Fall Break, 2010 -Phuket Thailand

Our school has a week off for Fall Break every October. It is the time many expats here will choose to travel within Japan or to other parts of Asia. This year we decided to take the kids to Phuket, Thailand.  Some of you may remember, Matt took me there for our anniversary in 2008 as a ploy to make me fall in love with Asia and move. Obviously his plan worked (although Japan is NOT Phuket).

We decided to make this a very low key, relaxing vacation as Matt has been working crazy hours and the kids were more than ready for a break from school. So instead of doing a bunch of tours we mainly just explored the areas we were staying and did small activities like Go-Karts, kayaking, swimming, shopping and lots of eating.

We split the trip up and stayed in two different areas. The first was Patong Beach. This area is known for being very busy and full of nightlife, shopping and different types of restaurants.

Looking down one of the shopping alleys in Patong.

Me and my beautiful daughter at dinner.

The kids loved playing in the pool.

Patong Beach

Ronald McDonald thanks us for eating his ice cream

Can you tell Chris enjoyed a burger at the Hard Rock?

Many of the restaurants in this area have fresh seafood for you to select for dinner.

The guys had a need for speed while the girls shopped.

Gas anyone?

You cannot visit Patong without making a stop at the banana pancake cart

After a few days in Patong we wanted someplace a bit quieter and relaxing so we moved on to the new Westin in Siray Bay. It is located about 10 minutes from Phuket Town so it was easy to go into town at night on the shuttle for dinner and some shopping. The area was absolutely stunning and very relaxing.

View from the lobby

My kids

Some beach soccer

Don't we make a cute couple?

Matt's great find

Our whole family loves Thai food.

Our family

The girls were off to explore

An afternoon treat

I treasure each one of these vacations, not because it is a great way to keep my golden color, but it has hit Matt and I hard how short of a time we have left with all our kids at home. They grow up so quickly and the memories and experiences we can have with them now are priceless. I hope when they are our age they can look back at our time as a family with a smile on their face.

You can see many more pictures here.