Yet Another Home Leave...

March-May 2011

An 8 week whirl wind tour of Texas and STILL didn't get enough!  I went back in March for my friend Shelley's wedding in San Antonio.  Dirk came and met me in April for his friend Mitchell Martin's wedding in College Station and then I went back to Singapore in May.  We filled the time in between to the brim with seeing friends, spending time with family, and eating as much Texas BBQ as possible.  We made stops in Houston, Katy, College Station, New Braunfelds, San Antonio, Uvalde, and Concan.  Even looked at houses to buy in a couple of the cities... 

Started off in Houston with the homecoming...  meeting up at Cedar Creek in the Heights.

Me and My favorite guys!

Dirk and Ryan

Anne and Mitch Martin 

All the ladies at Anne and Mitch's wedding shower

Erin Simpson, Kinsye Weaver, Michelle Bruce, Anne Martin, Me, Breah Dulak, Heidi Westbrook, Stephanie Williams 

Next up we headed to Concan, Texas and more importantly to the Frio river where Dirk's parent's river house is.  It is always so peaceful up there...

Frio River and the view from Dirk's parents house

Like Father, Like Son

House we looked at buying at the river- maybe next year!

The San Antonio crew got together.  It is always great to see this group, even though half of them don't live in S.A. anymore.  I love that we still get together!  Kelly B. had just had baby Ainsley and Chelsea and I are due a day apart.

The boys!

Matt, Parker, Andy, Ryan, Mills, and Dirk

Dirk and  Parker Woltersdorf

The Ladies!
Chelsea and I are pregnant here, due a day apart!

Kelly W., Tina. Kelly B., Chelsea

He had so much to celebrate on this trip, babies, birthdays, graduations.  It was one big party throughout Texas.  The pictures are a bit out of order but you get the drift.

Melissa's Birthday! The big 30th!  I love this picture, three of us are pregnant in this picture and two more are pregnant now, my how time flies... And we still are all making it out and having a good time.  Who says kids and getting older get in the way of having fun?  I stayed up till 3AM with these people, all 20 weeks pregnant of me.

Happy Birthday Mel!

Michelle Bruce, Erin Nowak, Kelly Bridges, Kate Stahl, Melissa, Carly, Kathy Zapalac

Melissa's Birthday at Rebels on Washington- fun fun night :)

Texas Winery with the Lewis's in New Braunfelds 

Floating the river and using Anne and Mitch's wedding gifts to hold our beverages!

Dirk, Preston, and Swift at Cedar Creek

These lovely ladies threw me a baby shower that was AMAZING!

Shelley's Wedding

Rachel Jacobson, Me, Shelley Hancock, and Ashley Applewhite sporting the K and the D (Kappa Delta)

Matt Lewis, Dirk, and Cody at Cedar Creek

Cody and Kate

Getting hitched soon :)

Erin and I at Cedar Creek

Cedar Creek was the meeting point this trip :)

Houston Astros Baseball game vs Cubs

Brother finally GRADUATED!

Singapore the last 6 months...

New Years Eve 2010: Singapore

We had a low key NYE this year after our Maldives celebration and the fact I was pregnant and deathly ill all the time!  So we headed over to our good friends the Brown's condo where we watched the fireworks and "some" people enjoyed the adult beverages.

Since then the Brown's have moved back to Houston and we miss them terribly.

Oh the sickness! Lost close to 10 lbs.

Soon to be parents!

Erin & I

Trying to get into the spirit!

The boys had a good time :)

The Cotton Bowl:  A&M vs LSU

We had a small get together for the game and it happened to be the first day my parents had arrived too.  Breakfast tacos and football for a 7AM game... too bad we lost.

The crew

Sentosa: the beach!

Otto has had alot of beach time these days.  He made a new friend, Bailey, the Lyon's black lab.  So every weekend we usually head to the beach early before all the crowds and pay a whopping $10 just to park for an hour...

Otto and Bailey chasing the tennis ball

Waiting for Bailey to bring the ball back, Otto isn't much of a swimmer!

Singapore Science Museum

We headed down to the Dali and Van Gogh exhibit at the Marina Bay.  After seeing the Impressionist exhibit in Houston, I was a little disappointed with this one.  The Van Gogh was all light installations, not the actual paintings, which I love his work.  And the Dali pieces weren't his clocks, which are his most interesting works.  They had a few but not like we would have liked to see.

Dali clocks

Science Museum, in the shape of a lotus flower

Faux ice skating rink... not ice at all..

Marina Bay Mall

Maldives Continued....

December 21-27th, 2010: Chaaya Reef Elliadhoo


More pictures from the Maldives...


The best part of this trip was by far the giant Manta rays.  They were the most beautiful creature to watch under the water... they looked like they were flying when they swam by.  We were able to snorkel with them for an hour in the middle of the ocean on some coral reef.  It was pure magic.  


At first when they swam at you with their mouths open while they fed, it was intimidating.  A whole person could easily fit into their mouths, but not to worry they eat plankton.  A couple of Mantas would feed right outside our hotel room every morning as well.  But the Manta we snorkeled with were some of the biggest the local staff had seen, to see them rave about the size made the trip special for everyone. 


We were actually on the look out for Whale Sharks but didn't find any.  We did find some other nice friends under the sea :)  

Our hotel

Almost there

The plane... so fun!

To get to our hotel, the fastest way was by plane, sea plane!  The views were out of this world.  The Maldives amazes me, it is made up of so many islands or atolls and the underwater world is just out your door.  Really makes the "one with nature" come true.

Manta rays, Whale sharks, octopus, reef sharks, turtles... some of the BIGGEST sting rays and all sorts of rays we have ever seen.  Actually everything we saw, was the biggest we had ever seen.  This was a place you really got to see underwater life untouched by humans...

Lion Fish

Eel

So many eels we had to stop taking pictures of them.  I think this picture turned out the best.

Trigger Fish

Manta Ray

My absolute favorite sea creature, until I meet the Whale shark!

Open Wide--Could swallow me whole with that mouth :0

The most beautiful creature under water-- flying by...

Manta Ray Feeding

Fishes

Reef Shark, they were everywhere, even when we snorkeled

We fed the sharks one night, thankfully it was the last night.  I wouldn't get back in the water after we drove out 5 minutes from the hotel and unloaded chum into the water... we saw 6-7 foot sharks in a feeding frenzy,  MANY. OF. THEM.  But when we dove/snorkeled, they were like this small reef shark.

More fishes

My friend, Mr. Octopus

He followed me for 2 minutes... catch the video at the end

Hello! Came up so close to me :)

30th birthday!!

Octopus video

Another eel

These guys hung out all around our hotel, they were huge!

They fed them every evening... thankfully

Dirk made a friend :)

These guys were HUGE, they were swimming around while we snorkeled.

They could have easily weighed as much as me, probably because the hotel fed them...

Just liked this picture, turned out good with the light.

I can't wait to take a class and touch up my underwater pictures.