Penang part 3

 After our meetings were over we moved to a nice hotel on the beach for a few days with some friends. Our family still all shared a room but it was really nice. The pool areas were mostly covered and the beach was quite nice.

There was one slide...

We actually spent a bit of the mornings on the beach. 

 A grumpy shot of Tobin, he had a cold most of these days, he got it from me.

Funny grin from Bella. And if you are wondering what Muslim women wear while swimming, well I did too. This lady behind us was not too conservative in her head covering and jeans. At the pool many were in full Burka type swim suits. 

They loved 'catching' waves. They broke right on shore and got rough at times. Sophia skinned her knees once. But she still loved it.

The classic pout.

 Riding those waves.

 Enjoying sand and fun.

 This monitor lizard high tailed it out of there when David got close.

After Tobin woke up from a nap the girls climbed in for kisses.

 Such fun, these kids.

Penang part 2

 We ventured out to Little India with some friends. Here are some streets of Penang, driving is on the left side of the road. Malaysia is a Muslim country, but such a mixture of cultures, Penang happens to be over 50% (I think) Chinese, and has a large population of Indians (obviously because there is a 'little india'). Most Indians we met had been on the island for a number of years.

 The British influence.

 And then to Little India: The TriShaw, or what we called a 'Rickshaw'.

Yum food was waiting for us.

 Tobin loved it. (who doesn't love butter naan, or cheese naan?)

These two girls became good buds.

watermelon drinks. Mango Lassi  (Indian Yogurt drink), was delicious.

Look at all the curry and spice. SO good. 

A nearby Mosque. (near our guest house there was a Mosque as well, and the call to prayer woke me every morning before six usually).

Penang Part 1

 A friend did a magic show for the kiddos. He was really good. The kids were amazed. Here they are waiting for the show to begin.

 Sophia and Bella made some really good friends.

How did those coins come out of his ears?????? 

On our first weekend off we borrowed someone's membership cards to the Hard Rock Hotel and used the swimming pool and ate yummy yum poolside. Their pools are always incredible (who knew?). It was sand bottom (a special kind of sand), and had three slides with an amazing kids area. We all had a blast.

 Tobin braves the slide, head first, oops.

He really swims around on his own with floaties on.

 Sophia is quite the swimmer now...

 See what I mean, who would not have fun at this place?

Tobin just liked to stay and lay in this little shallow area.

 This was beach front. The beach was pretty nice, but everyone talked about jelly fish. And something did sting both David and a friend of ours, that seemed to really hurt, and they were only ankle deep...

 This part wasn't white sands or anything, but still beautiful. And no surf.

 Bella cutie can swim along too, but is way more timid, no worries this is a trait that will benefit her in many areas of life. I love the personality differences in our kids, it adds much spark to all our Coker journeys.

what's this mommy? this is his favorite question of late, or 'what are you doing?'

Then it was back to meetings for the week!

Back from Malaysia: It's a....

Well....we are not 100% sure because SHE was curled up and HER foot was covering the most important place (modesty in the womb), BUT the doc (and we as well) pretty much think it is a GIRL! We will have another Ultrasound in about 6 weeks when we travel out for a week to Thailand, hopefully things will be clearer. I did forget to drink caffeine to get the baby moving. We were so thankful to see that everything looked fine, healthy, and good to go!

The kids are excited. And poor Tobin doesn't know what to think, the drama you are in for buddy! That's okay He and daddy will be the men of the house and have to take care of all us ladies! I do love being a mother to girls, as silly and dramatic as we are, it is so much fun! Some of the names the girls have come up with: 'Daisy' (a friend we met recently), Genevieve (the name of Madeline's dog in the Madeline books), and Princess '....', you name it they come up with some pretty amazing princess names. We, on the other hand, haven't had any serious discussion on names yet, probably won't boil it down until September.

I will blog some Malaysia pics soon. We are running hard in Homeschool the next 6 weeks to finish up, then two weeks later I am starting Sophia's first grade year and Bella's K4! Things will definitely slow down in September/October, so trying to get things going for when it all slows. More on that later too.

From Malaysia

We have been in Penang, Malaysia for almost a week now, it is a beautiful island. We love going to new places and finding out more about SE Asia. Today the Malay people voted in an election that is the closest in their history. It i s a hot topic here. In the park today an Indian Muslim lady asked us to pray for her country and this election. So far we don't know the results, though we did just hear some fireworks.

The kids have been doing 'school' and fun from 8:15-5 p.m. while we are in our meetings. This time has been super helpful. We are learning a ton!!! We had today off and tomorrow, which is a great break to spend more time as a family.

We went to a park today that also had some small pools, as well as some not so nice monkeys and at least one huge monitor lizard. It was a beautiful park! Then when half of us returned to our guest house with the littlest kids we were locked out. While the guys were trying to get us in from around the back they saw a small cobra. Yes. A cobra. Needless to say we have had quite a National Geographic day.

Tomorrow we are going to a really nice pool and hope to gear up for one more week here before we return home!