France a giraffe as a gift. This book brings that story to life for children with details about the journey (they cut a hole in the deck of the ship that she took up the Nile so her head could fit through!), quirky illustrations by Jon Cannell mixed with images of real artifacts, and relevant easy-to-understand maps.  There is some French peppered throughout, and a nice pronunciation guide in the back for those of you who only speak 2 languages like me: English and bad English (sorry, really old Bruce Willis line from the 5th Element).

Belle, the giraffe in the story, caused quite a stir in France as she walked the 500 miles from Marseille to Paris wearing a raincoat and boots the fashioned just for her.

This book is probably better for the elementary crowd, but my guys sat through it, and had a lot of questions.  If you're looking for a fun opportunity to bring history to life, I felt this book hit it just right.  I can't wait to check out her other book - MyTravels with Clara! 

Chris has been telling me we need to get Dex's haircut...

That too many people think he is a girl. That it's turned into a mullet. Turns out he just has Paul McCartney's haircut, circa 1964.

Thailand: The Beach (or The Best Marine Biology Field Trip Ever)

Back to Thailand, everyone! We spent 4 nights on Koh Phi Phi, an island in the Andaman Sea. It was the most beautiful place I have ever been.



We joined the Zivans to take a plane from Bangkok to Phuket (a larger island), a cab across Phuket, and then a ferry to Phi Phi.

Frankie and Zippy


Chris and Jon


Oil, Dex, and Zaccheaus


The ferry ride


After a big fight, Dex finally passed out


The cliffs of the island from the boat


The village


There are no cars on this island, or motorcycles, which was a welcome change from the go-go-busyness of Bangkok. This island is where they filmed The Beach, and it really feels like a special secret place once there. There are a lot of cliffs just right for rock climbing, and you can feel the backpacker culture here. The water is gorgeous - aqua blue, and full of snorkeling and scuba diving spots.

We enjoyed the beach the first day. Well, actually, Chris let me sleep in a bit, and took the kids out at the crack of dawn to start

These are called long boats - they have a motor that pulls up out of the water so the boat can come all the way to shore without a peer. They're a bit of an engineering marvel, according to Chris. These long boats served as taxis to shuttle people to other spots around the island since there aren't cars.


I joined them later in the day for some digging, swimming, and snoozing in our "Happy Chair"s. 100 bhat for 2 for the day = about $3. Well worth it.



This is not one of us, but they were parasailing right next to where we camped out for the day - the kids loved it!

Lunch was some massaman curry, a "pancake" with nutella and pineapple (like a french crepe), and some watermelon. Yum.


The next day we rented a long boat with the Zivans. Oil's sisters, nephew Otto, and mom were with us too. The 10 of us rented a long boat driver for 6 hours for around $60. Total. And he took us to a secluded beach and sweet snorkeling spot and let us borrow his snorkeling gear.







This man was unloading some food staple while we were negotiating with the driver:


Here we go! (note our driver seemed to wear progressively less clothes as the day wore on - but always keep that camo shirt on. By the end of the day he was in his underwear (briefs) and that shirt).


We found 4 kinds of crabs on this beach. We collected hermit crabs in a bucket and learned that they out grow their shells and go looking for new ones. We tried to find some new, bigger ones for them.




Jon and Chris tried to snag one of the wicked fast little translucent crabs (Mel, if you're reading this, what are they called?) with no success



We went snorkeling and saw rainbow fish, sea anemones, and moray eels. We watched this bird catch fish for his dinner:

We picked up coral and learned not to touch it on the sea bed - that it was alive, but that it was okay to pick up after it had washed up on shore

Chris took the kids on an expedition to the other end of the beach to see if Pocahontas was home:

She was not, but there was this funny basket outside her home, and Chris and I thought we should leave before he ended up trapped in that basket

Oh yeah. And there were monkeys on the other end of the beach. Wild Monkeys.


Do you see the monkey in this picture?

It was all fun and games until the charged Chris. Chris and this Australian dude we met on the beach went back to check out the monkeys some more. They apparently got too close, and one monkey charged them, hissing. Chris and the other guy laughed, until about 10 monkeys came charging out of the woods at them. They fled and the monkeys left them alone again, but the lesson was learned!

Also, this dude was slacklining, and demonstrated his skills for us. This video's a bit long, but show a fuller picture of the beach we were on


We had this beach pretty well to ourselves until the end of the day, when a boat full of Chinese tourists came. I'm posting this picture to demonstrate something that kept happening there - many of the Asian tourists would stop and asks us to take a picture of them, with our children. My kids got good at saying nehow and konnichiha and sporting the peace sign in other people's photos. I don't think it was just the blond hair, although Dexter's was certainly a hit, because Zippy and Zacchaeus were equally popular. Maybe just because they're American children?


On our last day on the island, we took a hike to the viewpoint on the island. We passed "evacuation route" signs all along the way, which were haunting reminders of the Tsunami that killed many and wiped out most buildings in 2004.





After a lot of stairs

We got to this view


(and Frankie and I got to use our first and only squat toilet!)