Singapore National Day Song

Every year, Singapore proudly celebrates its independence from Malaysia.  This year marks the 48th birthday of Singapore and they go big!  National Day is not for another two weeks but for the past several weekends they have been practicing for the National Day Parade.  Every Saturday we get to see the nine F-16s and F-15s fly around the country and hear the fireworks going off.  I was here last year and was able to watch the National Day Parade on TV and it was unbelievable.  I felt like it was a show they would have at Disney World.  Flawless, bright, cheery, and inclusive.  They execute the ceremony like the Beijing opening ceremonies.  Really a sight to see!

One of the things we find most interesting is that every year they write a new song for the National Day Parade that follows the theme for the year.  Many people don't seem to like the song this year but I will let you judge for yourself.

Chris & Brett Finally Get Married

In June we made the trip back to the US to see my brother, Chris, marry the love of his life, Brett.  They have one of those made-for-tv love stories.  So how did they meet?  For the last 28 years, my family has been going to the same Lutheran Church camp in North Carolina every summer for a tradition that Brett's family joined in on 4 years later.  For this one week every summer, Chris and Brett were inseparable.  In college they tried to date a few times but the distance was hard to overcome for two starving college students.  They went their separate ways for a few years until that one fateful summer at camp when they rekindled their friendship and their romance began.  Brett lived in Chicago, IL and Chris in Greenville, SC but they saw each other often and racked up a lot of airline miles.  After almost a year of dating, Chris finally asked Brett to marry him.  She moved down to Greenville and they began their life together. We are all so glad that after all those years, they finally got to where they were meant to be!

Because we have known Brett's family for 24 years, it was a truly unique and joyful experience.  We already knew grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, siblings, etc so this was just one big reunion to celebrate two of our favorite people.  We packed so many fun events into one weekend which I did my best to capture.  For the sake of not making this post too long, I have only included a few of my favorites.  To see the rest, you can check out my picture site.

First event of the weekend was a Chattanooga Lookouts baseball game.  We enjoyed turkey legs, ice cream, popcorn, beer and a great American pastime.

Chris & Brett 

The two engaged couples

Friday morning was the bridesmaids brunch while the men enjoyed a round of golf.

Beautiful room at the clubhouse, ready for the ladies.

My mom, Lauren (niece), Layne (future sister-in-law), and Beth (sister-in-law) 

Brett's beautiful engagement ring and the signature cocktail for the brunch 

Future and current Cutshall women

Brett with her mother and grandmother

Later that afternoon was of course the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner.

Getting ready to practice

Brett, her sisters, and the flower girl waiting to walk down the aisle.

The ring bearer on the other hand did not want to walk down the aisle.

The rehearsal was at a beautiful golf club overlooking the river.

The groom

My oldest brother and his adorable family

Saturday, wedding day!  We started the morning with another brunch on Lookout Mountain where they would later get married that day.  The day was filled with getting ready and then the wonderful celebration!

Lookout Mountain overlooking the Chattanooga River

Brett ready to get her hair and makeup done

Me and my sweet mom

Her sisters helping her get ready

Pictures were not allowed during the wedding so I was only able to snap a few at the end.

The bride and groom with their parents

Dr. and Mrs. Cutshall

My wonderful new sisters and sister-to-be 

The Cutshall "other halves"

Caught this beautiful moment between the two of them when they escaped to get a moment alone

Me and my favorite redhead

We danced the night away and did not manage to get very many pictures.  It was a fantastic wedding!

Someone had a little too much fun.

At the end of the night, we said our goodbyes to Chris and Brett while serenading them with our favorite camp songs.  We wish them all the best and hope they have a wonderful time this year for their first time at camp as husband and wife!

A Day in Ayutthaya

To take a break from the hustle and bustle of Bangkok, we asked our guide to take us out to Ayutthaya for a day.  In Ayutthaya is the ruins from the ancient Ayutthaya city, Bang Pa-In Royal Palace, and of course several temples.

Our first stop was the Bang Pa-In Royal Palace (Summer Palace) which was renovated and expanded by Rama V.  Rama V traveled the world and when he saw something he liked he would try to do it back in Thailand.  The Summer Palace is a great example of that as it seemed like a meld of Thai, Chinese, and European culture.

One of the statues on London Bridge, designed after the original.

Notice the Thai and European architecture 

A Thai pavilion

Withun Thatsana Tower

Wehat Chamrun Royal Hall which is Chinese influenced.

No pictures were allowed inside so this was as far as I could go.  The most interesting thing we saw in this building was the camel bone carving.

We ventured over to Wat Yai Chai Mongkal which was a monastary built in 1357 by the first ruler of Ayutthaya.

If you could hold a coin to the bottom of Buddha's foot and it stuck then you would have good fortune.

The rest of the Buddha that Derek tried to get his coin to stick on.

We climbed the stairs of this chedi but there was not much to see.

Buddhas everywhere!

Our guide suggested we stop for lunch at a local market on the side of the highway.  We knew right away that the food was going to be amazing because we were the only non-Thai's there, of course that meant we got lots of stares, too.  Nat led us over to a small restaurant that served fresh shrimp.  By fresh, I mean it was swimming in the tank and then put directly on the grill.  By far the freshest shrimp we have ever had.  We enjoyed our shrimp with some excellent shrimp fried rice and a snakehead fish.

Some of the market vendors.  Nat insisted we try a few different things like snake fruit.

Shrimp before they were put on the grill with a bowl over the top to prevent them from hopping off. 

Delicious grilled shrimp.  Peel, dip in thai chili sauce, and eat!  

The snakehead fish on the grill.

These may look familiar as we often use them when they are dried in floral arrangements.  Apparently, they can also be eaten.  Nat bought some and taught us how to eat the seeds.  Tasted a bit like a raw peanut.

Ayutthaya was once a Siamese kingdom in the valley of the Chao Praya River that began in 1351.  During the Burmese-Siamese War in 1765, the Burmese burned the kingdom and left the city of Ayutthaya in ruins.  They burned most of it to the ground but a few of the ruins remained like the ruins we visited next.

Many of the Buddha's are missing their heads as they were stolen or destroyed after the Burmese burned the city

The story is that when some burglars tried to steal this Buddha head, it was too heavy so they dropped it by this tree.  Over time, the tree grew around the head.

Our final stop of the day was a temple that once served as the headquarters for the Burmese army during the Burmese-Siamese War and was one of the only places not burned to the ground.  Within one of the temples was this ancient Buddha that was close to 1000 years old.  They do not know how it got there as they found it out in the woods.  They believe someone from India wandered over and carved this statue.

Before we left, the monk wanted to bless Janet.  He muttered some words, dipped his sticks in water and threw it at her and Nat.  Nat says that he was praying for her good health.

 After an exhausting day in Ayutthaya, we headed back to Bangkok to do some shopping.  We finished up our trip by visiting Chatuchak weekend market to pick up some souvenirs and gifts.  It was a fabulous trip and I know it will not be our last time to Bangkok!