Goings On

So, we had a good weekend with Dan being home (unexpectedly, due to both airports in Bangkok being shut down by protesters) and I figured I would post some random fun pictures of us in the past week or so for your viewing enjoyment.

Jack and his best friend, John, watching a Spiderman cartoon. The whole time, they kept a running dialoge between them without taking their eyes off the show. It cracked me up and totally reinforced the thought that guys tend to have "side by side" relationships as opposed to women who want to sit and talk "face to face". They are adorable together!

My big kids "tatted" up.

The kids posing in front of a "Christmas" display at the mall! So fun in shorts and flip flops!

My beautiful piggy toes! This is my first design on my toes! And it cost me 100Baht, which is roughly $2.85 for the pedicure and design. Not too shabby!
My acrobat, Megan...
and her copycat sister, Kylie.

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!!!