Daisy's Daddy Daughter Dance

The Girl Scouts here in China are strong, at least in Shanghai.  They even have a group for the young girls below Brownie which is called Daisy's.  Dagny is in her second year and has really enjoyed it.  She has a wonderful vest that has a bunch of patches on it, including a "Daddy Daughter Dance" patch.  

This was our first 'Daddy-Daughter' dance.  It was a formal event at a local hotel.  

Note: Captions from Dagny

This is me (Dagny) going to the Daddy-
Daughter dance.

It was very cool that I (Dagny) got to ride with
my friend in the car who is also going to the
dance.

One of my cats came in the picture too.  He
is called Russ.

I was very excited for the Daddy-Daughter dance.

This is my friend and my other cat Ben.

I went to the hair salon and they did something
very fancy to my hair.

I like my hair a lot so I took a photo of it.

We were going to look for my dress and my Mom
choose a white sweater and blue dress with
very fancy fabric.

And this is me with my friends at the Daddy-Daughter dance.
I was very playful!

I was having very much fun at the Daddy-Daughter dance.

We even got candy!  

I was not just me, the other Daisies did it too.

I had a bag so I could put my candy inside.

The Y - M - C - A song was very fun.

Another dad taking pictures of the girls.  He won the prize for
the tackiest tux.

A selfie with Dad.  I had very fun!

Ying's in Phuket, Thailand

The last stop on our tour of Thailand was the relaxing part of the trip.  We had 3 nights and 4 full days at the JW Marriott in Phuket.  The JW is a beautiful resort that is a bit separated from the main city of Phuket but it had enough on the resort that we never got bored.  

They had a kid slide that they spent most of the first day at.

Much fun.

Dagny made a friend within hours of arrival.  She has a great
way of making friends wherever we go.

Franjipani, just like in Florida (home).

Will had a fishing activity and caught the most (3 in an hour).

These were palm tree seeds but be careful, they sting if their juice
gets on your skin.

They had a flying trapeez activity that we didn't do.

This was the back exit from our suite.

Nice pool that had torches lit at night.

Upper reflecting pool.

Dinner the first night, a bit tired for everyone.

Yawning everywhere.

This was a funny waterfall that was created from a broken
water pipe.  

We went on nice bike rides.  Dagny without training wheels!

A tightrope activity.  It kept them busy for an hour.

Not easy!

Jumping in - daddy and daughter.

A backflip.

All at once

Little crabs on the beach.

A nice beach that was empty for miles and miles.  Not so great
swimming since it got deep very quickly.

A nice walk one afternoon.

In our room there was a great window area
that a futon mattress fit perfectly.  Each kid
had a night in this bed.

Not sure what to say on this one....

Torches lit.

Ying's in Chiangmai, Thailand II (Buffalo, rafting, tigers!)

They dropped us off of the elephants about a mile or so away from the camp. From this drop-off point they had us get in a cart that was pulled by water buffalo.  Not very exciting or fast but we felt like country folk from a hundred years ago.  And they also loved bananas...

After returning from the elephant rides and buffalo carting we then watched an elephant show.  It was pretty interesting to see that they have a little smarts in those big heads.  The performers were able to be trained to move and stack big logs, to kick a soccer ball, to dunk a basketball and to even paint a picture with a paint brush.  

Big tongues that sucked in the bananas.

They all loved the bananas and sugar cane.

Before the elephant show they were doing a trick of placing
a hat on and off the kid's heads.

On and off and on...

It was fun for them.

A peek into the elephants mouth.

About 10 were in the show ranging from a 4 year old down to a
few month old.

Painting a picture of an elephant and also signing it, Suda.

After the show and lunch we did a bamboo rafting trip.

It was pretty slow but it was fun floating through
the other elephant riders and seeing some elephants
bathe alongside us.

Each of us got a change to 'paddle'

All pushing us.

Mama's turn.

Looking natural behind the boat.

Looking like we are in the jungle with the wild animals.

Looks natural, except for that iPad in Baba's hands...

After a while the kids decided it would be much more fun walking
in the river than riding on it.  

This next visit was to the Tiger Kingdom.  For about $18 each we were able to enter into the cage with the 'smallest' tiger to pet it and get pictures with them.  If the kids were 15  and older then we could have gone into the adult tiger cages.  Watching the other, larger tigers I'm happy that it was the rule.  These are wild animals that seemed like at any point they could snap and have somebody's body part for lunch.

These were the large (not the largest).

There were about 10 in the cage and about 25 people at any given
time.  We were to approach from the back and not to touch their
heads.

They were mostly sleeping but they were occasionally playful
with each other.

You didn't want to stroke them lightly, only firmly.

A nice family shot with the tiger yawning. 

We paid for 15 minutes but were in there for about 25-30.

A frisky one sharpening his claws on the table.

There was a male lion in the park.  Mama had looked into his eyes
and he jumped at her.  A bit frightening.  Only a small chainlink
fence between each of the beasts and their dinner (us)!

This was a beautiful blue iguana that was enjoying the park also.