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Grandma and Grandpa came to visit! While we anxiously flight-tracked them on their transglobal journey, Nick kept the kids busy with his annual Christmas cookie-making marathon (better known as The Day the Entire House gets Coated in Flour).

The sweatshop was in full swing, with the goal of delivering cookies to every house in the neighborhood.

Somewhere between mixing and boxing, some major cookie attrition occurred, so one street ended up getting the shaft (sorry Soi #1). But the rest of the neighbors loved them!

At school, Nick wrapped up the semester in K3 with his usual flair.

And Brecken’s class held a winter poetry event, complete with costumes and hand motions.

Mom and dad finally arrived with no travel incidents, delays or viral threats. I scooped them up from the airport and got their travel-weary dogs a rub down (and joined them…you know, so they’d know what to do).

We headed to school to pick up the rest of the gang at track practice. They were stoked to see grama and grampa! Well, except Bryn, who had just lost her favorite hair tie, so her world was momentarily crashing down.

The kids got talking immediately, making up for lost time and telling grama and grampa all the important stuff they’d missed, like the new gaps in their smiles, rocks they’d found, and which of their friends speak Thai or Chinese.

There was one more day of school left for the year, so grama and grampa got to join for lunch and attend a reading event in the girls’ class.

That night was the annual NIS Winter Carnival, which did not disappoint. School was actually only a half day this day, so that the set up crew could come in with a giant stage, lighting, food trucks, etc before the evening event. Vendors were selling all kinds of stuff, there were prize raffles, and the high school shop teacher had a giant silent auction set up with items all made by him and his students. Entertainment included each ECC class doing a song and dance, the high school hiphop dance group putting on a show, and then a variety show comprised of various acts from elementary to high school.

Nick ordered this 3XL (Asian sized) santa suit on Lazada. It almost fit.

It was a super fun event. Little did we know, that during this same event, Nora, Bryn and 14 of their classmates were incubating some influenza A. So the next few days weren’t so awesome. Our 3 kids spaced their illnesses out by about 2 days each, so we just kept a rotating hospital shuttle running.

We were terrified that grama and grampa would get it and miss out on their fun trip, so it was mask city (mostly for them) that first week.

Tamiflu x 3 shortened the duration and severity of everyone’s symptoms, and the rest of us escaped it, save for some minor colds for grama and grampa.

Officially sprung from school for 3 weeks, the adventures began! We went to lots of street markets, and ate all the foods.

The power went out at our local weekly market while we were there–it was nuts. Didn’t stop our soup lady, though!

We got a few sitters during their stay so we could have some adults-only time.

Our moo baan had their annual meeting/party while my parents were here. We didn’t know what to expect, but were told to just show up at the little park that night. Our little moo baan did. it. up!

There was some official business conducted, and I think we voted some people into some kind of positions. We perched ourselves next to the speaker with our interpreter (google) and tried to kinda sorta get an idea of what was going on.

The party went late into the night, and included karaoke (which Nick wasn’t excited about at all), and gifts for the kids! Everyone was so welcoming to our little farang family. Our moo baan is the coolest!

Our next fun adventure was the Bua Thong sticky waterfalls. We borrowed the Dunnings’ SUV and made the hour and a half beautiful mountainous drive to the famous falls. Limestone deposits on the rocks make them easy to climb–it’s wild. The kids channelled their inner spidermans and made about 8 roundtrips up and down.

Mom and dad even made a trip up. No broken hips or anything!

We had our first ever non-homemade Christmas Eve dinner! It was fab. The outdoor seating area at the restaurant was like a jungle, so the kids ran around amidst the statues and fountains while we had fancy drinks. And even a cheese plate! In Thailand!

We got home, and set out the usual fare for Santa–carrots, cookies, milk and cold pizza. (It’s a long story).

We told the kids they had to wait until grama and grampa arrived from their hotel in the morning before we could open gifts, and told grama and grampa that if they weren’t here by 7am they would have a Triple Christmas Meltdown on their hands.

Santa made it all the way to Thailand!

After all the gift opening carnage, the kids ran upstairs and came back down with gifts they had wrapped up and squirreled away for Nick and me. I got a tiny gold basket with a seashell in it, a backscratcher made out of cardboard and a bottle cap, and 40 baht…which I’m pretty sure was Bryn’s last 2 tooth fairy earnings. It was the absolute sweetest.

And of course, within 24 hours, most of the toys were forgotten, and they were back to playing with boxes.

Christmas dinner was a home cooked event with the Dunnings (and grandpa Dunning!) in attendance. Jona made his now-famous chickens in our easy bake oven.

The kids partied hard all day and were starting to fade, so they zombied out in front of the Grinch after dinner.

Mom and Dad escaped to Krabi (southern Thailand) for a few days (to scope out future vacation spots for us)!

While they were in Chiang Mai, they stayed at 2 different little boutique resorts, both of which were within walking distance of our house. They were both pretty sweet, and provided lots of entertainment for the kids. Take note, future visitors!

The kids’ first BATH in 6 months! They were like pigs in mud (but cleaner).

One resort even had a little holiday party with food vendors and live music.

We casually suggested to mom and dad that maybe they’d want to spend some extended quality time (read: overnight) with the kids, and that we’d be happy to make space for them at our house by sleeping at their hotel for a night. They fell for it took us up on it!

Nick and I have been taking Thai lessons, and Kru Joe joined us at the resort for our weekly lesson to talk Thai on the patio. We so fancy.

Mom and I did all the spa things. I took her to Tom, my favorite Thai massage guy (but not where I go if I want a relaxing massage–he’s more like a chiropractor-slash-knot-finder-and-destroyer).

Pedis!

As a Christmas splurge, we grabbed Mary and went to a fancier spa and got foot massages, facials, body scrubs and oil massages. In case you’re on the fence about visiting Thailand, 100 USD will get you THREE HOURS of bliss at a HIGH END spa. They even braided our hair at the end of our massage.

Over the last couple of months we’ve been receiving our friends’ Christmas cards from the other side of the globe! Thanks to all who went that extra mile to get a global stamp and keep us on your lists!

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Ava also invited us to join her and Anya for an afternoon at Huay Tung Tao Lake. We loaded the 7 of us into our little Almera, strapped the kids into their “carseats” and headed out.

We had an amazing lunch in a bamboo hut on the lake. I was even able to bend my rule of not eating anything that still has the face attached. The fish was that good.

After lunch, we explored the giant sculptures, made from straw leftover from rice harvesting. To say the 8 meter high king kong was cool is an understatement. The kids lost their minds!

It was a squatty potty only facility. Bryn’s squatty potty form is spot on now. She’s pretty much full Asian.

Ava’s awesomeness continued throughout their visit, and she booked dinner for all of us in a VIP room at the Vietnamese restaurant near our house. She ordered about 853 dishes and we all thought she was crazy…and then we ate it all.

We hosted a little New Year’s Party, complete with a fake countdown at 8pm for the kids.

Another highlight was the hike up Doi Suthep. Nick and I had both done the hike a couple times, and we had driven to the top with kids, but we’d never done the hike with kids (or grandparents!). We hired a van to pick us up in the morning, had him drop us at the trailhead, pick us up halfway up at Wat Phra Lat, and drive us the rest of the way up to the Doi Suthep temple, where we walked up the final 300 steps to the top.

It was really hard to say goodbye to these two. When we said our first goodbye back in July, we knew it would only be 5 months until we’d see each other again. This will be a much longer stretch. It was so great to have a piece of our hearts from home visit us in Thailand and get a taste of our new lives over here. Love you, mom and dad!

We hope you and yours had a great Christmas in your corner of the world!

Cheers,

Sara

Before we moved to Chiang Mai, we had learned about, and were mildly prepared for the “burning season.” During this dry season, farmers burn their fields as an inexpensive way to prepare their land for the following year. It’s an illegal practice, but enforcement is is weak/nonexistent, so it persists. Chiang Mai is surrounded my mountains, which act like a smokey bowl that holds all the nasty right over the city. We were told how it has gotten exponentially worse in the last couple of years, and as a result, our school had arranged for a one month “spring break” for the Songkran holiday that also happens to coincide with burning season. We were nervous how the smokey season would affect the girls (who have mild asthma), and had always had a plan, like most teachers at our school, to leave Chiang Mai during Songkran/smokey season break. Sadly, the burning season started much earlier this year, and we spent much of February and March in the “red zone,” jockeying for sold-out N95 mask filters online and running our 5 home air purifiers in turbo mode nonstop.

As Songkran break drew closer, so did Covid-19 and travel restrictions. Our carefully planned and much anticipated trip to Vietnam had to be cancelled.

As the AQI started dipping into the purple and brown zones more consistently and air travel became more restricted, we knew we did not want to get stuck quarantining in Chiang Mai, where our kids wouldn’t even be able to go outside and play in our yard. So before everything was shut down, we hopped a plane (like literally bought tickets the night before) to Krabi in southern Thailand, and hired a van to take us to the island of Koh Lanta.

We found an Airbnb close to the beach, offered the Swedish owner half the asking price, and he took it. To say we got a sweet deal is an understatement.

Not only did we have our own private pool, there was a literal WALL around the property. We were ready to isolate! We could see the ocean from our upper deck, and the beach was only a 2 minute walk down a little path, and was very quiet–a prime spot for social distancing. We felt so much freedom within our isolation–a true gift.

While our friends back in the U.S. were making beautiful color-coded family schedules in an attempt to work and school from home during the quarantine, it was not lost on us how fortunate we were to be on a break from school during such a tumultuous time in the world. Our “schedule” looked something like this:

6:30am Kids wake up and watch a show until we do

7:15am Nick and I roll out of bed and make breakfast

7:45-9:30 Beach. Sara swims laps, Nick reads, kids have free run of an empty beach

9:30-10:30 Swim in our private pool back home

10:30-11:30 Choose your own (indoor) adventure

11:30 Lunch

12:00-1:00 Choose your own (indoor) adventure

1:00-2:30 Quiet time (Nick naps, kids get a show, Sara putzes around because she has a hard time relaxing)

2:30-3:30 Nick and Sara workout, kids play

3:30-4:30 Pool

4:30 Kids dinner

5:00-6:45 Beach (sunset!)

6:45-7:30 Second dinner (!), ice cream, showers, bedtime stories

7:45 Kids pass out, grown ups eat dinner

This schedule has been going on for 3 weeks. It’s been glorious.

While we have only ventured out to about 100m of beach, it’s the most amazing stretch of beach. The tide changes drastically, sometimes multiple times within the same day, so it’s a new beach every time we go. The kids are in heaven (us too).

We rarely have human contact other than the occasional delivery person, and the kids have kind of forgotten that other people exist I think.

The kids also decided to change up the bedroom configuration for the month. Nora and Brecken are roommates and Bryn is a single queen in her giant king-sized bed.

One day while taking our garbage to the village trash station, Nick spotted a half-deflated unicorn floaty. He scooped it up and paraded it back to our villa holding it above his head like the Stanley Cup, glowing with pride at his good fortune, and instant rise to Preferred Parent status. Even after disinfecting it, we were too nervous to blow it up ourselves (headline: Farang Contracts Covid-19 from Unicorn Floaty Dumpster Dive, Spreads it to Family of 5), so he walked it down the road to the lady at the tourist shop where we bought our other over-priced floaties, and she blew it up with her air compressor (and then we disinfected it again).

One of the best parts of this trip has been seeing the kids’ joy and creativity juxtaposed against the turmoil engulfing the world (and our news feeds). Admittedly, they’re not in a bad spot to be “isolating,” but to watch them play and entertain themselves with the simplest of surroundings and pretty much no “toys,” oblivious to the grief and anxiety the rest of the world is feeling right now, has been so good for us. They create elaborate theatrical productions, sort and re-sort their shell collections, make forts, create holidays to celebrate (oh, it’s Tigey’s birthday today and you’ve scheduled a day-long celebration? cool.), and immerse themselves in various art and engineering projects.

Their “toys” are what we like to call “raw materials.” Some of you may know these by a different name–“garbage” or perhaps “recyclables.” Joking aside, they go nuts everytime we empty a tp roll, milk jug or yogurt container, and rush over to their workshop to give it a new life.

Now that everyone in the States is at home, we’ve been able to videochat with lots more people without time zones and work schedules getting in the way! Our kids leader from our church back home did a fun check-in with our kids recently–so fun.

Grama and Grampa Hansen have been doing lots of virtual storytimes

Uncle Tom had the kids riveted the other night with (Part One of) one of his famous stories from when I was a kid–Pepe Le Pew and the French Voyageurs. It instantly brought me back to the musty smell of my grandparents’ cabin on Lake Minnetonka, sitting in the basement bedroom with Jop and Torre, hanging on every word of his animated stories, with made-up languages and songs included.

Inspired by this video sent from my brother (which was definitely not made while he was working from home being paid with taxpayer dollars),

the kids choreographed our own family routine to send back.

We also got really into celebrating birthdays remotely. My dad turned 70 last week, and the kids insisted on a proper party with cake (of course), candles, decorations and music. No boxed cake mixes here, so we had to scavenge for all the supplies to make one from scratch!

A few days later it was their friend Mila’s birthday, so they changed backdrops (scratching out 70 and replacing it with 5) in preparation for round 2. No detail was spared, and there were intense discussions about what kind of ocean animal gummy pattern Mila would probably prefer on her cake.

Auntie Lulu’s birthday (tomorrow) is next. Lest we go more than 4 days without a reason to eat cake, the Thaischitl Party Planners have asked me to include an advert in this blog post for their services. They say you can contact them “on the green iPad.”

If you follow Nick on facebook, perhaps you followed along with Brecken’s crab-catching adventure. The first time we went to the beach and he caught sight of a few crabs, he was bound and determined to make one of them his. In an attempt to stall (dissuade?) him, we told him he would need to come up with a plan first. At 6am the next day, he burst into our bedroom to explain this plan to us, complete with visuals in case our groggy brains didn’t catch all the nuances.

Here’s how it all unfolded:

About a week into our stay, we started looking for our next place to stay. We had only booked the first house for a couple of weeks, not sure what the changing Covid-19 landscape would bring for our trip. We also knew that, while we had a great deal on our baller mansion, we still couldn’t afford it for longer than a couple weeks on our humble Thai salaries. There were about 20 other villas in our little neighborhood listed on airbnb, and ALL of their availability calendars were WIDE open for the month of April. We were super confident we’d be able to get another really awesome place for cheap. We put it off for a few more days…and then all of a sudden everything was full. It turned out that all the hotels and hostels on the island were closing, and groups of backpackers were bunking up and splitting the cost of big villas on our beach (which also sounded like a social distancing nightmare).

We started to panic a bit, and asked the owner of our villa if we could extend our stay, but he informed us it was already rented after our stay as of the night before. He had also just fled the island back to Sweden before it completely shut down, and as precious time ticked by, our communication with him was further complicated by the time difference. He said he didn’t have any other villas available but would ask his other Swedish property owner friends. We were not optimistic. A few hours later, a sturdy Swedish man knocked on our door, seemingly expecting us to know why he was there (we didn’t). He said his boss sent him to show us a nearby villa. Turns out his boss was the friend of our current landlord, who was also back in Sweden. It felt a little bit like Swedish God (in Swedish Heaven) sent Swedish Jesus to Koh Lanta Earth to save us!

I walked 2 minutes down the street with Sweaty Swedish Jesus (aka Jarmo), wearing his dishcloth doo-rag and his small-Asian-woman-sized cloth mask on his broad Scandinavian face. Some small talk (from 6ft away) revealed that he had been living on Koh Lanta for 10 years, managing Annika’s 20+ properties on the island. He mentioned the last few days had been especially busy with new bookings. The villa he took me to was beautiful and had all the perks of our previous place, PLUS aircon in the living room (which was our only *first world* complaint of the old place). I knew it would be out of our budget, but also knew we were running out of time and options. I emailed Annika and told her what our budget was (which was about 1/4 of the asking price), but Nick and I were prepared to bite the bullet and pay more if she turned it down. Not sure if Sweaty Swedish Jesus put in a good word for us or what, but Annika, who had never met us, and who currently owned the last available high-demand villa in the area and could have named her price, said she would meet our budget because “we all need to help each other during this time.” Praise Swedish Jesus, we had a new place to stay!

New restrictions and housing policies were popping up daily in Krabi province, which Koh Lanta is a part of. In order to move into a new place, we had to provide a health certificate. So we hoofed it a few kilometers down the road to a small clinic.

Everyone checked out fine, and the next day was moving day!

We couldn’t believe how much more stuff we had than when we first arrived. And by “stuff,” I mean food. The first place we stayed had an insanely huge kitchen with twin refrigerator/freezers (roughly quadruple our space in Chiang Mai), and to keep up with the kids’ swimming schedules, which everyone knows exponentially increases kids’ capacity to eat, we had filled them both up. Nick borrowed a cart from the maintenance shop in the village and sprinted all our chilled goods (but mostly his beer) through the 95 degree heat to our new place. We redeposited it all into our American-sized side-by-side refrigerator/freezer (still double the size of ours in Chiang Mai) and settled in. We (Nick and I) took turns pretending to do the backstroke on the giant countertops, turning the HOT WATER on and off in the kitchen sink, and opening and closing the dishwasher and giggling. Baller mansion #2, ya’ll.

So, the food sitch. There are 2 grocery stores on the island that are just slightly bigger than a convenience store. The better of the 2 is about 15 minutes away. Nick and I have been taking turns every 3-4 days making the tuk tuk voyage into “town” to stock up. We always think we’re buying 2 weeks’ worth, and then on day 3, when all our food is gone, we remember that our children now have the appetites of a Swedish water polo team. So we call up Hamid (everyone on the island is either Swedish or Thai muslim) and pay him 200baht (6 USD) to take us to the store, wait for us, and drive us back.

One day I really needed to stock up, so I opted for the songtaew.

Besides their grand voyage to the clinic and twice-daily trips to the beach, the kids have not left the villa/pool. Sometimes they ask if they can go to the store with us (a special treat back home), but we have to tell them kids aren’t allowed into shops right now. How lucky we are that one of us can stay home with the kids while the other shops. Not the case for everyone here.

The kids’ biggest disappointment is that we no longer let them go to the little restaurant in the village to pick out their own ice cream at night. So now we do this:

Food. All. The. Time. It seems we have reverted back to mostly Western food on this trip??

Nick and I are still mostly ordering delivery and take out from the local restaurants for our own dinner each night because we can’t fathom cooking one more meal by the time evening rolls around because we want to do our part to keep the local economy afloat. Groceries are more expensive here, and ordering in is pretty economical (like Chiang Mai). There are a few restaurants we’ve found that make amazing food, and we keep praying they don’t close. We found one run by a British chef who was advertising chicken pot pies that were selling out daily. Since we moved to Thailand the kids have asked when they can have Costco chicken pot pie again on several occasions, so we jumped on it. He delivered them himself on his motorbike. The kids were beside themselves with enjoyment.

Going on week 3 of what will likely be a 6 week stint on this island, Nick and I have oscillated between intense gratitude for this beautiful place and the ability to slow down and be present, anxiety and fear about the increasing restrictions and being foreigners on an unfamiliar island, worry about our friends, family and country back home, and back to gratitude again for all the ways we’ve been able to connect with our people (Zoom, Marco Polo, virtual happy hours on a random Tuesday, virtual playdates for our kids, etc). It is comforting to know the whole world is on this roller coaster ride together, and we are all pulling each other up the tough hills and coasting with each other on the easy stretches. We’re thankful for our village, both here in Thailand and on the other side of the world. Stay healthy, everyone. We love you!

Cheers,

Sara

Greetings from Koh Lanta! You know, that dreamy little island in southern Thailand we decided to escape to for 3 weeks? Yeah… we’re still here… 3 months later! We’ve tried REALLY HARD to leave on several occasions. We swear.

Ok that last part’s a lie. We love it here, and the rest of the world didn’t seem that great lately, so we’ve just kept extending our imaginary departure dates. Lucky for us, no new people have been allowed on the island since shortly after we arrived in March, so we’ve been able to stay in our baller mansion on the cheap (like stupid cheap… we won’t even tell you, because you’ll laugh), and enjoy our empty beach and forced isolation from society.

Shortly after my last blog post, shit started to get a little hairy on the island. New restrictions were coming daily, oftentimes communicated only in Thai, and missing key details that left us searching through facebook groups to figure out what was real, what was rumor, what was a fear tactic, and what was likely to actually be enforced. Most of the crackdowns were aimed at foreigners, and understandably so, as there were reports of groups of farangs still partying it up on the island and ignoring the social gathering rules. So you can hardly blame the Thais for saying oh helllll no and shutting that nonsense down. The next several moves were pretty controversial amongst expats and tourists on the island. While a lot of it seemed very fear-based and irrational at times, the island has remained largely ‘rona-free. It has also managed to keep most local businesses income-free, but by no means is Thailand the only country in the world having that debate, amiright?!

The first strange move the local authorities took was to slice the island up into zones, and prohibit foreigners from traveling outside their zone. Some zones, however, did not have a market or grocery store, or (gasp) a 7 Eleven. This order was pretty hastily executed, and shoddily enforced. The next decree came down a few days later, and in an attempt to further restrict foreigners’ movement on the island, said that all rental motorbikes and cars would be confiscated from all foreigners on the island. They set up checkpoints along the main road, and pulled over any farang that came through, and simply took their vehicle. The final, and most unnerving restriction (unless you count the booze ban, which Nick will say was definitely the most unnerving), was that foreigners were not allowed to leave their residences, and that hotels and rental property managers should help residents with food delivery, shopping and laundry delivery. This last decree was explained in a letter, delivered to us in person by Jarmo (Sweaty Swedish Jesus), which made it seem super serious. When we really thought about it, though, we were very minimally affected by all of this. We didn’t have a vehicle, we were only leaving the house to go to the grocery store (with a driver who could easily just pick up groceries FOR us) or to the beach (GOD BLESS THE BEACH), and we were getting a lot of meals delivered already. We were being really good farangs. So as crazy and farang-targeting as all of the restrictions seemed, we never once had trouble getting food or drinking water, and Nick was even able to get beer during the booze ban!!

Hamid, our tuk-tuk driver, whose business was seriously hurting, was more than thrilled to now be our personal shopper. We muddled our way through the language barrier, and with a combination of audio messages, text messages, google translate, and LOTS of picture messages, Hamid would faithfully return from each shopping trip with about a 75% accurate load of groceries for us.

This was my camera roll for a couple weeks:

Our friends Rachel (a fellow teacher at NIS) and Graham, newly married and who we also found out were stuck on Koh Lanta with us, would take their chances crossing the checkpoint between our place and theirs once a week, pick up take out for the 4 of us, and come hang out for dinner. It was such a sanity saver, and a way for us to process all of the information and misinformation that was floating around the island. Rachel is pretty much Thai, born and raised here, and has a knack for weeding through all of the fuzzy government decrees and police inconsistency/corruption and enlightening us on the beauty and well-intentioned nature of Thai nationalism. Then she’d hop on her rental bike with her British hubs and head back to their villa, blowing through manned checkpoints, with the rationalization that she could talk her way out if needed because her Thai accent is “REALLY good.” If you can’t tell from this pic, Rachel is suuuuper white, and about 4’11…and also super fluent in Thai. I’ve now added to my Thailand bucket list “Get bailed out of a police situation by Rachel.”

I haven’t been much into drinking since moving to Thailand. The wine is awful and also super spendy. I could honestly go without it completely. But Nick was going to be damned if I didn’t join him in self-medicating his island lockdown anxiety. So like the good wife that I am, everyday around 4pm, I allowed him to pour me a classy glass of boxed wine (on ice, natch). Sometimes it was even accompanied by a fancy app, because cooking food that reminded him of home was his other way of self-soothing (and what kind of wife would I be to discourage that).

Which is also why we had to maintain our workout game, to you know, avoid the #quarantine15.

We also had a steady flow of CAKE in the house, as we continued to remotely celebrate the birthdays of every human we’ve ever met. The kids (but Brecken especially), took their new cake-making duties very seriously. By the time distance learning started, and Brecken was largely left to his own devices (more on that later), he had developed his own pastry chef, ahem, persona, and was pretty independently making all the cakes. It should be noted there are no measuring devices in our villa’s kitchen, but every cake turned out delicious!

At the time of publication, the Windschitl Remote Party Brigade has made 8 cakes and celebrated 10 birthdays from the island (we sprang for local bakery cakes for my and Brecken’s bdays)!

Brecken and I both had the island birthdays of our dreams. Mine involved a super early wake up call with breakfast in bed, flowers and homemade cards, surprise zoom calls with friends, and cake on the beach!

Brecken blew out birthday candles at every meal, had (a very different kind of) Zoom call with friends, and dinner and cake with our Koh Lanta Lockdown friends.

If you or someone you know celebrated a birthday between March 21st and June 19th and we didn’t get to you, we hope you were properly celebrated (with buttercream, sea creature-shaped gummies, and thrice-recycled birthday candles that someone blew out for you on the other end of a Zoom call at 7am, and then that someone ate the cake in front of you). Cheers!

In addition to 10 birthdays, we also celebrated American Mother’s Day (that’s right–I get TWO of them every year now!), and Easter. Nick scraped together the most traditional Easter meal he could with ingredients Hamid was able to scrounge up (with 75% accuracy). It involved a mystery cut of pork (since there was no ham to be found), Nick’s famous broccoli salad (with 75% of the ingredients), mashed potatoes, and green bean casserole made with imported Campbell’s cream of mushroom soup that was probably 4USD/can. All consumed in our swimsuits by the pool. It was delicious!

While dutifully social distancing on the beach daily, we would occasionally see a lovely British family with the cutest little 3yo boy. We would always do the polite wave from a distance, both families awkwardly aware that striking up a conversation would probably lead to wanting to hang out, but neither of us were sure of each other’s playdate comfort level. This dance went on for a couple weeks until we finally broke the ice (Nick says it was him, but pretty sure I finally sealed the deal). The kids were instant friends, and all of a sudden our little quarantine world expanded a bit. They were staying just a few villas down! Now we had 2 pools, 2 play spaces, twice a week dinner dates, and daily kid swaps (aka KID FREE TIME). It was magical.

We took turns letting the kids destroy each of our villas, and our kids scooped little Edward up into their grand imaginary play schemes and messy inventions/projects.

Tom, owner of Desert Island Survival, an adventure travel company, took advantage of the captive group of mini castaways, and had them building elaborate forts, collecting rain water, starting friction fires and braiding hemp cord.

Tom also made a friction fire on the beach using a bow drill, and we roasted cashews he harvested from a tree in their yard. The kids (read: Nick) were pumped!

The other crazy coincidence is that Tom and Eleanor live in Chiang Mai! After both growing up in the UK, they have spent the last 10 years in Chile, and moved to CM just last October. We can’t wait for our kids to go destroy their real home too!

A few days before my birthday, I started having dreams that I was riding a motorbike on the island. As much as I was loving being a homebody (in our posh villa–not too hard to do), I think I was craving a little bit of freedom. Even though Nick and I have always sworn we would never be motorbike riders in Chiang Mai (because we both value our lives), I told him I wanted to rent a motorbike for one day on Koh Lanta. I figured my odds of staying alive here were pretty good–flat, straight roads, no intersections, no traffic. I had already ridden on the back of one twice–once for about 100 meters when one of our kids’ babysitters gave me a ride to our moobaan gate so I could let her out, and once here on the island for about 1km when one of the property managers from our villa saw me walking to the market and offered me a ride.

So, obviously, I was feeling pretty experienced. Nick nervously agreed. I was all ready to waltz across the street and slap down my 100baht (yes, 3USD) for a rental scooter for the day, when Tom and Eleanor told us they had just rented one for the next month and that we could use it whenever we wanted! Fast forward a month, and I’m pretty much a professional Thai scooter driver.

Most restrictions have been lifted now, so we can shop for ourselves again. So every week I load up 40 kilos of groceries into my backpack and the seat of the bike and haul it home like a true Thai hunter/gatherer.

I’ve also ridden on the back of the bike with Nick driving, and we now know our marriage can survive anything.

My other favorite thing to do when I’m out on one of my “freedom rides” is to gas up the scooter. No gas pumps here–you just pull up to whatever little shop or restaurant has a little shelf outside lined up with old whiskey and wine bottles full of gas. And of course, just like any Thai gas station, it’s full service!

Restrictions continued to ease up, but our life stayed pretty much the same. Beach, pool, eat, play, rinse, repeat. Then there was a little 8 week stint of distance learning. I’m going to save that hot mess for another post, lest it detract from the awesomeness that was the majority of our time on Koh Lanta. So we’ll skip right over that, and show you more fun pics!

Much like at home, Nick has been our head chef on the island. Our good friend at home in Chiang Mai opened a burrito restaurant while we’ve been gone, and we were so bummed we were missing the grand opening of the closest thing to a Chipotle we’ll ever see in Thailand, that he started experimenting with whatever burrito-esque ingredients we could find on the island.

Nick’s search for pickled things here has been just about as disappointing as his search for pickled things in Chiang Mai. So when I discovered fresh dill at the market, he embarked on a pickle-all-the-vegetables culinary adventure, and spent many hours marco-polo’ing his results to friends (whether they were interested in pickled things or not).

But don’t think he let pictures of pickles get more camera roll real estate than his artful pictures of his alcoholic beverages. That would just be crazy.

A large majority of the residents on the island are Swedish. There are even 2 Swedish schools! This also means Swedish meatballs are on lots of restaurant menus, nestled in amongst the Pad Thai and Tom Yum Goong. Bryn inhaled this meal in less than 3 minutes.

After extending our trip for the 2nd time, we finally decided it was time to re-enter the world of responsible(ish) adults and we bought plane tickets back to Chiang Mai. We were scheduled to leave June 5th. As our departure date neared, and another week of distance learning awaited us at home, plus the likelihood of a 14 day home quarantine, we were getting really depressed about leaving. But Nick had a drive-through kindergarten graduation to attend, and our year-long visas were almost up, requiring an annoying family trip to immigration and 150 pages of paperwork/signatures, so we put on our big kid panties, tried to be grateful for the 11 WEEKS of incredible island life, and started mentally preparing to leave. Then all of a sudden the Thai gov’t said nope to the drive-thru graduation, and we found out that the COVID visa amnesty did in fact apply to us, meaning we had another month to renew our visas. More things were opening up on the island, and we longed for some more time to see it all after distance learning was done. After mulling it over during a few more gorgeous sunsets, we decided to let go of all the “shouldn’ts” and receive the gift that was being so obviously handed to us. We changed our plane tickets for another 2 weeks out, wrapped up distance learning, and have spent the last week soaking up the last drops of goodness the island has had for us.

The BEST drop of goodness was a boat trip to some little islands around Koh Lanta. Nick told the story pretty well on Facebook:

The Swedish/Thai couple who owned the boat had the most amazing story. They fell in love 20 years ago when she was on a trip to Thailand. She went back to Sweden, intending to move back to Thailand to marry him, but her parents put the kibosh on it and told her she was going to university instead. They lost touch, but 17 years later her daughter found him when she was on her own teenage trip to Thailand. She came down to meet him, they got married, he moved to Sweden with her for 5 years, and they just moved back to Koh Lanta in October to try and start up a boat tour business. Oh, and in case you’re wondering where he got his amazing calves (like I was all day), it’s because he did a stint as a professional Muay Thai boxer. After living in Italy for a few years.

And now, here we sit, on our last night here on this utopian island. While the rest of the world seems to be breaking under a multitude of stressors, it has not been lost on us how blessed we have been these last 13 weeks. We are so incredibly sad for the sun to set on this chapter of our Thai adventure. It seems fitting, therefore, to end this post with a million amazing sunset pics!

Stay healthy, friends!

It’s the eve of our return to school here. As our family and friends in the U.S. are still in limbo, waiting to hear what the coming school year will look like (and with none of the options looking good), it is not lost on us how fortunate we are to be in Thailand, a completely COVID-free country, where our school is about to open full-time, in-person, business-as-usual. After 10 weeks of distance learning, we are so happy to finally be able to be face-to-face with our students with no screen in between us. Nora, Bryn & Brecken will get to run around the playground at recess, playing with whomever they want, eat in the canteen next to their friends, play hand-clap games with them, hug their teachers, and see them smile without a mask in the way. I am so incredibly sad for our U.S. teachers and students this fall, but seeing the dumpster fire complications there has helped us to no longer take these little liberties for granted anymore!

While our distance learning experience was pretty different than most of our U.S. counterparts’, it was still an experience we are glad to have behind us. In order to keep us grounded in gratitude, I feel it’s important we chronicle the experience here on our blog. We are now a good 7 weeks out from our last day of distance learning, which means I’m probably clear-headed enough to write about it objectively and without profanity.

So here goes!

We arrived on Koh Lanta, an island in southern Thailand, on March 22nd, just as the country was going on COVID-19 lockdown, and our month-long Songkran break was starting. Our school closed for COVID a few days before break, so we had to do a little 2-day distance learning stint before heading off to paradise. As we watched our teacher friends back in the U.S. get a week plus to prep for their distance learning gigs, we scrambled to get 2 days of content thrown online during the ONE DAY we were given to prepare. Knowing we were running off to a tropical island a few days later lessened the blow, however, and we just kept our eyes on the prize.

We had originally planned on a 3-week vacay down south, thinking we would be back in school April 20th. As COVID spikes were happening in countries around the world, Thailand’s curve was flattening, and there was a real possibility of us heading back to in-person school. As our first departure date came and went due to continued travel restrictions and a scarcity of flights, so did the news that our school would be continuing distance learning once break was over. We weren’t super stoked about it, but figured we’d rather be on the island doing distance learning, with a beach and pool to escape to, versus back in Chiang Mai where not only was everything shut down, but it was still the middle of burning season and the poor air quality meant our kids couldn’t even get outside. So we put on our big kid pants and pulled out our laptops.

As dynamic teachers whose strengths lie in our ability to engage with students in person, moving to a fully-online format was super challenging. We struggled to figure out a schedule where we could engage in real time with our students, and also help our own kids with their lessons and Google Meets. After LOTS of time-consuming trial and error, and even though it went against everything we believed about best practice pedagogy, we made the decision to move both our classes to fully asynchronous learning (meaning no regular Google Meets). We fluctuated between relief, satisfied resolve, utter frustration and disgust. Like so many working parents during this pandemic, we were stuck between the rock and the hard place of being good at our jobs but neglecting our kids/their education, or being subpar teachers but attentive parents/homeschool teachers. Never being satisfied with letting any of the balls drop, we spent several weeks burning the candle at both ends, but also feeling like we weren’t killing it in any of our roles.

Even though we weren’t face-to-face in real time with our students, we still wanted to SEE their faces and have them see ours. So we spent hours making fun instructional videos, and creating ways for our students to share videos of themselves with us (…which also meant finding time to watch 25 videos everyday). I made most of my videos at night, while Nick tried to use our kids in his videos (both to make them more exciting for his own students and also to keep our kids busy).

Nora and Bryn’s teacher, a self-admitted technophobe, did an impressive job of moving her first grade class online. She did Google Meets with small groups of students everyday, oftentimes succumbing with grace as the conversations careened off track into a show-and-tell of pets, breakfasts, poop jokes and siblings in underwear.

As every parent in the world found out during distance learning, our kids would do just about anything for Ms. Erin, but not so much for mom and dad, who were TELLING them what Ms. Erin said to do. There were some…moments.

Initially we tried to do ALL the assignments/activities. We quickly realized this wasn’t going to work, and that sacrifices had to be made in all areas. We started truncating assignments, and opted out of several subjects. We made these cheeky (yet super serious) graphics, and submitted them for about half of the assignments.

Nora & Bryn are pretty big rule-followers, so there was some major push-back initially when we tried to assure them it was ok not doing all the work. We explained that learning about island ecology was our science, swimming was our P.E, and family storytime before bed “counted” as learning. It was such an amazing lesson about how school is not the only place we learn, and how lucky we were that this island, and our new flexible schedule, could be just as good (and even better) a place and way to learn than school.

Both the kids’ teachers were great, and mailed stuff to us on the island. For the last week of school, Ms. Erin sent all her students a package with an envelope for each day that contained items they’d need for class games on Google Meet. For the last day, their package had full party gear and gifts!

The kids’ art teacher is hilarious and thinks Nick is the funniest farang in Thailand. So being the ham that he is, he was more than happy to make a cameo in this assignment:

The dance teacher also hosted weekly hip hop dance sessions on Facebook live.

The music teacher (bless his soul) spent distance learning getting all the elementary kids to submit videos of them singing so he could put them all together into a virtual spring concert. Brecken felt super left out and wanted in on the recording sessions.

Final version:

So what was Brecken doing all this time, you ask? For the first several weeks, he was largely left to his own devices (which included being naked most of the time, too). We didn’t think to ask his teacher to send his box-o-fun to us on the island until pretty late in the game, and most of his distance learning was (awesomely) screen-free and hands-on, so it was hard to improvise on the provided lessons without all the materials. So Brecken became a master (a better master?) at building inventions out of recyclables, independently trouble shooting his inventions, and making huge messes before we realized what was happening.

The only help he’d ask for was the occasional You Tube tutorial request. He initially tried to harness the power of Siri independently, but then we overheard him behind closed doors getting frustrated that Siri wasn’t giving him what he wanted after asking to her to “showmepicturesofaboatmadeoutofamilkjugwithapropellermadeoutofrubberbandsandtoothpicksthatcangoreallyfastintheoceanbutsharkswontwanttoeatit.” So after that we offered to help him with his internet searches.

Brecken also took Knife Skills as an independent study during distance learning. He passed with flying colors, and all 10 digits still attached.

He also had pretty frequent play dates at our island lockdown friends’ house just a few villas down, where Edward’s mom always had organized crafts ready and Edward’s dad made elaborate forts.

The girls often got envious of Brecken’s “distance learning,” and would beg to ditch their screens and join him. In hindsight it seems like such an easy decision, but at the time we often used it as an incentive for finishing their “work.” I wish we had freely obliged more often.

Sometimes, at his insistance, we’d give Brecken some “real” distance learning to do so he could feel like he was doing what the rest of us were, but it was always a short-lived novelty.

In the end, we all agreed that Brecken won distance learning in the Windschitl villa. There were definitely times he was sad he didn’t have “real” online learning like the rest of us, and he had to vie harder for all our attention, but his freedom to explore, create, invent and play was what we all really wanted, and probably what teachers, students and parents all over the world really want, amiright?

It’s hard to believe we’re starting our second school year here in Chiang Mai! We’re going back to in-person classes, which we’re thrilled about, but there are still lots of unknowns, including how many students we’ll actually have (as many are stuck abroad). The school has also had to get creative with covering classes at the beginning of the year, as most of our new hires haven’t been able to get into the country, and a couple of returning teachers are also stuck abroad. So it’s not 100% business as usual, but compared to what we’d be facing back home, it’s small potatoes. We’re also bracing for the inevitable COVID-related disruption at some point in the school year, but for now, we are happy to stick our heads in the COVID-free sands of Thailand and greet our students in person next week!

Cheers!

Sara

Nick’s daily facebook posts have kind of captured most of our adventures the past 6 months, but seeing as how it’s a fresh new year, I’m going to recommit to documenting our Thailand experience on our blog! For the sake of continuity, I’ll back up to June, way back in 2020, when we returned from our suuuuuper extended holiday in southern Thailand.

Even though we were pretty much in paradise for 3 months during a global pandemic, we realized it had been a hot minute since we had had a date night. Some quick math also revealed it was our 10 YEAR WEDDING ANNIVERSARY (whaaat??), so we decided to GO BIG and ditch our kids for 2 nights. We headed back to Chiang Dao, where we had been with the kids before and loved, but we found (like most places), that it’s like a totally different trip without kids!

As a gift to Nick, we headed to a hole-in-the-wall craft beer place after dinner so he could nerd out and talk IPAs with the owner for (what seemed like) several hours.

And what is good beer anyway without an artful picture of it in front of some mountains and/or a sunset?

We also squeezed in some more adventures with Ava, Anya and Aom, which included glamping in Mon Cham! Mon Cham is about an hour drive from Chiang Mai up in the mountains, so it gets cool at night year round! It felt soooo good in July, and Nick sweated through half the number of shirts as usual. Mon Cham used to be uninhabited forest, then some hilltribe villagers turned it into an opium farm, until it was later taken over by a charitable organization established by the King, with the intentions of improving the lives of the hilltribes by teaching them to grow crops other than opium.

Our tent was pretty sweet. Two queen beds, a toilet, shower, and aircon. View wasn’t bad either.

We ordered dinner, which involved the staff coming and starting a bucket of charcoal on our deck, putting a cook top/soup vessel thing on top, and then giving us all the raw ingredients to cook everything ourselves. It’s called mhoo kata, and it’s kind of genius. You pour the soup around the “moat,” then you cook the meat on the little metal mountain poking up in the middle. As the various meats cook, the juices drip down and make a meat flavor party in the soup. Then you add a million veggies, fresh herbs and noodles, look out over the most beautiful valley you’ve ever seen, and put that flavor party in your mouth.

We stopped at several beautiful places on the way up and back (because Ava is amazing). One was a cafe built into a giant tree. We had to walk out to it on rope bridges (which the kids deemed The Best Thing Ever). The view was stunning, but the real impressive thing was the tree itself. It was massive–so many branches!–and strangely, the cafe seemed almost a natural part of it. There was even a homestay below the cafe (still in the tree!) where you could stay overnight!

Nick and I loved all the scenic/fun stops, but the kids hated leaving each one. “Quit yer bitchin and get in the car, kids! It’s time for more beauty!”

We also paid very little money, signed no waivers, and donned no protective equipment to ride these go carts down a half-paved mountain road. Not pictured: the go carts being hauled up the hill tied to the back of the songtaew we were riding in. If you look closely, you can see the pieces of tire NAILED to the wooden wheels. It’s fine. Totally fine.

With only a little bit of summer left, it was time to chill out on the scenic travel and get down to bid-ness. First order of bid-ness was to get my Thai driver’s license. The rules change all the time, and are different for different foreigners, but from what we could gather, we were supposed to get a Thai driver’s license within one year of living in Thailand. Ava was due for her renewal, so she scooped me up and took me to the Land Transportation Office with her, which is like an American DMV, but way bigger, scarier, and busier. The list of documents and artifacts I had to bring included:

-Certificate of Residency*

-International Drivers License**

-U.S. Driver’s license and passport

-Medical certificate ***

-A conservative outfit (Ava says the more old-lady you look, the better your odds of them accepting your paperwork/not charging you made-up fees)

-Cash (the actual fee for a Thai driver’s license is about 6 USD, but bribe amounts and made-up fees are not posted. Best to bring several hundos (baht, not dollars) just in case)

-A vial of blood to sacrifice to the road gods

-a facemask, which you cannot get into the building without, but which they will ask you to remove several times so they can see your face

*A Certificate of Residency is needed for many official things in Thailand, and can only be acquired at the immigration office, in an unmarked upstairs room, between 8:06am and 10:42am, and only on dates that are prime numbers. You have to bring your own passport photo, but it must be done at a place that can photoshop a business suit onto you, and digitally snip your hair into a hair helmet so you look nothing like yourself. It is free, if you want it in 2 months, otherwise it is 500baht for next day, or a 1000baht bribe if you want it in 5 minutes. It is only valid for 30 days, so we’ve jumped through these thrilling hoops several times in the last year.

**Nick and I both got our IDLs in the U.S. before we left for Thailand. It was a fully online process, not cheap, and when we arrived, rumor had it that they are worthless if you ever get pulled over by a Thai cop.

***A medical certificate for a drivers license is acquired at a local hospital for 150baht (5 USD). The exam entailed checking my blood pressure and giving me a 2-item colorblindness test)

We arrived when they opened, but there were already dozens of people waiting in each area, who looked like they had been there for days. We stood in several queues, and when we got to the front of each one, they would tell us to go stand in a different queue. All the forms were in Thai, so thankfully Ava was there to hook a farang up!

The hilarious end to this story was that, after waiting in all the queues and giving all my paperwork to multiple officers at multiple desks, it turned out I had to watch a 1 hour instructional video before I could get my license, but the earliest available time to watch the video was a month out… just past the expiration of my residency certificate. I was certain that I wouldn’t need to get a new one, based on all the queues I stood in and the number of official-looking people who reviewed my documents, and who clearly now knew I was a legal resident of Thailand… but alas, I was wrong. So one month later, I took a personal day off work, got a new hair-helmet-business-suit headshot, bribed another immigration officer for another quick-turnaround residency cert, stood in a bunch more queues at the Land Transportation Office, watched a 1 hour video in which they showed us videos of all the things Thai drivers do and told us not to do them, paid my 6 USD, and walked out with a shiny new Thai drivers license! So slick!

To celebrate, Ava took me to a cute brunch place, where we had American breakfast things I hadn’t had in a year. It was glorious.

We also celebrated with more mhoo kata, because Ava is obsessed.

…but there was still more bid-ness to do. Next up: dentist appointments. I went first to scope out the scene, then made appointments for the rest of the fam for a week later. As with most places we go, the staff fawned over our little white family, and laughed with delight anytime our kids said anything in Thai. No new toothbrushes or toy tokens at Thai dental checkups, but the kids did get animal balloons, which they all agreed was way better.

Not about to stop the fun with dental cleanings, we also took the kids in for flu shots! How fun are we!? There are 2 flu seasons in Thailand, and we missed the vaccine window for the first one (and all 3 kids got influenza…oops), so we weren’t about to miss chance #2. The hospital was EMPTY, and about 8 nurses fluttered around our (terrified) farang kids, petting their hair, shushing them, and attempting to distract them while their siblings got poked. Everyone took a turn on Nick’s lap.

In support of the nurse actually administering the poke, the other 7 nurses glided around in a rehearsed choreography, each playing a specific role, whether it was holding an arm, turning a head, placing a bandaid, or cooing sweet Thai vocals. It was really impressive!

It was also time for our annual work permit renewal, which meant…. syphilis tests! It’s the only health test required to get a valid work permit in Thailand. Spoiler alert: I passed! (You’re welcome, Nick).

A few other random, end-of-summer highlights:

Our gym had their every-3-months new class roll-out party thing, where we all wear costumes (or in this case, gym-issued matching workout kits), and a professional photographer takes pictures of us sweating.

Nick saw a lady selling towels at the market who was wearing a Gustavus shirt, and about lost his Gustie mind. She had no idea what Gustavus meant, but happily posed for a picture with this giant, excited farang.

Nick took the kids on a walk to our friend’s house and took a shortcut through the rice paddies, which they thought was the best adventure ever (even though we reminded them of all the other AMAZING adventures we’d had recently that were probably better…. nope. This was The New Best).

And just like that, summer was over! For the first time in a LONG time, Nick and I both really felt energized and excited to start a new school year. We’re now half way through that school year, and have been able to weave lots more adventures into those months (more blog posts to come!), despite teaching full time, and being in the middle of a global pandemic. We couldn’t be more grateful!

Cheers,

Sara

Back in Minnesota, where we always started school after Labor Day, the girls’ birthday was always situated squarely in summertime, and we’d plan big backyard parties with all our friends and their kids. To be honest, the parties were usually more for us to hang out with our own friends and collectively celebrate keeping small humans alive for another year. We’d throw in a cake and a few decorations, but the majority of efforts went into adult beverage planning. Now all of a sudden the girls are old enough to have OPINIONS about how they want to celebrate their birthday (how dare they grow up like this?), and their birthday also happens to fall during teacher prep week at our school here in Chiang Mai. I started to stress about this, but then I remembered we’re in Thailand, and life is easy. I found a pool with a cafe (there are several here), and asked them if we could host a party there for 15 kids and 10 adults. I never thought to ask about renting out the whole pool for a private party, but when they told me we could have it for 3 hours for 2000baht (about 70 USD), it was a no brainer. We had pizzas delivered, and a bakery made custom cupcakes with 2 days’ notice (and delivered to the pool for free). We rolled up to the pool with a cooler of beer and juice and that was about it. The girls agreed it was the best party of their 8-year-old lives.

We have a teacher friend who’s side gig is working for a kitten rescue in Chiang Mai. Subsequently 90% of our friends have cute little foster kittens at any given time. Our kids are super jealous of this and have been asking for a pet for months. Nick and I haven’t been ready to take on the responsibility of keeping more things alive in our house (and his allergies have been a really convenient excuse), but for the girls’ bday, we decided to let the kids get some fish. We found someone giving away a tank with all the supplies, and then let them pick out fish at a local shop.

Things went really well for about 48 hours, at which point 2 of the smallest fish JUMPED to their deaths, horrifying our kids when they discovered it the next morning (like a reverse Christmas morning of sorts). Every couple of weeks after that, another one would kick the bucket. It was a good 3 month run.

As the start of school was getting closer, Brecken was cautiously optimistic that Nick would be his teacher. He tried to call Nick’s bluff everytime Nick told him it wasn’t up to him and that the school decides. Nick kept him wondering all summer, saying he had to wait to get his class list from Mr. Ben. He made a big production out of it. In the end, Brecken was more interested to know if his favorite buddies from K2 were in his class.

Obligatory first day of school (2nd first day of school in Thailand!) pic!

Brecken settled right into Mr. Nick’s class, and has loved every minute of it since.

By far, his favorite day so far has been Pirate Day (let’s be honest…it’s Nick’s favorite, too).

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Mr. Nick’s awesomeness doesn’t stop at 3pm. He’s been reading the Harry Potter series to the kids since the beginning of summer, complete with different voices for each character.

Nora and Bryn are in the same class together again this year, at their request. Their teacher lives in our neighborhood, and brings his toddler over on walks each evening to watch the big kids race around the street on their bikes, or to play with them inside. Nick often talks him into a beer, and they discuss their mutual love of pickling things. The girls think he’s great.

The girls were pumped to be back in school with their friends. The novelty of seeing them at break times and in passing throughout the day has not worn off for me. I love the little glimpses I get of their personalities in the wild.

I also get to watch them take standardized tests, which I find so crazy!

I also try to get over to ECC to have snack with Brecken (and Mr. Nick) several times a week. Brecken and Nora still run up to me with reckless abandon for hugs in school. Bryn does not, because she is already a teenager, but we’ve agreed on covert winks from a distance (*sob*).

School photos here are usually taken in white polos that are shared amongst kids on picture day. The school decided this wasn’t a COVID-friendly method this year (even though there is no COVID in Thailand), and asked families to purchase individual school polos for their kids. I wasn’t about to pony up any amount of baht for a WHITE collared shirt for my children, so they took their photo in mama’s polo.

School photos were being taken in the room next to my classroom (an exciting field trip from way over in the ECC building), so Mr. Nick’s K3 class stopped in for a little dance party in “Brecken’s Mom’s” room afterwards.

I’m in my 2nd year teaching in the AAP program at NIS, a sheltered English immersion program for kids who are not quite ready for the elementary mainstream. Last year I taught reading to all 3 AAP classes, but this year I made a push for self-contained classes in the program, and am now teaching the younger group for all subjects. It’s a delightful group of ten 6-8 year olds from China, Hong Kong, Japan, Thailand and France. Because many students (school-wide) were stuck abroad during COVID and had to quarantine upon returning to Thailand, my class wasn’t fully intact until November. We also send transfer-ready kids to the mainstream mid year, so the scenery in our program changes semi-frequently. But I have loved having the same kids all day this year.

My favorite part of my class this year (and definitely my students’ favorite) is our Makerspace! Students bring in the majority of the recyclables from home and we also collect donations schoolwide. Their creativity is endless, and the language learning that happens in that 30 minutes everyday is pretty amazing.

Here’s a cool video our PR department put together highlighting our makerspace!

Teachers are required to run a club 2x/year. Nora, Bryn and Ben got together and decided to sign up for my jigsaw puzzle club. The excitement these kids had every time they found a piece or finished a puzzle was so adorable.

In addition to clubs once a week, the girls played on the U10 basketball team for season 1 sports, and then decided to join DIFFERENT sports teams (from each other) for season 2. The scheduler/logisticator in me wanted to convince them to play the same sport, but then I remembered we’re in Thailand, and things are easy. All the kids’ after school activities are AT SCHOOL, where both Nick and I work, and live 3 minutes from. So I simma’d down and embraced their desire to pursue their own interests, even though it meant a slightly complicated (but not complicated in the grand scheme of things) after school schedule. Bryn chose soccer, and Nora chose track. Nick was coaching track again, so the AD let Brecken join, too. He was in heaven running with the big kids (and could beat most of them).

Let’s back up to season 1, when Nick agreed to coach U12 boys basketball, as long as his buddy Jona would be his co-coach. Jona agreed, and they started conspiring over beers about how they were going to coach this team of underdogs into an imaginary championship (even though neither of them had ever played competitive basketball). Just as they were spitballing name ideas for their inspirational Netflix special, Jona suffered a season-ending injury (before the season even began) while “dusting off his basketball legs” in the gym. Jona headed into surgery, and Nick headed into a solo season of coaching.

While our kids were VERY worried about Mila and Charlie’s dad, they were SUPER PUMPED to learn that Mila and Charlie were going to get to spend a few nights at our house.

The kids rolled out the red carpet for them, finding them clothes to wear, toothbrushes to use, and playing paper-rock-scissors to determine sleeping arrangements. Brecken designated himself Mila’s personal hair stylist the entire time, and decided she needed VERY FREQUENT hair combing. Mila was extremely patient with Brecken’s new hobby(/obsession).

We brought the whole crew to visit Jona post-surgery. They mostly wanted to push the buttons on his bed and eat snacks. Super fun trip.

Always game for a reason to get together and be ridiculous, our friends all decided to surprise Jona one night by showing up at his house with fake injuries.

Of course, Nick went with the “permanent heart-on.” He even asked the kids to color it, but they never finished it because they were so busy asking questions about what a permanent heart-on was.

So Nick stuck it out solo with the U12 boys crew, sweatin it out with them at outdoor practices.

He spent LOTS of time consulting via Marco Polo with his friend and National HS Basketball Coach of the Year, Dave Flom (whose nickname is now “National”).

Most interschool competitions were cancelled due to (nonexistent) COVID, but there was one friendly tournament at the end of the season. NIS’s U12 team was comprised of almost all 10 year olds (who had never played basketball), and it seemed like all the other schools had stacked their teams with 12yr 11mo olds with 5 o’clock shadows. Needless to say, they did not come out with a lot of (read: zero) W’s at the tournament, but they all learned that in 2 short years they might have some armpit hair, so it wasn’t a total loss.

In an effort to groom some more talent for the school’s basketball teams, the elementary PE teacher (our friend Drew) decided to run a 3v3 basketball tournament at recess times. All the kids were super excited to make up team names play in the tournament. Nora and Bryn each recruited their own teams, but the way the bracket shook out, team Unicorn Sparkle never got to take on team Harry Potter in actual competition. Nora’s team got to play on pajama day, though, so that was fun.

We also recently found an awesome botanical garden where we can ride bikes, swim, explore…and there’s also a mini zoo!

Nick recently found a guy to make him a custom cornhole set. He had to explain what it was and give him all the dimensions, but Nick is now the proud owner of the first bags game in Thailand (probably not true).

To celebrate, we had a bags tournament.

I also managed to get my first dose of food poisoning in October. We think we traced it back to my favorite noodle stall at the weekly market near our house, but who knows! The pictures look worse than it was, and I’m PRETTY SURE I didn’t need to stay in the ICU like they insisted, but I wasn’t really in shape to argue I guess.

While I hung out in a hospital wing full of patients on life support, Nick and the kids continued on with their plans of heading to Doi Inthanon with the rest of the ECC staff and their families for some “professional development.” Doi Inthanon is the tallest peak in Thailand, and the kids couldn’t believe how COLD it was (it got down to like 60 I think). They’re barely Minnesotan anymore.

For our weeklong mid-semester break in October, we headed to Chiang Rai, a city about 4 hours northeast of Chiang Mai near the borders of Burma (Myanmar) and Laos. We scored an amazing deal on a homestay with the Dunnings. The owners (a Dutch guy, his Thai wife, and 2 kids) usually rent it out by room/bungalow, but due to (nonexistent) COVID, they were only renting out the whole property at a time. We had 4 bedrooms in the main house and 2 bungalows to choose from, plus full run of the grounds (which, to the kids’ delight, included a trampoline) and pool. The owners also ran their own little restaurant and we could get food cooked to order.

We found a really cute European cafe with a playground, and headed there for breakfast a couple times. It was still rainy season when we went, so we expected some rain, but temps were unseasonably cool. Didn’t bother us, though!

We also had an AMAZING meal on the river, at a restaurant that had a southern U.S. vibe (but also lots of delicious Thai food), and the first legit bloody mary we’d had in Thailand. They had a big grassy area the kids ran around on while the adults enjoyed a lazy meal, occasionally looking over our shoulders to make sure no one had fallen into the river.

We also visited a night market, where the kids had their favorite meal–roaming market dinner. Anytime we take them to a market, the amount of food they consume is mind blowing. The novelty of walking up to a stall and buying food themselves, then walking around with it until they find something else they want to eat, just never gets old.

While in Chiang Rai, we checked out the famous Wat Rong Khun (aka White Temple), which has a really interesting story (surprise–it’s not really a religious temple at all).

This place is usually packed with tourists…

There was so much more to see at the White Temple than just the white temple!

Of course, the kids’ favorite part were the golden bathrooms…

Brecken couldn’t believe his luck, that his week to bring home Adventure Penguin was our week in Chiang Rai. Adventure Penguin was treated to a first class sightseeing tour!

We also drove to a village on the Burmese border overlooking a beautiful valley. We’re pleased to report that Adventure Penguin did not fall into the valley.

To get to the village, we had to momentarily cross over the border into Myanmar.

Singha Park was also a big hit. It’s touted as an “agricultural amusement park,” and is a HUGE area that includes a tea plantation, restaurants, ziplining, a giant field where there is an annual hot air balloon festival, beautiful gardens, rock climbing…and these random cow statues.

Yes, they let a 5 and 6 year old ride a zipline together.

Our favorite Thai holiday, Loy Krathong, fell on Halloween (our favorite American holiday) this year. As usual, our school did an outstanding job celebrating both; one on Friday and one on Monday.

Nick and Brecken rode their dinosaurs into the night, as we went trick-or-treating in Ava’s neighborhood.

Here are some other things that brought us joy this fall:

Music lessons with Mr. Tristan!

It was a great fall. Our hearts ached for our friends and family back home facing so many pandemic-related challenges, and we were sad to have no visitors this year. But we were so grateful to be doing in-person teaching and learning and living and traveling with no restrictions in Thailand.

More about our holidays to come!

Cheers,

Sara

We love holidays in Chiang Mai. Thais are really good at celebrating, and nothing is off limits at school, whether it’s a Thai holiday, American holiday, Chinese holiday, religious holiday or secular holiday. The “American” holiday season in Chiang Mai is extra special to us because our expat friends, all of us far away from home, really come together and become each other’s family. This year our school decided to have a minimum day for students on the Friday of Thanksgiving week and host a huge Thanksgiving potluck for staff. It was amazing!

This was the first truly all-staff gathering we had experienced at NIS. The mae baans (cleaning staff), TAs and other support staff usually work tirelessly to make events at NIS happen, but do not often get the chance to enjoy the celebrations. The staff Thanksgiving included everyone, and was likely the first time we had really seen the FULL staff of our school in one place together. It was so cool. And as usual, teachers’ kids were welcomed; their rowdiness and messiness embraced.

We also had our second annual Friendsgiving with our expat fam. Once again, the google sign up doc for the potluck was everyone’s main focus for 2 weeks leading up to the event, with lots of witty banter and green-bean-casserole-recipe trash talking consuming our workdays.

We reveled in our school Christmas celebrations again, despite the annual Winter Carnival being cancelled due to covid. My class, along with the upper AAP class exchanged Secret Santa gifts again. I’m still so amazed at how joyful and gracious all the kids are during this event, no matter what gift they receive.

NIS’s Winter Carnival was pretty much our favorite event of the year last year, so when they announced it was cancelled, everyone was super bummed. But in true NIS fashion, the event planning team went to work planning a school-day event that would still capture the Christmas spirit for the kids, rebranding it “Winter Bright Fest.” Parents (except us lucky teacher-parents!) and outside vendors weren’t allowed, but elementary threw together an amazing assembly complete with carols, performances from the ECC kids, student talent showcase and 4th graders performing Christmas jokes during all the stage changes.

The middle and high school students and staff teamed up to make booths of all kinds–concessions, arts and crafts, games, trinket-sales…it was really impressive. The kids pretty much had a minimally-supervised, sugary, free-for-all. Brecken Claus was in heaven.

Nora and Bryn (and our fourth child, Ben) had been taking a Saturday dance class at school, and were working on a number for the Winter Carnival. Here’s their performance at the Winter Bright Fest!

Much to the girls’ chagrin, I also snuck this video of a rehearsal. I love how Ms. Carole’s energy transfers to the kids. She is their favorite!

Mr. Nick even brought his little Santas to carol outside my window!

I decided to organize Secret Santa for our group of friends this year, and hilarity ensued. At the last minute we decided to segregate the name-drawing by gender, which turned out to be a great decision, because girls>boys at gift-giving. Surreptitious gift deliveries made the week before winter break extra fun, and we all agreed that the person who received an AMERICAN SUB SANDWICH delivery won Christmas. Secret Santa identities were revealed at Mary and Jona’s Ugly Sweater Christmas party, where it was decided that actually, Nick’s sweater won Christmas.

Brecken decided to fully embrace his santa character from his class performance, and brought gifts (stuff from our house he wrapped up) for all the kids at the party

As usual, Mary was an over-the-top hostess, with kid food crafts and photobooths galore.

The principal (who is retiring this year), also hosted a happy hour for staff at a local restaurant!

We celebrated our family Christmas in Chiang Mai a week early since we were heading south to the beach!

Nick did his annual cookie baking/decorating with the kids,

and Brecken played mall Santa for all of us.

The kids spent weeks wrapping up gifts for Nick and me and excitedly adding them to the pile under the tree daily.

We finally ran out of gas for our outdoor Thai kitchen stove (1 year later!). The gas guy came to switch out our tank on Christmas day, so Nick and I decided that was our (12 USD) gift to each other this year. For those of you wondering, the romance is still alive and well over here! Love you, babe!

We cleaned up the Christmas shrapnel, and it was time to pack for our trip. As usual, the kids were in charge of packing their own stuff. Brecken deviated from the packing list just a tad.

We hopped a plane with Dunnings, and a 1.5hr plane trip and a 40 min drive from the airport later, we were at our sweet Airbnb in Phuket, 4 mins from the beach!

The kids got right to work on proper Christmas decorations, lest Santa think we did not have The Christmas Spirit, and decide not to stop at our pool villa.

Kamala Beach did not disappoint!

The guys decided they wanted to cook a big ol’ surf-n-turf spread for Christmas dinner. They had way too much fun picking up ingredients at the fresh seafood market.

Then it was time to put out cookies for Santa (yes, the kids packed the cookies they made in their suitcase)

watch Christmas movies,

and read Christmas stories.

The grown-ups stayed up late waiting for Santa, and partaking in some self-care (face masks for the girls, 4th meal for the guys).

And of course, Nick made Christmas morning bloodies.

As if we couldn’t be any more fortunate, our former babysitter, Anna, who had left Chiang Mai several months ago to take a nannying job in Phuket, was available and willing (and excited!) to babysit for us on her only night off. We got a kid-free night in Phuket, ya’ll!

Much like our time in Koh Lanta, Phuket was pretty empty. Being an even more popular tourist destination in Thailand than Lanta, the toll the lack of tourists was taking on the economy was very apparent. It was pretty sad. But it also meant we were able to afford to stay there for a week during peak season, and do some pretty cool stuff. Looking at the beautiful ocean everyday made us want to get out further in it, and we were able to get a killer deal on a private sunset cruise!

We sprang for some charcuterie (have we told you how expensive cheese is here?), and made a pretty sweet spread!

The kids had their own (read: less expensive) charcuterie.

The boat came with 2 crew members. Even though we brought all our own food and drinks, they wouldn’t let us lift a finger. They plated everything for us, cleaned every crumb as it fell, refilled our glasses anytime they got less than half full, and even followed our kids around to make sure no one fell overboard. It was pure luxury.

We RAN INTO our friends Jeshua and Chloe in Phuket (what are the odds??), so they joined us on the cruise, too!

We anchored for awhile to enjoy the sunset and float-drink, and the crew took the kids and a couple adults out on a motorized dinghy attached to the boat. The plan was to take them to a little island to play on the beach, but when they got there, there were some really hungry (i.e. aggressive) monkeys waiting for them, so they cut that side trip a little short.

All disappointment was quickly erased when the crew pulled out a tube to pull behind the dinghy!

We had only booked a one-way ticket to Phuket, thinking we might stay a little longer after Dunnings headed back to Chiang Mai, and hit up another island. We decided to check out Krabi, another very popular tourist destination. To be honest, neither Phuket nor Krabi were on my Thai bucket list due to their crowded, touristy reputations, but with international borders still closed, both were virtual ghost-towns. Bad for the economy, but good for those averse to touristy vacay destinations!

We hired a van, and made the 3 hour trip from Phuket to Krabi.

It was a really gorgeous drive, albeit carsickness-inducing.

We got another great deal on a resort, which seemed like might have been at 10% capacity (or less?).

Brecken also spotted a molted snake skin hanging on a tree outside our balcony, so Krabi is now his favorite place.

We ran into ANOTHER FRIEND from NIS at our resort (I still giggle at the fact we can “run into” people we know in Thailand…it’s so nuts!), and she recommended an amazing hilltop restaurant for sunset. It Did. Not. Disappoint.

We were only staying in Krabi for a couple days, so we pretty much chilled at the pool and beach and stayed within walking distance of our resort, but we did take a tuk-tuk out for ice cream one night. No one died.

We took a longtail boat to neighboring Railay Beach the morning before our flight left. It was gorgeous!

We got back to Chiang Mai just in time for New Years. We landed a sitter last minute and headed out for dinner with Dunnings-plus-Kris.

Kris is Scottish, and loves an excuse to wear his kilt.

Here are some other things that were mixed in around the holidays:

Brecken finally got to participate in Mr. Nick’s annual pattern fair.

He also continued to aggressively pull out teeth before they were ready, for the purpose of increasing his wealth.

Our besties from back home MAILED US FALL LEAVES FROM MINNESOTA, making us both cry. (Lisa & Kerry, you’re amazing).

Another 3 months went by, which meant it was time for another professionally-photographed event at the gym.

A bunch of your Christmas cards made it to Thailand!

Brecken got to ride on Mr. Kris’s motorbike. As you can see, Mr. Kris is an experienced motorbiking professional…who only occasionally forgets to put the kickstand up before driving.

Bryn honed her defense skills during U10 football this season.

There is more to tell about the rest of winter break, but it will come in another post!

Once again, we are ever aware of how blessed we are to be here, traveling in Thailand, gathering with friends, and teaching in person. The minor sacrifices we’ve had to make during this pandemic pale in comparison to what all of our friends and family back home have had to endure, and you all are constantly on our minds. We selfishly wish we could teleport all of you here. We miss everyone so much!

….on that note…we truly want to give ALL of you time to come visit us in Thailand once we’re all vaccinated and borders have opened up… so we’ve decided to stay another year! =) Our original 2 year contract is up in June, but we feel there is more to this adventure than will fit in the next 4 months. NIS was crazy enough to offer us another contract, so Chiang Mai will continue to be home for now!

Thanks to all of you who have supported us on this journey so far, celebrating our peaks, and sitting with us in the valleys, even from time zones 12-14 hours apart. Living abroad has brought us so much joy and newness and adventure, but the challenges are also real. So many of our friends and family who want us home yesterday have selflessly lended an ear and encouraged us to stay the course at many points along the way, and for that we are ever grateful.

Cheers,

Sara

Shortly after returning from our our amazing winter holiday in Phuket and Krabi in December, a second COVID wave hit Thailand. Thailand’s first “wave” at the beginning of the pandemic was reportedly about 4,000 cases. While we always doubted the accuracy of that number since very little testing was going on here, we always felt that the spread was being taken very seriously by the government and everyone living in Thailand, and that it was very much under control. Hospitals were never overrun, deaths were (reportedly) only in the double digits nation-wide, and strict precautions were in place everywhere–with no one ever questioning or contesting them. The country had several months with no new COVID cases, and while most things opened back up, the border remained closed to international travelers, mask-wearing is still mandatory in all public places, and many large-scale events have been cancelled. In other words, precautions continued, even without a single reported case for several months. The second wave started in a very localized area near Bangkok (quite far from us), and spread quickly throughout migrant workers in a large market. But as a handful of cases popped up in Chiang Mai, any precautions that had been relaxed were quickly tightened. Thai schools (which operate on a different calendar than international schools like ours) were already in session, and while the government never mandated school closures, so many parents kept their kids home from school, that many classrooms and schools were virtually empty, prompting them to close voluntarily. As our 3 week winter break was coming to an end, there were 1-2 cases reported in very close proximity to our campus.

Parents made it clear they were NOT interested in another bout of distance learning, so the school made the decision to extend the winter break 2 more weeks (for a total of 5 WEEKS). While the trade-off for this (reducing our 3 week burning season break to 1 week) was less than palatable, the upside was that January is one of the most beautiful weather months in Chiang Mai! So we took full advantage of our extra time off!

The first adventure was an overnight in a treehouse! We drove about 1.5 hours to this awesome little retreat with some friends, and we all immediately fell in love with the place.

The kids didn’t waste a minute, and got right to exploring. It was truly a wonderland. There were 9 treehouses, and maybe only 3 were occupied (including ours), and the kids had full run of the place.

The owners of the resort had included so many thoughtful touches for kids. The fishing nets were probably the biggest hit. No one caught anything, but that didn’t stop them from spending hours trying.

It was actually a little chilly while we were there! We had a bonfire (where no one was sweating profusely), and they even provided marshmallows. No graham crackers in Thailand, but we all had a moment of silence to remember what s’mores taste like.

There was an amazing scenic overlook just a half mile walk from the treehouses where we went to watch the sunset over the mountains.

When we got back to Chiang Mai, little Ben was thrilled to have his buddies back. There aren’t a lot of kids in our village, so when the Windschitls leave, the kid population goes down about 50%. I’m pretty sure Ben spent most of winter break in this position:

They got right down to business, planning their next big build.

…which turned out to be a semi-permanent homeless encampment teepee in our front yard.

Nick and the girls spent (what seemed like) hundreds of hours putting together this knock-off Frozen Lego set the girls got for Christmas. There was a lot of yelling and tears. Some from the girls even.

Brecken got a drone for Christmas, so Nick took him to some open fields to practice (since our village is full of power lines and houses with locked gates around all the yards–a bad combo for a 7 year old drone novice).

We also took some family hikes on trails we hadn’t explored yet in Chiang Mai.

I took some time during our extended break to update the curtains in our house. I’ve gotten used to a lot of the “interesting” interior decorating choices in most Thai houses, but I will never understand the curtains. They are VERY well made and of high quality, and are almost always double hung (probably for energy efficiency purposes?) and with weights in all the hems (can you tell I’m the daughter of a skilled seamstress with all this fancy curtain vocab?), but the colors and patterns… leave a lot to be desired. In the U.S., buying fabric for 10 curtain panels and having them custom made would have required us selling one of our children (so I’d have to think about it a little bit), but here I was able to roll up to the fabric market, get 26 meters of fabric for 220baht (about 30 yards of fabric for $70) and find a lady to sew them all for me for 500 baht (that’s $16…not per panel… total). I added some fringe with my advanced hot glue gun skills (because I did not inherit my mother’s sewing skills), and $100 later we had all new curtains in our house. I now love EVERYTHING about our downstairs, and the bright open space brings me so much joy!

We did have to save all the old curtains since we do rent this house…and I’m sure the landlord spent a pretty baht on these hideous things. Taking them all down, wrapping them up, and storing them was almost a 2 day project!

There’s a wood carving village a little south of town where you can buy amazing live edge furniture for amazingly cheap. We bought a few things there about a year ago, but I’ve been dreaming about a couple floating shelves in the kitchen. We had a guy custom make these, deliver and install them. For like a dollar.

A few months ago I decided I wanted to hang a light in the kids’ play nook. The walls in most Thai homes are concrete, so this was going to be a command-hook kind of operation. There are also very few electrical outlets in Thai homes, and strangely extension cords are not easy to find–it’s usually just power strips with with a 2, 3, or 5m cord on the end. Well, I only needed about 1 more foot of cord, there was already a powerstrip there, and I didn’t need a powerstrip plugged into a powerstrip. So I spliced that baby, added some electrical cord, taped ‘er back up, called Tom Hansen to double check my work, crossed my fingers, and hit the switch.

I’m pretty much a certified Thai electrician now.

Did you see that Tom Hansen-level cord management??

If we haven’t convinced you to move to Thailand yet (or if you just need a reason to hate us more), we also now have a mae baan 2 full days a week! For $15/day, she washes all Nick’s sweaty undies, cleans our house top to bottom, and cooks us a delicious Thai dinner, which is waiting on our table when we get home.

Nick spent some time catching up with family and friends during break. He’s so happy in this shot, I can only assume he was excitedly telling his dad about our awesome new curtains.

The girls were a little sad not to be going back to school right away.

Not Brecken.

He excitedly dumped out his backpack to pack it full of sleepover necessities when Mila invited ONLY HIM over (no Nora and Bryn).

During winter break we finally got around to getting a graduation shirt made for him for first day of school photos like Nora and Bryn’s (hashtag third child problems). The sizing information got a little lost in translation between me and the print shop, so let’s just hope Brecken gets the Saterstrom genes, and has the torso of a lumberjack by the time he’s 18.

Or maybe he’ll still be dressing to the beat of his own drum by the time he graduates high school, and he’ll just accessorize the hell out of that shirt.

Brecken continues to be his own person in a multitude of ways, including his pace for getting out the door in the mornings. Luckily, we live 30 seconds from school.

You may recall Brecken’s entrepreneurial escapades with the tooth fairy from our last post. We’re happy to report that he has moved onto less painful methods of making money. Unbeknownst to us, he was hawking the crafts and “inventions” he was making in Nick’s class to his classmates.

Apparently, Mr. Nick had told him he couldn’t sell it for 20 baht, that he should just give it to him because Aaron is his buddy. Brecken then asked why Mr. Nick sold pickles to his buddies instead of giving them to them for free, to which Mr. Nick had no good answer, but still told him the 20baht birdhouse sale was not allowed. Turns out Brecken then lowered the price to 10 baht, since Nick only told him he couldn’t sell it for 20 baht, but never said he couldn’t sell it for 10 baht, but then Aaron insisted on giving him 20 baht because he didn’t understand that 10 baht was a better deal than 20 baht. So in the end Brecken blamed Aaron for the reason the 20 baht birdhouse sale still went down.

We made him give it back.

In fitness news, our gym continues to take a minimum of 50 photographs per class and send them out to all members immediately after. So here’s a bunch of photos of us sweating profusely.

Out of exercise boredom, I also started dabbling in Fly Yoga. The instructor, Kru (teacher) May, is a bendy, ripped little Thai acrobat that makes everything look 800% easier than in really is. She also takes a minimum of 50 photos per class, all of which I may be smiling in, but don’t be fooled–I am not breathing in any of them.

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Once Nora, Bryn and Brecken saw my phone blowing up with photos from Kru May of me swinging from the ceiling, they couldn’t believe I had been sneaking away on Wednesday nights to PLAY IN THE RAINBOW HAMMOCKS WITHOUT THEM. How dare I pretend to be a butterfly mermaid and not invite them?! The injustice! Luckily, Kru May also has a Kids Fly Yoga class on Saturdays. Whew.

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At the end of each class, Kru May (naturally) goes for a grand finale photo op pose. It’s a total goat rodeo, but she somehow ends up pulling it off, with no concussions to date.

Our other favorite “May” is Ms. May the in-home mani-pedi lady. Every 3 weeks or so on our Friday hangouts with the Dunnings, she comes to one of our houses, we order pizza, and the ladies get our nails done while the guys hang out outside and our 5 kids run wild and largely unsupervised. Nora always creeps in shyly and asks if Ms. May has time to paint her nails, too. Ms. May always does, and for 50 baht ($1.50), she makes Nora feel super fancy and special.

Sometimes my pedis don’t last very long, because I’ve started kicking things really hard.

The girls have also been really into having solo Facetime breakfasts with the grandparents. They set up their little tables the night before, complete with Do Not Disturb signs on the door. They did not approve of these photos.

In medical news, Thailand just updated its list of diseases that would prevent foreigners from being granted a work permit renewal. This is the COMPLETE LIST, folks. You can have anything except these 7:

Brecken had an eventful month on the medical front. In late January he got some minor road rash on his hip from a biking mishap. The next day, Nick noticed there was a tick inside the wound (gag). He pulled it out…minus the head apparently.

A month later, the bite still hadn’t fully healed.

We showed this picture to a doctor during one of our own visits, who calmly told us the tick head was still in Brecken’s body and we could bring him in next week to have it removed. NEXT WEEK?!

So Brecken hung out one more week with a tick head EMBEDDED IN HIS FLESH, at which point we nonchalantly snuck him into the dermatologist for some minor tick removal surgery, which he was not super jazzed about, but did really well.

They used a biopsy punch (*shudder*) to cut out this cylinder of flesh with the tick head inside it, then stitched up the hole.

I then bought him all the ice cream in Thailand. The End.

We headed back to school a million days later, on January 25th. Nick’s annual Kindergarten Teddy Bear Parade had to be postponed, but that didn’t mean Brecken spent less time working on his float. He had been training for this event for 2 years, ever since Nora and Bryn got to build floats for their teddy bears and parade them around in their jammies at school. His float (teddy bear tank) took shape over the course of 4+ weeks, and mom and dad were NOT allowed to help, offer tips, or regulate tape or hot glue (over)usage.

When it was time to tuck their teddy bears in the night before the parade for the teddy bear sleepover, Brecken insisted on building a fort in the classroom for the bears to sleep in, and brought in blankets and clamps from home for proper fort construction.

As usual, the 100th day of school, Valentine’s Day and Lunar New Year were pretty much on the same day. The teddy bear shrapnel was barely cleaned up before it was time for 3 more celebrations!

The Chinese parents on the PTSA got together and made 6000 dumplings from scratch for students and staff!

100th Day of School has always been my favorite classroom celebration! (Lots of kids absent because of Chinese New year though!)

This year I roped in Nora and Bryn’s class for some 100th day relay races. It’s been almost 2 full years, and the novelty of teaching at the same school as my kids hasn’t worn off. I absolutely love it.

Check out the twin facial expressions here!

I continue to love my little class. We do lots of stuff, but STEM is definitely ALL of our jams, and gets the most photos.

Nora and Bryn’s class recently got to start using the science lab with Ms. Fowsia, the nicest Indian woman you will ever meet in your life, and who also has an Indian food side hustle and cooks us different dishes every Monday. The kids are obsessed with her chicken biriyani, and now also her science lab.

The middle school put on a big Pi Day fair for ECC and elementary students, complete with games, prizes and random swag.

The spring concert also just went down last week. Nora and Bryn’s grade performed “The Bear Necessities” with a special cameo from Nick.

Nora and Bryn’s Saturday dance class also performed at the concert. It’s still so crazy to see them confidently performing on a stage when it seems like just yesterday we sat through 3 consecutive preschool performances where they both sat in their teachers’ laps offstage.

To see their dance, you can scroll to the 1:00:00 mark. (I think you have to click “watch on Facebook”–I can’t embed Facebook posts anymore I guess).

Nick recently indoctrinated our Thailand friends into the ways of The Midwest Meat Raffle with an adults-only meat raffle party hosted at our house. He went all out, hunting down some high quality meat (not easy), commissioning our kids (plus Ben & Kaneune) to make tickets, and sending out YouTube meat raffle training videos to invitees in advance.

It was a big hit, and since he was on a roll, he hosted a bloody mary bar and egg bake brunch a couple weeks later.

Because we’re killing it as parents, we also took our kids to this outdoor bar and let them play on the escalator for a couple hours so we could drink in peace.

But first we gave them some baht and let them forage at the street market for dinner.

We also brought Ben along because our kids bother us less when he’s around he’s super sweet and a great influence on our kids.

In other culinary adventures, the Thai food court at our local mall got a facelift, and I thought this picture of Bryn dining solo while the rest of us figure out what we want to eat was pretty funny.

Nick and his teaching partner Kris also went out for RED ANT LARVAE, a very seasonal delicacy apparently.(PASS).

Nick had his first Thai foot massage (I know–he’s been missing out these last 2 years), and giggled like a child the whole time.

We’ve upped the ante on family game nights and recently taught our kids the Hansen Family Bloodshed Game of Spoons, because we felt like there wasn’t quite enough sibling fighting going on.

This game, which we got from grama and grampa, is clearly a Beer Pong grooming tool for children.

This guy walks his ladders all over our area of town. I’m not sure if he ever sells any?

Nick finished out his third season of coaching at NIS (2 seasons of track and field, 1 of basketball).

So now we find ourselves in the middle of Chiang Mai’s burning season. We got a decent dose of it last year, but spent the majority of it “stuck” in paradise down south during the first COVID wave. This year we’re getting the full experience, and….. we’re pretty over it. Our school has made plans to install better air purification systems in the near future, including air purified spaces for kids to play, but in the meantime it’s been a lot of indoor lunches and recesses.

Like most expats in Chiang Mai, we love everything about living here, except the burning season. It’s really easy to forget about it the rest of the year when it’s not smoky, but when it’s here, it’s all consuming. We feel pretty fortunate to not have our daily lives restricted by COVID, but these last couple of months have reminded us of the restrictions our friends back home have been dealing with for over a year. COVID and burning season are no doubt different animals, but similar in that it’s always on our minds. In the course of a couple of really high AQI weeks, over 31,000 people were admitted to Thai hospitals with respiratory issues. Needless to say, we don’t mess around when it comes to taking precautions, especially with our kids. There are infographics floating around that equate the daily AQI with a number of cigarettes smoked that are frankly terrifying. The memory of the girls’ preemie start to life and the fragility of their tiny lungs will probably never leave us, and however long we’re here, we’ll always be committed to migrating south to better air during the burning season.

On a lighter note, our tuktuk driver who became our personal supply fetcher when we were locked down on Koh Lanta last year still sends me daily greetings and occasional selfies, just in case we start forgetting him.

Hamid will be thrilled to know we’re headed back to Koh Lanta in a bit, after a little stint on Koh Samui. Can’t wait to get down there and suck in some clean air!

Happy Easter to all!

Cheers,

Sara

It was a red/purple zone day back in early April when we happily jumped on a plane to Koh Samui. Our school had cut our 3 week smoke break down to 2 weeks as a result of the extra week of winter break that was tacked on due to a mini COVID wave. But the air quality had been in the purple and even brown zone (an air quality index color we’re pretty sure was invented for Chiang Mai smokey season), and so we decided to take an extra week of health leave and get out of dodge.

We rented a villa on the beach that shared a pool with a few other villas, but all of them were empty, so we had the place to ourselves!

The balcony had an outdoor bathtub, which the kids thought was amazing.

This was the view when we woke up in the morning. I loved waking up to super tall palm trees!

This was Nick’s view in the mornings. So hot.

Samui was VERY shut down, and as an island that relies almost 100% on tourism, it was really sad to see. There were a couple of beach restaurants within walking distance of our villa that were still open, though!

There was even a massage lady who still had her shack open on the beach next to one of the restaurants, and I had one of the best Thai massages I’ve ever had. Nora wants to do EVERYTHING mommy does lately, so she sat patiently during my massage, and the massage lady even gave her a little mini session.

Brecken had no time for massages.

A few really cool areas were open on the island, but there were very few tourists to be seen. We happily enjoyed the empty beaches and restaurants.

There was one restaurant we had heard about that put on a nightly fire show on the beach. We found out it was open, and we’re pretty sure every other visitor on the island was there (and it still wasn’t packed!). But it was so fun–the kids about lost their minds.

We had also heard about a resort that you could just go to for the day, and word on the street was that it had a KIDS CLUB (read: free babysitting), so we checked it out. Kids club was closed, but it still didn’t suck.

We did some other light sightseeing on the island, including this temple with the best view ever (and bells…)

But we spent a good deal of time in our peaceful villa. As is custom on our holidays here, the kids spent most of the time naked, Lord of the Flies style.

They were always whooped at the end of the day (you know, from so much sun, swimming, and free nakedness), so they’d belly up to the bar for dinner and a movie and then crash hard.

We found a European bakery on the island that made all of us swoon. The kids were in chocolate/pastry heaven.

After a week on Samui, we had plans to head back to Koh Lanta, which only a year earlier had ended up being our home for 3 months during smokey season and Thailand’s first COVID wave. Some friends were meeting us this time, and we all rented a huge house together. To get from Koh Samui (gulf side) to Koh Lanta (Andaman Sea side), we had to first take a one hour ferry to Surat Thani, and then hire a driver to take us across the mainland, and then on another shorter ferry to Koh Lanta.

Brecken woke up not feeling well and started puking just before we had to get into our RENTAL car to head to the FERRY, and then get in a PRIVATE VAN for 3.5 hours. We smuggled the poor guy on to the ferry with his sand-castle-bucket-turned-puke-bucket and tried not to draw attention to ourselves amongst all the COVID-paranoid passengers.

While we waited a day for our friends to arrive so we could all check into our baller mansion, we stayed in a little bungalow on the beach, where we slept in twin beds, 7 dwarves style.

It was so great to get back to our favorite beach! Samui was nice, but Koh Lanta will always be the best.

I mean, where do we get the right to stay in a place like this?!

Funcle Taylor arranged a private snorkeling trip for all of us to Koh Ha, a set of 5 islands about an hour boat ride away from Koh Lanta. It was magical.

We had so much fun returning to the island that took care of us through our first smokey season, our first online learning stint, and our first wave of COVID here in Thailand, and this time sharing it with some of our favorite Chiang Mai friends!

Just before getting to Koh Lanta, another COVID wave was hitting Thailand. School was going to switch to online, and we were kind of hoping to get stuck on the island again, but our school was hoping to return to in-person learning rather quickly, so they summoned everyone back from their holidays before flights became scarce/grounded. We were bummed, but made the best of it.

While last year’s online learning was made more bearable because we had a pool and beach to distract us, we have to admit it was logistically easier this time around, since we all had our own devices and spaces.

Mr. Nick got a kick out of Brecken watching Mr. Nick’s videos.

I completely forgot about (American) Mother’s Day, since we were knee deep in online learning madness, and it’s not exactly advertised in Thailand, but Nick is a champ, and not only remembered, but made it super special.

Stuff was pretty shut down in Chiang Mai, and school just kept extending online learning one week at a time, hoping for the government to ease restrictions for international schools (since Thai schools were on summer holiday, and we were the only ones in session). It was a LOT of together time, and there were behavior plans, tears, yelling, and apologies.

But there was also lots of quality time, too.

There was some fun sprinkled in amongst the shutdown. Mila turned 6, and Brecken spent 2 weeks making her a castle, complete with turrets, gold paint, a fluffy rug, wall art, and more treasures inside. Only the best for his betrothed.

Mila’s parents are the coolest, and hired a pair of face painters for the party, who went way beyond faces.

They even humored Nick with some bday party ink.

Pools were closed, so we had to get creative in the 100+ degree heat.

The kids’ best neighborhood buddy, Ben, moved away (8 min drive…but still), so we had a little goodbye party for him. Nick and I might have been the saddest of all. Ben is the sweetest kid, finds joy in everything, and the kids’ creativity and imaginations are boundless when they’re all together.

I also turned FORTY during the 3rd wave of COVID/2nd online learning stint. Restaurants were closed, and social gatherings limited, so Nick hired a chef from a fancy restaurant to make a 5 course meal for 10 of our closest friends. It was amazing!

He went all out on ridiculous decorations, and our friend Jordan hosted it at her house (even though Taylor was out of town in the U.S!).

The chef, who grows a lot of what he cooks on his own farm, brought a staff of about 5 people. Upon arrival, Jordan’s oven went out, and they calmly pivoted and reworked everything using the grill! To buy himself some time I’m sure, he served dessert first “because you’re 40 years old and you can eat dessert first if you goddamn please.” Genius.

Then a big storm came through and the power went out. The meal still went off without a hitch. Total professionals!

Because Nick is ridiculous, he also had a lifesize cutout of me made, and passed it around to all our friends the week before so they could take photos with “Young Sara.”

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It was a no-kids party, but I happily bought myself another cake the next day, and we celebrated at home with them, too.

Nick took them to Mr. DIY, a store in Thailand that sells super cheap everything, and let them choose gifts. I got some… interesting stuff.

I also got a PACKAGE IN THE MAIL! This never happens, mostly because mail has been somewhat unreliable during COVID times here, and oftentimes people get heavily taxed on packages shipped from overseas, so we’ve advised people against mailing us anything. But our awesome friends Lisa and Kerry decided to go for it, it made it, and we were all treated to some ‘Merican stuff!!

We’ve also gotten a few packages since! It seems packages are arriving within 3-4 weeks of being shipped, and as long as we have them sent to school, we haven’t been taxed!

The happy ending to this year’s online learning was that we got to end the year in person! The international schools in Chiang Mai appealed to the government to let us all go back for the last 1.5 weeks of the school year, and it worked! Unfortunately many of our students (especially my class of mostly Chinese students) had returned to their home countries during online learning, so some of us had pretty small classes.

By the last 4 days of school, I was down to 2 students!

It was a fun, laidback end to the school year, which we all needed. I had time to visit Brecken (and Mr. Nick’s) class quite a bit to participate in all the fun end of year activities in K3.

And Brecken got to have in-person graduation! I’m not sure who was more excited–Brecken, or Mr. Nick.

I also had fun planning lots of “playdates” with other classes, so my tiny class of 2 could have some fun. Naturally, I invited Nora and Bryn’s class a lot. =)

So that ended our second year teaching overseas. Even though we had to end both years with about 9 weeks of online learning, we’ve also had a lot of “normal” mixed in, which we wouldn’t have necessarily had in the states. So challenges aside, we are grateful!

Summer started with a stray cat that adopted us. “Lady” was not allowed into the house, but that didn’t stop her (or our kids) from believing that she belonged here.

Nick and I are NOT cat people, but it brought the kids so much joy, we ended up buying them a big bag of cat food. The rest was all the kids.

Brecken’s birthday was technically June 4th, but pools were all still closed, and he had his heart set on a pool party. So we held out a month, and as soon as pools opened, we had a dual party at a water park with his April birthday buddy who also had to postpone his party. A good time was had by all.

Brecken is still obsessed with rocks and gems, and one of his classmates got him this set that made him pretty freakin happy.

He’s also still quite the builder, and mommy was getting tired of sharing her tools, so Brecken got his own toolset, which he immediately had to use to put together his new bike from China, which came in 100 pieces.

He also got to take a trip to his first Thai lumberyard. We came home with several boards, which Brecken immediately asked to be cut into several smaller pieces so he could build a bookshelf for Bryn. In case you’re wondering, it takes a parent roughly 15 minutes to cut through a 1×6 with a hacksaw. Brecken has already started his 2021 Christmas list, and it includes a circular saw and table saw.

On our way home, we saw that one of our neighbors was having a tree cut down, and the trunk was chopped up into pieces ready to be hauled away. We asked if we could take them, and then hauled them down the road to our place. Brecken decided he wanted to turn a couple into a workbench, and another one into a chair. We asked the workers if they would come over with their chainsaw when they were done. Not only did this guy happily roll up on his motorbike (driving with one hand and holding the chainsaw with the other), he carved the logs exactly how Brecken wanted them, and then refused to accept any money. I love Thailand. Also, Brecken has now added a third saw to his Christmas list.

So the 3rd wave of COVID in Thailand subsided, things opened up for a bit, and we’ve had some fun. The COVID story isn’t over here, though, and the waves keep coming. Bangkok has been hit especially hard, causing a lot of travel restrictions and precautionary measures in Chiang Mai, Thailand’s second largest city. More on that and the rest of summer in another post!

Cheers!

Sara

After the awesome in-person learning end to the school year in June, we were all pumped for a summer of normalcy. Chiang Mai had just let us go back to IN PERSON SCHOOL after 8 weeks of online learning; surely everything was fine now.

It started off like a pretty normal summer. We went to the dentist, because we’re the funnest parents ever, and winter and summer breaks always start with a field trip to the dentist!

We hiked.

We went to this super fun 3D art museum.

Nick and the girls made a giant batch of salsa.

We worked out, and the gym took lots of pictures of us.

Nick and a friend brought our collective 6 kids, ages 1-8, fishing. The size of the fish in this lake would make one question if perhaps it might be a nuclear waste reservoir, but they were all happy to wrestle these (radioactive?) beasts out of the water.

Even the torrential downpour didn’t dampen the joy.

Nick had a couple golf outings, where he may have sweat a bit.

And I made sure to eat All The Mango Sticky Rice before mango season was over.

We decided to host a 4th of July party for all our expat friends. Another COVID wave was lurking in Bangkok, and Chiang Mai was preemptively amping up restrictions. We didn’t realize social gatherings were banned until the day of the party, so we quick whipped up some cookies and delivered them to all the neighbors as a “Happy4thOfJulyInAmericaPleaseDon’tCallTheCopsOnOurPartyKthanks” gesture.

Nick made all party attendees commit to a bags tournament with a 100 baht buy-in. Then he promptly won the tournament and kept all our friends’ money.

Brecken has taken up skateboarding, and we found this AMAZING skatepark in a warehouse not too far away where you can skate for FREE. They also offer private lessons. He’s hooked.

Bryn is still plucking away at guitar.

Nora is also still playing piano. We keep dreaming of the day they’ll agree to play a duet, but so far it’s a hard pass for both.

We happened upon this bike track in town (also empty). Pretty sure it’s just for little kids on striders, but we threw them out there on their big kid bikes anyway.

Nick celebrated (the 4th anniversary of) his 40th birthday last month! We went to his favorite restaurant for lunch; the only place in town that has a dessert with BOTH PEANUT BUTTER AND CHOCOLATE IN IT. So good.

Then a couple days later, we stopped at Thai Costco, bought as much food and beer as our little Nissan Altima would hold (man, sometimes we really miss the HO), and headed a half hour south to our Airbnb CASTLE.

I know, right.

We invited a bunch of friends and their kids, and celebrated King (princess?) Nick!

After we tucked the kids into their shwanky quarters for the night and drew all the velvet curtains, we turned that fancy marble dining table into Nick’s Birthday Flip Cup Table. Just like back in my kickball days, I dominated everyone. Still got it!

There was also some Royal Beer Pong.

A couple of weeks before the party, our friend Ava (teacher friend slash realtor) told us about a house in her village that recently went up for rent. As you might recall, Ava found us our first house 2 years ago when we moved to Thailand, and it happened to be right behind hers! We loved having Ava as our neighbor and our kids became good friends with her daughter Anya. We loved our house, loved our village and loved our awesome neighbors! Then Ava up and MOVED while we were marooned on Koh Lanta last year (rude!) to the next neighborhood over, and promptly recruited a bunch of families with kids to also move there. We had 2 kids left in our tiny village–both great friends of our kids’, but one went to Thai school, so was kind of on an opposite schedule when it came to school breaks, and the other one ended up moving to another village earlier this summer. Ava has been showing us houses in her village ever since she moved there, but they have all been too small for us. So when a bigger one came up, our ears perked up. We checked it out, loved it…and then someone else rented it before us (sob). We were super bummed. And so was Ava. So much so, that she went and knocked on another guy’s door in the hood, because she noticed he didn’t stay at the house much, and asked him if he’d be interested in renting it out. He said yes! So he moved out, rented us his place, and we now live roughly 1km away from our old house, in a village with a pool (that’s right across the street!), lots of more space for the kids to ride their bikes, and a ton of kids to play with!

While we waited anxiously for 3 weeks before we could move in, we tried to keep busy with whatever was still open in Chiang Mai and the surrounding area. Hotels and Airbnbs have been a STEAL, so we checked out this awesome place in Chiang Dao for a night, about an hour away. Again, we were the only people there.

It also had a bathtub, a rare find around here, so the kids took 3 baths in about 18 hours.

Also while passing the time til we could move, we said goodbye to our friend Drew, who was moving back to the states. Something super sad about living abroad is that people leave. A lot.

Drew was our kids’ PE teacher this year, and he was damn good at it. He’s also my personal plant guru, and I’m certain all my houseplants will die (faster) deaths now that he’s gone.

Then it was finally time to pack up and move! The kids were super helpful packing up their own stuff. We didn’t have to pack THAT well, since we were only moving 3 minutes away, and were moving everything in several back-and-forth trips with our friends’ pickup truck.

Since being in Thailand, I’ve accumulated some live edge wood furniture that I’m slightly obsessed with. It’s made in a local woodcarving village just south of town, it’s absolutely GORGEOUS, and grotesquely cheap. I know we’ll never be able to take it with us when we return to the States, so my only prerequisite for moving was that we were able to fit it all in the new house. Including these floating shelves. I hired these guys to remove, patch the wall, and reinstall these babies in our new house. Seemed simple enough, but 2 days later they were still wrestling away. Bless them.

It was an ugly move–6 back and forth trips in a borrowed pick up truck with stuff haphazardly stacked in the back and kids riding on our laps and/or buried under boxes.

We also didn’t have many boxes, so we did some quick unpacking between trips so we could reuse boxes. Super low budget move, folks.

We did hire movers for a few larger things. Two guys in flipflops showed up in their truck, and managed to wrangle everything in 2 trips, in a torrential downpour, while still removing their shoes every time they walked across a threshold. I love Thailand.

Remember 2 years ago, when we arrived in Thailand with only this much stuff? Yeah, we don’t either.

The new house came with a VACUUM, which none of us had used in 2 full years. I was lukewarm on it, but Brecken clearly inhereted his Grampa Hansen’s genes, and pulls it out for all minor cleanup jobs (and then vacuums every nook and cranny of the house).

The house was pretty much a blank slate, which is not usual in Thai rentals. Almost all are fully furnished. This made us a little nervous, since we had acquired SOME furniture in the last 2 years, but nothing essential like beds or wardrobes (no closets in Thai houses). But Ava came to the rescue and convinced the owner to give us a furniture allowance so we could pick out our own stuff!

The kids put all their own stuff away. They were seriously great little movers.

Nora & Bryn lucked out with these awesome built-ins in their room! We allowed them each 2 drawers and 2 shelves, and then promptly filled the rest with our own crap.

We also have a bunch of fruit trees in our yard! We have 3 different kinds of lime trees, an avocado tree, a mango tree, a papaya tree, a noina (custard apple) tree, and a bunch of thai chili plants. We’re pretty pumped.

And…there’s a BATHTUB!! We may never shower again.

Did we mention the pool is ACROSS THE STREET from our house?

Nevermind that Chiang Mai ordered all pools closed again 2 days after we moved in (insert sobbing emoji here).

But the kids have had no trouble finding entertainment in the village. Brecken discovered this pile of discarded concrete planters and construction material and is now gone for hours a day, while we sit at home and ignore the fact that there are probably snakes and scorpions living in it.

Our kitchen counters are legit child-sized (30 inches high..we’re serious), and Nora and her new neighborhood friend have made 2 batches of zucchini bread in the last 2 weeks.

We frequently end up with all the kids at one of the neighborhood houses for dinner. The host will throw something together and everyone will bring random stuff. It’s a delightful feeding frenzy.

Our move coincided very closely with the opening ceremonies of the Tokyo Olympics. Nick and I LOVE the olympics, and always do it up for the opening ceremonies. Since our house was still in moving shambles, we invited ourselves over to our friends Jordan and Taylor’s house (not big Olympics people), and told them we were having an opening ceremonies party. We instructed Taylor to order a shit ton of sushi (because, Tokyo), fire up the VPN, and login to our parents’ cable. Boom–instant opening ceremonies party.

Jordan is heavily involved in kitten rescue, and at any given time has about 5-7 adorable kittens in her house. They’re like party favors. (Seriously–Mary & Jona went home with a couple last year).

More celebrations were on deck. Nora and Bryn turned NINE, along with Kueanoon, our former neighbor, and their birthday triplet (same year, month and day!). Ben’s birthday is the day before. So we had a quadruple birthday party at an outdoor restaurant!

Seriously… stop growing, please.

This place was awesome–they had a playground, animals, giant swings….and SOFT GRASS! I just wanted to roll around in it. And once again, our group was the only ones there.

I absolutely love having kid birthday parties in Thailand. We literally rolled up to this place with NOTHING. A few days before, we just told them we were coming, ordered a bunch of Thai food off their menu, and had some cupcakes delivered from a bakery. They took care of everything, and we just enjoyed ourselves. Magical.

The girls got a bunch of books, which they immediately started devouring.

Nora has been asking for a makeup set for months, much to my chagrin. I tried to point her in other, more exciting and age-appropriate birthday gift directions, but she held strong. I’m not ready for this, people.

We also stayed overnight at this minigolf resort with some friends. It was pretty awesome. Pool, minigolf, really good restaurant, and free bikes to use. And of course, we were the only ones there.

Our friends Jeshua and Chloe have taken us on some pretty awesome culinary adventures lately. Chloe is Chinese, and took us for some (semi) authentic Chinese food at this restaurant that clearly during non-COVID times is super packed (it’s HUGE). But alas, we had it to ourselves, and they even let Nick steal the mic from the dinnertime entertainment (a singer they obviously hired just for our party) and sing karaoke on their giant stage. He was in heaven.

They also took us to a hot pot restaurant that was super entertaining. We ordered an obscene amount of raw meat and seafood using an iPad, which was then delivered to the table by a robot (but unloaded to our table by about 4 human servers dedicated to our table). We had 4 different soups to cook the meat and seafood in, and I’m embarrassed to say I think we finished the obscene amount of meat. There was also a traditional Chinese face changing performer and a noodle dancer guy. Most fun I’ve had at dinner in a long time!

When Chloe booked the reservation she told them it was Nick’s birthday (even though it was long past) just to make sure we got the full fanfare. I’d say it worked.

And we forgot to take pics, but Jeshua and Chloe also arranged breakfast for us all at Shangri-La Hotel. We took no pictures, but it was hands down the fanciest place we’ve been in Chiang Mai. Due to COVID, they changed their buffet to an order-all-you-can-eat off the ala carte menu, and let’s just say they definitely lost money on us.

The vaccination scene in Thailand, and more specifically Chiang Mai, has been dire to say the least. Countless online signups have been sent out, as well as promises for foreigners, teachers, etc to be vaccinated “soon.” We had clicked on so many links and given our information on so many websites/signups that we had lost count, and more importantly, hope. But, such is Thailand, and a completely unadvertised opportunity came available, and we decided to try our luck getting in line at a foreigners-over-60 queue, and somehow managed to get ourselves a first dose of Sinovac, the Chinese vaccine.

The catch was that the second dose would be Astra Zeneca, a combo the Thai government came up with as an answer to the rapidly-spreading Delta variant, against which Sinovac alone was proving ineffective. While the research related to a Sinovac-Astra Zeneca combo wasn’t super solid, we were hearing that getting an ineffective vaccine was better than getting no vaccine, as it would quickly become a matter of freedom in Thailand, whether or not it would protect us from getting/spreading/dying from COVID. So we pulled up our sleeves and went for it.

As of school year start for international schools (beginning of August), Chiang Mai still had a ban on in-person learning. So our school decided to delay the start of the school year 3 weeks in order to (hopefully) avoid online learning. They adjusted the school calendar, taking away our fall break, 1 week of winter break, and 1 week of smokey season break, and crossed their fingers. As of now, it looks like we’ll still be starting the school year online anyway, which is a HUGE bummer, but one we realize the whole world has dealt with at one point or another the last 2 years.

So we’ve been keeping ourselves busy with stuff like…

Thai! We’ve continued our weekly lessons with Kru Joe, and have recently upped the ante with READING AND WRITING. Not for the faint of heart, folks.

The kids have embraced rainy season and created a snail shelter in our driveway.

Nick has discovered our new neighborhood market, where you can get a roady on tap.

Lots of stuff is closed, but Kru May is still holding Fly Yoga classes.

So here we are, in Thailand’s 4th (5th?) wave of COVID. The first wave in Thailand was about 4000 cases country-wide. This latest wave is roughly 20,000 cases PER DAY (mostly in Bangkok). Since the current vaccination rate is so extremely low (about 6%), and no solid information on when more vaccines will be available, there are many unknowns about the length of this wave. This has gravely impacted enrollment at our school. About half of our students come from China, Japan or Korea, and many of them returned to their home countries for the summer. It is now extremely difficult to get back into the country, and specifically into Chiang Mai, since all domestic flights are grounded. Since I teach in the AAP department (structured English immersion for students coming from out of country), we knew our numbers would be super low.

Yesterday we found out that they had to eliminate my position and dissolve the AAP program due to no enrollment.

Obviously this sucks, there’s no way around it. COVID is The Worst. But opportunity is already beginning to grow out of this loss. Nick has always dreamed of opening his own preschool/kindergarten, and we’ve always talked about how amazing his program would be. We asked the school if they would allow me to take Nick’s ECC position at the school so he could pursue something else, and they graciously agreed. While he won’t be opening a full fledged school in Thailand during COVID, he now has the space to start with a mini program, an in-person learning pod of sorts. Lots of logistics to work out, but it’s starting to feel like there was a purpose in all of this. Would we have taken that leap had we not been pushed? Maybe not.

So, we pivot a bit. And continue to be grateful for our health, a great school for our kids, and a supportive community of friends here in Thailand. We would love your prayers as we navigate this new path!

Cheers,

Sara

It’s hard to believe that only 4 short months ago, we found out that I was losing my job, that I would be taking over Nick’s job, and that Nick would be striking out on his own and starting his own school. We’ve been through (and back through) all the stages of grief, plus periods of excitement, hope, exhaustion, sadness, and contentment. It’s definitely been, and continues to be a journey!

The first thing we did was to take a night away to process, gather ourselves, and remember that, while we’re experiencing a big bump in the road, at least we get to do it in beautiful Thailand!

Then we finally did some transition counseling, which is apparently available for expat families when they move abroad, but we never knew existed until 2 years in! It was really validating to be able to look back and see all the stages we’d gone through and realize it was all totally normal. And as a bonus, it now totally applied to our NEW transition!

Next on the agenda was finding a location for Nick’s school. A friend suggested Chiang Mai Drama Centre, which was renting out their space to different groups. It was on the 3rd floor of a shopping area, pretty far from our house, but also in the area where a lot of expat families live.

Nothing glamorous, but the price was right, and after checking it out, we decided it would be a good first location for Mr. Nick’s Kindercamp!

As a complete coincidence (but not really… there have been so many coincidences that just couldn’t have been coincidences), Nick’s former TA, Ms. Poppy, was looking for work. Nick pulled her on board, and they got to work building Kindercamp.

Meanwhile, the rest of us started the school year ONLINE. After delaying the start of the school year for 3 weeks in hopes schools would be permitted to open in person, the government order continued to be extended each week until we finally had to start the year virtually. We were all super bummed.

Each day was a new adventure in how to keep everyone’s spirits up. Letting them choose their own workspaces daily worked somewhat, but also felt like I was moving 3 kids into college dorm rooms everyday. Lots of storage solutions and cord management.

My workspace was not as cozy or glamorous.

My workspace also doubled as the WOLC (Windschitl Online Learning Cafe), which was open every 50 minutes. The first 2 sittings were set menus, and then it would deteriorate throughout the day into a self-serve free for all, with me mouthing “ABSOLUTELY NOT” at Brecken trying to microwave candy canes and marshmallows and drink them through an oreo straw, while simultaneously trying to get 4 year olds to guess the letter of the day in a zoom call.

Plus, it was always fun to have a live audience at the table during my ridiculous attempts to engage 3 year olds online (yes, at the beginning of the year, I was teaching 3, 4 AND 5yos online)!

The days became a fun game. My morning class would finish, and I would have 5 minutes before the kids’ classes finished to whip up (the first of 16) lunches.

Then I’d try and figure out something (ANYTHING) to squeeze into another part of the day to distract them from the monotony of their 6 online meetings a day. Sometimes it was all I could do to get milk and bread delivered by a guy on a motorbike, other days I pulled off family cookie-baking.

We also did a lot of online learning playdates with kids from their classes. This definitely brought more joy to the day, and it was hilarious watching them manically try to maximize their playtime during their 10 minute breaks between classes.

At some point a couple weeks into online learning, the kids decided they wanted a hamster. Nick and I are not pet people (and especially not rodent people), and we spent a lot of energy trying to convince them they didn’t actually want a hamster, and that they were barely keeping our last year’s online learning pets (fish) alive. They were relentless. So we did what all good parents would do: create a series of impossible hoops for them to jump through before they would be allowed to get a hamster (in hopes they would give up/lose interest).

The first hoop required them to use all their daily allotted screentime for a week to research breeds of hamsters, hamster care, hamster equipment, and recent developments in hamster neurosurgery…and then compile it into a written report.

Which they friggin did.

They also had to do ALL their daily chores and personal hygeine tasks without being asked, for 10 days straight (impossible, right?!)…done.

In a last ditch effort to save us from rodent-hood, we told them hamsters take huge smelly poops and have to have their cages cleaned DAILY, and it was highly likely we’d end up with a biter. They were unfazed (dammit).

So off to the pet shop we went…where they had a million baby BUNNIES!!

You know I love me some bunnies.

But in the end, we went home with a 3 week old hamster, who was christened with the name Cookie Arlo Windschitl.

The girls are still complete bookworms, and it hasn’t been easy (or cheap!) to keep up with their reading appetites while overseas. We miss libraries so much! Our school library is pretty lame, and there are very few English bookstores here. We end up ordering a lot of books from a guy in another province who buys a pallet at a time from the UK and will ship sets to us. Plus there’s the occasional box from Grama!

We did find one pretty cool shop with great prices, though!

After 6 long weeks of online learning without having set foot in school yet, all of a sudden (like most things in Thailand) the government gave the green light for international schools to go back in person. We did our spit tests, and we were on our way!

Since Nick now takes our only car about 25km down south to his school everyday, the kids and I are now bike commuters.

It’s about a 10 minute ride on some tiny sois, past a temple, and a few little roadside markets. The locals have gotten used to our little farang parade twice a day, but we were definitely a sight to behold the first couple weeks!

Being in ECC is weird. I still feel like I’m subbing for Nick most days. But I have the absolute best little class, and I can honestly say I’m really enjoying kindergarten!

I was always jealous of Nick’s department–the TAs are amazing, the holiday celebrations huge, the costumes and decorations over the top, and they always have lots of staff get togethers. They take baby showers, end-of-the-semester, and goodbye parties very seriously. They even threw Nick a surprise “Good Luck” party to celebrate his new venture!

We have loved our new neighborhood, especially with so many kids from our school who have been on the same online learning schedule. They run out and play together during lunch and between classes, and once everyone’s devices are shut down for the day, they’re all banished to the outdoors, and they ride bikes around the hood til the streetlights come on.

Brecken got a drill for his birthday during the summer, and has been repurposing the same 6 boards since. It’s pretty ridiculous the stuff he builds completely unassisted.

Ava’s house is still the go-to for shabu parties!

Another fun neighborhood activity–watching the workers change the streetlights with all their safety gear and OSHA-approved procedures.

With no school sports or after school activities allowed yet this year, a few dads have rented out a local soccer field once a week where the play on father/kid mixed teams. Brecken loves it, and comes home filthy, sweaty, and full of stories about how he’s schooling all the dads. Nora and Bryn have started joining recently, too.

Despite not being able to do a lot of extra-curriculars, some things still being closed down, and the bouncing back and forth between online and in-person school, we’ve managed to delight in the small things.

Like getting noodles from this couple at the weekly market near our house (pretty much weekly for 2.5 years!).

Crashing our friends’ staycations.

Going to this awesome hot pot restaurant.

Nick’s pickle sweatshop.

Thai massages.

Double date Thai massages.

Couch naps.

Yoga fly.

Muay Thai.

Bryn learned the blues.

Tried a sewing class.

More market food.

Makerspace and art projects (combined).

A friend’s wedding.

1:1 UNO happy hours on the balcony.

Took our semi-annual deworming pills! So fun!

Nick dabbling in dungeons and dragons (…I know).

Breakfast in bed.

The kids all up in my bathtub.

All of a sudden it was Halloween! Our favorite! We got right to work painting Thai pumpkins orange.

We were happy to be in-person on Halloween! Even though the kids and I are in different “bubbles” now, and I don’t get to see them during the day, we snapped a pic at drop off.

Trick or treating in our ‘hood was put to a vote (due to concerns of The Unmentionable). It passed by one vote! The little monsters were thrilled.

Nick took his costume straight from school to the gym…

…and immediately won a prize.

We went to an (adults only) Halloween party.

After 4 glorious weeks of in person learning, at the end of the school day on Halloween, we found out we were going back online (sob). This brought all kinds of disappointment, not the least of which was that we’d be online for our favorite Thai holiday, Loy Krathong.

Nevertheless, we got together with our neighbors and made Krathongs with banana leaves from our trees.

The girls and I had a mommy/daughter overnight with 3 other families at a really cool place on the river, just a few minutes from our house. It was a great way to spend Loy Krathong, and to lessen the blow of more online learning news.

The boys held down the fort by apparently lighting it on fire.

But also headed out on the town to see the decorations and release some lanterns!

Next up was Thanksgiving, another one of our faves. Our annual Friendsgiving food sign-up spreadsheet started circulating a couple weeks before, which kicked Nick into chef mode. I admittedly have never contributed anything to our Thanksgiving meals, even back in the States. Nick has always reveled in his 2-day cooking frenzy, and I just gluttonously enjoy it (and also take on full clean up of the Thanksgiving-prep-kitchen-bomb, scrubbing mashed potato bits out of the window screens for days). Anyway, this year Nick was THRILLED that the kids wanted in on the prep! They peeled, chopped, sauteed… it was quite the operation.

No (full) fingers were sacrificed; and only a small amount of Nora’s knuckle skin ended up in the mashed potatoes.

The crew at Friendsgiving was none the wiser!

The kids love having Friendsgiving at Ms. Jordan’s house. She’s always got a slew of foster kittens ready to be man-handled.

Our British besties that we got stranded on Koh Lanta with 1.5 years ago (and who promised us they were moving back to Chiang Mai, but then chose Mexico and Lisbon instead) came to visit! The kids and Edward picked right up where they left off, even though it seemed strange without the gorgeous, empty Koh Lanta beach as their backdrop.

Tom and Eleanor are big thinkers with contagious entrepreneurial spirits, and we spent a couple great dinners spitballing Kindercamp ideas!

I was recently invited on a ladies camping trip with some (very experienced) camper moms. Loving everything about camping except the sleeping-in-a-tent part, I was a little hesitant, but said yes for adventure’s sake.

We headed up Doi Pui, the second highest peak in Thailand. The road was a super fun, windy drive (made extra fun by the fact I got to drive it alone, with no carsick children wailing in the backseat). It was delightfully chilly at the top, and had a gorgeous view.

I was way too intimidated to sign up for a meal, so volunteered to be in charge of snacks. I may have gone overboard on the charcuterie and Miang Kham, but none of us were sorry about it.

We hiked up to the peak the next morning and were treated to more amazing views.

There were even PINE TREES up there! They were apparently planted a few decades ago as part of a reforestation project. It smelled deliciously like home.

Also, the Thanon Thong Chai mountain range (of which Doi Pui is a part), is technically the beginning of the Himalayas. So I pretty much climbed Mt. Everest.

After another 6 week of online learning, we were allowed to go back in person for the last 2 weeks before winter break. We were thrilled!

As usual, we all found ways to celebrate (in our own bubbles), and decorations, costumes and parties were still prioritized!

On our last day before break we said goodbye to our amazing classroom TA, Ms. Nuey. Nuey has never left Thailand before, but has decided to move across the globe and take an au pair job in Atlanta, GA! She was Nick’s TA last year, and I inherited her amazing help this year. She has made my transition to kindergarten so painless, and I’m going to be LOST without her!

I organized secret santa for the ECC staff, and they went ALL IN. It was so fun, and we all revealed ourselves at our end of year party right after the kids left school the last day.

In preparation for our friends’ annual ugly sweater party, Nick polled the kids on what shape he should shave into his “reverse” sweater, and Christmas tree won out this year.

Brecken and I had to miss out on the festivities due to a stomach bug (him, not me). He was so bummed–it’s his favorite party of the year. He dresses up in his little Santa suit, wraps up gifts for EVERY kid (his own treasures, stuff he finds outside or around the house, that he thinks each kid will like), puts it all in a red pillowcase, slings it over his shoulder, and rolls up to the party like a boss. He gets so much joy from handing out those gifts! I’m not sure who was more bummed for him to miss the party–him or me–as seeing him gifting his little treasures to all his friends is probably my favorite part of Christmas.

Nick and the girls headed off to represent the Windschitls at the party…

…and Nick and Bryn came home with the Best Sweater awards in both the adult and child categories. This is Nick’s second consecutive win, and one of his proudest life achievements.

Nick and The Christmas Cookie Crew (our 3 + Ben) were back in action again this year, painstakingly churning out the usual 6 at a time in our easy bake oven.

We also had a neighborhood secret santa exchange among the kids. So. Much. Joy.

Between all the Christmas festivities, I managed to squeeze in getting my booster shot. Booster eligibility was super confusing in Chiang Mai, and was based on the combo of shots you initially received. I decided to try my luck at a Thai government hospital (translation: no foreigners, no English). I just kept getting in queues, and somehow walked out with an Astrazeneca jab (I think?). Win!

We’re still waiting on 5-12 year old eligibility in Thailand, and also hoping that it brings fewer school closures.

One thing that WAS consistent the last 4 months, was Nick’s IN-PERSON kindercamp! Despite all the school closures, he was able to stay in-person, which his students and their parents loved, and we were all jealous of! Several parents opted out of online learning at their kids’ international schools and sent them to Nick’s kindercamp instead, boosting his enrollment during those periods. So how has Kindercamp been going? I think the pictures speak for themselves.

This has always been a dream of Nick’s, and he. is. rocking it. This is only a small stepping stone and there will be much evolution, but Thailand has been a great place to start. The ease of renting a space, hiring an assistant, providing food, finding cheap/donated supplies, etc, in Thailand is never lost on us. The bureaucracy, red tape and regulations in the U.S. would make this a very different venture. And while we may go that route someday, it has been an amazing gift to be able to try it out in this country first. He has spent 20 years figuring out how to make the kindergarten experience awesome for kids AND parents, and now he gets to do it without having to squeeze it into the mold of a traditional school. He’s totally in his element.

While both Nick and I have had pretty big gig shifts this year, probably the biggest change has been how much we now have to rely on each other to do our new jobs. For the past 11 years, we both had the “teacher” title in common, but it pretty much stopped there. I was at a Deaf school (which also happened to be a charter), he was at a public school in a large district. I jumped around the lower elementary grades, he was a lifer in Kindergarten. Now I’m in the big international school in a grade level new to me, and he’s in a multi-age start-up.

It’s long been in my nature to reinvent perfectly round, efficiently-rolling wheels. I can spend (waste?) lots of time trying to make even my own lessons from the year before incrementally better/flashier for the next year’s group. While Nick and I have very different teaching styles, I vowed to make an already-challenging year easier on myself by using his tried and true lessons he offered to hand down to me, without trying to add too much of my own flair. So once a week, we sit down at the dining room table after the kids go to bed, and he helps me plan my next week. And by “helps me plan,” I mean, he gives me everything I need for each lesson. Over the past 20 years he has refined and distilled his curriculum down to only the stuff he knows is effective and that kids love doing. And he keeps a lot of it from year to year. This is a completely foreign concept to me, as I’ve been in special ed/ESL for my whole career, where the abilities vary so widely from class to class each year, that I’m rarely able to repeat lessons without at least altering them. When he tells me to teach THIS one week, and move onto THAT the next week, my question is constantly, “How do you know they’ll only need a week for this, and what if they’re not ready to move on to that?” And he just knows. Because he. knows. kindergartners. It’s been a lesson in trust and humility to sit down with him each week, take the lessons he’s giving me, and resist the urge to change a bunch of stuff and try to make it “better” or more “my style.” I’m grateful for the gift of the material, but even moreso for the gift of learning to accept help and let go of overwork and perfection.

In true symbiotic form, Nick also relies on me for helping to usher his Kindercamp baby into the world. It’s a of midwifery of sorts. He has these amazing ideas and an unwavering vision of the experience he wants kids to have, and as he tries to wrestle them out of his imagination and into the world, I’m monitoring vitals, suggesting less painful methods to birth the baby, calling in extra help when needed, and offering encouragement and emotional support. The parts of my job description that don’t fit into this slick little analogy are billing manager, financial analyst, google form engineer, translator liason, graphic designer, and publicity director. I am not naturally gifted at any one of these things, but Nick is admittedly worse at all of them, so I’m muddling my way through, and we’re making it work!

We’re also blessed with wonderful entrepreneurial friends here who also happen to be big fans of Mr. Nick. Thanks to them, and at no cost to us, we have an invoicing system, spreadsheets with magical formulas, translation services, a hand-me-down computer, subs to teach during holiday breaks, and even an intern! It’s truly amazing the support we’ve been given without even asking. We’re so grateful.

This has been our second straight Christmas in Thailand without visitors to share it with. My parents made it for our first year, just before The Unmentionable hit, but no one has been able to come since. It was still a good one with just our little fam!

After learning to play monopoly on a recent staycation, we decided to get the kids the global version for Christmas. This is what arrived from China.

Also, because we’re insane, Brecken has now added “pickaxe” and “hand saw” to his rapidly growing collection of Tools Too Dangerous for Kids.

After all the challenges in the last 4 months, and with Omicron looming, we were really itching to get away for a few days during winter break. Luckily, Santa brought a scavenger hunt…that led to a trip to the beach!

Definitely not the same, but we’ve recently discovered a “beach” in Chiang Mai, just minutes from our house. It overlooks the Ping River, which is definitely not beautiful, but they trucked in a ton of sand, and serve beer in paper cups during booze bans! It will definitely tide us over between real beach trips!

A few months ago, I started taking sunrise walks in the area around our village.

During The Time of the Unmentionable, coupled with big changes in our careers, it has been easy to get caught up in it all, and in some ways, forget we are living abroad. We’ve been living overseas for 2.5 years. We thought we would have visited home by now, had several visitors, seen more of SE Asia…but instead we’re navigating online learning and life interruptions like a lot of our friends back home. It takes a lot of intentionality to remember that this experience abroad, whether it looks like what we imagined or not, is a gift. It’s something my daily walks have reminded me of, and an intentionality we hope to carry into the new year.

We get a lot of questions about our intentions. =) We continue to hold it all loosely, but we have very intentional plans of a lengthy visit home this summer…and then a return to Thailand for another school year.

Thank you for supporting this crazy journey of ours (even if you’re someone who is mad we’re not home yet =). We love you!

Cheers,

Sara

It’s hard to believe that only 4 short months ago, we found out that I was losing my job, that I would be taking over Nick’s job, and that Nick would be striking out on his own and starting his own school. We’ve been through (and back through) all the stages of grief, plus periods of excitement, hope, exhaustion, sadness, and contentment. It’s definitely been, and continues to be a journey!

The first thing we did was to take a night away to process, gather ourselves, and remember that, while we’re experiencing a big bump in the road, at least we get to do it in beautiful Thailand!

Then we finally did some transition counseling, which is apparently available for expat families when they move abroad, but we never knew existed until 2 years in! It was really validating to be able to look back and see all the stages we’d gone through and realize it was all totally normal. And as a bonus, it now totally applied to our NEW transition!

Next on the agenda was finding a location for Nick’s school. A friend suggested Chiang Mai Drama Centre, which was renting out their space to different groups. It was on the 3rd floor of a shopping area, pretty far from our house, but also in the area where a lot of expat families live.

Nothing glamorous, but the price was right, and after checking it out, we decided it would be a good first location for Mr. Nick’s Kindercamp!

As a complete coincidence (but not really… there have been so many coincidences that just couldn’t have been coincidences), Nick’s former TA, Ms. Poppy, was looking for work. Nick pulled her on board, and they got to work building Kindercamp.

Meanwhile, the rest of us started the school year ONLINE. After delaying the start of the school year for 3 weeks in hopes schools would be permitted to open in person, the government order continued to be extended each week until we finally had to start the year virtually. We were all super bummed.

Each day was a new adventure in how to keep everyone’s spirits up. Letting them choose their own workspaces daily worked somewhat, but also felt like I was moving 3 kids into college dorm rooms everyday. Lots of storage solutions and cord management.

My workspace was not as cozy or glamorous.

My workspace also doubled as the WOLC (Windschitl Online Learning Cafe), which was open every 50 minutes. The first 2 sittings were set menus, and then it would deteriorate throughout the day into a self-serve free for all, with me mouthing “ABSOLUTELY NOT” at Brecken trying to microwave candy canes and marshmallows and drink them through an oreo straw, while simultaneously trying to get 4 year olds to guess the letter of the day in a zoom call.

Plus, it was always fun to have a live audience at the table during my ridiculous attempts to engage 3 year olds online (yes, at the beginning of the year, I was teaching 3, 4 AND 5yos online)!

The days became a fun game. My morning class would finish, and I would have 5 minutes before the kids’ classes finished to whip up (the first of 16) lunches.

Then I’d try and figure out something (ANYTHING) to squeeze into another part of the day to distract them from the monotony of their 6 online meetings a day. Sometimes it was all I could do to get milk and bread delivered by a guy on a motorbike, other days I pulled off family cookie-baking.

We also did a lot of online learning playdates with kids from their classes. This definitely brought more joy to the day, and it was hilarious watching them manically try to maximize their playtime during their 10 minute breaks between classes.

At some point a couple weeks into online learning, the kids decided they wanted a hamster. Nick and I are not pet people (and especially not rodent people), and we spent a lot of energy trying to convince them they didn’t actually want a hamster, and that they were barely keeping our last year’s online learning pets (fish) alive. They were relentless. So we did what all good parents would do: create a series of impossible hoops for them to jump through before they would be allowed to get a hamster (in hopes they would give up/lose interest).

The first hoop required them to use all their daily allotted screentime for a week to research breeds of hamsters, hamster care, hamster equipment, and recent developments in hamster neurosurgery…and then compile it into a written report.

Which they friggin did.

They also had to do ALL their daily chores and personal hygeine tasks without being asked, for 10 days straight (impossible, right?!)…done.

In a last ditch effort to save us from rodent-hood, we told them hamsters take huge smelly poops and have to have their cages cleaned DAILY, and it was highly likely we’d end up with a biter. They were unfazed (dammit).

So off to the pet shop we went…where they had a million baby BUNNIES!!

You know I love me some bunnies.

But in the end, we went home with a 3 week old hamster, who was christened with the name Cookie Arlo Windschitl.

The girls are still complete bookworms, and it hasn’t been easy (or cheap!) to keep up with their reading appetites while overseas. We miss libraries so much! Our school library is pretty lame, and there are very few English bookstores here. We end up ordering a lot of books from a guy in another province who buys a pallet at a time from the UK and will ship sets to us. Plus there’s the occasional box from Grama!

We did find one pretty cool shop with great prices, though!

After 6 long weeks of online learning without having set foot in school yet, all of a sudden (like most things in Thailand) the government gave the green light for international schools to go back in person. We did our spit tests, and we were on our way!

Since Nick now takes our only car about 25km down south to his school everyday, the kids and I are now bike commuters.

It’s about a 10 minute ride on some tiny sois, past a temple, and a few little roadside markets. The locals have gotten used to our little farang parade twice a day, but we were definitely a sight to behold the first couple weeks!

Being in ECC is weird. I still feel like I’m subbing for Nick most days. But I have the absolute best little class, and I can honestly say I’m really enjoying kindergarten!

I was always jealous of Nick’s department–the TAs are amazing, the holiday celebrations huge, the costumes and decorations over the top, and they always have lots of staff get togethers. They take baby showers, end-of-the-semester, and goodbye parties very seriously. They even threw Nick a surprise “Good Luck” party to celebrate his new venture!

We have loved our new neighborhood, especially with so many kids from our school who have been on the same online learning schedule. They run out and play together during lunch and between classes, and once everyone’s devices are shut down for the day, they’re all banished to the outdoors, and they ride bikes around the hood til the streetlights come on.

Brecken got a drill for his birthday during the summer, and has been repurposing the same 6 boards since. It’s pretty ridiculous the stuff he builds completely unassisted.

Ava’s house is still the go-to for shabu parties!

Another fun neighborhood activity–watching the workers change the streetlights with all their safety gear and OSHA-approved procedures.

With no school sports or after school activities allowed yet this year, a few dads have rented out a local soccer field once a week where the play on father/kid mixed teams. Brecken loves it, and comes home filthy, sweaty, and full of stories about how he’s schooling all the dads. Nora and Bryn have started joining recently, too.

Despite not being able to do a lot of extra-curriculars, some things still being closed down, and the bouncing back and forth between online and in-person school, we’ve managed to delight in the small things.

Like getting noodles from this couple at the weekly market near our house (pretty much weekly for 2.5 years!).

Crashing our friends’ staycations.

Going to this awesome hot pot restaurant.

Nick’s pickle sweatshop.

Thai massages.

Double date Thai massages.

Couch naps.

Yoga fly.

Muay Thai.

Bryn learned the blues.

Tried a sewing class.

More market food.

Makerspace and art projects (combined).

A friend’s wedding.

1:1 UNO happy hours on the balcony.

Took our semi-annual deworming pills! So fun!

Nick dabbling in dungeons and dragons (…I know).

Breakfast in bed.

The kids all up in my bathtub.

All of a sudden it was Halloween! Our favorite! We got right to work painting Thai pumpkins orange.

We were happy to be in-person on Halloween! Even though the kids and I are in different “bubbles” now, and I don’t get to see them during the day, we snapped a pic at drop off.

Trick or treating in our ‘hood was put to a vote (due to concerns of The Unmentionable). It passed by one vote! The little monsters were thrilled.

Nick took his costume straight from school to the gym…

…and immediately won a prize.

We went to an (adults only) Halloween party.

After 4 glorious weeks of in person learning, at the end of the school day on Halloween, we found out we were going back online (sob). This brought all kinds of disappointment, not the least of which was that we’d be online for our favorite Thai holiday, Loy Krathong.

Nevertheless, we got together with our neighbors and made Krathongs with banana leaves from our trees.

The girls and I had a mommy/daughter overnight with 3 other families at a really cool place on the river, just a few minutes from our house. It was a great way to spend Loy Krathong, and to lessen the blow of more online learning news.

The boys held down the fort by apparently lighting it on fire.

But also headed out on the town to see the decorations and release some lanterns!

Next up was Thanksgiving, another one of our faves. Our annual Friendsgiving food sign-up spreadsheet started circulating a couple weeks before, which kicked Nick into chef mode. I admittedly have never contributed anything to our Thanksgiving meals, even back in the States. Nick has always reveled in his 2-day cooking frenzy, and I just gluttonously enjoy it (and also take on full clean up of the Thanksgiving-prep-kitchen-bomb, scrubbing mashed potato bits out of the window screens for days). Anyway, this year Nick was THRILLED that the kids wanted in on the prep! They peeled, chopped, sauteed… it was quite the operation.

No (full) fingers were sacrificed; and only a small amount of Nora’s knuckle skin ended up in the mashed potatoes.

The crew at Friendsgiving was none the wiser!

The kids love having Friendsgiving at Ms. Jordan’s house. She’s always got a slew of foster kittens ready to be man-handled.

Our British besties that we got stranded on Koh Lanta with 1.5 years ago (and who promised us they were moving back to Chiang Mai, but then chose Mexico and Lisbon instead) came to visit! The kids and Edward picked right up where they left off, even though it seemed strange without the gorgeous, empty Koh Lanta beach as their backdrop.

Tom and Eleanor are big thinkers with contagious entrepreneurial spirits, and we spent a couple great dinners spitballing Kindercamp ideas!

I was recently invited on a ladies camping trip with some (very experienced) camper moms. Loving everything about camping except the sleeping-in-a-tent part, I was a little hesitant, but said yes for adventure’s sake.

We headed up Doi Pui, the second highest peak in Thailand. The road was a super fun, windy drive (made extra fun by the fact I got to drive it alone, with no carsick children wailing in the backseat). It was delightfully chilly at the top, and had a gorgeous view.

I was way too intimidated to sign up for a meal, so volunteered to be in charge of snacks. I may have gone overboard on the charcuterie and Miang Kham, but none of us were sorry about it.

We hiked up to the peak the next morning and were treated to more amazing views.

There were even PINE TREES up there! They were apparently planted a few decades ago as part of a reforestation project. It smelled deliciously like home.

Also, the Thanon Thong Chai mountain range (of which Doi Pui is a part), is technically the beginning of the Himalayas. So I pretty much climbed Mt. Everest.

After another 6 week of online learning, we were allowed to go back in person for the last 2 weeks before winter break. We were thrilled!

As usual, we all found ways to celebrate (in our own bubbles), and decorations, costumes and parties were still prioritized!

On our last day before break we said goodbye to our amazing classroom TA, Ms. Nuey. Nuey has never left Thailand before, but has decided to move across the globe and take an au pair job in Atlanta, GA! She was Nick’s TA last year, and I inherited her amazing help this year. She has made my transition to kindergarten so painless, and I’m going to be LOST without her!

I organized secret santa for the ECC staff, and they went ALL IN. It was so fun, and we all revealed ourselves at our end of year party right after the kids left school the last day.

In preparation for our friends’ annual ugly sweater party, Nick polled the kids on what shape he should shave into his “reverse” sweater, and Christmas tree won out this year.

Brecken and I had to miss out on the festivities due to a stomach bug (him, not me). He was so bummed–it’s his favorite party of the year. He dresses up in his little Santa suit, wraps up gifts for EVERY kid (his own treasures, stuff he finds outside or around the house, that he thinks each kid will like), puts it all in a red pillowcase, slings it over his shoulder, and rolls up to the party like a boss. He gets so much joy from handing out those gifts! I’m not sure who was more bummed for him to miss the party–him or me–as seeing him gifting his little treasures to all his friends is probably my favorite part of Christmas.

Nick and the girls headed off to represent the Windschitls at the party…

…and Nick and Bryn came home with the Best Sweater awards in both the adult and child categories. This is Nick’s second consecutive win, and one of his proudest life achievements.

Nick and The Christmas Cookie Crew (our 3 + Ben) were back in action again this year, painstakingly churning out the usual 6 at a time in our easy bake oven.

We also had a neighborhood secret santa exchange among the kids. So. Much. Joy.

Between all the Christmas festivities, I managed to squeeze in getting my booster shot. Booster eligibility was super confusing in Chiang Mai, and was based on the combo of shots you initially received. I decided to try my luck at a Thai government hospital (translation: no foreigners, no English). I just kept getting in queues, and somehow walked out with an Astrazeneca jab (I think?). Win!

We’re still waiting on 5-12 year old eligibility in Thailand, and also hoping that it brings fewer school closures.

One thing that WAS consistent the last 4 months, was Nick’s IN-PERSON kindercamp! Despite all the school closures, he was able to stay in-person, which his students and their parents loved, and we were all jealous of! Several parents opted out of online learning at their kids’ international schools and sent them to Nick’s kindercamp instead, boosting his enrollment during those periods. So how has Kindercamp been going? I think the pictures speak for themselves.

This has always been a dream of Nick’s, and he. is. rocking it. This is only a small stepping stone and there will be much evolution, but Thailand has been a great place to start. The ease of renting a space, hiring an assistant, providing food, finding cheap/donated supplies, etc, in Thailand is never lost on us. The bureaucracy, red tape and regulations in the U.S. would make this a very different venture. And while we may go that route someday, it has been an amazing gift to be able to try it out in this country first. He has spent 20 years figuring out how to make the kindergarten experience awesome for kids AND parents, and now he gets to do it without having to squeeze it into the mold of a traditional school. He’s totally in his element.

While both Nick and I have had pretty big gig shifts this year, probably the biggest change has been how much we now have to rely on each other to do our new jobs. For the past 11 years, we both had the “teacher” title in common, but it pretty much stopped there. I was at a Deaf school (which also happened to be a charter), he was at a public school in a large district. I jumped around the lower elementary grades, he was a lifer in Kindergarten. Now I’m in the big international school in a grade level new to me, and he’s in a multi-age start-up.

It’s long been in my nature to reinvent perfectly round, efficiently-rolling wheels. I can spend (waste?) lots of time trying to make even my own lessons from the year before incrementally better/flashier for the next year’s group. While Nick and I have very different teaching styles, I vowed to make an already-challenging year easier on myself by using his tried and true lessons he offered to hand down to me, without trying to add too much of my own flair. So once a week, we sit down at the dining room table after the kids go to bed, and he helps me plan my next week. And by “helps me plan,” I mean, he gives me everything I need for each lesson. Over the past 20 years he has refined and distilled his curriculum down to only the stuff he knows is effective and that kids love doing. And he keeps a lot of it from year to year. This is a completely foreign concept to me, as I’ve been in special ed/ESL for my whole career, where the abilities vary so widely from class to class each year, that I’m rarely able to repeat lessons without at least altering them. When he tells me to teach THIS one week, and move onto THAT the next week, my question is constantly, “How do you know they’ll only need a week for this, and what if they’re not ready to move on to that?” And he just knows. Because he. knows. kindergartners. It’s been a lesson in trust and humility to sit down with him each week, take the lessons he’s giving me, and resist the urge to change a bunch of stuff and try to make it “better” or more “my style.” I’m grateful for the gift of the material, but even moreso for the gift of learning to accept help and let go of overwork and perfection.

In true symbiotic form, Nick also relies on me for helping to usher his Kindercamp baby into the world. It’s a of midwifery of sorts. He has these amazing ideas and an unwavering vision of the experience he wants kids to have, and as he tries to wrestle them out of his imagination and into the world, I’m monitoring vitals, suggesting less painful methods to birth the baby, calling in extra help when needed, and offering encouragement and emotional support. The parts of my job description that don’t fit into this slick little analogy are billing manager, financial analyst, google form engineer, translator liason, graphic designer, and publicity director. I am not naturally gifted at any one of these things, but Nick is admittedly worse at all of them, so I’m muddling my way through, and we’re making it work!

We’re also blessed with wonderful entrepreneurial friends here who also happen to be big fans of Mr. Nick. Thanks to them, and at no cost to us, we have an invoicing system, spreadsheets with magical formulas, translation services, a hand-me-down computer, subs to teach during holiday breaks, and even an intern! It’s truly amazing the support we’ve been given without even asking. We’re so grateful.

This has been our second straight Christmas in Thailand without visitors to share it with. My parents made it for our first year, just before The Unmentionable hit, but no one has been able to come since. It was still a good one with just our little fam!

After learning to play monopoly on a recent staycation, we decided to get the kids the global version for Christmas. This is what arrived from China.

Also, because we’re insane, Brecken has now added “pickaxe” and “hand saw” to his rapidly growing collection of Tools Too Dangerous for Kids.

After all the challenges in the last 4 months, and with Omicron looming, we were really itching to get away for a few days during winter break. Luckily, Santa brought a scavenger hunt…that led to a trip to the beach!

Definitely not the same, but we’ve recently discovered a “beach” in Chiang Mai, just minutes from our house. It overlooks the Ping River, which is definitely not beautiful, but they trucked in a ton of sand, and serve beer in paper cups during booze bans! It will definitely tide us over between real beach trips!

A few months ago, I started taking sunrise walks in the area around our village.

During The Time of the Unmentionable, coupled with big changes in our careers, it has been easy to get caught up in it all, and in some ways, forget we are living abroad. We’ve been living overseas for 2.5 years. We thought we would have visited home by now, had several visitors, seen more of SE Asia…but instead we’re navigating online learning and life interruptions like a lot of our friends back home. It takes a lot of intentionality to remember that this experience abroad, whether it looks like what we imagined or not, is a gift. It’s something my daily walks have reminded me of, and an intentionality we hope to carry into the new year.

We get a lot of questions about our intentions. =) We continue to hold it all loosely, but we have very intentional plans of a lengthy visit home this summer…and then a return to Thailand for another school year.

Thank you for supporting this crazy journey of ours (even if you’re someone who is mad we’re not home yet =). We love you!

Cheers,

Sara

We started off 2022 with a repeat trip to one of our favorite spots–Rabeang Pasaak Treehouses!

The red sand caves are some of the kids’ faves!

January is a gorgeous month in northern Thailand, and it was delightfully chilly at night at the treehouses.

Nick also took some time during winter break to get his Thai driver’s license. Now that he has watched the official drivers education video at the Land Transportation Office, he has all the tools to make him as good as all Thai drivers!

Brecken continues to push the limits of exploration, invention, and at times, safety. His “raw material” collection gets more and more unwieldy over time, and his imagination knows no bounds.

After months of begging, Brecken finally, on his 8th birthday, received the metal detector he’s been wanting so desperately. Our yard is now a dirty block of swiss cheese, from which he has unearthed such treasures as rusty bolts, pieces of pipe, and coins (that Nick may or may not have planted).

He’s always been obsessed with opening coconuts with various tools and methods (and has plenty of them to practice on here).

We have said no to his repeated requests to buy his own machete for this purpose on several occasions. But that didn’t stop him from trying to open one with a pick axe. It did not end well.

Luckily ’twas but a flesh wound, and no bones or tendons were sacrificed in his coconut meat/milk quest.

All pain was forgotten when he found this guy at the market.

Nora is now our hot water laundry lady. She heats the water, scrubs the stains, and agitates by hand. She doesn’t know that there are countries where hot water is piped directly into the washing machine. Please nobody tell her this when we visit America this summer, kthanks.

In recent culinary adventures, the kids have a new love of sushi and udon. The owner of our favorite sushi joint also has a location in Long Beach, CA! He’s Thai, with 1 Japanese restaurant in the Thailand and 1 Japanese restaurant in America. But whatever. It’s delicious!

There is exactly one place in Chiang Mai where you can get a proper charcuterie board. Since you have to sacrifice your first born to include cheese and cured meats in your diet here, this is quite the rare dining experience for us, and you can betcherass we don’t bring the kids.

The kids will still eat 40baht pad kaprow on days that end in ‘y,’ so that helps balance things out.

We no longer have to convince the kids to get haircuts. The stylist’s dog has become such a fan fave, that they ask to go monthly.

Pokemon lingo has taken over our house, and Brecken and Parker have had a few nerd sessions via zoom when their waking hours align. It’s 50% entertaining, and 50% makes me want to poke my eyes out.

In February, the Chiang Mai flower show made its first reappearance since covid! The parade floats were stationary, but that almost made it better. The tiny details–all made with flowers or flower parts–were so cool to see up close!

Brecken was most interested in the plant competitions and now wants to know how he too can win medals for growing things.

But the kids will attest, that the best part of most of our trips to the Old City are the tuk tuk rides back to wherever we park!

Speaking of flowers, every morning in February, thousands of these flowers would be covering the playground at my school. The groundskeepers would be sweeping them up starting who knows how early each day, but there would still be lots left by the time the kids arrived, and collecting them brought them all so much joy. February quickly became my favorite month, as I was greeted by this little bridal party every morning upon arriving at school.

February also brought one of our family’s favorite events–the OLYMPICS! If you know us, you know we are HUGE olympics fans. Summer, winter–all of it.

We spent lots of nights snuggled up on the couch toggling between websites, streaming services and apps trying to watch the latest coverage,and answering the kids’ questions about why Thailand doesn’t have a Bobsled team.

Lunar New Year is also a big hit, largely in part because the kids’ Chinese teacher at school is AMAZING, and gets them so jazzed about it. But also because our Chinese friend Chloe takes us to this awesome place for dinner.

As if February couldn’t get any better, it’s also my favorite school celebration–the 100th day! These 2 brothers went all out, and I will never ever ever get tired of them teaching me animal facts…even when they’re NOT wearing matching 100 year old man costumes.

I’m not really sure where this next video fits into this blog post, so I’m just going to shove it in right here. Found this book in my classroom.

Speaking of books, the kids recently had to dress as their favorite book character at school (and luckily, none of them chose the Piggy above). The Windschitl parents do not pull out Pinterest-worthy stops for these kinds of school assignments/spirit days. We will purchase materials, but the kids know they’re like 95% on their own. And I have to say, they really nailed it this go ’round.

I can’t believe I forgot to take pictures, but the school photographer (that’s right… we have one of those) sent me these.

Before we knew it, it was time for the pre-Songkran fesitivities at school, before our big Songkran break! For a couple weeks before Songkran, every market sells tie-dye tshirts, many of which have random logos on them. Nick was SO EXCITED to find this Minnesota Wild one.

In ECC we go all out and tie-dye our own. It’s an annual tradition, apparently, and a very big production.

We also finally got to bring back the Wai Kru ceremony at school, where students honor their teachers. It is the absolute sweetest, and I really missed it last year!

We even got to have water fights!

Shortly before we were due to leave for our Songkran holiday, Cookie the hamster experienced a fall from a height (roughly the height of a 3rd grader), and suffered what we suspect was a broken leg/foot.

The kids were beside themselves, and insisted we take her to the vet for a full panel of rodent xrays and MRIs. Instead, Nick told them a heartwarming story about his classroom hamster from years ago who suffered the same kind of fall and injury, and went on to live a long life, albeit with a useless leg he would drag around behind him. This was horrifying to the kids, so instead we lied and told them that Thai vets don’t treat hamsters. So just like they did in the olden days, we gathered ’round the family laptop and summoned up Dr. Google, who told us to remove all her climbing toys from her cage for 2 weeks, which seemed like a much less expensive treatment plan. Our mae baan fed bored Cookie while we were gone, and at the kids’ insistence, sent videos of her twice a week as proof she was still alive.

Then it was time for our smokey season getaway! Except this year was GLORIOUSLY less smokey in Chiang Mai! This made it slightly more difficult to shell out for a trip to the islands, but ever since our first trip down in 2020, we always cross our fingers and hope COVID travel restrictions will get us stuck there for 3 months again, so it was worth the risk! We headed out with our usual travel crew, which means these 5 completely entertain each other 24/7. It’s The Best.

This year we headed to Koh Phangan, an island on the gulf side of Thailand, just north of Koh Samui. It’s takes a plane, a bus, a trolley thing, a ferry, and a songtaew to get there.

On the ferry ride, the skies opened up and started dumping…and they did not close again for 4 straight days.

This weather was very unseasonable, and it never crossed our minds that it might rain. Like even a little. So it was a little disappointing, but mostly for the grownups. The kids were fine!

But rain=slippery tile floors in our Airbnb…and sweet little Chars ended up with a noggin full of stitches our first night there. It was So Sad.

But then the sun came out, and things started looking up!

Nick was breakfast chef in our outdoor airbnb kitchen!

The ladies and I hit up a real crunchy yoga class at a yoga studio/vegan restaurant.

Bryn sucked down her body weight in mango smoothies.

And we pretty much took over this swim-up bar at a resort across from our airbnb.

The funcles taught the girls some card games.

Then it was time to hop over to Koh Samui for the second half of our trip! We had stayed on Samui for a week last year during Songkran break, but it was fun to have friends with us this time.

This year we finally got to experience our first proper Songkran holiday! The water throwing festitivies were still banned in Chiang Mai, but not Koh Samui!

It took awhile to really get used to how hilariously relentless people are during the water fights. It was both shocking and awesome watching people on motorbikes get giant buckets of water (often times full of ice) thrown at them with full force as they drove by. A little old lady with about 4 teeth kept pouring ice cold water down my back then smiling sweetly at me as I screamed. Big burly men with super soakers bigger than our kids had no qualms about pumping them up and going after toddlers. It was such a hilarious and fun cultural experience, and one we will never forget!

Also, in case you were wondering if it’s possible to fit 4 adults, 5 kids, and 2 weeks’ worth of all their luggage into an SUV, the answer is yes.

Brecken’s second favorite thing to do during Songkran is to pour water on all the Buddhas set up around town and in every store for this purpose.

The ladies got to escape for a couple hours one day to the spa!

We headed home, and it was time to start counting down to our America visit! We haven’t been home in 3 YEARS, and to say we are excited is an understatement.

Rainy season has come in hot, with several flooding days.

We are always a little worried during big rainstorms that we’ll have a power outage, which makes for pretty hot, sleepless nights. Luckily we haven’t had many prolonged outages this year, but one happened on an unfortunate night a couple months ago when both girls had high fevers (yes, it was probably COVID). The temp in the house was creeping up quickly, and we also have no water when the power goes out here. Nick and I set them up on the couch, stripped them down, tried to cool them with towels we soaked in rain water, and fanned them by hand with Chinese fans. Bryn’s fever was up to 105.3, and we definitely had a moral parenting crisis for a bit… knowing that if we brought her into the hospital and she tested positive for COVID, that we’d likely be detained for 10 days… but also wanting to get her care if she needed it. Luckily the power came on a couple hours later and her temp started to go down on its own. The stigma and fear around COVID is slowly getting better here, but the risks of reporting positive cases to the health department still remain pretty great for families.

In other COVID-related news, the kids finally got their 2nd shot! This is actually a picture of the first shot, because for the second shot they went ON THEIR OWN with their classmates in a school van, so no pics from that one! But all 3 were super brave and we were so proud. We can now all reenter Thailand without testing or quarantine! Woot woot!

May brought both (American) Mother’s Day and my birthday. Nick has always been an absolute champion on these days, and makes me feel so loved and appreciated. But the last few years have been even better as the kids have gotten older and more involved in the pampering.

Nick and I even went out for a fancy set menu dinner with friends!

Even when it’s not Mother’s Day or my birthday, the kids love bringing us breakfast in bed. At the very least, they include a sweet note, but on occasion we get toast cut into shapes with cookie cutters, or Brecken will throw in some cash (because that’s HIS dream breakfast…so why shouldn’t it be ours?).

Auntie Ava, (math teacher with a realtor side hustle) continues to lure families into houses in our neighborhood, and it’s become a really fun community. She throws together moo khata parties on the regular, where the kids shovel down bowls of soup and then run wild in the streets while the parents chill in her driveway.

We have lots of neighbors that sell food by advertising in our neighborhood chat group. This kid and his dad have been my mango sticky rice suppliers for the last couple of months, and it has brought me so much joy everytime they rock up to our gate, take my 50 baht, and hand me this manna from heaven. (Then they take my picture and post it to the neighborhood chat as advertising, outing me and my mango sticky rice obsession).

To balance out my MSR consumption, I’ve continued with my Muay Thai studies. And Coach T’Tuoy continues to take countless videos that I have no idea what to do with. The constant picture/video-taking in Thailand is something I’ll never get used to.

We haven’t had visitors from home in 2.5 years, and are bound and determined to convince you all to come. So here are a bunch of pictures of us getting $6 massages.

In just the last month, our school gave the green light for field trips! It was super exciting. Brecken’s class went to the zoo. No waivers needed, even with this mere waist-high fence separating a bunch of first graders from the most dangerous mammals in the world. #thailand.

After taking my own class to the Elephant Poo Poo Paper Park, I knew we had to bring our own kids to this awesome place! The kids were fascinated by the process.

A few months ago on our bike ride home from school, I noticed that one of our neighbors just outside our village was Deaf. I stopped and chatted with her one day, and found out she sews for a living, and has a stall at the weekly night market. I found her there the following weekend, where she introduced me to a bunch of her Deaf friends. It was so interesting to hear about their experiences growing up Deaf in Chiang Mai. She has a hearing daughter about the same age as Nora and Bryn. In this video she shows the pieces she and her Deaf sister make and sell at the local market! Then she gives me a lesson in numbers in Thai sign language!

I’ve come to the end of my 18th year of teaching, and my first year teaching kindergarten! Despite all the crazy circumstances, I’d have to say it was a success. There was more laughter than tears (for me too), and I got to watch these little kids turn into readers, writers and slightly bigger kids. I was honored to earn theirs and their parents’ trust this year, and felt a true connection to each of them, even when I questioned my lessons and approaches every single minute of every day, especially during online learning. I’m thankful for the lessons they taught ME about rest, play, unstructured time, silliness and flexibility. It was a good year.

And just like that, it was time for me to plan my first Kindergarten graduation!

Our school has an events team, and they really do it up on all the details, but the “meat” of the program was up to us. All the ECC classes and teachers were involved, and there were so many cute performances. It was the first in-person event for parents in almost 2 years!

I didn’t really start teaching my class any sign langauge until later in the year, but was so surprised how much they loved it and how quickly they picked it up. I had planned to just have them sign the chorus of this song, but they begged to learn the whole thing. I’d say they nailed it.

The most touching part of the ceremony was when a parent from each Kindergarten class got up and gave an appreciation speech on behalf of the other parents! English was neither of these parents’ first language, but they bravely shared such touching examples of how much their children enjoyed the year. It was so moving.

The biggest success of the 2021-2022 school year, however, was Kindercamp. While the impetus was necessity, we built this thing out of thin air, with very little time, money or resources. The solid resources we DID have, though, were Nick’s passion for and experience in teaching young kids, and the unwavering support of our friends here in Chiang Mai. These friends quickly got behind us and offered us their talents free of charge, and were our constant cheerleaders, coaches, and at times, therapists. Friends AND strangers put their kids in this brand new program with a level of trust and confidence that scared us sometimes. But the measure I used to guage its success had little to do with numbers, and everything to do with Nick’s happiness. Despite all the unknowns, and the countless hours we both put in, Nick came home from school everyday so content and in awe of what the freedom of running his own school was allowing him to do. He had kids making more progress in a half-day, mixed-age class than he often did in his 21 previous years in public and international school kindergarten teaching. He had no red tape, no hierarchy of administrators to navigate to get his wild ideas approved, and the full trust of a group of parents from half a dozen countries, letting him work his magic with their kids. It felt like a beautiful animal had finally been let out of captivity and was experiencing true freedom for the first time.

In this first year of Kindercamp, Nick had a few students who stayed on the full year, but most other students rotated in and out during 6 week sessions. Altogether he had 44 students this year! The transient nature of the class was his only regret.

We were really looking forward to year 2 of Kindercamp being a full year program for this reason, instead of shorter sessions. We researched international school tuition rates in Chiang Mai, priced ourselves competitively, and within 1 month of advertising, first semester enrollment for August 2022 was nearly FULL, with only one spot left! With this full year program, Nick is so excited to create the classroom community and relationships he is so good at nurturing. My role in Kindercamp is much less beautiful and exciting and involves a lot of spreadsheets, invoices and marketing, but to be able to help Nick create a program where he can teach the way we both believe kids learn best has truly made it all worth it. If you haven’t yet, check out our Kindercamp Facebook page!

It’s hard to believe, but after a months-long countdown, our paper chain says we will be in the U.S. in 5 days. It feels so surreal, after all of the preparation and anticipation, that we will actually be getting on a plane headed out of Thailand for the first time since arriving here in 2019! Our visas and work permits are renewed, our reentry permits acquired, our vaccination passports in hand, and COVID tests scheduled. We’ll be stateside for 6 weeks, all of it in Minnesota, most of it in Minneapolis. Thanks for following our adventures from afar and cheering us on. We can’t wait to see you in. the. flesh. so soon.

Cheers,

Sara

Student photos used with parent permission.

We started off 2022 with a repeat trip to one of our favorite spots–Rabeang Pasaak Treehouses!

The red sand caves are some of the kids’ faves!

January is a gorgeous month in northern Thailand, and it was delightfully chilly at night at the treehouses.

Nick also took some time during winter break to get his Thai driver’s license. Now that he has watched the official drivers education video at the Land Transportation Office, he has all the tools to make him as good as all Thai drivers!

Brecken continues to push the limits of exploration, invention, and at times, safety. His “raw material” collection gets more and more unwieldy over time, and his imagination knows no bounds.

After months of begging, Brecken finally, on his 8th birthday, received the metal detector he’s been wanting so desperately. Our yard is now a dirty block of swiss cheese, from which he has unearthed such treasures as rusty bolts, pieces of pipe, and coins (that Nick may or may not have planted).

He’s always been obsessed with opening coconuts with various tools and methods (and has plenty of them to practice on here).

We have said no to his repeated requests to buy his own machete for this purpose on several occasions. But that didn’t stop him from trying to open one with a pick axe. It did not end well.

Luckily ’twas but a flesh wound, and no bones or tendons were sacrificed in his coconut meat/milk quest.

All pain was forgotten when he found this guy at the market.

Nora is now our hot water laundry lady. She heats the water, scrubs the stains, and agitates by hand. She doesn’t know that there are countries where hot water is piped directly into the washing machine. Please nobody tell her this when we visit America this summer, kthanks.

In recent culinary adventures, the kids have a new love of sushi and udon. The owner of our favorite sushi joint also has a location in Long Beach, CA! He’s Thai, with 1 Japanese restaurant in the Thailand and 1 Japanese restaurant in America. But whatever. It’s delicious!

There is exactly one place in Chiang Mai where you can get a proper charcuterie board. Since you have to sacrifice your first born to include cheese and cured meats in your diet here, this is quite the rare dining experience for us, and you can betcherass we don’t bring the kids.

The kids will still eat 40baht pad kaprow on days that end in ‘y,’ so that helps balance things out.

We no longer have to convince the kids to get haircuts. The stylist’s dog has become such a fan fave, that they ask to go monthly.

Pokemon lingo has taken over our house, and Brecken and Parker have had a few nerd sessions via zoom when their waking hours align. It’s 50% entertaining, and 50% makes me want to poke my eyes out.

In February, the Chiang Mai flower show made its first reappearance since covid! The parade floats were stationary, but that almost made it better. The tiny details–all made with flowers or flower parts–were so cool to see up close!

Brecken was most interested in the plant competitions and now wants to know how he too can win medals for growing things.

But the kids will attest, that the best part of most of our trips to the Old City are the tuk tuk rides back to wherever we park!

Speaking of flowers, every morning in February, thousands of these flowers would be covering the playground at my school. The groundskeepers would be sweeping them up starting who knows how early each day, but there would still be lots left by the time the kids arrived, and collecting them brought them all so much joy. February quickly became my favorite month, as I was greeted by this little bridal party every morning upon arriving at school.

February also brought one of our family’s favorite events–the OLYMPICS! If you know us, you know we are HUGE olympics fans. Summer, winter–all of it.

We spent lots of nights snuggled up on the couch toggling between websites, streaming services and apps trying to watch the latest coverage,and answering the kids’ questions about why Thailand doesn’t have a Bobsled team.

Lunar New Year is also a big hit, largely in part because the kids’ Chinese teacher at school is AMAZING, and gets them so jazzed about it. But also because our Chinese friend Chloe takes us to this awesome place for dinner.

As if February couldn’t get any better, it’s also my favorite school celebration–the 100th day! These 2 brothers went all out, and I will never ever ever get tired of them teaching me animal facts…even when they’re NOT wearing matching 100 year old man costumes.

I’m not really sure where this next video fits into this blog post, so I’m just going to shove it in right here. Found this book in my classroom.

Speaking of books, the kids recently had to dress as their favorite book character at school (and luckily, none of them chose the Piggy above). The Windschitl parents do not pull out Pinterest-worthy stops for these kinds of school assignments/spirit days. We will purchase materials, but the kids know they’re like 95% on their own. And I have to say, they really nailed it this go ’round.

I can’t believe I forgot to take pictures, but the school photographer (that’s right… we have one of those) sent me these.

Before we knew it, it was time for the pre-Songkran fesitivities at school, before our big Songkran break! For a couple weeks before Songkran, every market sells tie-dye tshirts, many of which have random logos on them. Nick was SO EXCITED to find this Minnesota Wild one.

In ECC we go all out and tie-dye our own. It’s an annual tradition, apparently, and a very big production.

We also finally got to bring back the Wai Kru ceremony at school, where students honor their teachers. It is the absolute sweetest, and I really missed it last year!

We even got to have water fights!

Shortly before we were due to leave for our Songkran holiday, Cookie the hamster experienced a fall from a height (roughly the height of a 3rd grader), and suffered what we suspect was a broken leg/foot.

The kids were beside themselves, and insisted we take her to the vet for a full panel of rodent xrays and MRIs. Instead, Nick told them a heartwarming story about his classroom hamster from years ago who suffered the same kind of fall and injury, and went on to live a long life, albeit with a useless leg he would drag around behind him. This was horrifying to the kids, so instead we lied and told them that Thai vets don’t treat hamsters. So just like they did in the olden days, we gathered ’round the family laptop and summoned up Dr. Google, who told us to remove all her climbing toys from her cage for 2 weeks, which seemed like a much less expensive treatment plan. Our mae baan fed bored Cookie while we were gone, and at the kids’ insistence, sent videos of her twice a week as proof she was still alive.

Then it was time for our smokey season getaway! Except this year was GLORIOUSLY less smokey in Chiang Mai! This made it slightly more difficult to shell out for a trip to the islands, but ever since our first trip down in 2020, we always cross our fingers and hope COVID travel restrictions will get us stuck there for 3 months again, so it was worth the risk! We headed out with our usual travel crew, which means these 5 completely entertain each other 24/7. It’s The Best.

This year we headed to Koh Phangan, an island on the gulf side of Thailand, just north of Koh Samui. It’s takes a plane, a bus, a trolley thing, a ferry, and a songtaew to get there.

On the ferry ride, the skies opened up and started dumping…and they did not close again for 4 straight days.

This weather was very unseasonable, and it never crossed our minds that it might rain. Like even a little. So it was a little disappointing, but mostly for the grownups. The kids were fine!

But rain=slippery tile floors in our Airbnb…and sweet little Chars ended up with a noggin full of stitches our first night there. It was So Sad.

But then the sun came out, and things started looking up!

Nick was breakfast chef in our outdoor airbnb kitchen!

The ladies and I hit up a real crunchy yoga class at a yoga studio/vegan restaurant.

Bryn sucked down her body weight in mango smoothies.

And we pretty much took over this swim-up bar at a resort across from our airbnb.

The funcles taught the girls some card games.

Then it was time to hop over to Koh Samui for the second half of our trip! We had stayed on Samui for a week last year during Songkran break, but it was fun to have friends with us this time.

This year we finally got to experience our first proper Songkran holiday! The water throwing festitivies were still banned in Chiang Mai, but not Koh Samui!

It took awhile to really get used to how hilariously relentless people are during the water fights. It was both shocking and awesome watching people on motorbikes get giant buckets of water (often times full of ice) thrown at them with full force as they drove by. A little old lady with about 4 teeth kept pouring ice cold water down my back then smiling sweetly at me as I screamed. Big burly men with super soakers bigger than our kids had no qualms about pumping them up and going after toddlers. It was such a hilarious and fun cultural experience, and one we will never forget!

Also, in case you were wondering if it’s possible to fit 4 adults, 5 kids, and 2 weeks’ worth of all their luggage into an SUV, the answer is yes.

Brecken’s second favorite thing to do during Songkran is to pour water on all the Buddhas set up around town and in every store for this purpose.

The ladies got to escape for a couple hours one day to the spa!

We headed home, and it was time to start counting down to our America visit! We haven’t been home in 3 YEARS, and to say we are excited is an understatement.

Rainy season has come in hot, with several flooding days.

We are always a little worried during big rainstorms that we’ll have a power outage, which makes for pretty hot, sleepless nights. Luckily we haven’t had many prolonged outages this year, but one happened on an unfortunate night a couple months ago when both girls had high fevers (yes, it was probably COVID). The temp in the house was creeping up quickly, and we also have no water when the power goes out here. Nick and I set them up on the couch, stripped them down, tried to cool them with towels we soaked in rain water, and fanned them by hand with Chinese fans. Bryn’s fever was up to 105.3, and we definitely had a moral parenting crisis for a bit… knowing that if we brought her into the hospital and she tested positive for COVID, that we’d likely be detained for 10 days… but also wanting to get her care if she needed it. Luckily the power came on a couple hours later and her temp started to go down on its own. The stigma and fear around COVID is slowly getting better here, but the risks of reporting positive cases to the health department still remain pretty great for families.

In other COVID-related news, the kids finally got their 2nd shot! This is actually a picture of the first shot, because for the second shot they went ON THEIR OWN with their classmates in a school van, so no pics from that one! But all 3 were super brave and we were so proud. We can now all reenter Thailand without testing or quarantine! Woot woot!

May brought both (American) Mother’s Day and my birthday. Nick has always been an absolute champion on these days, and makes me feel so loved and appreciated. But the last few years have been even better as the kids have gotten older and more involved in the pampering.

Nick and I even went out for a fancy set menu dinner with friends!

Even when it’s not Mother’s Day or my birthday, the kids love bringing us breakfast in bed. At the very least, they include a sweet note, but on occasion we get toast cut into shapes with cookie cutters, or Brecken will throw in some cash (because that’s HIS dream breakfast…so why shouldn’t it be ours?).

Auntie Ava, (math teacher with a realtor side hustle) continues to lure families into houses in our neighborhood, and it’s become a really fun community. She throws together moo khata parties on the regular, where the kids shovel down bowls of soup and then run wild in the streets while the parents chill in her driveway.

We have lots of neighbors that sell food by advertising in our neighborhood chat group. This kid and his dad have been my mango sticky rice suppliers for the last couple of months, and it has brought me so much joy everytime they rock up to our gate, take my 50 baht, and hand me this manna from heaven. (Then they take my picture and post it to the neighborhood chat as advertising, outing me and my mango sticky rice obsession).

To balance out my MSR consumption, I’ve continued with my Muay Thai studies. And Coach T’Tuoy continues to take countless videos that I have no idea what to do with. The constant picture/video-taking in Thailand is something I’ll never get used to.

We haven’t had visitors from home in 2.5 years, and are bound and determined to convince you all to come. So here are a bunch of pictures of us getting $6 massages.

In just the last month, our school gave the green light for field trips! It was super exciting. Brecken’s class went to the zoo. No waivers needed, even with this mere waist-high fence separating a bunch of first graders from the most dangerous mammals in the world. #thailand.

After taking my own class to the Elephant Poo Poo Paper Park, I knew we had to bring our own kids to this awesome place! The kids were fascinated by the process.

A few months ago on our bike ride home from school, I noticed that one of our neighbors just outside our village was Deaf. I stopped and chatted with her one day, and found out she sews for a living, and has a stall at the weekly night market. I found her there the following weekend, where she introduced me to a bunch of her Deaf friends. It was so interesting to hear about their experiences growing up Deaf in Chiang Mai. She has a hearing daughter about the same age as Nora and Bryn. In this video she shows the pieces she and her Deaf sister make and sell at the local market! Then she gives me a lesson in numbers in Thai sign language!

I’ve come to the end of my 18th year of teaching, and my first year teaching kindergarten! Despite all the crazy circumstances, I’d have to say it was a success. There was more laughter than tears (for me too), and I got to watch these little kids turn into readers, writers and slightly bigger kids. I was honored to earn theirs and their parents’ trust this year, and felt a true connection to each of them, even when I questioned my lessons and approaches every single minute of every day, especially during online learning. I’m thankful for the lessons they taught ME about rest, play, unstructured time, silliness and flexibility. It was a good year.

And just like that, it was time for me to plan my first Kindergarten graduation!

Our school has an events team, and they really do it up on all the details, but the “meat” of the program was up to us. All the ECC classes and teachers were involved, and there were so many cute performances. It was the first in-person event for parents in almost 2 years!

I didn’t really start teaching my class any sign langauge until later in the year, but was so surprised how much they loved it and how quickly they picked it up. I had planned to just have them sign the chorus of this song, but they begged to learn the whole thing. I’d say they nailed it.

The most touching part of the ceremony was when a parent from each Kindergarten class got up and gave an appreciation speech on behalf of the other parents! English was neither of these parents’ first language, but they bravely shared such touching examples of how much their children enjoyed the year. It was so moving.

The biggest success of the 2021-2022 school year, however, was Kindercamp. While the impetus was necessity, we built this thing out of thin air, with very little time, money or resources. The solid resources we DID have, though, were Nick’s passion for and experience in teaching young kids, and the unwavering support of our friends here in Chiang Mai. These friends quickly got behind us and offered us their talents free of charge, and were our constant cheerleaders, coaches, and at times, therapists. Friends AND strangers put their kids in this brand new program with a level of trust and confidence that scared us sometimes. But the measure I used to guage its success had little to do with numbers, and everything to do with Nick’s happiness. Despite all the unknowns, and the countless hours we both put in, Nick came home from school everyday so content and in awe of what the freedom of running his own school was allowing him to do. He had kids making more progress in a half-day, mixed-age class than he often did in his 21 previous years in public and international school kindergarten teaching. He had no red tape, no hierarchy of administrators to navigate to get his wild ideas approved, and the full trust of a group of parents from half a dozen countries, letting him work his magic with their kids. It felt like a beautiful animal had finally been let out of captivity and was experiencing true freedom for the first time.

In this first year of Kindercamp, Nick had a few students who stayed on the full year, but most other students rotated in and out during 6 week sessions. Altogether he had 44 students this year! The transient nature of the class was his only regret.

We were really looking forward to year 2 of Kindercamp being a full year program for this reason, instead of shorter sessions. We researched international school tuition rates in Chiang Mai, priced ourselves competitively, and within 1 month of advertising, first semester enrollment for August 2022 was nearly FULL, with only one spot left! With this full year program, Nick is so excited to create the classroom community and relationships he is so good at nurturing. My role in Kindercamp is much less beautiful and exciting and involves a lot of spreadsheets, invoices and marketing, but to be able to help Nick create a program where he can teach the way we both believe kids learn best has truly made it all worth it. If you haven’t yet, check out our Kindercamp Facebook page!

It’s hard to believe, but after a months-long countdown, our paper chain says we will be in the U.S. in 5 days. It feels so surreal, after all of the preparation and anticipation, that we will actually be getting on a plane headed out of Thailand for the first time since arriving here in 2019! Our visas and work permits are renewed, our reentry permits acquired, our vaccination passports in hand, and COVID tests scheduled. We’ll be stateside for 6 weeks, all of it in Minnesota, most of it in Minneapolis. Thanks for following our adventures from afar and cheering us on. We can’t wait to see you in. the. flesh. so soon.

Cheers,

Sara

Student photos used with parent permission.

It’s hard to believe that 3 years went by before we were able to set foot on American soil again. We were pretty excited to say the least, when we finally booked our plane tickets in April. The countdown chain was created, and we could focus on a little else!

The day before we left, Auntie Ava put on a kid-stuff sale in the neighborhood. I thought we were probably too busy to join, but the kids jumped at the chance to earn some last minute baht they could convert to USD upon arrival, so they rummaged around the house for stuff they didn’t want anymore, and set up their tables on Ava’s soi.

Then it was packing time! The packing lists started months before, and as usual, the kids were responsible for packing their own stuff. They’ve gotten really good at it! One whole checked bag was full of Thai goodies to sprinkle around to friends and family. The kids and I were really excited to share it with everyone; Nick was excited to empty out the bag and refill it with beer upon our return.

Covid travel restrictions were pretty much all lifted (even the entry testing requirement for the U.S. was nixed the day before our departure!), but there still weren’t any international flights available out of Chiang Mai. So we had to take a domestic flight to Bangkok, collect our bags, then recheck them all.

As per our usual travel rules, unlimited screen time and snacks commenced immediately.

We (the kids) got a decent amount of shuteye on the 11 hour and 8 hour flights!

Plane food was delicious on all airlines!

Amsterdam airport wins for kid activities!

And mama activities.

We spent a lot of the 4 hour layover debating if there was an actual human in this clock.

We were SO SURPRISED to arrive to a family welcome party at my parents’ house! Even more so because it was the middle of the day in the middle of the week, and (all the non-retirees) had taken off work to be there!

We got right down to business–sampling all the American treats we missed!

Nick got right down to business taking pictures of every American beer he drank on the trip.

Next on the docket were 2 American landmarks–Chipotle and Target.

The kids were gifted some Target gift cards upon arrival, and could barely contain their excitement. Brecken also insisted on converting all his baht to USD and spent lots of time counting, organizing, and swimming in it like a rapper.

The cereal aisle at Hy-Vee was the next stop on the tour. Disgusting choices were made and consumed in giant bowls all hours of the day. We were shocked (and horrified) to find that during our absence, Cheerios had expanded to 13 varieties (whyyyyyy).

But we didn’t stop at cereal. We had greatly missed all the foods, and we definitely made up for lost time.

SMORES!!! We missed you so much!!

We also smuggled in lots of Thai foods for people to try! Nick made khao soi, and the Windschitls gave it a go, and didn’t even die from spice (Greg did need several brandy waters to wash it down though)!

In their defense, even Nick and I thought it was pretty spicy though (and we can handle HEAT).

We also hit up our local library, and the kids’ eyes about fell out of their heads at the available selection of English books. They got their own library cards, and subsequently their own Libby app logins, so their ebooks aren’t all mixed up with each other’s in mom’s account anymore (a major point of contention).

Food and books aside, what we were REALLY after was time with our people. We missed you guys so damn much!

Our calendar was full weeks before we even arrived with meet-ups, parties, BBQs, lake invites and playdates, and it was The Best Summer Ever. Everyday we worried our kids would never want to leave and we’d have to haul them back to Thailand with American dirt under their nails from clawing at the ground while we dragged them onto the plane.

Our amazing Upper Room crew not only threw us a backyard party, they circled up and peppered us with deep questions about the last 3 years, celebrated our adventures, and nudged us with gentle probes about the future. We really missed deep connections and conversations like these!

And we couldn’t miss a visit to “the brown house!” Our renter friends have taken great care of it and it was really trippy to walk around our house that was so full, then so empty just before we left, and is now so full again with another family’s lives. The kids ran around happily reminiscing about what was where when and playing hide and seek in all the funky nooks and crannies.

Speaking of trippy, our visit also overlapped with our friends Jordan and Taylor on THEIR visit to Minneapolis from Thailand, too! The worlds colliding was wild.

We stayed in 4 different friends’ homes during our visit, dog/house-sitting in exchange for FREE places to stay! It worked out swimmingly, and even Nora and Bryn, who were pretty skittish around dogs, warmed up to them quickly and now beg us daily to get our own.

We were so humbled at the welcomes from all of these families and their generosity in letting us stay in their houses, sleep in their beds and use their condiments. As usual, the welcome was less warm in Grampa Hansen’s manicured yard, where kids and animals are restricted to paved zones only.

We had to learn how to pump our own gas again (and had to sell a kid everytime we filled our tank).

We’re also super fun parents, so we brought the kids in for checkups with their American ped! Dentist appointments too! Woo!!

Lots has happened since we left, and it was eye-opening to see all the changes in Minneapolis.

Nick was relentless in trying to drag some friends to Vegas with him during our trip. He got his wish, and his brother and friend indulged him.

While he was gone, I caught up with my Metro Deaf School crew–man I missed these guys! They’re still holdin’ down the fort at the best deaf school in the nation, and somehow made it through covid without losing their minds.

I even got to surprise my former students on their last day of school!

I also got to spend some rare one-on-one time with this sister-in-law of mine; the hardest-working, working mom I know, who has kept in touch with me relentlessly over the last 3 years from across the globe.

She was extra-busy while we’ve been gone, as she brought ANOTHER adorable human into the world in November. Needless to say, we were all super excited to meet him, and fell in love with him immediately. Good thing he’s a chill baby, because we all manhandled the poo out of him.

We got lots of quality time with the Windschitl clan!

And of course it wouldn’t be a Windschitl gathering without games. Mostly games where we unapologetically take each other’s money.

And of course, games with prizes (always scratch-offs!).

Even though the family cabin was sold since we’ve been gone, we had a great week up north at an airbnb in Nisswa, MN! Everyone loved the daily bonfires and pooltime. Clara was super little when we left, but has grown into one of the funniest kids we know.

We celebrated all the summer birthdays (multiple times, it seemed), and Brecken got this creepy sweatshirt that he’s obsessed with.

Nick and I have never been super into professional family photos, but the Windschitls jumped at the chance to force us all into decent clothes and drag us to a deserted field.

We also got to see some of the (giant) Windschitl extended fam! We always joke that Nick doesn’t even know all his cousins’ names, but we knew these ones!

The Hansens spent most of their reunion at our cousin Gretchen’s cabin in Bemidji, MN, where my parents spend a lot of their summers now. Jop and his crew flew up from AZ!

The only 2 previous times we were all together, the kids were these sizes:

Here’s the 2022 Reunion!

Elephant pants and cousin shirts!

So. Much. Fishing.

We did all the Bemidji stuff.

Fourth of July was awesome at the lake! As is tradition, Grampa Hansen lit everyone’s sparklers with a blowtorch.

But first, fire hazard lecture from Uncle Jippy.

If you’re wondering how many adults it takes to set up a sky island, it’s at least 5 (and some mad geometry skillz).

Worth it!

These pushups were a lot easier in 2016!

The sick joy that Grampa Hansen got from dumping his grandkids off the tube was evident in his post-dump cackle everytime.

He also came up with a “game” to see which pair of grandkids could pick up the most pinecones from the yard. The rest of us were onto him (#freeyardwork).

At least there were ice cream payment prizes.

Chippy, the resident chipmunk, was overfed daily by the kids.

Brecken was giddy that he was allowed to take the kayak out solo to fish (with a walkie talkie on board for any SOS situations).

We missed our Minnesota lakes so much!

Mom happy hour on the SUPs. Didn’t you know that’s what the bungee cords on paddleboards are for?

Uncle Tom came up for several days of the shenanigans. Nick was thrilled to have another IPA-lover in the house!

We’ve always been a big biking family, and Grampa Hansen spent the months before the grandkids’ arrival combing Facebook marketplace and Craig’s List (yep, that still exists, apparently) for used bikes, determined to have a 1:1 bike-to-kid ratio. He was successful in his hunt, and tinkered away in his shop for weeks, adjusting seats, lubing chains, truing wheels and regripping handlebars. All his work culminated in a giant family bike ride from the cabin to downtown Bemidji, where most of the kids pooped out and had to take the sag wagon back home, a sad pile of kid bikes in the back of grampa’s truck. But we found this cool pump track when we got back to the cities, so they got a little more action then.

We’ve also really missed live theater! Diary of a Wimpy Kid was playing when we got home, and the kids got a special trip with Grama & Grampa Hansen!

More bday celebrations!

It seemed like we blinked and it was time to say goodbyes. And damn, they were HARD.

Just looking at these pictures gets us all choked up again.

We love our life abroad, and still feel like it’s not over yet. But it’s heart-wrenching to be so far away from our people.

Upon arrival at the aiport, Nick and I realized it was our 12th wedding anniversary. So Nora took these professional photos of us to mark the occasion.

Thanks to a flight tracker app, and my parents living under the MSP flight path, they were able to snap this photo of our actual plane taking off for Paris!

It was a looooong ride home, with not as much excitement waiting for us on the other end this time, and it took us all awhile to get our footing.

Wondering what American goodies we hauled back?

Luckily we only have to make this stuff last until December, because…we have VISITORS COMING!! We felt like college recruiters most of this trip, trying to convince people to make the trans-global trek to see us, and our work paid off. The Rausches and the Dunbars will both be making trips over during the winter holiday break, and we couldn’t be happier to have mules to bring us more beer and Reese’s cups to welcome them and share beautiful Thailand with them!

Thanks again to everyone who showed us such a great time in Minnesota this summer! We are planning another visit next summer, and while the paper chain is still pretty long, we’re counting down nonetheless.

Cheers,

Sara