Koh Samui- long post for a tiny island

(This post was actually written in mid-August. Finally editing and posting it now. All current edits will be in parentheses.)

We had a pretty uneventful July (uneventful except for all the doctor visits and sleeping since I'm growing a sea monkey). We moved into our new apartment at the beginning of the month. Since then, I spent about a week unpacking, and the rest of the time figuring out my surroundings and buying things that we need, like a toaster and a TV. Jon wants an xbox too, but I'm not too sure about how I feel about giving up my weeknights to zombie killing again (I subsequently lost. Zombies have infested my television).

We celebrated our second anniversary of our courthouse wedding on August 5, and enjoyed an AWESOME steak dinner at Morton's of Chicago... of Singapore. I knew we weren't in Texas anymore when I couldn't finish my 8 oz filet. (I couldn't finish my 8 oz filet bc I got carsick on the taxi ride over and I didn't want to vomit steak.) But I DID have a great lunch the next day. :)



Our REAL Anniversary celebration started a week later though, when we hopped a plane to the lovely island of Koh Samui, Thailand! We read about this island when we arrived in Singapore, and heard nothing but great things. We decided that going there for our anniversary would be a great way to celebrate and do some sightseeing while we're here in Asia. I knew we had chosen an awesome place when the plane landed and we realized that the entire airport was open-air! Seriously! No walls, just roofs! Even the customs area and baggage claim! PRETTY COOL. but i couldn't take pictures of it because we were in the customs line and i didn't want to make security mad, since they already yelled at the guy in front of us for being on the phone.

We stayed at the Kirikayan Luxury Pool Villas near Maenam Beach. Rooms there are VERY inexpensive compared to American hotels, but a million times bigger. I forgot to take a picture of our bedroom, but this is what the second bedroom looked like:

And the bathroom:

AWESOME.

The pool area was beautiful, and overlooked the central part of the island, which is mountainous jungle. I couldn't get over how green and fresh and beautiful the area was.


The first day, we hopped on the hotel shuttle and went to the sister hotel, which is on the more popular beach, Chaweng. We spent a few hours in the sun, got in the gorgeously clear and warm water and enjoyed ourselves thoroughly.


After a while, we got hungry and walked down the street for some lunch, but I forgot to take pictures of that. Jon bought himself a hat and new sunglasses:


We wanted to really enjoy our anniversary, so we decided to get massages on the beach! They had these little open gazebos with mattresses, and the masseuses would just do their thing right there next to the water! We were able to do a couples massage there, and it was an amazing experience, totally relaxing.


The next day, Jon and I decided to rent a moped and drive around the island. Renting a moped in Thailand for 24 hours only costs about 10 American Dollars, and they don't even ask for a license. And in our case, they also don't ask if you've ever ridden one before. Since I don't know how to ride a bike, much less a bike with a motor, Jon would be in charge of the driving. He had to practice for a while, and watching him practice, I have to say I was pretty nervous to get on behind him. I think that the valet guys had just about as much fun laughing at him as I did. After about a half hour, I did hop on and then he had to practice again. (At this point, I was seriously questioning my sanity and maternal instincts, getting on the back of a moped with someone who had only been practicing for 30 minutes.) We finally got the hang of it (I held on for dear life) and got to driving! The island is BEAUTIFUL. I was afraid to let go to take pictures while he was driving, but it was amazing. We drove through the town area where we went to the beach the day before, then we drove through Fisherman's Village, which was a pretty cool area with restaurants and bars:

We then drove UP the mountain all the way to one of the lookout points that I can't remember the name of now. It doesn't matter though, just look:


We climbed down and really just enjoyed the wonders of the universe:


And then we started getting hungry, so we started looking around for food. and we drove. and we drove. And then we drove some more. And i got cranky (baby gets hungry and my hiney was REAL sore from the potential death machine). And then we kept driving. And then we finally threw tantrums because I'd pointed out about a hundred restaurants and Jon was mad because he was afraid to make right turns. We finally were able to get to an area without traffic so that Jon could turn the bike around and drive back to a restaurant on the water. I finally got off the stupid machine and I tasted the greatest (noncaffeinated- got off the juice at the very beginning) beverage known to man. Sweet ambrosia of the gods, Manna from heaven:

Yes, Thai Sprite. It's probably made with Cane Sugar or something, but IT IS WONDERFUL. We ate some other good stuff too:

Oh and I can't forget to post a picture of me pretending to drive the moped:


The next day it rained and rained, so we stayed in the hotel and just enjoyed ourselves until it was time to go. I'll miss you Thailand. It was WONDERFUL.

The reason I've been neglecting my blog? PARASITES!

The most adorable 9-month parasite known to man! that's right, BABY.

I didn't want to tell anyone anything until we were kind of in the clear, and I didn't really want to talk about much else.

Yes, it's a bit of a surprise. Yes, we originally wanted to wait til we were headed back to America. We don't make the plans, we just go with them.

Now that we're cool, I can tell everyone that I'm not gonna tell you much! I don't want to spread the baby's business around until it's out. That includes sonograms, gratuitous bump pictures, or it's name (which we haven't actually picked out yet). We do already know the gender, but I'm also not going to tell that until later. If you desperately want to know something, send me an email. I'll tell you. just not publicly.

I'll share SOME stuff though. We're due in March! I have cravings for vegetables and cheese, I hate everything having to do with chicken, I can no longer comfortably paint my toenails, my giant bottle of Tums is always next to my bed, I guzzle water like it's my job, aaaannnndddd I'm running out of clothes. Thankfully I was smart and ordered some stuff and had it shipped to me before I really needed them, but i definitely should have ordered more shirts. FYI, pregnant lady shirts make a huge difference... unless you like letting your bump fall out all over the place.

How's Jon, you ask? fine. He got braces (invisalign, so you can't even tell) and he's in pain at least once every two weeks, and I have to say that I get a small delight out of it. hahaha- I kid, I kid. he's working hard, stays late, and freaks out about tax returns that he can't solve, but that's really no different than America. He's lost a lot of weight too. His pants all fit big. It's probably because we're mostly vegetarians now. Red meat is expensive here, and like I said before- NO CHICKEN. it smells like rotten hiney.

So all of that being said, NOW I can start posting a couple of old posts that I wrote but didn't want to post because there were mentions of baby-related topics, until I stopped writing altogether because all I could really talk about for about 6 weeks was the inside of a toilet bowl, not leaving my apartment, and plain cheese sandwiches. and after I got over that business for good three weeks ago, I started playing on Pinterest, setting up a registry for some stuff we'll need (and that will fit in a carry-on suitcase), and planning on where we're gonna put all of it's stuff, and that takes up my writing time.

In other news: we'll be home for Christmas! We plan on getting there about the middle of December, and hope to see everyone then! We already made a list of the restaurants that we will be visiting (what? baby's hungry). We'll also be going back to Melbourne in November, and I seriously can't wait for that. I need me some delicious food. I'm even planning on being bad and drinking COFFEE while I'm there. (not that that's actually bad. I'm allowed to have 300 mg of caffeine a day, and I have been a SAINT and sticking to ZERO. I DESERVE a coffee... for good behavior.)

Cheers to America!
-Jon and Nikki