Final Thailand Pix/Videos

Ok, so this'll be a longer post but it'll finish up our time in Thailand. We've been on a little bit of a hiatus from good internet so are trying to catch up on some blogging while we're out of Aceh...heading back in later today!
We caught a 3D movie which Jah seemed to enjoy as well even w/o the glasses:


Luke & Levi - Jah wanted to say a quick "hey" as he saw this "Thomas" shirt which reminded us of you!

Found a fun pillow which Lij had to feel...

Sticky rice & mangoes is one of our fav Thai treats - here's what it looks like when sold on the street :)
Went to SE Asia's biggest market, just up the street from the guesthouse where we stayed. J & Jah enjoyed looking @ the puppies of course.

We came across some Thai guys playing bluegrass..what in the world?!

And this dude was painting a shoe in the "art district" of the market.

Here's a 360 view of the market...

Here's our transport when we left the market:

Had a little downtime in our room as well where Lij enjoyed his new book from the Stables - thx so much guys!!!
And a salmon meal out - Thailand has some pretty amazing, cheap food.

After our meal, we caught a couple minutes of Jah playing & a few laughs! :)

We heard a place called "The Train Restaurant" had great Thai but wanted to capture some of the inside for our train-lovin' pals :)

A quick clip of the train station across the street after we finished dinner (a little weary by that point) ;)

Enjoyed running into our friends Dave & Jim unexpectedly!


And leaving Bangkok back for Indo:

Back to Thailand

So in order to pickup our new visas, we had to return back to Thailand. Here's a few pix/videos of the 1st time we've flown out of our town to the capital of Aceh (Banda Aceh) as a fam.

Pretty soon after takeoff we flew over "our" bay - there's a little island in the video clip - that's the one that shows up in all our pix of the bay from our home with the island out to sea...

Here's a look out the window of the 9 person plane we flew out with:

We turned our papers in right away & then it was just a waiting game 'til we could head back to Indo. We decided to make the most of our time in Bangkok beginning with a trip to the grocery store...hmmm, veggie cereal.
We couldn't believe our eyes, Reeses!

And the world's smallest ice cream cone...
What an appropriate name.

And trying dragonfruit, yum!

Happy Father's Day J!

Love you Daddy!

Plus the Videos...

When we last posted we didn't have the internet "umph" to post some of the videos that went along w/ the pix...so, here they are!

Lij in his walker...

Lovin on his favorite (well, only) stuffed bear - thanks Aunt G!

Yet another adventure of J wrangling wild beasts around our home...ok, maybe it's just a big lizard.

And lizard catching part 2...

While home we took Lij up to the village where we're working. Here's the car ride up (notice the safety measures to keep Jah's head semi "in place" during rough patches in the road :)

We hung out in the village chief's home for a bit, here's a clip of his daughter's room while she & her friends hung w/ Lij.

And last, but certainly not least, his diaper explosion episode (lest we forget the not so exciting parts of our day)

Home Again Home Again

So our friend Jeff K came from VA to check out the possibilities of partnering with the work here. It was great to get to hang out with him & we're so thankful he hauled a whole suitcase full of stuff for us - thanks Jeff! Among the stuff was a baby mosquito net 'Lij is modeling for us here on our front porch with J.
We've had a couple "firsts" in the mean time - a new walker...
Asleep on the job...As well as more solid foods bringing a whole new aspect to our lives ;)

Heading Home...

So after our stint in Jakarta waiting out the elections, we headed separately back into Aceh. J went ahead of E & e 'cuz we had a guest coming in from VA. Elijah & Elissa stayed the night in Medan & 'Lij got himself a little stuck...

And here's the pix after he gained his freedom :)

Waitin' Out Election Time in Jakarta

So there was some unrest in Papua @ election time but not in Aceh thankfully. We got a few video clips & pix in the mean time - in no particular order:

Caught him about a day after he learned to roll over...
We grabbed a bite to eat & Lij tried his new flip technique on the bench seat...(pix taken from under the table)

He did a little better in the chair:

E enjoyed her heart-shaped foccacia...welcome to the big city of Jakarta!
Our friend Becca says we don't post enough "real" pix so we tried to simulate what it looks like when we're angry w/ each other but we ended up laughing & the flash in the pix kinda hides us...o well, we tried.

Also while we were waiting to head back to Aceh E met up with a friend who used to work in Aceh also, now working as a teacher in Jakarta. E went & met up with a couple of the classes there who decided to help raise $ for Aceh - fabulous! Here's our friend Meisi & her hubby-to-be Fabi.
And here's Meisi's class w/ E, Lij & Meisi in the middle...

Made a trip to the grocery store & saw an orange almost as big as Jah's head - hormones much?
We thought this brand of diapers was particularly funny - the kid on the pack looks so excited but the name brand is "GOON" go figure.
One final pix w/ J feeding Jah during our few days in Jakarta.

Great Wall Marathon

So tomorrow, Saturday, May 16, 2009 E's sister running a heck of a marathon - we're so proud of her - go Crissy!

Dam Break in Jakarta

Right before we got to Jakarta there was a huge dam break that was reported to have killed over 100 people & made thousands homeless. Here's some of the footage J took while he & others with our sponsoring foundation were trying to assess the needs to see how best to help.

From Bandung to Jakarta

So here's our train trip down to Jakarta - had the privilege of riding w/ one of J's former Dalat teachers, Tommy Tompkins.


While we were in Bangkok our visa was supposed to get finished in time for us to pick it up but there was another delay so we decided to return to Indo...it could be days or months before it was ready. We'd already spent a couple days in Bandung (earlier post) & then headed to the capital (Jakarta) which is where we found out it was granted & were seriously in shock since this has been over 2 years in process!

So, we ran & got our pix taken Indo style (red background) - 'Lij was so cute letting J hold him in place for the shot. Afterwards we celebrated @ Chili's since the only one we know of in Indo is right around the corner from the guesthouse where we were staying. In the last pix J's trying to show the huge amount of cheese that was on the nachos he ordered & then explains w/ the video too. Is this normal in the U.S.? We were totally grossed out by the gobs of cheese & salt...shnasty!

Happy Mom's Day E :)

Back to Indo...

Due to some unrest in Aceh leading up to the elections, we were given advice to return to Java first & wait out the elections there. We flew into Bandung to spend a couple days with good friends from our 1st yr in Indo - here's pix from visiting Pak Bandi's home (his grandkids pictured).

We enjoyed staying with Arief & Poppy, our former homestay family. We tried to lay Lij on a couple mats for sleeping but he slipped down...& kept sleeping!

We have a "Jalan Tikus" (Mouse Trail literally but means "shortcut") that we like to take in between Arief & Pak Bandi's...

Leaving Bangkok

After our 2 conferences in Bangkok we headed out the next evening. We spent that Saturday having fun as a fam - here's Lij sportin' his new sunhat & glasses.
We couldn't pass up the chance for one last Thai meal - pad thai & mangoes 'n sticky rice - yum!
We made a quick run to the Bangkok Zoo & saw these...overgrown guinea pigs?

Got a couple quick video clips of some animals...hippo, bear & our personal fav was the monitor lizard 'cuz he was just running wild in the zoo, funny thought.



We ended our zoo run w/ a fam pix by the monitor lizard's pond.

On our Bangkok to Malaysia leg we found yet another use for our Indo baby carrier cloth...tying the arm of the plane chair up so it doesn't smack Lij in the head when there's turbulence...& just enuf left over to cover his face to make it darker.
During our layover in Malaysia, Elijah made a quick friend who was a little camera shy.
Followed by a nap - thank goodness for diaper cloths, aka "portable darkness makers"
Lij enjoyed his rice cereal on the 1st part of the trip from Malaysia back to Indo followed shortly thereafter by a snooze w/ Mom :) This was one full 24 hrs!

Little Elijah Big Chair