Thailand Day 4.

We woke up early Sunday morning and were both starving. We hurried to get ready- without a flat iron for me is kindof tricky. The voltage is different over here so Eric told me not to even bring it with :( Needless to say, I had to scrunch my hair. I re-wetted it from the night  before and before I even turned on the blow dryer, it was curling and frizzing all over the place. Wowza. Anyway- after the Hair-Fiasco, we headed up to "The Lounge" on the 37th floor. Since we are staying in a Suite connecting to Eric's {He's kindof a fancy-pants} we got access to the "Private Lounge" - awesome huh? lol We got off and the receptionist already knew we were coming. Eric had called her, and knows her well, since he stays often. Julia- helped us get our seats, with an incredible view and we got to eat and eat and eat. This place has one thing going for it- you can eat amazing, fresh, delicious fruit until you think your mouth will fall off.

They also made your eggs fresh- however you order them. Something strange to me though- They do not serve traditional breakfast meats, (Ham, bacon, sausage- etc.) There were sliced Deli meats, fresh fruit, Home made Yogurt- Which sounds gross but was super good, fresh baked croissants, French Breads, Dried Fruits, Sticky Rice, Coconut jelly, Fresh honey comb....Ummm...I could go on forever.

It was delicious.

We walked around and around looking at all the buildings for a while. It's just city as far as you can see. Sky scraper- upon- Sky scraper. And traffic- and layers and layers of city. Up high- they have the sky train- their version of a subway-kindof. Then there are the air walks- that are like bridges over the streets and they connect to the upper floors of a lot of the hotels and malls and shopping centers etc. Then theres the actual Ground that is jam packed with street vendors, and taxi's, and street scooters, and motorcycles and busses and vans. There is a person on every square inch of the ground, and under them are the bums and homeless- sitting/laying and begging for food, water, money, or candy. Under them are the street dogs and street cats, then the rats and the garbage. It's just a Big. Huge. City.

We got change from the front desk- we had exchanged our American cash for some Baht in the airport the night before, but they had given us all large bills. The exchange rate is about 30-1, but Eric told us to carry 20's because the cab drivers would notice Americans and claim not to have change.

The Concierge got us a taxi, and we Headed to see Eric at the Bumrungrad International hospital.

I had noticed the night before that the steering wheel was on the opposite side of the vehicle, but I had been tired enough that I did not notice that they also drive on the opposite side of the road. It was scary to me every time we made a right hand turn because there was always a car coming towards us.

When we got to the hospital, we visited with Eric and met most of the doctors and got an update on how he was feeling. They discussed different causes to the problems he had been having and different diagnosis'. He got worn out pretty fast from the morning, so he took a nap and Melanie and I walked down to Suhkimvit Road, to find the Phloen Chit shopping center. To get to there from the Hospital, we had to walk in front of the Pakistan Embassy and through all the street carts and bums. It was intense. In front of the Embassy there were a few beggars, one naked man- passed out in a tree planter, and a little girl. I wanted to give her something, but I couldn't tell if she was a beggar or not. She didn't reach towards the passers-by like the others, she hid her face in the cracks in the wall and wouldn't look at me, so we kept going. We walked through the shopping centers, and decided we were hungry. We stopped at a little Lebanese shop and ordered some Garlic Hummus, Nan bread, and Lemon Garlic Chicken 'pieces' and Pita cheese pies {smal pita rounds with cheese melted on top} for lunch. We have to make sure to ask for bottled drinks everywhere we go- so we don't have to drink the water from the ice when it melts.

The server was Lebanese man and was rude and obviously did not want us there. When he would walk away from our table, he would make rude references towards our table- but I could see his reflection since all the walls were lined with mirrors. Not very smart.

We  ate our lunch and finished walking through the shopping center. The funnest part of it all was on the floor below the ground. It was where the locals set up their booths of all their Handi crafts, and there was a small local grocery store. I'm certain the store clerks thought I was insane because I just wandered around in all the fruit and vegetables looking at it all. It literally took up 50% of their store and they had So many cool fruits and vegetables and roots and sprouts....I just loved it.

We bought some little trinkets from the little shops and walked back to the hotel. It was hot and humid, but not unbearable.

The hardest part of the heat was that it just carried all the smells. That is one thing I couldn't ever get over if I lived in this country is the smells. And the rats. Don't forget the rats. Walking by the street vendors was difficult for me to do without gagging. One of the many street carts we passed had two fish tanks rigged up and they were filled with big dead stinky fish- still floating in the water. The gross part was that the fish were there when we walked by the first time, and after lunch- when we walked back they were gone. That means they fed those stinky dead fish to someone. Grody.

When we got back to the hotel, we visited with Eric for a little while and it got to where it was all I could do to stay awake. I finally gave in and went and took a nap on the couch in the other room of Eric's Fancy-Dancy two room suite ;)

I must have been tired because one of Eric's friends came and brought dinner in for us and Melanie visited with her and they clanged around trying to wake me up for dinner and I never knew she even came.

I woke up while Eric and Melanie were eating dinner, and I went and tried to eat, but I just couldn't do it. After sleeping so irregularly and all the smells and the filth of the city fresh in my head, I had absolutely no appetite. Not to mention the food was all pretty weird. I ate some Rice and sauteed vegetables, but that was it. I ended up getting lucky though, because Melanie ate dinner and by the time we got back to the hotel after dinner, she got sick.

When  we left the hotel though, we got in a pink cab- which we learned later- the hotel only approves of the green taxi's for the tourists because they are the quality drivers and they run their metes honestly. This guy was a complete jerk and a terrible driver and took us to the back of the hotel so we had to go in the service entrance instead of the front door. Then he tried to charge Melanie 60 Baht for the same drive that cost 45 baht that morning. We finally just got out and left, so I guess he got the brunt of that deal.

Once again we were off to bed. Well-- I was off to bed. Melanie was sick for most of the night.

Not fun.

Thailand Day 2/3

Friday morning, after getting up and enjoying the awesome breakfast at the Embassy Suites- where their chefs would cook whatever you wanted for your breakfast- right in front of you. After breakfast we both crammed our carry-on's as full as we possibly could and headed to the airport. Melanie had to hand check the medicine again, and it wasn't as big of a pain as it was the first time, but it was still an extensive process. We made it to our gate, after a quick stop at the Ghiradelli store near our gate to buy some treats for the trip. We made it on our plane rather uneventfully, and flew out around 11:39 am. Business Class was awesome. There was a ton of room. It was more than 4x the space, but they are usually 4x the price also. Thanks again to Monty! We dozed in and out, then they served us dinner-- Warm cashews and our drinks before our meal. Then salad and Mozzarella balls and Olives. Then cold shirmp and a California sushi roll stuffed with crab and avocado. I tasted the sushi- it wasn't all that bad- but had to give the cold Shrimp to Melanie- I just can't do the texture! Bleh.

She had steak and I had chicken for dinner with rice and mixed vegetables- followed by delicious Ice cream sundaes!!

After dinner, we fell asleep, and I woke up to the sound of Tinking dishes. They had served breakfast, and I looked and we only had 58 minutes of our 8 hour and 52 minute plane ride left. I woke Melanie up and we asked for our breakfast. We got Quiche, sausage, egg and cheese omelettes, mixed fruit, yogurt and a croissant with some amazing straberry jam. It was delicious.

After we ate, we got ready to land in Tokya/Narita. We landed at 2:06 pm on Saturday- Japan time. Which meant it was close to Midnight Utah time. Once we were off the plane, we had to go through yet ANOTHER security check, where Melanie had to keep the medicine out and hand check it- yet again. This time was the easiest of all our attempts and they didn't tear anything too terribly We found a kiosk and our gate was #57. We had to walk quite a ways to get to it, and we had to pass all the high end shopping centers, in the airport to get out. they were funny. There were ceramic cats and odd shaped confections in boxes.

We passed a lady handing out samples of whiskey to the general public on the way to our gate. I remember thinking "That would never happen in the States." Once we found our Gate, Melanie walked around trying to find the Lounge, and ended up runninng into our 2 friends from SLC. They had survived their flight and were headed to find their connection also. We both found the Wifi and sent out some E-mails to let people know we were alive and Melanie took a quick nap while I went in the bathroom and washed my face and hands and tried to become presentable after our very very long flight.

It was interesting because they had stalls for Bidet's and stalls for regular toilets. I had to remember when I brushed my teeth that I couldn't use tap water. We had to go and exchange some $$ for euro's and buy a water so I could brush my teeth.

We boarded our flight at 17:25 and were supposed to fly outo at 17:50 but were delayed for almost 30-45 Minutes because of a "foreign object" on the runway. I honestly didn't even notice because I dozed off, but Melanie woke me up when we actually took off. These seats-although amazing- were not as big as the flight from San Fran. to Tokyo. We still got to recline and nap most of the way though. We woke up long enough to eat dinner. They served us an Amuse Buche' that was super interesting. There were 4 petite servings of: Mozzarella Ball and Olives, a Mini Lemon muffin, Some Sushi of some kind with Caviarre sprinkled on top and some Tofu/brown sauce/Edomame thing that I tasted and immediately wished I hadn't.

We landed at 11:35pm Saturday nigiht in Bangkok Thailand. We {slowly} got off the plane, and walked off the ramp and the Humidity just stuck to us. It was incredible. As we entered the Terminal there was a little guy in a bright blue coat jacket and white pants with pointy white shoes named "Top" holding a piece of paper with our names on them. He worked for the airport and escorted us through Immigration and the baggage claim, then Customs and finally took us out to the curb where the hotel car was waiting for us.

We rode for about 45 minutes up a well lit interstate, there were billboards the size of football fields and Buddist Shrines and beautiful temples everywhere. There were also nasty boarded up Shanties and abandoned farm houses and beautiful sky scrapers. There was so much contrast in one square block, it was just....amazing.

We got to the Intercontinental Hotel, and they escorted us up to our room and checked us in. They even brought our bags up for us. We were being spoiled, and it was so cute. Eric had made all the little arrangements to make things super easy on us, and after our long 2 day journey- it was fantastic!

We got unpacked and showered and tried to sleep. It was hard since it still felt like 12 noon to our bodies, but we managed.

Somehow all the sleeping we did on the plane rides didn't feel very restful- but it was fortunate!

Thailand. Day 1.

Tuesday afternoon, while at work, Justin called me and said that his brother, Eric, was getting worse. He checked into a hospital in Thailand on Sunday for severe pain in his right leg/hip area. Justin said that his mom was getting more concerned since the usual tests and explainations weren't panning out and he was alone. She was trying to find a way to get to Thailand to be with him and she didn't want to go alone, so he asked if I would go with her.

I said- I will if I can.

Well, the next day, she got the call that the plane tickets were booked and we would leave the next morning. We wouldn't be back until July 4th, which meant 14 days total.

So, after a busy day at work and a long afternoon of packing, shopping, and softball, and 3 hours of sleep, I woke up at 4am Thursday morning. Melanie picked me up at 5am, and we hit the road. We had to stop at Justin's Uncle Morris's house to pick up a fed ex package. After getting the package we had to navigate through/around a wreck, we finally made it ti diamond parking. We valet parked the car and took the shuttle to the airport. When we got inside we eralized Melanie's carry on- with all the homeopathic medicine she wanted to take to Eric, was still on the shuttle. We called them and had them loop back around 15 minutes later with the bag, and we were on the way again.

Once we got to the counter to check in and get our boarding passes, they informec us that our flight to San Francisco was delayed by 30 minutes. They tried everything they could to re-route us to make sure we didn't miss our International flight to Tokyo. They couldn't find any other way to get us there, so we decided to chance it and headed through securty.

Now- the homeopathic drops Melanie was bringint to help Eric can not be exposed to X-Rays so we had to talk to 7 different agents to finally recieve a hand check for the medicine and met the most Ronchy cow of a TSA Agent you've ever met in your life. After a full cavity search of her person and hand checking her bag and the medicine for "explosives" we finally made it to the gate.

Justin called me as I was watching this happen from afar off and asked me what was going on. I more accurately described it to him as her "being she-raped on the other side of a glass cubicle." It was intense. We finally made it to our gate, and it didn't take long for our flight to be delayed again- and again- and again. Our plane was supposed to leave @ 11, and we finally departed at 2:24. While at our gate we met two middle aged ladies who were traveling to Thailand also.

They visited with us about what was going on with Eric and were friendly. We all missed the connecting internation flight to Tokyo for sure, so Melanie booked a hotel and we flew over to San Fran.

Walking off the plane there was a sweet little agent named Lilly who hwas holding a sign with our named on them. She had been notified as a global support agent of our situation because of Monty's status as a premier meember which was what landed us the great flights in the first place. She had already issued us new tickets to depart the next day, hotel rooms, meal vouchers etc.  She was an angel.

We didn't have to run to see if the plane was still there- hoping it had been delayed because of weather also. I was so glad to see her.

After she helped us, she also helped our two little friends from SLC, she change dtheir flights also and Melanie gave them the reservation she had made for us since we now had new ones.

We got our shuttle from the airport to the Water Front Embassy Suites where wee were staying and got checked in. We were both staving and so we ate at the hotel restaurant for dinner. Grilled Salmon for Melanie and Penne pasta Marinara for me. Their artichoke spinach and cheese appetizer dip was to die for. After we filled up on that we got back on the shuttle and went back to the airport to find the BART station, which is San Francisco's version of a subway.

We rode from the airport down to Powell street where we got on "the nations oldest moving monument" which were the calbe trolley cars that are sitll a major part of the city's transportation syste. While we waited in the long line, we watched brake dancers in the street and differen't homeless men playing the "drums" on 5 gallon buckets, wine bottles, frying pans- etc. They were actually really good.

Once on the trolley it got crowded really fast, but we would still see out the windows behind us. We headed down the city of "rolling hills" towards Pier 30 and the Fishermans Warf. All the hills and "bookshelf houses" reminded me of something you would see on an Italian country side. It was so picturesque. There were beautiful- and not so beautiful wrought iron gates over all the doors and windows. We passed one shop owner closing down his store and we counted him lock 4 different padlocks on the gate before he left. It was unique and creepy and beautiful at the same time. Once we got to the pier, we had to stop and buy extra jackets because it was freezing cold outside, and the cold breeze made it so much worse.

We walked around the Pier and saw the Berdidi store where they made all different kinds and shapes of an amazing french bread. We didn't go in, but walked by as Melanie told me all about it. We walked out to a lookout to take pictures of Alcatraz and the Golden Gate bridge. Then we went to the Ghiradelli store and got Ice cream and looked through the galss at the old original 1832 equipment that explained the process of making their chocolate while we got to see it in action. After ice cream, it was getting dark and cold and late so we went and stood in another huge line to catch the trolley back down to Powell street. We passed Lombardi street that time, which is the crookedest street in the world, and also passed China town. We landed right bck where we started and ran into the 3 story Forever 21 store to bouy me some clothes for today since my checked bag got forwardedto the international flight for the next day. We made it back to BART then back to the shuttle at the airport and finally back to the hotel. We were both so so tired. Neither of us remembered laying our heads on our pillows.

Just 3 simple things...

My tomatoes are growing! Yay!

Justin wanted to donate a quilt to the Hit-Run-Score all night softball tournament that we are playing in in 2 weeks- so we went and chose this bad boy last night. It's going to be awesome!

And I'm going to kill me some dogs...this is the 4th hole they've dug in the last week. {Cuss words!}

Busy Weekend...

Before

After

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After

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After

 



Cause



Effect....



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We finally hung my super cute clock that I bought months ago for the basement bathroom.

We have a hummingbird that has decided our front porch light is going to be the home of her nest.

Gotta Love Bountiful Baskets

It Cures what Ails ya.

Very rarely will my hair curl. I promise- it went flat 5 seconds after this picture.

Hope everyone had as productive of a weekend as we did!

It's been One week...

Monday

Goat Show

 Ace's Birthday- took the dogs to the lake.

Tuesday

 Jensen ward Youth Auction

OOOh Boy. Cupcake!

Bought this cool stool-- Happy Fathers Day to my Dad!

Wednesday



 Tiffany did a Craft show with some friends.



Hailey wanted every crumb out of that Oreo Cup!



 Softball Jerseys' finally came!

Thursday

Babysat Natalie so Hailey could go Interview for school. Fingernail Polish and Oreos. Works like a charm

Tried  new recipe. Chicken Ranch Tacos. It was yummy.

Friday



Workin, workin, workin!

Date night tonight too! :D



This weekend:

I'm pretty sure I'm going to build this under the East side of my porch now that the West side is growing by the day!


Have a Great Weekend Everyone!

June!

6/1- Softball Tournament in Duchesne Friday Night, took 3rd, and didn't get home til 3 am. Youch!

It's tradition to get Ice cream after the Temple. My cousin Blake got to go do his Endowments Saturday night before he leaves on his mission. He's going to Nashville, TN mission and leaves tomorrow. He gave a great talk the next day in Church too!
We will be sending cookies! lol

Lookin Good!

Over the weekend, we also got our garden planted and the drip system all redone (Thanks to the dogs for chewing it up for us), but now everything is watered and happy! I'm super excited for it to grow! I love fresh garden food! 

Hailey and Natalie showed "Tinkerbell" in the Pee-Wee Goat Show yesterday

Natalie took 4th in her class and 15th overall in Showmanship. She did fantastic! Especially for her first year!

Hailey took 13th in her Class for Market, and she showed wonderfully too!

After the Goat Show, Justin and I loaded up the dogs and hauled them to Steinaker. We thought they would love the cool water after it being in the 90's for most of the day. Turns out- they don't love it. We had to bribe and coax them into the water. They've got so much hair that when it all gets wet- they get super heavy and kindof sink a little bit ;)

Yesterday was also Ace's 1st Birthday! I can't believe it's been a year since that long stressful night, but he's such a sweetheart! We love having him in our family!