Thailand 2/28/2013

Phang Nga Bay & Sea Canoe 

Today was so much fun!! We chose to do this tour because it sounded really awesome! To start the day off we got onto these speed boats! We were able to see a lot of the area on these.

It was pretty amazing to see these huge limestone rocks just sitting in the middle of the ocean!
 

We then stopped and go onto these "sea canoes" which were just inflatable rafts. We had a guide paddle us around the limestone "islands" This was one of my favorite parts. 

Our guide pointed out the Scooby Doo rock!

 There were caves inside the rocks and we got to go in some of them.

 After the sea canoes we then went by speed boat to the island the movie James Bond Man with the Golden Gun was filmed on. Of course we had to take our picture with the famous rock.

We had to take a picture of the beach on the James Bond island. It was made completely out of crushed sea shells. It really hurt the feet to walk on.
It was funny. This island had a bunch of ladies selling items. One lady saw C look at some of the items in her booth and then start to walk away. She got very aggressive and grabbed his arm and literally pulled him back over to her booth. It was awesome to watch C run as soon as she let go of his wrist!

We then went to this fishing village. We were told that no outsiders can live in this village. There wasn't enough land so all the houses are build on stilts in the ocean next to this island. They do not allow anyone that wasn't born in the village build there.

 

 We were dropped off on one side of this village so we could wander through it and were then picked up on the other side of the village. While we were going through this town we came into the school and there were ladies there with monkey's!!! We got to hold them long enough to take a picture!

 This monkey was so SOFT!!

 We then went to a private island and had another buffet lunch. This is what it was. Don't you just love the squid on C's plate? All the dishes were fish except for 1 which was chicken curry, Which was very good!

We then had time to play in the ocean. This spot was pretty cool because there was a current that went sideways. People would lay on their backs and float from one side of the beach to the other.

This was an AWESOME day!!!

Thailand 3/1/2013

Today we had no plans. We decided to go into town to check out the mall. The mall in Phuket was a lot better than the "mall" in Bangkok. It actually had stores! They had a 4-D movie experience that we decided to try. It made me laugh that we went on a snow ride down the mountain for it. The movie was in 3D and our seats moved to make it 4D.
After the mall we walked down the street to Hard Rock Cafe Phuket. It was very hot outside so we all ordered smoothies that were very delicious!

  

 C laughed at me because I ordered fajitas and all this food came out. J asked if we needed to come back the next day. I started laughing and asked "Why, because I'm actually going to eat something?"

 

 

 When we got back to the hotel C & I decided to go swimming and check out our underwater camera. We just swam in the hotel pool for a little while as the company Farewell Dinner was that night.

 

After getting ready for the Farewell Dinner we had some extra time so we decided to check out the hotel. We found this huge chess set but it was missing a pawn and C told me to stand in! We also found miniature golf, batting cages, and a basketball court. All the hotels we stayed at were definitely 5 stars.

 

The Farewell Dinner was good, this was right before it started. The dinner was a buffet.

The entertainment was these girls singing songs in English. They did pretty good but it was a little interesting hearing Adele with an accent :)

 Then we got a surprise. They had these huge paper lanterns for us to light off into the sky. The purpose was to let all of the bad out of our lives and let it go and if the lantern flew into the sky then you would be blessed with a great year!

Thailand 3/2/2013

 The last day in Thailand we decided to just relax on the beach. We rented some snorkeling equipment and snorkeled for a couple hours. Then we met up with A & J and played in the ocean waves.

We left for the Airport at 8:30, We flew an 1 hour 45 minutes from Phuket to Bangkok. Arrived in Bangkok and had a 5 hour layover. Then we flew 6 hours 55 minutes to Tokyo Japan. 2 hour layover then flew 9 hours to Portland. It was really weird to leave Japan at 3:35 in the afternoon on Sunday and arrive in Portland at 7:30 in the morning on Sunday! We were supposed to leave Portland at 1:20 but we asked if there were any earlier flights to SLC. There was one leaving at 10:15 for an extra $50 a person. Definitely worth it so we jumped on that and got home 3 hours earlier than scheduled!!!

Yearly Visit

I love it when my sister Jackie and her family come to visit us! They made the trip and stayed all last week. Her girls were very excited that we had a horse this year that they could ride all by themselves. I hopped on my horse, Ebby, and we went for a ride every day I think. We rode horses a lot. Kamysha would be such a cowgirl if she had the opportunity. By the end of the week she would help me catch Snowball in the field, lead her up to the hitching rail, pull out her saddle. She needed a little help to put the saddle on the back of Snowball. Then she would cinch her up and put on the bridle. I don't think it would take her very long to build the muscles to lift the saddle and she would be off and riding.

This would amaze me every time. Karyssa had no fear of the horses. She would lead Ebby up to the hitching rail all by herself. It scared me a little to have her just take off walking.

Waiting for me to catch the horses.

We went to Bear Lake on Wednesday. We rented a paddle boat and a trike/paddle boat. It was fun once we had them to our spot on the beach but getting them there from the rental shack was awful. It took Michael and Kamysha in the paddle boat and Chad and Kaylynn in the trike an hour of pedaling. Needless to say the guys had their wives take them back to the shack!

One of the best things about Bear Lake is the fact that it doesn't get very deep, very fast.

Karyssa let me bury her in the sand!

I took Kamysha to our combined YM/YW activity. We played Siamese baseball. It was pretty fun!

After we went riding, since the horses were really good. We would give them grain.

Waiting for their turn to ride the horses.

Little Ethan loved the horses as well.

We also went bowling, floated the river, hiked to the intermittent spring, rode 4-wheelers, jumped on the trampoline, and played lots of games! After a week of going, going, and more going, Buckie and I were tuckered out! Ha Ha

Just kidding, this picture was taken the 3rd day they were here. I was just pretending to sleep. I was actually talking to Jackie who is in the chair just to the right in this picture. I really was exhausted but I had so much fun. My house is definitely too quite without them here! Can't wait for 2 weeks when I'm going to go see them for Labor Day!!!

Mud anyone?

Last night for mutual we played mud volleyball with the young men. It was so much fun. I was a little nervous about diving for the ball but decided that I could not be shown up by the young women in my group.

I would definitely do this again. Maybe next year for the fourth of July I'll get a team together to play in the annual mud volleyball contest!

High Water

On the fourth of July we woke up to a 5 foot section of our bank taken out by the high run-off this year. It was pretty crazy and lots of people came to see it. On Tuesday it was alot worse. We were afraid people were going to drive to our house and fall into the creek so we put up a sign to drive on the other side of the garage.

The water was relentless and just kept undercutting the road then the top would fall in because there was nothing there to hold the ground up. We contacted the County road and bridge. They came and dumped some concrete into the river using a backhoe to hold it in place so the water wouldn't just wash it away. So this is now what our place looks like.

We have to wait until the creek dries up so we can fix the road. Hopefully it does dry up this year. I haven't seen a year when it does though so that is a good thing this year.

Chad finally got a hammock stand for the hammock that he bought in Guatemala. He is now relaxing every moment he can.

Buckie even seems to enjoy it.