Tigers

Sunday morning we randomly decided to go to the Tiger place. I love tigers and wanted to check it out even though I thought it was crazy when Kim's kids went. After we paid I got a little nervous about taking my kids into a cage with live tigers, but figured it must be safe if everyone kept going right? 

It was a really neat experience and a little nerve racking. Especially when Matthias started staring one down and it looked ready to take the challenge. Don't stare a tiger in the eyes. James was less than thrilled to be there...not sure why but I guess tigers weren't that exciting for him. I'm glad we went and it was definitely a unique experience. 

More Saturday

The kids found a bunch of stuff on the beach and buried it while we were eating dinner. James had this coconut named Bobby Coconut...it was pretty funny. Also Matthias lost a tooth in Thailand and he got this awesome hat. 

Thailand-Saturday

Saturday we spent all day at the beach. Walked down in the morning and just played all day. Ate at a little pizza place on the sand, took Matthias and Hannah to pick out some souvenirs. The kids swam some more at the resort pool when we got back and went to the kid center. Off to dinner that evening alon the beach. One of the best meals we had-super amazing curry and excellent service. Then Taylor and Bryan had a fitting for the suits they were having custom made by the tailor. Hyrum helped with the measurements. And I picked out a dress that night that was miraculously done the next night before we left. After the kids were in bed we ordered dessert up to the room. Super fun, relaxing day. 

Friday Night Market

Taylor, Bryan and I walked down the street to the Friday night market. It had tons of stalls with an assortment of everything. We also walked through all the food stalls and some looked a little scary. But a lot of it looked delicious so we got some stuff to take home for dinner. There were these really yummy circle fried buns and then the little pancake sandwiches. Mmm. Such delicious food we ate all summer. 

"I Ride Elephant!"

On Friday morning I had booked an elephant ride so we were picked up at the apartment and had a pretty drive along the coast to the jungle where the elephants were. It was pretty twisty and jerky though and inside a huge 15 passenger van so we were all feeling a bit queasy when we got there. 

The ride was really a pretty cool experience. The kids had been looking forward to riding the elephants all summer and what Hannah told everyone all spring was "I'm going to ride elephants in Thailand with my grandma and grandpa." We had to have 3 elephants so we split Hannah with Bryan, the boys with Kathy, and Hyrum with me and Taylor. 

At first it was a little scary because you are so high up and the ride seems wobbly, but after you get used to the elephants rhythm then it's really neat. The scenery is amazing and we went up on a beautiful ridge overlooking the ocean. The guys driving the elephants were pretty funny and they took our phones to take about a billion pictures. Then Hannah's driver let her take control for the end of the trip and he walked along side the elephant which she thought was awesome. 

I'm super glad we did this and everyone loved it. Hyrum still talked about it for months after whenever we saw an elephant picture he would say "I ride elephant." On the ride back to our beach though Hannah got really car sick and ended up puking all over the van. We pulled over in front of a random tailor shop (they were everywhere) and he helped us hose off Hannah and clean out the van...super nice. I ran to a kiosk and bought her some clean clothes to put on. Made for a memorable ending to a fun excursion. =]

Hello Thailand.

We arrived in Thailand on Wednesday afternoon. It wasn't quite as cozy and quaint of a welcome and we were a little shocked after the peaceful, rural Siem Reap. The apartment we had rented was a little run down and overlooked a large construction field full of giant boulders, also it was a pretty good walk through the city to reach the beach. Not our favorite. Although the pool was pretty amazing and we did enjoy it on both Thursday and Friday afternoons during naptime. 

The first night we headed to downtown Kamala where we were staying. It was raining and just grabbed some dinner. After we waited for the taxi outside a tailor's shop. So he got to chatting with us and next thing we know Taylor and his dad had both ordered custom suits and a bunch of shirts for Taylor. Actually super glad about this contact. It was a fun addition to the vacation. 

On Thursday we spent the morning at the beach with the kids. Taylor and his dad walked to a couple of hotels along the beach to see if there was availability so we could move from our apartment. That night we headed over to Patong Beach to see if we liked the area better, but it was very crowded and touristy. We did get some food there and see some street performers. We got stuck in a huge rain downpour and saw a few shops. Also ended up walking down the equivalent of 6th street in Austin right as it was getting dark...got the kids out of there in a hurry. Then headed back to the apartment.