Merry Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas to all!! Any big plans for New Years? The Thai’s celebrate New Years here so I am not to sure what we are up to just yet for New Years, I might possibly have a babysitter so we will see.

Trent & I finally went on a date night last night; we had a girl from the states here visiting her parents so we nabbed her for a night. It was so wonderful not to have to dine & dash like we usually do. We went to this restaurant called “Prompthep Cape” and it overlooked the Kata bay, amazing setting. We missed the sunset but it would be breathtaking up there.

There was a table cross from us and it is amazing how we have so much information about the world and people still are ignorant to information. This woman from Ireland was shooting off her mouth to the other patrons at her table that next to France Canada is an all French speaking country. I was waiting to hear her say we also drove dog sleighs. I would have corrected her however by the number of whisky bottles on the table I don’t think she would have remembered our conversation. She was a woman who knows the world and was even giving lessons on how to speak Thai and she is here on a week’s vacation.

That is not the first time we have heard that in Canada we all speak french. I met a family from Italy and when I said we were from Canada they immediately said “Oh you speak French” I corrected him by saying only some of the country does us red necks in the west don’t. I told Freddy (the Italian) tell all your friends to tell all there friends that Canada is not a French speaking country and maybe the word will spread.. lol…

We had a great Christmas. Emma was up bright and early and found the gifts from Santa. Emma and Easton had to wait about an hour for Everett to wake up ( we love practicing patience) The kids had a great time, it is nice to have a few new toys around here as we only brought from home; one Barbie for Emma, and a few dinky trucks for the boys (mean parents I know)
(I made sure everyone was dressed this christmas morning picture..haha last year the kids and most of Trent we not clothed)

Toys were quite cheap here. I went shopping and I had three huge bags full and it cost me I would say half of what I would of paid back home. I found Emma these shoes and they are so cute, I found ones like them at home at Browns and the price tag was $90.00 here just as cute $12.00. Quality is better at home but she won’t be wearing them forever. The cutest dress like the one Gramma Galbraith gave here years ago the pink one with the stretch material up top, found one here for $9.00 and it is so cute on Em.

Mr. & Mrs. Simpson and Mr. Day I bought Trent and electronic Texas Hold’em game for Christmas so we can practice our skills, any games been going on lately?

(Mom, here is the puppy & book for the kids)

Christmas afternoon we went out for lunch and the food was not so great. We went to an English pub and it was not what we were hoping for. For supper however we went to a place called Jimmy’s light house and the couple who own it is from Calgary. The turkey dinner was excellent just like being at Gramma’s, so that brightened up our Christmas. We went back the next day for turkey sandwiches. The Lighthouse restaurant is right at the pier so we watch all the sail boats and it’s neat for the kids.

I went for a Thai Massage the other day and I still don’t know what I thought of it. The only way to describe it is a massage, slapping of your skin, woman standing on you, joints being pulled, a chiropractic session and finally a few good thumps on the head for good luck. I had no idea what to expect so I could not relax fully next time I know so I might be able to enjoy it. The woman starts massaging and the next thing I know she is using her foot to dig into my muscles, it did not hurt I was just surprised. At the end of the 60min massage you do a few stretches with her and then she twists your back to crack it (that felt great since I am in need of an adjustment) It was an experience that I look forward to trying again.

Emma and Trent went to the dentist yesterday. For x-rays, checkup and cleaning $30can. Trent said it was very clean and nicer than our offices back home. The dental clinic is in the hospital, I go next week so I will be able to give you a better indication of what it is like.

The weather has been amazing I hope that the rainy season is now past us. We have been going to the pool more often since we met a family who is originally from Germany but has lived in Hong Kong for the last 10yrs. They have three girls’ ages 9-6 & 9months. Emma and her six yr old Aleigha are so happy to have each other. We were talking about food and since her girls were raised in Hong Kong the crazy things they eat ( ox tongue and other things we are not so accustomed to ) The girls think peanut butter is so gross and sandwiches are not very good, they can not go without rice at every meal practically.

Everett is a lot easier at the pool now, we found water wings that are a lot better and off he goes, he loves putting his head under water to float like Emma & Easton, he is growing up really fast trying to keep up to the other kids. We have no baby,baby left..

I have been asked about our car, it is a little Honda. I truly miss my truck as I LOVE my truck. We are definitely cozy in here. When Trent picked up the car the first day we rented it, the guy laughed as Trent got in it; it’s like being back in Germany again. (small cars) ..... Jim Drew would have a heart attack, our kids ride in the hatch of our car, no seat belts.. (I will take a picture of the car for next time)

We have been taking this a little bit slow this past week with Christmas and all the tourist out and about which creates lots of traffic and not alot of beach chairs left when we get there.

On the 26th was the anniversary of the Tsunami and we drove by Patong beach one of the hardest hit beach. There were a lot of people there and ceremonies going on. The stories we have heard are very sad, a lot of people came back this year to make peace with what happened. Patong beach is huge and we drove high up to over look the beach and for this amount of water to surge in at this particular beach I can not imagine.

No matter where Trent goes the cops seem to find him. He got stuck in the a check stop and he got a ticket for no seatbelt, he had Emma with him(she was not happy) He had to get out of the car and stand in line to pay his ticket right on the spot. He said it was comical how many people were in line and how many Thai's it took to file, take payment and stamp your ticket.. He still does not wear his seatbelt because the offense is only worth $9.00. No amount of money makes him wear it because at home he does not..

We were at the beach yesterday late afternoon because it was sooo hot here. We went at 3:00pm and I was still worried about the boys and their skin. Everett would kick us away and just swim around on his own, he loves it.. You not believe how comfortable he is , he rides the waves, drinks the salt water and he is fine... Easton got caught in a few waves on his boogie board but is on his way to being a pro.. Emma says, "lets go surf" - Em is waiting for the perfect wave!

At the beach it is so great having fresh fruit. The kids devour watermelon and pinapple. I hope to learn how they cut of the pinapple, its a great way to eat it..

I am so thankful for this time with the kids. We are watching Everett become a little boy before our eyes with no distractions. Easton is such a young man, he is communicating so well and has really benefited from all our one on one time. Emma, well my girl is such a little lady & is really understanding the word patience with her brothers and is doing great with them. They are really working well together and Emma does not like to go anywhere without Easton, its really nice to see. We have an amazing family and our kids amaze me each and everyday. I also want to say to my husband as much as I give him a hard time (haha) he is a wonderful man and an unbelieveable dad.. I want to thank him for trusting in my choice to come to Thailand and trusting that everything would be OK. He has created an AMAZING life for us and for that I am extremely grateful!!


Happy New Years to everyone!!!

All our love and miss you, I can’t believe we are heading to 2006 and before we know it we will be on our way home…

Love getting your emails keep them coming…

All my love to my family, I miss you!!

We are so thankful!!

As you know my wonderful gramma passed away and so these days have been difficult being away from my family. I will ALWAYS have my gramma in my heart and be thankful that I had so much time with her as well my kids were able to experience some memorable times with her.
Being away has been hard, yet having three little kids to chase does not allow you to sit and be sad the way I would like at times, I still have to be a nurturing mom for them. What I am most proud of is that our kids don’t associate death as negative because my dad & auntie Wendy (whom passed six years ago) They think being up with God is great and one day they will get to meet Pops (my dad) who they hear about all the time. To see them talk so freely about Gramma is refreshing for me.

So as my gramma has said “This is life now deal with it” tough nut she was.

Thank you to your supportive email to me and my family, I have appreciated them very much..

Now on a happy note. We have ventured and seen a few things lately. The weather still has not turned around and so it is to cold to go to the beach or pool except for this afternoon the sun finally showed itself.

The Phuket Aquarium was interesting, we saw many Nemo’s there, a walk through tunnel to watch all the fish swim around us. At ocean park in Hong Kong had the best fish aquarium I have ever seen so this one here in Phuket was ok. We saw these unbelievably huge Giant Gruperts. I could not believe how big they were, they would swim around and roll their eyes to look at you, it was kind of creepy. ( I don't have the disk with me of the picture right now, next time)

Then we were out for a drive in the morning looking for a waterfall in the hills and we came across this elephant safari. It was the neatest thing. Trent, Emma & Easton loaded up on one very big elephant and Everett and I boarded on RAMBO our 10yr. old elephant. I said to Trent if the animals don’t look good we are out of here but again the handlers were very nice and always had smiles on their faces.
It was one of the greatest experiences. Trent and the kids were in lead as we were walking. Our elephants had to go down this big embankment to get to the river, Trent was hanging on for dear life, he almost went off. This slope was pretty big and these enormous animals had to take it nice and slow. Of course the kids thought it was great and they got to be in the presence of these very powerful animals. As we were walking Trent’s elephant had to move a log with its trunk, he picked it up with such ease.

We were up on their backs for about a half an hour and amazingly enough Everett sat down with me. He thought it was pretty neat to yell “daddy” and wave. I never really noticed and thought about it but elephants have a lot of hair all over their body, very black hair.

I wonder what the elephant thought when Trent go off his back. The handlers picked Trent to come to the front to make sure he was on the largest elephant out of the four of them.

When we returned Trent & Emma got off the elephant and the handler grabbed Easton and brought him to sit on the elephants head with him to walk around. That was pretty neat but Easton was unsure. Easton gets presidential treatment for his looks ( being so white and a red head) and cute smile. He is so used to people grabbing him and touching his hair now. We buzzed his head before we left and you couldn’t really see his hair color but now it is growing back you really notice his orange hair as he calls it. He reminds me more and more of my dad.

When we returned to the tower to be let off the elephants, one elephant had to relieve himself, oh my goodness it was like a waterfall. The elephant though had the sense to spread its legs, I thought that was pretty smart, must have been a female :-)

I wanted to cry because my battery went dead in my camera and my back up was dead because the converter we had blew up the night before (so I didn’t get the pictures I desperately wanted). The kids said “We have to come back and do this again then” yes we do...

That was pretty cool riding those elephants;

Out for supper at a pub the other night and a live band was playing. Easton asked if he could go on stage. I never thought he would ever go up there but he did and they gave him a tambourine to play. It was so cool, he stood up there song after song playing away. I have always said Easton will be into some sort of music, he loves it and it was so great he felt so comfortable on stage. Who knows what the next years will bring! I asked him if he would like to take lessons and play the guitar like the band, he said very confidently “I already know how to play Mommy” (so I have been told)

At this pub I ordered this fish called Antarctica butter fish. It was delicious for anyone who has the opportunity to try some, very good.

* This will be a good one to share with the class Mrs. Brandt.

Here in Thailand they have acres and acres of trees with little cups at the bottom of them and I wondered why.

These trees are rubber trees.
The trees are planted and mature for about 13yrs. The farmers then go out at midnight or one o’clock in the morning when the trees are warm inside and score the trees. They don’t cut a lot but make a diagonal cut from one side of the tree to the other. It will take about two hours for a white substance (rubber) to drip out of the tree into these little cups that catch the liquid.
To make approx. 1 kg of rubber they need about 20 full cups of liquid. They then pour the 20 cups in a pan along with water and acid; they make a paste then put it through a pressing machine which the rubber is still white. The rubber strip is then hung in the sun to turn color an then it is pressed again.

The trees last about 50yrs and then they are cut down to make furniture. The rubber made here is then transported back to North America to make tires, soles for shoes, toys almost everything rubber we use.

Emma is holding a piece of rubber that is approx. 1 kg. 1 kg or rubber is worth 60 baht so about $2.00can/kg. Rubber is high right now so the Thai’s are happy because not so long ago the value of rubber was 17 baht/kg very low = $.70cents/kg.
I am amazed at how simple this process is and what nature is still providing the world…

I went and watched Trent & Easton at the boxing gym with their trainer Tou Chi. Tou Chi is a 39 yr. old ex Thai Boxing Champion and is so small compared to Trent. He is a really great guy, is wonderful with Easton and allowed Emma and Easton to fool around in the other ring for a while.

Trent really impressed me by his high kicks for a big guy. I think me might be a challenge for me after a month or so..haha..( at the lake I kicked is butt royally in the summer) What a work out also the sweat was pouring off Trent... My Boys the CHAMPS!!

idont know if I mentioned it but I was walking with the kids and we saw a snake on the road practically beside us, no more than a meter away. OH MY GOODNESS, I was pretty freaked out and the snake went off into our distant neighbors bushes... that is two for two now, last year we had a rattle snake at our front door..

Trent insisted we go see this snake show on the island, I was not so keen as I hate snakes. It was unbelievable what this guy did with snakes. He brought in cobras, a king cobra, and jumping snakes and a python. Again we are in Thailand so no barriers to help keep people seperated.

Trent is fasinated by these freaky creatures. They asked him if he wanted to feel the strength of a python, they told me to sit beside Trent (NO WAY) They wrapped this 12foot long snake around Trent's legs and told him to try to seperate his legs. He could not describe how powerful this snake was. When Trent tried to move his legs the snake contracted, it would easily break bones and crush you, especially a child.

I asked the handler why the snake has such a big wound on its skin, they said the snake tried to swing back to bit the handler not so long ago and bit itself instead ( How lovely)

Easton wanted to hold a snake I can't believe he stood there with a snake around his shoulders, and the python ( this one about 8feet) was starting to slide off his shoulders ( creepy) Trent said it was not a biting python I have not heard of those ones..

Trent has passed on this adventure for snakes to the boys. Emma my girl has turned sensible and stayed on the side lines with me most of the time. Yes I admit I am a chicken when it comes to snakes... What did we learn from the snake show, we learnt that there are cobra snakes everywhere here and that is why at resorts they have hired staff to watch for them to chop them up. It is quite possible the kids & I saw a cobra snake. Now I am on HIGH alert all the time, but the handler told me if I do see a cobra just "stand still and it wont move either", I said "then how would I get help", everyone just smiled...

It is Christmas Eve here and we are off to the beach. Merry Christmas everyone, I am sure you will all have a wonderful one. My family I miss and love you sooooooo much and remember celebrate Gramma that is what she would want us to do. Hugs and kissses all around!!!! especially Ken for me...

Auntie Penny, Uncle Ted, Auntie Pat, Uncle Gary, Uncle Don, Michele and all my wonderful cousins (be good) and hugs to you all
Mom Merry Christmas..xoxoxoxoxox
Bon, Troy and my munckin Harlow... hugs to my bug please
Gramma & Grampa, Auntie Carol & family, Merry Christmas in Calgary
Uncle Ian I hope you make it home for xmas and hi to Tammy and the girls.
Mr. & Mrs. Schmuland, Rob Marilene and kids Merry Christmas in Okotoks

All our wonderful friends we have, a merry christmas to you guys, you mean the world to us. We are extremly blessed to have such wonderful family and friends who we love so much. We appreciate you and hugs to you kids from our kids...

Love Jody, Trent, Emma, Easton, Everett xoxoxoxoxoxo

All my love to my family and I miss you very much wish I was with you right now but give eachother hugs for me please. I am thinking of you all! Mom give ken an extra squeeze for me and someone one give my mom one for me and extra long one, I miss you Mom.
Merry Christmas to our friends may this Christmas be a great one for you.

Until next time, MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Jode

an AMAZING woman

Hello,

This blog is not a blog about our trip this is to all who new one of the most amazing woman ever.

In the evening of December 18th my gramma, Elinor Edmundson passed peacefully away surrounded by family in Edmonton.

My Gramma was definitally one of the strongest loving woman I have had the pleasure of knowing. She was a wonderful gramma and she is going to be missed so much!! When you were in her presence you could walk on water she made you feel so good. I would look awful and she would say "You are so beautiful you could make a paper bag look good"

As some of you know I was extremely close to my gramma and she had a termendious influence on my life as well as Trent and the kids. Trent viewed her like a gramma also, she embrassed him the moment he walked in her front door. Emma was fortunate enough to have hour long talks on the phone with gramma just talking away about whatever they wanted. The kids would get so excited to go to Ken & Gramma's in Edmonton about every 5 weeks or so.

My gramma always encouraged us to chase our dreams she would always say "good for you, go do it" She taught me life is life and you roll with the punches (which is true) That family is very very important.

My gramma has left this earth to now be with her daughter Wendy whom passed six yrs. ago and also my dad up in Heaven which is a comforting thought.

We found out my gramma was sick a few months ago. We talked about cancelling our trip to Asia but she insisted that we go, that she wanted us to have an adventure and show the kids the world. My gramma wanted the best for everyone, she was truely amazing.

My grandfather Ken is now surrounded by his loving family, my grandparents were best friends and married for over 55ys. I am not there right now and I am sorry for that. To all my family I love you so much and I am sorry to my aunty Penny, mom and uncles for the loss of thier mom. To all my cousins please hug eachother for me and your parents, everyone give ken a huge hug for me and a kiss on his cheek and tell him I love him so very very much.

I am going to deeply miss my gramma as she was always always there for me. I would call her for anything, she was a pro with babies as she had six of her own & cooking tips I had no idea about. She instilled a love of flowers for Emma and birds in both the kids. The kids would say "theres a bird, we have to ask gramma about that one" it was a wonderful relationship they had with her.

My mom said they most likely will be having a service for my Gramma on Thursday in Edmonton however details will be figured out in the next few days.

I talked to my Gramma a few days ago and very thankful for that but it will so hard to come home and not just call her in the middle of the day to chit chat and find out whats been happening with my family in Edmonton (she was central station)

Well thanks for listening, its strange being away from the reality of it all. To those who did not have the pleasure of knowing Mrs. Elinor Edmundson she was wonderful, to everyone else if you know my mom she will be at my grandparents 466-8143.

All my love xoxoxooxoxox jody

we found SANTA!!!

Sawdee Kaa (hello)

We found Santa at last and did he ever make an entrance. Trent & I told the kids to hurry up so we could go eat lunch because someone special was coming soon. Emma asked a series of questions but she could not guess who was coming

“The Greenman” is a English pub friends told us about and we heard Santa was coming at 2:oopm. I could not believe my eyes when he arrived on an elephant, but this is Thailand. Last year Santa arrived on a donkey in Venezuela.

We had such a great afternoon. We met a couple from Scotland and the husband is the general manager of the Hilton here and they have young kids. ( I never did ask if he has met Paris?) Everyone sang Christmas carols, the kids went down in Santa’s grotto to receive their little gifts and they even had a large theatre playing Christmas movies. All the kids went on stage and decorated the Christmas tree and made wish pudding (Easton was in there like a dirty shirt getting his hands on some pudding) It was a really great afternoon.

I met some ladies I will connect with next week so I am excited about that. There is a tennis group, aqua size group, golf group and of course a coffee group so I am hoping to find them. I told Trent we can’t get to comfortable because we won’t want to leave. Good thing Bonnie is having her baby!

I am so thankful that we found Santa because Easton was getting pretty upset that we had no chimney and there is no snow here. He was convinced we needed to come back to Calgary so Santa could drive his sleigh in the snow. Good thing we found Santa for East, and so I could get my annual picture of the kids with Santa or it would of broke tradition and that would have been devastating.

I think I have mentioned before that Christmas is almost non-existent here because the Thai people do not celebrate, they are Buddhist. Luckily we found a tree a few inches taller than our sad tree last year and we had a great time decorating it. Each yr. we are away everyone picks two items to contribute to our tree and we create something with it all. This year I have to say it all came together nicely except the singing lights Trent thought would be so festive, that now we both want to throw against the wall. After a few no's Everett has decided to leave the tree alone expect for today he accidentally pulled it down (it was Easton or him being boys)

We went for a drive yesterday to the north end of the island to check out a resort for friends coming into town and we ended up on this road leading us to the Kathu Waterfalls. There was a couple from Australia there and Trent asked them if it was a nice view at the top, they said yes it was great and well worth the trek up.



























I am so proud of Emma and Easton they climbed up 425steps to get to the top (we didn’t know the amount of steps when we started out) Trent said we have to count double the steps he took because he had Everett on his shoulders most of the way.. It was an amazing view of the jungle along the way, it is so lush and green, it reminds me alot of Hawaii. The waterfall was nice but the lagoon at the bottom where you could swim was pretty neat.

On our drive we came across this golf course basically in the middle of nowhere and it was breathtaking. The course had a back drop of the jungle surrounding it. I have not had the opportunity to golf at many places but this course made me want to get out and swing a club.

A few things I have been asked;

Ginger asked about Santa in the mall. Nope no mall Santa. There is a mall but it is filled with extreme noise pollution with stereo’s trying to drown out each other. I don’t know if this is an everyday occurrence but even I was ready to leave after 15min.

Trent’s mom asked what we eat. Well a lot of rice and chicken dishes, fish & seafood. The Thai’s think cereal is gross but everyone knows we live off it, it is very expensive here and not a lot of selection but we make do with our 10 boxes in the fridge (not kidding)

Asked about the weather - it has been raining here four days straight now and it is not beach weather so we are checking out new restaurants. Its funny that is what our day seems to be; where to eat next?

Trent has been having some tummy trouble, bad ice cubes we think so he has not wanted to eat out to much. We did try this pizzeria out the other day and it was delicious. Emma devoured the lasagna and the bruchette was good but not as good as Lina’s deli” which my mouth is watering for right now.

I know I have mentioned before that they drive on the left side of the road and I believe I have said that the steering wheel is on the right side which makes the windshield wipers and signal lights opposite also. It's funny everytime we turn right the windshield wipers go off, wonder why :-)

I did it again the other night, I was out after dark and without even thinking I got in on the left side of the car ready to drive away. I have done that too many times now and I feel like such an idiot, at least I can laugh about it when I get out and walk around the car.

However the drivers here are nuts, I mean nuts. You travel down a road and it is single lane traveling in both directions all of a sudden someone decides to make it three lanes and you could have a car or scooter coming right at you. There are so many scooters here and they dodge in and out of traffic, we saw one guy fly off his bike the other night, sparks flying everywhere. Then I was out a couple nights ago and it was raining, I was at the traffic circle, which is interesting enough and a guy right in front of me fell of his bike, good thing we were moving slowly. At traffic circles the person who has the right away is the person who buds in.

Now my family don’t get all worried we have became accustomed to driving like a Thai, just be worried when we get home and we start driving on the wrong side of the road. :-)

Gasoline is not all that cheap here it is 75cents/liter for all who is interested.

Well I think that is enough blabbering for now and I will check back in, in a few day. All our love to you and thanks again for all your emails we love getting them.

To Miss. Brandt, thank you for your email from the class it was wonderful and Emma was very happy about it. THANK YOU!!

Mr. Budd, you sure make us laugh and yes Trent and the kids loved your christmas jokes.

Who ever wears contacts will appreciate this. I was having problems with my contacts and I needed to order more. What usually cost me $150 at home cost me $32.00 here crazy...

Talk to you soon and I hope you are staying warm!!
love jode

Easton took this picture of Emma & I , way to go buddy in a few years I can pass the picture taking to East. We would not have pictures if I was not behind the camera, bless my husband but it is not of any interest to him to get THE SHOT ... so here I am with emmy and I promise to show my face a little more often..xoxoxo

Out for a swim

Merry Christmas!!!

We have been getting settled more and more each day. I was asked about our house and here are a few picture of it. We have a gated three bedroom/three bath home in a complex called Land & House in Chalong. The boys are sharing a room here so we can prepare them for when we get back to Canada. Emma is done with sharing with Easton she said; she is ready for her own girl space. It has marble floors and has a lot of room; the spacious bathrooms alone have been worth the move from our first place here. In the master suite it has his & hers toilets (I’m loving it)

There is a man made lake that surrounds the complex. The population of the gated community is 80% Thai 20% western (European, American, Canadian) There is a lot of half and half living here, (western man with Thai woman).

We are at the pool in our complex for the day and it has two pools. The kids had a great time. We met a family from Italy and they have three children ages 15,6,3. they are also trying out Phuket for one year to see if they like it enough to move here full time.



The pools are beautiful; nice and big. Everett keeps going underwater because he loves it, Easton and Emma are on their own swimming all over. The boys have there trusty full brim hats to keep the sun off there super white skin. Our kids are always the only ones in hats and full sun suits (little nerds ..)

Easton is enjoying his Thai boxing and is the champion of the world. If he keeps this up he may have a chance against Everett who seems to take rounds out of him already. Easton likes this coach but does not like the "woman" as he calls her, she is not as fun and she makes him work hard.(it's good for him)

We went for supper to a restaurant called "Parlai" on the beach the other night. We watched all the fisherman come in and bring there daily catches. Easton ordered the catch of the day and then Trent went to picked it out of the tank. That is fresh fish! The food was amazing! One of our favorite dishes is chicken and cashews, at this restaurant is was delicious. However we had this other dish and we could not even hold our lips together they were on fire so bad. No one at this restaurant spoke English so we have no idea what was so hot but it sure was good. Easton loved his fish and ate the whole thing, not even sharing very much.

The food is so full of flavor I don't know how we will enjoy food back home. Our dishes are usually around $2.50/plate for chicken plates and are amazing. I am going to take a Thai cooking class so hopefully I can cook a dish or two when we get home.



Finally we have made it to the beach. We went to Naihar Beach which is on the south end of the island. The tsunami hit this beach; the devastation was not as bad as some beaches more up north which we have not been to yet.

We met a family the other night at the mini golf restaurant and they are from Calgary. This family has been living in Kazakhstan for the last four years and vacation at Christmas on Phuket. The dad and one of the daughters were on the beach at the time the tsunami was moving in. They said they noticed the water and things were not right, they ran and ran got in the car and drove until they were able to stop. It shook them up and they needed to come back this year for them, to heal. As you look at this beach you would never know that a year ago anything happened as it is beautiful and the sand is perfect.

The ocean is crystal clear and the sand is so soft. The beach front is huge and is the perfect play ground for the kids. The water is quite shallow for along way so we let the kids run free. Everett was unsure of the waves coming in at him and he did not like the salt water. Em & East of course were in heaven. It was not really hot or sunny this day, it started to rain when we left so it was a great day to be at the beach for the kids to not bake in the sun.

We dug a nice big hole for the kids at one point to keep them together for a picture and it was nice to have them in one spot for a while with out constantly counting 123,123, 123, to see three bodies.

Everett had to be buried at one point so Emma could try to build a sand castle with out Everett coming along to tease his sister.

Of course we found the answer to get the kids to sit of a few minutes, ICE CREAM! They are Trent's kids, like their father they LOVE their ice cream...

There is not alot of people here in Phuket. We have been told since the tsunami so many people had to move off the island because they lost there business because of lack of tourism. They project at least another two-three years before phuket is even close to what it was like in terms of tourism. It is beautiful and is so sad on how the media can destroy people’s lives with miss information. There is no doubt the tsunami did take lives and I don't want to be disrespectful but island wide damage is nothing to the extent the media made it out to be. The water did not take all of phuket under; it only affected a very small part of it. It goes to show how you can not believe everything you watch or read and you have to dissect information for yourself ( I of course like to challenge what I hear) no surprise to most..haha. hence our trip to Phuket, Thailand

Anyways, I went to an aerobics class last night and it was good, it was nice to be out. What seems to take us an hour to do back home takes three hours here if not more with the kids. So my class was very nice just to enjoy the warm breeze and not hear Mommy, Mommy, Mommy...

It is the 14th of December and we are going to get a Christmas tree soon which will be interesting trying to keep Everett away from. Santa is not to be found here on the island so I am pretty bothered by that, unless we find him Christmas Eve at a resort. I love Christmas at home with all the festivities and the sounds of it all, so next year I would like to be home.

Not much else is happening. We checked out a school for the kids but they want them to come M-F from 8:ooam - 3:oopm, no way will we do that to them so instead we are looking at other options. Before we know it Emma will be in grade one and going full time so we will savor this time with her as much as we can this trip.

Christmas Eve we are going to go sing Christmas carols and Christmas day we are going for a home cooked Christmas dinner at a pub owned by these Americans. Trent went to basketball the other night and met some great guys so we are meeting more people. There is a very high population of either European, American, or Canadian guys who have married or date Thai woman so alot of the woman don't always speak alot of English but we make it work.

It is funny; Trent and I both have said that without being aware we have both reverted to Spanish when we are trying to communicate with someone. I have said things in Spanish I didn’t even realize I knew, but the Spanish does not work here so we are working on Thai. There is not alot of words in Thai but there are different tones. You can say the same word but it will have a different meaning depending on the tone of you voice. The language is challenging.

Again a very Merry Christmas and we send all our love. We look forward to hearing from you.

Love Jode and my crew

What a day with the animals!

What a day we had. Never in my wildest dreams did I think we would touch and get pictures with the animals we did at the zoo today.

I was quite hesitant about going to the zoo today in fear of inhuman conditions but I was pleasantly surprised. We brought along with us Dave, Jesse's 2yr. old little guy or monkey he calls himself.

The first show we went to was the monkey show. They were so funny, the handlers were really good with the monkeys and let them walk freely
without holding a rope around them. The monkeys seem to love what they did and loved the attention. We were told that monkeys on the totem pole here in Thailand are not highly regarded so they are not treated very well by the Thai people. These monkeys looked very well kept and they were active and not sedated at all.


They asked for volunteers and Easton went up on stage and they tied his hands together and the monkey sat beside him and untied him to be free. Easton thought that was so great. I filmed most of it so I can not send the best part, the monkey extended his hand out to shake Easton's hand and they shook hands like little men.


Then we went and visited "Billy" the orangutang who walked around on his own like he owned the place. He was hilarious, he loved posing for pictures and he kept grabbing at us. He extended his arms around us and the boys just loved him, Billy and Easton got along great. Emma was not so keen on him and Dave was freaking out. This was the best, Billy was so cute I was in aw that he was so friendly and was a comedian with everyone.



Now Bonnie I know you are not going to be happy we went here but I did my homework and it was good, they really respected their animals. It is better than how some locals treat the monkeys to fetch coconuts all day up in the trees.

Then we went to the crocodile show and these guys were nuts. The croc's were snapping at these guys and you could see the sweat from adrenaline pouring out of these guys. This was the real thing, they were pulling these crocs out of the water and the croc would swing around and snap at them. I could not believe how much they risked to do this.






Now the elephants. The kids loved the elephants. It is so funny at home you are not allowed near the elephants and they live in such small quarters and here they are so respected and live with the people. We were able to feed the elephants bananas and touch them and even have a picture with them. They are highly respected animals here! We were also talking about how it is so normal for the Thai people to be around such animals and to us western people we are amazed. Easton could not get enough of the elephants and wanted to stand and feed them bananas all day. The handlers again were having lots of fun with them and were so loving with them, its better than the elephants being slave to the logging industry like so many of them are here.

We saw a sign that said picture with a tiger and I thought it would be a baby tiger, Oh no it was a 5yr. old male and it was HUGE! I could not believe that we were going to sit with him it was amazing to be so close to this beautiful animal. Again the handlers treated him with such respect. Now I did not like this beautiful creature stuck there for our benefit but a apart of me was thrilled for the opportunity to be so close to him, the cat was amazing...

At the zoo we had our three kids and added one more 2yr. old extremely active boy who does not really understand alot of english. If we had any thoughts of having four I would have to say no way. We did get alot of stares today, people trying to figure out why we had three white kids and then this little brown boy I was chasing all over, it was pretty funny. Dave looks alot like Sean did as a little boy and I keep calling him Sean without even thinking.

In the late afternoon Trent and Easton went to their first Thai Boxing class. When they came home Trent walked in the door he was having a hard time walking and his shirt was soaking wet. He said it was the best work out ever. East had his own trainer as did Trent. Trent said he had this little Thai guy yelling at him the whole time, and that when his sparing partner would go look at another student that he (Trent) would slow down to take a break and the instructor would yell in thai (blablabla) "no breaks keep going".

Easton had his own instructor and was learning some punching routines (jab, jab, hook) and some kicks. Trent said he loved it and he did really good. I will go watch and take pictures next week when they go back. Easton was done his session and Trent said he was sure glad, it gave him an out to get out of the ring to rest ...lol...

For dinner we went with a fellow Albertan and his girlfriend (thai of course) to this resturant for a buffet dinner $4.00/adult CAD. Oh my goodness it was soooo good. The resturant is owned by a Swedish guy and the spread was amazing. This particular area of Phuket is where all the Sweds stay. There is a large community of Sweds here and this resturant caters to them.

I found a ball hockey team for Trent and they play the Canadians vs. the Sweds on Thurday nights so next week we will find out how it goes.

It is time for me to sign off, Trent is out with some guys tonight checking out the island. The kids are all snoring and sorry to say it is hot so I have to go turn on the air conditioner.

Someone asked why we have not been to the beach yet. Emma and Everett have been battling colds so we wanted to keep them away from the water for a few days. Today it was raining off and on so we took in the zoo instead. Sunday Emma has her first dance class so maybe next week we will get there.

Also I was asked what our thoughts of Phuket have been. Well I asked Trent today if he would move here and he said "Yes I could". It is obviously a different culture, slower, not as westernized for conveyance, driving is quite crazy until you get used to it. However the people are very friendly, it is not super fast, reasonable to live, food is excellent, very safe. The island is alot bigger than what I thought, people speak better english than I expected for the most part, the food is cheap but the ice teas are adding up in resturants, the kids love ice tea!

I was asked about food markets. They have a store called the Big C it is like Superstore, it sells a variety of things. There is alot of open markets at night that we have gone to, some stomachs would turn to see the things we have seen people eat at markets. We were told about deep fried bugs, a salad dressing made of fish parts that sits for one year, it is black.... so gross...

Well I am off and I will check in a few days.
Love to all and Merry Christmas everyone.

xoxooxo Jody & my crew