Touring the sights of Suphan

Violet's Celebrity Status

Despite the age and language barrier (being that Violet speaks no known language), Violet managed to make some fans. Yay Jew (my mother's younger sister... Jew in Thai means teeny tiny... It's a nickname...) is a high school teacher and we took Violet to class one day. When I was a kid, I used to come to school with Yay Jew too and always had a ball.

Here is Violet announcing to the students below that she has arrived.



Poses for a picture before the mob of fans arrive.


Violet signs autographs.


She even shook hands with the locals and learned some of the customs.

How we spent our time in Suphan.

Because GGM isn't the quickest on her feet, she would sit on her chair (please note that it's a "vintage" airplane chair from Thai Airways... ha ha) and offer Violet food. In the picture, she's offering Violet some dried persimmons.


Violet learned about the art of napping in Suphan...

I remember the first time I took Joe over to Suphan, I taught him about "nap time." Nap time would always take place after a meal in Suphan. Joe initially thought that I was joking around until he saw everyone pull out a mat to sleep on after lunch one day. Joe (Mr. I don't take naps) took a nice long nap that day. It's a fine art that must be mastered while in Suphan... Or else you'll be up by yourself.


Violet plays with a straw.


Violet's collection of mosquito bites. I took a picture because the pattern reminded me of the 5 side on dice.

More cousins at Crystal Park

The two young dapper men to the right are my cousin's (P'Olan) two children with his beautiful wife P'Tai. We went to a great outdoor mall (which I didn't think was possible in buggy Thailand) called Crystal Park. It reminded me of malls in San Diego in that they had some nice stores to shop at and everything was very dog friendly. Violet was in heaven around all the dogs!!

Violet loves the microphone.

She's trying to figure out how it works. Maybe it's saliva activated...


Trying her best at stand-up comedy... except she's not standing and can't talk yet.


One of her favorite past times in Thailand was finding CDs on a shelf and pulling them off. Towards the middle of the trip she even enjoyed rearranging them... She would stack some on top and some below. She would even reshelve some of them.

German Restaurant in Thailand

Family friends took us out to dinner at a German Restaurant in Thailand. It was a good idea in theory... however, what we all neglected to notice was that it was Valentine's Day. The place was immensely busy.


An anomaly in Thailand, they actually grew their produce that was served at the restaurant. I think the viney things behind us are grape vines... Maybe they tried their hand at their own winery as well...


Here is part of the family-- Na' Kanokwan and her son, Tampa (yes, that's right ladies and gentlemen... his name is Tampa because he was born in Tampa or was it because his mom and dad met in Tampa? Hmmm...).

This is only the front of the restaurant and you can see how crowded it was. The place was HUGE and probably sat over 1,000 people.

Violet LOVED Tampa. I had never seen her bug her eyes out before because she was laughing so hard. It looked like it was hard for Violet to catch her breath. ha ha! You could tell that Tampa really LOVED other kids. He wanted to push her stroller and entertain her throughout the entire dinner. It was a welcomed experience :).

Dinner Out with more Family

Na Kai is my aunt. You can tell she's really small... Either that or Violet is really big.


Two of my cousins, Minty and P'Pooja. The little dude in the middle is Ben who is P'Pooja's son. Ben was 6 months old in the picture.


Group shot!

Na Kai posing with the girls (the two girls are Na Kai's daughters). Left to right is Kookik, Cookie, Na Kai and Baby V.

Hanging Out with Great Grandma

Violet is trying her best to pose with GG (Great Grandma) without stepping on GG or breaking any of her bones.


Violet is showing GG how to use a wallet.

Blending in with the Locals

Since Joe's features seem to be predominant in Violet, we dressed her like a local to blend in when we first arrived to Thailand.


Here Violet is with her Aunt Kookik (yes, aunt... My uncle had babies late in life!). We were initially worried about the jealousy that might occur because Kookik was the youngest on my mother's side of the family. You can see that jealousy was NOT an issue at all!!


These pictures were taken at Suphan Buri (my grandmother's town). Top right of this picture, you can see a picture that was part of the "Violet Shrine" Uncle Den made for his grandmother right before he came back to the States.

Family Day at the Magic Kingdom

Violet danced her way through, "It's a Small World."


She became particularly enamored when she found some of her monkey friends.


Violet said, "Now those are my kind of people."


Violet also rode the carousel for the first time. She thoroughly enjoyed the ride.

Auntie Linda comes for a visit.

Also in January Walter's mother, Linda, came to Orlando to hang out with her family and meet Baby V! We were soo excited to see Linda but sad that Walter (shalom) was unable to make the trip.

Savannah is the little girl on my right. She's Linda's niece who LOVES babies :).

DJ Violet and Friends (and her mom...)

Back in January, Florida Girl from London came back stateside for a conference. Violet and I drove over to see her for the day.

We utilized the little time we had by seeing Uncle Jason's new digs and watching a few DJ "lessons."