"Regan's Birthday... He's how old!?"
He is 46! We celebrated Regan's special day for 2 days actually. On April 17th, our landlords came over to eat and they brought Regan flowers and a birthday cake (picture below). Flowers on one's birthday - male or female - is very common here in Vietnam. The cake was delicious. The flowers were lovely. Josh was there, he just didn't want to be in the picture.
On Regan's actual birthday, we invited friends to celebrate with us at a local and tasty restaurant (pictures to the right and below with Joshua and Daniel). No that is not Regan with the white hair. Though he is to the right of our friends. See? He hasn't changed much at all.

"A Trip to Beautiful Ha Long Bay"

The boys were on spring break and the weather was nice. I (Robin) was going with the women of our fellowship on a retreat to Ha Long Bay. So Regan and the boys joined me at Ha Long Bay and we stayed a few days to get away from the concrete jungle and noise of Hanoi. As you can see from the pictures above, it is a most interesting place and a beautiful place (picture in lower right quad above is from the beach). One almost forgets this is Vietnam. We enjoyed the sandy beach where the boys dug holes, and caught sand crabs and hermit crabs. We saw a starfish, and Joshua dug up a shrimp. We took a boat tour to see the rocks that jut out of the bay(above and below) and to visit a cave. We saw "Dog Rock" (upper right above) and "Fighting Cocks" (lower left above)

"Spring Has Arrived!"

I have been told that Spring is a very rainy time of year here but the weather has been very nice most days. We are enjoying being outside as much as possible. We do encounter the occasional thunderstorm which is really, really loud on our metal roof. The one good thing is that sometimes the rain drowns out the sound of the "cac con chuot" (rats) playing on the ceiling above our bedroom.
Earlier this Spring we took a family outing to one of the national parks in Vietnam called "Thac Da." "Thac" means "waterfall." We had the opportunity to practice our language with several groups of high school students who were very anxious to try their English out on us (right and left and below). Most of these groups of students wanted us to take their picture or have their picture taken with us. So, we obliged them.

The park itself is considered to be a small tropical rain forest. The only rain we noticed was the perspiration that came off of our bodies! And the area could use some rain as the waterfall was inactive for lack of water. We did; however, slide around a bit on the muddy path up the mountain and those coming down the mountain were rather muddy. Needless to say, we descended by another, less slippery route for fear we would also be covered in mud. That would have made a great picture.

One group of students sang for us and then actually asked me (Robin) to sing for them. I thought this was an ideal opportunity to sing one of my favorite songs that also has a great message so I sang "Great Is Thy Faithfulness." (below left)

Because you have waited patiently for us to update the blog, we are including some extra pictures for your enjoyment.

The little boy that looks ready to box is just a boy at Thac Da.

Of course you recognize Joshua and Daniel. People really do live in that thatch roofed house. Daniel and a new friend Won Jae. He's Korean.

Joshua was having a post shampoo comical moment. This time he did want his picture taken.

Meet Lucy, our new puppy. She took over Joshua's broken backpack. Though she appears docile in these photos, the boys really enjoy her spunky little personality. She reminds us of Rocky, whom we left in the States. She is really cute except for at 3 in the morning when her puppy bladder can't hold it anymore and she cries to go outside.

We hope you enjoy seeing our life in pictures. You, our friends, are very precious to us.