Elephant Camp

We had a big day at the Mae Sa Elephant camp the other week! We went with some friends from work and it was really fun. The elephants gave us lots of fun pics AND it's amazing all they have trained them to do. They played soccer, painted pictures (good ones), hula hoop on their trunks, played the harmonica, take the hat off their trainer and put it back on, danced, played dead etc... It was amazing!!! Take a look...

Corinne's Birthday

I have been SO bad at updating the blog. You can know how busy we are by how often we update the blog, but August actually was a very exciting month! On August 10th, Corinne turned 4 years old and she had a fun birthday party to celebrate! We invited friends from our neighborhood and others from our company. Games included: musical chairs, picture making, necklace making, and eating cake (well, actually, the westerners were the only ones who wanted to eat cake at 1o:00 in the morning). Here are some fun pics...


Then, that evening, we took her to a place in Chiang Mai called Night Safari. It's basically like a zoo but more exciting. They have tram rides through the "jungle" at night and animals are everywhere! Corinne had been dying to go and it didn't disappoint!

Thailand... the land of a thousand...creepy manikins

Manikins have always been kind of strange to me. I think I understand the thought behind it... The idea is to help people envision what a dress/shirt would look like on you if bought it. "If I bought that shirt, maybe I would look calm, cool, and collected like that manikin is..." But they are still kind of strange. Well, here, let's just say the manikins aren't quite as calm/cool/collected... What do you think?

Top 10 Ways You KNOW You are Running In Thailand...

10) Instead of a sidewalk there is a big ditch next to you that you can jump in if a car comes by...
9) Everybody looks at you like you are crazy for subjecting your body to such torture early in the morning. (and they are right)
8) Chickens/ Roosters look at you with really mean looks on their faces...
7) In addition to focusing on running, you have to focus on every blind corner to make sure you will not be hit by a motorcycle.
6) You come in to take a shower and you are just as hot as you were outside.
5) During my 3 mile run, I saw 2 temples and probably 20 spirit houses... a great opportunity to pray for our neighbors...
4) Almost stepped on a millipede
3) "Speed work" is defined as "dogs running after you to make you pick up your pace..."
2) The smell of Thai breakfast along the way... fish balls and fried chicken

1) ( drum roll please): You know you are running in Thailand if... This thought actually crosses your mind "I better bring my ID, b/c if I get injured and a rabid dog bites me, nobody will know who I am..."

Tea Party...

Enough said... by the way the "someone else coming later" was her friend Nua from our neighborhood!

Jesus loves...

Today we decided to visit one of the largest temples in our city. It is located near the top of a large mountain and it overlooks our entire city. The view of our city from the temple is absolutely breathtaking. But, among the beauty is extreme emptiness as thousands of people a day flood into this popular Buddhist temple to ring bells, bring gifts, or participate in some sort of ritual to cleanse their sins and end their suffering. It was such a good reminder of why we put ourselves through the process of learning language, living in a strange place, and missing family and friends. All along the path to the temple were people selling goods, food, shrines etc... kind of made me think of "the money changers"... Here is a glimpse of what we saw walking down from the temple along with some background music that Corinne thought was appropriate. Awesome! Below the video are a few beautiful pictures of our city.

A weekend of fun and celebration

Last weekend, Lynn and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary! Hard to believe time has gone by so fast (and I'm so old...) We had a wonderful weekend celebrating here in Thailand. Last Friday night, a friend babysat Corinne, and Lynn and I went to eat at a nice restaurant then went to a movie. Then, on Saturday, the 3 of us went to a resort outside of our city. We spent the day swimming, enjoying "free" AC, and just relaxing. Then the next day, we got to see an elephant camp near our hotel. Corinne loved it! She kept calling it the "anniversary place" and thinks that we went to the hotel b/c of her! :) Here are a few pics of our time.