Jin Family

Apparently there are other types of coast. I mean I knew that. But I never really thought about it until we lived here in this place with SO MUCH coast. Those rocks were really cool. FULL of little sea creature fossils.After spending one day scorching ourselves at the beach,

While our friends were here, we went all together down south to enjoy the beaches on that side! Such clear water!Okay, all I have to say is WOW! I'm pretty sure I've been on tropical beaches before. I spent a summer in Costa Rica when I was in college.

Now that COVID restrictions in Asia are getting much more lax, we're getting visitors! First order of business: read to the guests.We were really excited to get our first friend visitors about halfway through the kids' summer break. They still had to do a modified quarantine in a hotel,

We were a little disappointed to find that it wasn't exactly a children's museum. I can't decide if this display is really intended to show you the core of the sun or if it's just a photo op.We had heard a lot of things about the space museum here,

One of our day trips over the summer was to the historic port on the north side of town. Mangrove forest! Would've been much cooler in another season. Get it? Get it? Okay but we did get to see the little flower blooms because we went in the summer, so

There is just not enough time during the school year to do all the home school things I want to do, and that's doubly true for the "fun" home school things: things I plan on the home school schedule but are really family fun activities, like art nights, ballet nights

We managed, but I'm just saying it's more enjoyable when you're not in an eternal sauna. K was glaring at some other people, who realized and conveniently moved to stand right behind me so at least he'd be facing the camera haha.There's so much good hiking here, and even

I'm pretty sure we swam more this summer than the kids ever have in their lives. No, you're not confused, that's just a random kid that wanted to be in our picture. G was still in school this day.Well, as I mentioned before, there is a lot of water

I had all these grand plans. Father's Day!I knew the summer was going to be intense. It was just a little too soon after finally getting all the kids back into school after our two years of full-time home schooling. And even though our house here is slightly bigger

Since I'm pretty much the coolest mom ever, I took the kids to the beach to celebrate their first day out of school. I spent years missing school. Years, okay. But that doesn't change the fact that school is tiring! I mean, home school is tiring too, probably more tiring,

Since the kids were still in school while H's parents were here, we couldn't do a big trip with them. But we found a pretty fun hot springs only about an hour away and got to go for the weekend! G was the biggest fan of this place.There are

As soon as they were eligible to get a visa, H's parents booked flights to come for a visit! All together riding up the mountain in a gondola.H's parents were the only people willing to quarantine for us, and as soon as they could get visas to come, they

I guess I should have seen this coming when we started our third child on violin... Our first week with the new teacher.Our journey with violin has been a little unorthodox. Back when M first started (six years ago?!) we found a teacher that didn't want to teach someone

One of the major advantages of in person school: field trips! It's amazing how light her hair is, all things considered.You could argue that home school has the ultimate field trip potential. And we did do lots of outings. But there's just something different about it being with a

I bet you thought it couldn't get worse. G waiting for the girls to get out of school.No, you would be wrong. Our zoo escapades got even less fun. So this time, I figured since they don't kick you out right away when they close (at 5pm), I could

We've celebrated dragon boat festival many times before, but we've never done it with H's parents around and we've never gone to see actual dragon boat races! Ready to watch the races!It's been several years since we started making our own sticky rice dumplings (I mentioned it the first

H wanted to explore the city some more, so we decided to check out an underground shopping area! I'm pretty sure this is the best my hair has ever looked in a picture. I don't know why this happened, and I fully expect it to never look this good again.

At one point, H and I decided that we needed to have more fun. So we started out by going to the museum all together one Sunday afternoon! Aren't they precious? That's where we ate.We were tired of just settling and surviving and decided it was time to get

Again... I had high hopes... and no one enjoyed themselves... Okay, K is the one who did enjoy himself. He's finally to the age of all-animals-are-dogs.Well, we were studying birds for our nature study, and this book recommended to start with chickens. So I picked the kids up from

We managed to feel very Easter-y despite having just moved in! Obligatory picture of kids with dyed eggs.Even though we'd only been moved in for a few months, I managed to scavenge some Easter baskets off a friend who didn't want them anymore and some decorations from someone on

It still feels good just to say that. Warning: another long post H going out with the girls while I took G to a play dateWell, after two years of not really knowing what we were doing or what our plans for the next month were, it is really, really

One of the new things we started with home school last year is "handicrafts," basically any kind of skill done with your hands. A couple months ago our theme was baking bread! Doesn't she look grown up?Well, it's been a little hit or miss with the handicrafts,

I'm willing to acknowledge that I may be in a honeymoon period. (Warning: long post) E on a field trip at a botanical garden.I just can't stop talking about this school. It's really something special. And it's true, I'm comparing it to the school we were in before, which

It turns out that we only live about fifteen minutes away from the zoo. It also turns out that I don't really like the zoo. But I try not to dwell on that part. Okay but seriously, with the zoo only fifteen minutes away, you can go on a whim.

On the one hand, it feels like it was just yesterday that we met him for the first time and the on the other hand it feels like he's been in our family forever. I love this picture because everyone is looking at G. Except for K, who knows what's