64. Visit a night market

The night market in Chiang Mai is apparently beyond belief! Hundreds of vendors selling anything and everything. Amanda picked me up a sweet Killers t-shirt that she was hoping I would not like so that she could have it. I am wearing it as I type so her plan was not successful.

Hers' a couple pics:




41 down, 59 left to go!!!

In other news-the out-laws arrive tonight and they are bringing 4 suitcases full of shmag for us. Amanda and the kids are vibrating with excitement and can't wait till they get here. I am just hoping Tom will fix our stovetop and Pat will do what Pat does best...cook good things and clean our fridge!

47. Go in a Buddhist temple (and learn more about Buddhism in general)

The girls went to Wat Chedi Luang in Chiang Mai and learned a lot more about Buddhism while they were in Chiang Mai. This particular temple is over 700 years old. They met a buddhist man who used to be a monk and chatted with him for quite some time about the Buddhist way of life. While they were there they also saw a lot of monks in training-young boys who were spending a couple of weeks at the wat taking classes.





40 complete...60 left!!

2. Bathe an elephant

Here are a few pics of the girls bathing some elephants.



39 down...61 left to go!!

The real surprise-as told by Amanda

Hello all!

Several months ago I began hatching a plan to do something special to celebrate Kylisha turning 16 in March and Danika turning 16 in April. With Danika's mom's blessing I booked a surprise four night trip for the 3 of us to Thailand. We left Thursday and just returned today. It was an action-packed and fun-filled weekend of surprises and laughter.

I have been saying to Les over and over the last two weeks that everything seems right with the world again-Danika being here with us has been wonderful. She is like a daughter to us and we love her very much. Of course-Kylisha has been pretty happy to have her around too!

Now-back to the surprise. I told the girls we would be spending the weekend in HK and that I had lots of surprises planned. Lies. Instead of heading to the ferry terminal we ended up at the airport and flew to Bangkok. Then it was on to Chiang Mai, Thailand for a weekend with the elephants at Elephant Nature Park. We spent the weekend learning about and interacting with elephants who have been saved from horrendous abuse. Some have horrific physical injuries from land mines or illegal logging. Some have suffered physical and mental abuse and have been malnourished and passed from owner to owner. But, they have all been saved by an amazing woman and are living the rest of their lives in peace and happiness in a beautiful sanctuary in northern Thailand. Words cannot begin to express what an amazing experience it was. Hands down the greatest weekend!





Saying goodbye to D. Humes tomorrow will be rough (for more of us than just Kylisha). But-we are thankful to have had this time with her and the memories will last a whole lifetime.

Love you, Dani :)

SURPRISE

In a previous post I mentioned that Danika was arriving Friday and that Kylisha and I were taking the day off to go and get her from Hong Kong. That was a lie. Sorry. The truth is that she arrived on Thursday and I snuck to Hong Kong on my own to get her. We hid her in our living room and then called Kylisha out. Amanda still can't watch it without tearing up...

3, 2, 1... Action!

Over the past 8 months, we have not only taken hundreds and hundreds of photos, but we have also been taking video clips during our adventures around SE Asia. Amanda figured it was time to compile these and I spent a good 3-4 hours yesterday (yes...I have no full time job) and put this little diddy together.....We hope you enjoy it and that it makes you all feel a little closer to us over here!

Sweet 16!

Who knew Kylisha would be celebrating her sweet 16 here in Macau? For her birthday, we let her take off the afternoon and I took her to 360 Cafe for lunch. It is the revolving restaurant at the top of the Macau Tower. It is exactly like the top of the Calgary Tower or LaRonde in Edmonton. Her and I pigged out for a couple hours up there as there was no shortage of food. I personally was a little disappointed that there was no seafood at all, but maybe at the dinner buffet there is! It was also too bad that it was so hazy, because the views from the tower are amazing when it is clear (not very often).

Later that evening we/she had some friends over for her requested rib dinner, so we stuffed our bellies with meat and had some cake as well.

The night before her birthday, Dane and Kirsten snuck over like gorillas in the mist, and decorated the outside of our door for Kylisha's birthday. Kylisha was surprised and loved it when she went to leave for school the next morning!

On March 25, Klash's best friend and Amanda's BFF (they are tangled in a messy BFF triangle right now) Danika, is arriving here for a couple weeks! Huge kudos to Danika's parents for sending their baby to see us all by herself! Yes, it is literally around the world, but after being here, we can honestly say that it is very similar to back home and in fact, we feel much safer here than we would back home! It's funny because it seems so silly that before we came here we were a bit scared-that's how much of a bubble we lived in!! Thank goodness we (like Danika's parents) were smart enough to take the leap! Kylisha is so excited for Dani to get here and we are taking the day off Friday to go pick her up in HK. For their sweet 16th's, Amanda has planned an exclusive surprise filled girly weekend in Hong Kong for the 3 of them...they should have a blast. Based on Amanda's history of going out in HK, I'm a little worried!