Mosquito coast

Poor,poor Acacia. She has her mothers blood and mosquitos love it. She always has this tendency to sleep in just undies or in the buff. Well, one night she crawled into our bed while we were downstairs and the mosquito net was not up yet,so she was open to the elements.I put her back in her bed and made sure the mosquito net was completely covering her bed. I guess there were some rogue mosquitos hiding in the shadows of the net. Anyway we counted 89 new bites. Yikes!

Rush hour 3

Sorry, I couldn't help myself.

Chiang Mai rush hour continued

A few more pictures of our elephant excursion.

Chiang Mai rush hour

On our first couple weeks here we went to Mae Rim to ride elephants and to take in the sights of Northern Thailand. The elephants are amazing and are incredibly smart. One of the elephants painted a pretty detailed painting. Our elephant rides were about an hour. Acacia and Daddy on one and Mommy and Anna on a different one. Lots of colorful things to buy and colorful people too.Just the other day coming home from our friends house we saw a elephant on the side of the street. Something you don't see everyday.

Island getaway

During Acacia's school break we got to get away to an Island on the Andaman coast in southern Thailand. The Island is Koh Lanta. To get there from the mainland you have to cross from the mainland to an Island via vehicle ferry to the another vehicle ferry to Koh Lanta. We had a good time, although this is the rainy season and it was. The kids absolutely loved it though. We had a river inlet right in front of our resort that we had to cross to get to the beach proper. During high tide this river became quite strong, but the kids (fearless and danger) insisted on crossing. One time on our way back from the beach Anna was determined to cross the river channel despite her Dad trying to help her. She was having none of that. By God she was going to do it on her own whether she drowned or not. Don't worry I wouldn't let her drown. Poor Anna got lots of insect bites on her stomach and upper legs. Sand fleas or something. I'll put a picture of that one on a different entry. She is much better now. We needed this break after such a rocky start here.

Artist in the making

Aaaahhh, the mind of a small child. So innocent and so pure. "Hey Anna, where are we suppose to use markers or crayons." The remark usually is a look of bewilderment or a scowl of disaproval. Occasionally, she will say, "Only on paper." I thought she was awfully quiet after I left her room during her bedtime routine. I went to go to bed about 3-4hrs after putting her down and found her sleeping in our bed. So, I picked up her limp sleeping body and took her back to her bed. What I thought was a new sheet with a pattern on it was actually her handy nightime artwork. I had to do a double take since it was kind of dark and I wasn't sure that I was seeing what I was seeing. Of course, I had to call Shelly in and we both stood there in awe like we were seeing the Grand Canyon for the first time. We started to get all misty eyed and shook our heads in disbelief. We wanted to get mad but we couldn't because it was so darn cute. Notice the artwork on her tummy, arms, and hands (you can't see the legs and feet that she so painstakingly polka dotted as well). We wonder what goes on in that little noggin of hers.

Street Market in Chiang Mai

This has become a routine every Sunday with the girls. We go to the center of town and walk through the street market which is quite long and jam packed with everything under the sun. The kids love running throughout the street and Acacia has become quite the goodwill ambassador with her wai and sawat dii kaa to everyone she meets. The Thai's can't get enough of her and fawn all over her when she talks in the little bit of Thai that she knows. Anna gets a lot of attention too but she scowls at everyone and I think she is very tired of everyone always touching her curly hair and pinching her cheeks. The kids seem to like the street food, especially the noodle soup. Now if we could only get them to use utensils.