Lion Country, Tiger Country and the Birds

Seriously. We got to enter an area in our car, through a ridiculously high chain link fence, topped with barbed wire, a guard tower and gates controlled by the guard tower to the Lion country. Lions and Lioness's sleeping in the shade (they had just eaten, so they were sleepy). No widows down. Awesome to see. 20 feet from our car. Here's a pic of Dan for perspective.

Then, we entered a different area that was Tiger Country. We got to see Bengal Tigers sleeping, walking and swimming. Truly amazing. Then we entered an area with Asian Bears and Peacocks!

After that, we parked the car and got to walk around the Park in the safe area. We got to see Chimpanzee's, a Cowboy Stunt Show that everyone loved (even though Kylie thought it was too loud), ate thai fried chicken on rice (thank the Lord that our kids like rice and are willing to eat pretty much anything - they are great about eating random food we find), walked through "Mini Land" and saw and fed beautiful birds and watched a dolphin and beluga whale show!

Dan's favorite part of the whole day was seeing the birds. They were beautiful birds and 2 guys had purchased 2 bags of bird seed to feed them, but didn't want the rest, so they gave it to us :) Dan and the big kids got to feed the birds out of their hands...with the bird landing on Dan's back, nipping his ear and neck and even sitting on his head! Dan loved doing it and Jack had fun, too. Megan even tried it and did a good job. Kylie and I were too scared to feed them...but it was fun to watch Dan!

My "Bird Whisperer" Tweeter

Jack enjoying himself and the birds - it looks like he's holding class!

Megan, calm and composed with the birds...

...for a second! She didn't really like them, either, but she did a great job trying it for a little bit :)

This is what the girls and I did while watching the boys.

Seriously, isn't he the coolest?

Our Thanksgiving Safari

Because, how many people go on Safari for Thanksgiving? Well, if you are reading this blog, you currently know 5 who did this year! We went to Safari World here in Bangkok and had a blast...we got to drive our van through a 5km road and see tons of different animals walking right next to our car!

Yay for Thailand and no rules on driving or car seats. The big kids got to sit on the captains chairs in the back with the windows down and Kylie rode on my lap. The first part was this beautiful huge area with zebras, giraffes, rhinos, camels, ostriches, cranes, storks, some kind of large bird with bubblegum pink feathers and a million birds everywhere! There was hardly anyone there, so we got to take our time, drive slow (or just stop and look) and enjoy! I took 300+ pics there total yesterday. Isn't that crazy?

The animals would walk up to our car, but you couldn't feed them. The kids loved it, we loved it and would definitely do it again. After sitting with me for a while, Kylie sat with Dan while he drove and she actually got to steer the car for a bit. Seriously. We are not normally "those" people who let their kids do crazy things, but somehow Kylie got to drive our Sienna at 2 years and 11 months old. And the big kids never have. I'd say "Ha, Ha" but we're not allowed to say that in our family (Megan and Jack would be quick to point out that you can say it if you are laughing at something funny, but not saying it to be mean, "Like "Ha, Ha" I got to drive the car and you didn't". Anyway, tons of animals, tons of us yelling and saying, "Oh my goodness!" and "Holy Cow!" Definitely way cool.

The next area was a lot drier, less water and was filled with all kids of antelope, deer and cattle and Gaur. It was amazing! We'll update more tomorrow on the rest of our time here...otherwise the posts get too long :) But I can say (a) we've now seen Beluga whales in person, (b) we've seen Lions, Tigers and Bears (Oh My!) from our car and (c) we've seen a Cowboy stunt show! Seriously, who else has a Thanksgiving like that? (Oh, and we had a wonderful time at our fellow Hokie's house for dinner, too. We were out until 10:30pm and the kids had to go to school this morning! :))



P.S. At the end of the video after Dan has said, "You're going to hit the fence, you're going to hit the fence" Kylie replies..."Oh, I didn't know." I shut off the video, but then Dan said, "What are you, two?" And Kylie said, "Yup."

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

We hope you guys have a wonderful Thanksgiving!!! We miss you all and miss spending Thanksgiving with you, but we got to go to Safari World today and will head over to another Hokie Family's house for dinner :) Will post tons from today later! WE LOVE YOU AND ARE SO VERY THANKFUL FOR YOU!!!

Have we mentioned?

That we are moving to a new house closer to Megan and Jack's school? Everyone in our neighborhood will be moving about 9/10 of a mile closer to the kids school (which then will put the kids' school at 1/10 of a mile from us). In our current neighborhood, we live in the "newer" units in the front (of which there are 12) and there are 24-ish "older" houses in the back (by old, I mean 5 years). The old houses are having serious issues with them, which is apparently indicative of poor construction...serious infestations of bugs/rodents, poor water drainage and mold. Since the owners of this neighborhood have refused to address the concerns properly, everyone is being moved out to a development that is currently being built. They will be single family homes and they look really nice. The downside is that they are smaller than our current house. We will lose a bedroom, playroom and bathroom (and Dan's urinal) and it will no longer be American's only in the neighborhood. But, Dan keeps reminding me that it is still a free house :) So, the houses are supposed to be finished the end of January/February and we will get to move all over again!

Our Friends

Check out our friends' blog. They went on our church's retreat this weekend and have a crazy story to tell! :) Click on "friend's blog" in blue above. Tricia and Matt have 3 entries to explain their craziness, so scroll down on their blog to read Part 1 first...

On a lighter note, you know the part that makes my day? Tricia called me Saturday night to tell me (because we didn't go on the retreat) so I wouldn't hear it through the grapevine...and she couldn't stop laughing about it! I think that qualifies us as official "friends" don't you?

Hi Geneseo Folks

Can I just say that I'm not sure if it's Sis or Carl who checks this (my bet is on Sis), but that we love you guys and hope you are doing well at college? We don't have either of your email addresses, but we love you and love seeing Geneseo on the Live Traffic Feed! Will you guys get home for Thanksgiving? Tell everyone hi for us, we love you!!!

I've got nothing

There's not much important to say...we have had a pretty normal week, although the kids and I did drive in to pick Dan up from work and shop at the mall on Tuesday! We parked at Dan's work and walked from there to the mall, which I think is about 1/2 mile away. But you can't just walk to the mall in downtown busy Bangkok, you have to walk to the corner, walk down a couple of blocks, go up to an overpass walkway, walk back a couple of blocks and a couple more to get to the right mall, then enter the mall, which is a huge 7 story monstrosity. The mall is my favorite so far here in Bangkok. It has everything grouped together, as best as they can - all the kid's stores together, all the running shoes/athletic stores together, music stores together, etc. Pretty good, except if you can't find what you need, then you can't find any other store that might carry it, either because they are all located together!

Anyway, we got to eat at the Food Loft there, which has foods from all over the world that you can choose from: Indian, Thai, Japanese, Italian, Steak, Chinese...and Drinks, desserts and all sorts of yummy stuff! It is great for our family because it is a nice treat, beautiful setting with waterfalls cascading down walls, but informal. The kids get a slice of pizza each with french fries, I get Indian Butter Chicken Curray and Dan got some kind of asian noodles and spring rolls...then we got Mango w/ Sticky Rice for dessert and Dan surprised us with a Banana Fritter w/ chocolate chip ice cream! It rocked!

After that, we couldn't find the store we needed, so we ended up walking all over the mall, going from level to level until we finally asked someone and found the store we needed...then we still had to head back to the car a 1/2 mile away. The kids did great, never complained about the walking and were good, good listeners in downtown Bangkok during crazy 7:30pm rush hour. A motorbike almost ran over Kylie (which was my fault), but we all made it safely back to the car, without anyone fussing! A real feat in our household! :) And soooo much fun!

Dylan James

My cousin Dave and his wife Lindsay just had their 1st child! Dylan James was born on 11/13 and is a cutie! Isn't this such a sweet picture of him?

I want to be happy, too

We had a good weekend this weekend. We had our good friends over on Friday for dinner and Seafarers of Catan (and talking, as there wasn't much winning going on from my end) :) And then Saturday morning, Dan took Megan to get her toenails done and Jack to get his haircut, while Kylie and I went to a Craft Fair! We got a beautiful purse to be used as a birthday gift for a birthday Megan was going to, 3 Thai elephant Christmas ornaments, a sturdy oval bread basket with handles, a cute black and white striped wastebasket for our downstairs bathroom, Thai handmade flowers for the girls for their Christmas stockings (so they can put them in vases in their rooms) and a stocking-stuffer for Dan (but not from the Craft Fair, from where they were holding it - don't worry, he'll like it). Have I mentioned I like shopping? And, what's more, I like shopping where I can get really good deals cheaply. In the States it used to be at yard sales, here in Thailand it's at craft fairs or the like. I mean, seriously, the cutest wastebasket for 70 Baht? That's $2.05. Not too shabby.

Then, we got to watch this sweet little girl from Saturday afternoon until after lunch on Sunday. It's her Daddy's birthday today, so her Mommy took him downtown to stay at a nice hotel, have a nice dinner and spend time together. She was so good and had a riot running around with our 3. Megan was like another Mommy to her, helping her out, carrying her around and reading to her, Jack wanted to help her out and kiss on her continually and Kylie just played with her/didn't share with her. She's almost 2 and definitely held her own with our crew. :) She did a great job napping and sleeping through the night, too! We went to Burger King after church today and put on "Curious George" in the car, because it's a bit away. She loved it! It was near the end when we turned it on, so ended before we got home. Dan started it over in the car and I explained to the kids that we were starting it over, so that she would be happy. Kylie piped in, "I want to be happy, too!" Ain't that the truth, though?

Oh, and here's our Moopert on Friday afternoon. I fell asleep upstairs with Kylie and came down to find her sound asleep on the sofa after school. She even had lines on her face from our couch (which, incidentally, feels like a couch made out of my blankies - it's awesome)!

See, I told you

Did I not just call it? Click here to read about it.
Sad, sad. And crazy. Read my comment about it here.

Loy Krathong

Today is Loy Krathong in Thailand.

"Loi" means "to float". "Krathong" is a raft about a handspan in diameter traditionally made from a section of banana tree trunk decorated with elaborately-folded banana leaves, flowers, candles, incense sticks etc. During the night of the full moon in the 12th month of the Thai calender, normally in November, many people will release a small raft like this on a river. In addition, fireworks and beauty contests take place during the festival. It was a ceremony to honor the original Buddha, Siddhartha Guatama. Apart from venerating the Buddha with light (the candle on the raft), the act of floating away the candle raft is symbolic of letting go of all one's grudges, anger and defilements, so that one can start life afresh on a better foot. Many Thai believe that floating a krathong will create good luck, and they do it to honor and thank the Goddess of Water, Phra Mae Khongkha.

Megan made the krathong on the right in Thai class. Jack made the one on the left in Pre-K. The kids could have attended Loy Krathong ceremonies at Dan's work or at the Nichada pool near their school, but we didn't - mostly because we had Life Group from church tonight. But, while making rice for dinner tonight, Megan started talking about how the krathongs are made by the Thais to thank the god of water. She told me that it makes her sad that most Thais don't know God or believe in Jesus and she doesn't know how they will learn. I told her we have missionaries at our church that want to tell Thai's about Jesus. She made me name some. I told her Mr. Matt and Mrs. Tricia are here in Thailand to teach Thai kids about Jesus (and Math, English, Science, History, etc). I also got to tell her that the Thais are right - there is a God of water, but He's also the God of everything else. He made the water and the heavens and the earth and only He can command the winds and the waves and they obey Him. She was sad that the Chinese don't know Jesus either, so we prayed there in our kitchen for Thais and Chinese to come to know Jesus and to know who He is, that people would teach them and they would know the Truth. I love that she has a heart for people to know Jesus, but I struggle with how to explain to her why they don't know Jesus, how we have to be careful here in Thailand (Buddhism and the King are beyond taken seriously) so that we can share with people without offending them. Any thoughts or suggestions?

Miss Samantha

Apparently Miss Samantha is home and doing well! I think the kids are loving on her (maybe a little too much - Tiff said that Michael likes to honk her nose and poke her in the eyes and say "eye" - she's trying to get him to point to his own eye to say eye). April reported that Laura let Samantha borrow Dolly (her favorite doll and virtually another member of their family) for a bit!

p.s. Happy Veteran's Day Pappy! Thank you!!!

Crocodile Farm and Zoo part 2

There was also a Dinosaur Museum at the Croc Farm. Megan desperately wanted to go to it and Jack wanted his picture taken underneath the dino. It's his "cool guy" pose.

A baby white tiger...just hanging out.

Megan posing with a croc.

Jack posing with a croc.

Kylie with a croc.

Dan with a croc.

Dan and I.

Jack and Kylie

Megan and Jack

Eating ice cream

Seriously. See how close the lions and tigers are? They were reaching their paws out at one point and we could touch them (but we didn't).

Right after this pic, the tiger stood up on his hind legs, with his paws on the cage to look and see what was going on in the croc arena in front of us. He was huge stretched up all the way. p.s. Mom Mom, check out my necklace! It's my new favorite one to wear! :)

The guy with his head in a crocs mouth.

Jack performing it on a stone croc.

Megan doing the same!

Me and my Tweeter!

Dan feeding the crocs chicken rib cages!

The Erawan Museum on the way to the croc farm! The 3 headed elephant is a hindu god. The statue is GINORMOUS!!! The above pic is what you see from the highway driving by. INSANE!!!