Rainy season has a hold on us....unlike any other year we've been here, it has been raining non-stop. Not our usual 3:30pm thunderstorm that lasts for 1/2 an hour, but full on rain all day, all night. Floods of epic proportions. Sidewalks caving in. To be honest, I am not sure how Ho Chi Minh City is still standing? The water table is so high we are basically floating.....
Rain Rain Go Away
Where's Erin?
In between rain drops we've been able to stay busy. Erin made a trip to Chiang Mai, Thailand with her students on their Week Without Walls trip. A stunning landscape in Northern Thailand and a perfect opportunity for the students to get out of their comfort zone.
Graeme and I held down the fort here keeping busy as Kindergartners do. I mean, he has a full on schedule now! Soccer on Monday's, Yoga on Tuesday's, Swimming on Thursday's....how did this happen? Throw in a birthday party just about every weekend and general-friend-hanging-out as well as a few school functions like Family Day and little dude is busy.
your school had a bamboo tunnel, right?
Cotton Candy, it's what's for breakfast
Settling in to Kindergarten
Well into our fourth month of Kindergarten, Graeme is doing great! At first the transition was harder on him then we had expected. A bit of a mix of a summer hangover, new teacher, new classmates, new routine. He had the same teacher and routine for two years prior so this was an adjustment. Nothing major, just some emotional hurdles to hop over and once he broke through he started to shine as usual. Something new this year is Vietnamese class. Graeme has it 4 days a week built into his curriculum. Soon he will be translating for Erin and I to help us figure things out! Cannot wait for that!
Learning how to read at the moment, Graeme is bringing books home daily to read to us at night. Homework! On top of all the academics Graeme still has a large empathetic side to him and it's showing in how he helps his classmates when they need it. He's well on his way to making his mark in Kindergarten and continuing his solid foundation for a successful future.
Kinder-pranksters
Concentration
Phu Quoc
With a busy start to the academic year a vacation was clearly in order. Thank goodness for Fall Break! Having never been, we followed the lead of Team Sylvester to Phu Quoc Island - an archipelago about 1/2 hour flight from here. The rainy season followed us there but we persevered and managed to squeak in a trip to a waterpark, play golf and pillage pool toys from others.....nothing beats a week of sand and surf, who needs the sun? Another great trip with great people...starting to notice a pattern here....
Up Up and Away!
Charging the shorebreak
What r these 3 up to??
So, you are gonna paddle, right?
Hey, I made it in a pic!
Halloween
Not to be outdone by a tropical island, Halloween arrived right on time this year. We struggled a bit to find carve-able pumpkins but made do. One thing we did not struggle with was Graeme's costume. For the past 3 months he's been wearing it around the house - cape, hat and fangs. A Vampire! He did don a scary mask for a Dia De Los Muertos party we went to but for school parade and trick or treating he was a Vampire. Even though we only hit our buildings up for trick or treating, he still has enough candy to last him the rest of the year at the pace he eats it! At one stop there was a choice of candy and apples. He chose an apple and he was so stoked about it! "Look, I got an Apple!" The other kids were looking at him like he was crazy.... Erin actually won the costume prize this year. Twice. First at an adult party she was a beer-belly guy - spooking out everyone. Then at school she was Luigi. Using her pregnancy to it's fullest!
Spooky Toes
atta gurl....
With Thanksgiving just around the corner we are on our hunt for Turkey and finishing up plans for Winter Break. Erin has been doing fine with the pregnancy. Standard doctor appointments, pre-natal yoga classes and lots of uncomfortableness. Dry season and more pleasant weather is just around the corner as well and we are looking forward to a bit more time outdoors...don't forget the door is always open! Just was looking the other day for someone and RT tix from USA were $670 depending on dates...just saying. Hoa Bin, The Hawken's in HCMC
FYI - those are sonogram pics of Graeme's brother....middle one says it all.
The cat is out of the bag, Graeme is going to be a big brother! On, or about, February 8, 2017 Graeme's baby brother will enter the world making our little family a little bit bigger! We told those we could over the summer in person, but it was still a bit early to release the news to all. Since we've been back in Vietnam we had the chance to visit the doctor and see the pictures, hear the heartbeat and (very convincingly) determine the sex. So, yes, a baby boy is on the way! We are all very excited and we know that Graeme is going to be a great mentor, friend, leader and overall fantastic big brother! He is soooooo excited, keeping up with the daily updates from Erin via The Bump about size, growth, etc.... Erin is doing fabulously and as one doctor put it, her pregnancy is "disgustingly perfect". Adding a boy to the Hawken Clan brings the total to 12 Great Grandchildren for my Grandmother (Gram-crackers). This one will even the score at 6 girls and 6 boys. On Erin's side it's all boys for Nan to this point with her sister having just had Greyson this past spring, but evens it up at 2 girls and 2 boys as Greats for G-Pops. For the gender reveal to Graeme you can click HERE.
DON'T FORGET ABOUT MICKEY
So that's the exciting news coming at the end of our summer, but where did we begin? Tokyo Disneyland!!! In keeping with the tradition of a family stopover somewhere kid-centric on our way back to the USA for the summer, we detoured into Disneyland in Tokyo. Prior to going we read up on it and many claim it to be the best Disney property in the world. Well, it did not disappoint for us! We got to stay in a Fairy Tale themed room complete with a magic mirror and hidden secrets.
Compared to Disney in Hong Kong, it is much larger and a bit more crowded. Thanks to Disney's magic potion that they sprinkle you with upon entry, waiting in line doesn't seem to bother you here. Graeme was a bit taller this year so there were basically no height limitations. He charged everything. Space Mountain, Star Wars, Splash Mountain, Toy Story, Pirates of Caribbean, you name it and he went on it. Space Mountain still ranked pretty high for him but he also really liked Splash Mountain. We charged from opening till closing. What a spectacular show they put on for the Light Parade and fireworks at night. Cinderella's Castle turned into a towering movie screen projecting all of the classic Disney Fairy Tales during the show. Utterly amazing. Funnily there is no English translation on the rides, so as you go along the stories are all told in Japanese. Pretty amusing. Buzz Lightyear sounded like he needed to be reset! Some cooler weather compared to Hong Kong and a bit of rain caused us to miss out on Disney Sea, the property next door which recreates differenet seaside towns. It's supposed to be fantastic so maybe we need to get back there just for that!
Poppy!
Let me show you the way Mom..
Got it...
Foot prep for Disney....
Mirror, Mirror, on the wall....
ONWARD TO CALIFORNIA
Hopping the seemingly short flight over to the USA from Tokyo, Graeme was super excited to reconnect with everyone. A special anticipation was at hand to meet his new cousin, Greyson! What a great little dude he is! Throughout our stay, we were convinced that he only woke up to eat and then would go back to sleep. A bit of an exaggeration for sure, but if it is true that babies grow when they are asleep then he is going to be a giant!
World Champ of sleeping...
Graeme practicing for February...
Aside from Greyson, it was great to see Ms. Sienna Puppy's still going strong! She will be 11 years old this coming December! Brittany and Jason treat her with so much love and she looks just fit as a fiddle. Age definitely isn't on her side but nobody told her! She'll chase the ball non-stop just like always, only now the next day she may spend it in bed only to return the next day fired up to play again!
Hanging out with everyone was so easy, Aunt B and Uncle J live next door to Nan and Poppy and G-Pops lives there too with Grandpa Dave and Wicki just down the road. It's a great opportunity to spend time playing outside! The weather was cooperating (not so much at the end of the trip, and people say Vietnam is hot!) and Graeme enjoyed Nan's backyard and wearing out a path in the lawn between there and Aunt B's house and going on nerf gun missions with Uncle J and his brother Tyler.
A major project of ours this summer was emptying our storage center. Erin was down for the count with morning sickness so I tackled the job at hand. I opened the door and took a look, "3 days max. Maybe 2" is what I thought. Well, 10 days later here is what was left in storage:
Bye Bye stuff...
So if you are in Lodi and interested in buying high quality items for pennies on the dollar from Williams Sonoma, Pottery Barn, Anthropologie, etc. take a look at the thrift store by Nan's house.
We also made our yearly pilgrimage to Jenner. This year we got to stay in Erin's house! Inherited a few years ago and needing a major redo, it was finally inhabitable. Nan and Poppy had worked tirelessly for almost 2 years on this project in it came out spectacular! Quite a spot to hang out trying to catch up to the time zone and also reconnect with Avery and Piper playing in the river...
River Rat
Warming those bones...
A highlight every year is the July 4th BBQ at Nan and Poppy's house in Jenner. Cousins fly in (Emily =#1 Cousin!), jet-streams drive up, friends stay over and enough food to feed an entire town is laid out. This year did not disappoint and everyone had a great time!
Jenner crew '16
We even managed to sneak in a hike at one of our old favorites pre-Graeme, christening Greyson with a walk up towards the pygmy forest in Salt Point State Park. It was super fun and Graeme found many sticks along the way to charge with....because sticks are awesome. Duh.
Welcome to the forest G!
PIZZA BOUND - OFF TO NEW JERSEY!
Jumping back into a plane we were off to NJ and to finally see who won the "Who can grow their hair the longest in 1 year" contest. Sammy or Graeme? Who did you pick? What bets did you lay down? Winner, Winner Turkey Dinner - it was Graeme! After all that he still wouldn't let us cut his hair....
Check the fold....skills.
Hole in one!
Aunt Donna and Uncle Keith did a great job planning fun activities this summer. Of course we went to the local pool, where Graeme has become somewhat of a rock star - go figure - we also went to Storybook Land, Waterfront Philadelphia and ate incredible food all the while battling cousins and finding Pokeman!
Graeme got Pops out on the mini golf course. Guess what he did on the first hole? Yup...hole in one! Good luck keeping up with this kid, Pops!
We took Mimi on an adventure to the Statue of Liberty. Graeme had been asking to go there for almost a year and we took the boat over from Liberty State Park to Ellis Island then on to the statue. Quite and experience. The view of the NYC skyline was magnificent, our first glimpse of it with the Freedom tower.
Our annual Hawken Family Day took things to the next level this year. Hosted generously by Brett and Lisa in their spectacular back yard all 32 Hawken's were able to make it and help us celebrate the announcement of Gram-crackers upcoming 12th Great Grandchild. There were kids everywhere. Jumping off the waterfall, hanging in the hot tub, sleeping in strollers. The day really does go by too quickly but so happy everyone goes out of their way to make it happen! Our MOST watched Youtube clip by the way....
After a too brief stint on the East Coast, Erin and Graeme headed back to Norcal while I headed back to SE Asia. They finished up their US Tour in Lodi while I jetted back to Vietnam for 24 hours then on to a surf trip in Sumatra (highlights HERE). We all met back up in Vietnam on the 30th, with Erin due back at work on the 1st of August.
KINDERGARTEN
As you've read in the past, a big reason for doing what we do is to be able to provide Graeme with a top notch education. We hit another milestone with that as he started Kindergarten this year! His teacher is Mr. Chris (from Scotland) and his class is known as The Bumblebee's.
The wheels on the bus go....
Our big guy!
Even though Graeme has been going to SSIS for 2 years now, this is still quite a milestone with a bunch of change involved, not easy for any 5 year old to handle. He had the same teacher for 2 years with a huge emotional connection (Hi Ms. Tina!). That's the same routine for 2 years. Now there is a new teacher, new routine, new expectations, new classmates, a new baby brother on the way, a summer hangover, etc. So far Graeme has been taking it all in and handling it quite well if you ask us...We look forward to working with him and watching him grow as the year unfolds! BZZZZZZZ!
Wow. After putting this entry together I realized we did a bunch of stuff this summer! I even left out plenty of things for the sake of space (and sanity). I truly apologize to those we spent time with and didn't mention, this thing would be a tome if I did. Trust us, we enjoyed all of your company and cannot wait to do it again next year (or when you visit)!.. As well, apologies to those we didn't get to spend time with. With the new addition coming maybe we will slow our role with travel the next few months. Or maybe not....
With that said, this ends the third Volume of The Tao of Graeme. Working on a July-Aug timeline, this is another year in the can. Thank you so much for the support and for reading! Never too late to buy a ticket to come for a visit! You can even babysit if you time it right ;)
Hoa Bin,
The Hawken's in HCMC
P.S. - How's this for another milestone? Kid is 5 1/2 years old. Got his first passport at 2 1/2 years old and already blew through it. I am 44 yrs old and still have plenty of pages to go on my second passport. I didn't even have my first passport until I was 30 years old. Unbelievable.
