A Day On The Beach - But I Won't Rub It In:)

We went exploring this afternoon and found ourselves at East Coast Beach. It is more of a recreational park - we saw very few swimsuits. There are biking trails and walking trails. There are also roller blade rental shops all over the place along with many restaurants and little shops. We saw quite a few tents up and aren't sure if they are there for the day or if they actually camp there during the night. True to form I thought that camping sounded like fun while my better half wasn't so sure!

A view of the beach

Kenton got to work building a sand castle - notice the subtle advertising for McD's in the background. Considering that it is far from the adults in the family's favorite restaurant we find ourselves there quite often!
There were a few men flying kites along the beach. Since there is a constant coastal breeze this works well.
Ethan hops a ride on Daddy!
Okay, this next one made me laugh! Instead of a drive through on the beach they have a "Skate-Thru" You actually skate in there to a special counter and order and than skate back out!
The skyline you see in the background is downtown Singapore.
As Chinese New Year is approaching we are starting to see red Chinese lanterns everywhere. Tonight when we returned to our apartment there were fireworks going off - right in the middle of the city in between buildings. We've never seen anything quite like it. I'm guessing the Chinese New Year will bring a lot more displays of fireworks!

Ethan is experiencing the sand for the first time! If it works I'm uploading a video of him walking in the sand for the first time.
:)
This was the look on his face when we put him down on the sand for the first time! Not the twins' reactions! If I think of it sometime I will post the pictures of them in the sand - they held their feet out of it!!
Taking a break to watch all the ships coming into the harbor. Singapore is a huge shipping port.
Little shops were set up at various places selling everything from underwear (yes, underwear) to towels, to beach toys, to sunglasses and purses.

This was taken on the walking trail a little ways off the beach. If you get away from the touristy area this is what you find.
This is one of the many bike and roller blade rental shops that we saw. It was funny to watch people - they all share the same trail and I saw one little girl on a bike suddenly turn around and a man roller blading behind her had to do some quick maneuvering to keep from colliding! Good thing that it wasn't me on the skates or it wouldn't have ended so well:) This video is mostly for the grandparents...This is the easiest way to get videos to them. Ethan made two friends today which you will see...One was Ronald McDonald - he kept walking over to him and smiling up at him. The other was a little boy who earlier at the "race track" was playing peek-a-boo with him!

Tunnel Trails, Wisconsin

Alison and Kenton are going through a railroad tunnel on their bikes. It's so dark that you need to walk your bikes and use flashlights! This isn't the longest tunnel on the trail either. One of the other ones (that we didn't go through) is famous for dripping on a person!

Kenton is standing at the entrance to the tunnel right before we went through. It was a wonderful day for biking with the temperatures not being too hot. The bike trail follows an old railroad line and you actually bike through small Wisconsin towns. The part of the trail we were on was mostly shaded.

I think that the entrance to the tunnel is pretty! We were camping with a group from Elgin on Labor Day weekend - Highlights were - Kenton - going home, Kaitlyn - bike riding, Ethan - being held all weekend, Becky - playing croquet uphill with Sam Bachtold (he set up the course!), Ryan - the bike ride and getting sick:(

Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow!

Before I had a chance to close out it STARTED RAINING:) We need it although I understand that it won't really cool things off much - probably just make things even more humid...good thing we're heading to an INDOOR waterpark tomorrow!

zai jian! (Good Bye in Mandarin Chinese - don't even think about asking me how to pronounce it!)