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July 4th - Singapore Style

jean — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 10:27:55 +0000

For the first time since we’ve been in Asia, we were able to celebrate the 4th of July. The celebration was sponsored by the American Association of Singapore. There were bands, food, kids’ stuff, and fireworks.

The Sawin Clan

Our friends Mike and Janet Mako

Grand Ole Flag

Festive Night

Patriotic Grace

Happy Riley

Sliding Sisters

Grace Has Been Busy

jean — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 14:52:14 +0000

The end of May was a busy time for Grace. She had a ballet recital rehearsal and swim gala on the same day. Here are the highlights

Dance Recital Rehearsal

Getting Ready

Waiting to Go on Stage

Post Recital Lunch

Grace and Jean at the ISS Swim Gala

Grace and Dani at Swim Gala

Fun with Her Class

Happy Birthday Grandpa

ben — Sat, 30 May 2009 01:40:29 +0000

Take 2:

Got a Tan in Bintan

ben — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 10:33:07 +0000

The Sawin Family recently got back from a great holiday in Bintan, Indonesia. The trip started off o.k. with a short taxi ride to the ferry terminal in Singapore. What we weren’t prepared for was both kids, along with a bunch of other passengers, getting sick on the somewhat rocky, 45-minute ferry ride to Bintan. Unfortunately, Jean took the brunt of the first explosion since we weren’t prepared with sickness bags. We stayed at The ClubMed which we had stayed at one in Phuket, Thailand before. They are great with the young kids. Riley went into the Petite Club for 2-4 year olds and Grace went into the Mini Club for 5-8 year olds. They had a great time. The staff had them active all day and on a couple occasions, they had performances in the evening. We were lucky enough to meet up with some friends from Singapore there and for the last couple of days, The Stams were in from Hong Kong. Stam and I got a round of golf in at the Ria Bintan golf course which was really great despite the 2 hour rain delay to get the last 3 holes in. All in all, a fantastic holiday of just relaxing on the beach with all inclusive drinks and constant buffets.

Run a muck

ben — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 15:22:07 +0000

One of my New Year’s Resolutions, in this Year of the Ox, was to run a few races this year. After having not run in a race since The Chicago Marathon in 2003, I signed up to run The Newton Active Run. A 10K run in Sengkang. I didn’t get to train for the race much and when I did run I ran indoors on a treadmill. That did not help me in this hot and humid climate. The race went well and I was really happy to finish in under an hour (54:25). Next time, I hope to train more and break 50min. Here is a pic I found on the web of the starting line. That’s me about 7 rows back from the front just left of centre wearing the white t-shirt (you can click into the picture to zoom). Do you spot me?

A look back

ben — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 15:08:26 +0000

Sorry I haven’t posted in a while. In fact I was looking through my photos and I have absolutely nothing new to post. So until I have something new, and I promise that that will be soon, let’s take a trip down memory lane with some of my favorite posts on Sawin.com

Sawin.com started in 1998. As young programmer, I’d like to think I was at the forefront of the Internet and “blogging” with the introduction Sawin.com (link). You notice the layout… feels pretty blog-like huh? One of my favorite pictures on that site was the picture from when we went as the Village People on the Halloween Pub Crawl (link). Seems that Halloween is a theme as this was the first post after I moved over to Blogger in 2002 (link). I was Emeril Lagasse.

Love this post of Grace in 2004 in front of the Children’s Museum in Chicago (link). And the record for the most posts in a month on Sawin.com is 14 in December 2004 (link). And one of the most talked about posts was from the “Tower of Tonkatsu” post in 2005 (link). I still love the post when Jean went to the Watson’s Water Tennis event in Hong Kong and ended up on ESPN.com behind Serena Williams and Kim Clijsters (link). And the one of me playing cricket for the first time (link).

Too funny. Here is a post from 2006. My first trip to Singapore to play a friendly Hockey match (link). Who woulda thought we’d move here. Here is probably one of my longest posts about our trip to Macau for our 7th Wedding Anniversary (link). And you can’t get a cuter picture than this. Grace holding Riley right after she was born (link). I love the pics and video of the elephant ride in Phuket, Thailand (link). Speaking of Thailand, I enjoyed my longest birthday starting in Pattya (link).

And who can forget Riley’s First Birthday (link). One of my favorite posts was from a Christmas Holiday Down Under (link). One of my favorite pics of all time is from Chinese New Years last year (link).

Anyway, enough of me flipping back through some old posts. Time for new posts. I’ll get right on it.

USA Holiday

ben — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 19:36:24 +0000

Riley’s Baptism

ben — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 15:23:39 +0000

Yesterday, we went to Grandpa and Grandma’s Community Church and Riley got baptized. Both girls did really great and Pastor Jim was awesome.

First Snow

ben — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 15:18:56 +0000

After 27 1/2 hours of travel which involved trains, planes and automobiles, we made it the USA! Upon arrival, Grace and Riley were excited at all of the presents that Grandpa, Grandma, Aunt and Uncle Carlson had for them. Santa was also nice enough to stop off in Kalamazoo. The first full day here, there was still snow on the ground. Riley got to experience her first exposure to real snow.

Little Turkey

ben — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 13:30:56 +0000

I took Grace and Riley for their first time bowling last week. They just refurbished the lanes at The American Club. It took about 5 minutes for the ball to reach pins on each roll. We made it through 5 frames though!