Birthday #1

August 1st is my birthday. Since it's smack-dab in the middle of summer, it's always debatable where I'll be for it, who will be around to celebrate with me and what activity or event will be involved. I love my birthday and have had many amazing ones! Also, because of the "summer factor," it's not uncommon for me to have more than one party. When I was growing up, my parents would let me have a party on my half-birthday (February 1st) because my friends were in town (we went to an International School, everyone went home for the summer!), and then we'd have a family celebration the day of. You can never celebrate too much, right?

Nothing compares to fresh fruit in Asia!

This year was no exception, as I got 2 birthdays (3 if you count lunch at 5 Guys with Tim and Katie before I left, with Sweet Frog for dessert! I count it...!). On August 1st I was at the beach in Port Dickson, Malaysia with my family and we had a blast! I woke up at the crack of dawn because I was jet-lagging. I went to the resort restaurant and downed a fruit platter. By the time I got back, mom and dad were awake, so we sat on our laptops and got caught up on emails and other news. Gradually my sisters, and Amanda, and Julie started waking up and we headed out to the pool. After some elaborate synchronized swimming routines, we went to get brunch. About 2 hours later, we got our food. Thankfully we were on vacation, so this wasn't a problem and allowed for good conversation and enjoying the beautiful scenery.

Mr. Ng is in the blue swim shirt. If only he'd learn his job!

After lunch, we headed down to the beach. It was a beautiful, empty beach. Unfortunately, there were no waves, so there wasn't a whole lot to do in the water, but it was fun nonetheless. When we got there, the tide was way out and a boat had gotten stuck on shore. We went to help push it in as we were headed out to swim. A few minutes later, the owner came and asked us if we wanted to go for a ride as a reward for helping. Of course we did! We piled in, he took us around and showed us how he puts his crab nets down and then took us on a little joyride!

A posed version of our human chain!

When we got back to shore, he threw in the anchor and asked us if we could help him look for the anchor that he had lost the previous day. We of course obliged (we had nothing else to do!) and formed a human chain to search the premises. A few minutes in, I came upon the end of a rope that looked to be tied to an anchor. Thinking this was about the spot we had just put the anchor in, I looked up and sure enough the boat was floating away! Everyone screamed to go stop it from getting stuck again, so I ran after it and started pulling. Much to my dismay, the boat was stronger than me and until Stacy, Amanda, and Mom came over, it kept drifting. Thankfully we kept it from getting stuck, and it suddenly became very clear how he had lost his previous anchor! We never did find it...

In case you're wondering, Mango Smoothies ARE the way to my heart.

We played in the water a little longer, then got out and went to the pool for a bit. Then we walked down to a different resort and got Mango smoothies (with chunks of real, fresh mango in them!) and played Skip Bo. After Amanda and Dad won, we walked back to our resort, showered up and went to another resort for my birthday dinner. It was a cozy little place and the waiter was by far the best I've ever had. He was literally running up and down stairs and all around the restaurant to make sure we had everything we could possibly need. At one point we asked him to turn down the fan and we honestly thought he was about to reach up and stop it with his bare hands.... all while wearing the biggest smile ever! Haha. His name was Mark. He was awesome. By the time dinner was over, my jet lag and all the sunrays had caught up with me and I was ready for bed as soon as we got home! Birthday #1 was a success!

Coming Soon.... The Tale of Birthday #2!