Elephant tricks..............

We met some pretty talented elephants at the camp. This one was an amazing artist. I've seen this on tv and was sceptical but I saw it with my own eyes. He even cleaned up his own supplies!

Got to watch a few play a game of soccer.

Evan feeding one some sugar cane.....
If an elephant was gonna reach out and touch someone, Whitney didn't want it to be her! She got braver after a few minutes and was feeding them, too.
An elephant put a hat on me.....never had that happen before.
This was a great little park and we really loved it. Elephants look like the happiest animals ever. We all agreed on that.

Foot massages.................

One of the best parts of the trip and we took advantage of this almost every night! I had heard about the awesome Thai foot massages and was not disappointed. Let's do the math....140 Thai baht for one hour-we all got half-hour massages each night so 70 baht. 70 Thai baht=$2.10 in U.S. dollars! Has to be the best bargain in the entire world- HEAVEN! Evan finishing up and gettin on his shoes while Whitney and Pin relax and enjoy!
L.D. seems to be enjoying his, as well!

Anyone heading to Thailand, put the foot massages on the top of your list!

Need a second job......

We stopped at an elephant camp to see some shows. First we fed bananas and sugarcane to them then they all went down into some water to play around for the crowd. We noticed something rather gross, so if you have a weak stomach, skip the rest of this post! It was even nastier than the pictures indicate.... So if you are in Thailand and need a job, maybe you can appy for one like this....first the lady pushed up her pants legs and wandered down into the water with a basket.
Then as the elephants poop in the water and it floats downstream, she catches it in her laundry basket.....oops, you missed some! There is a net to catch any leftovers.
We learned that they collect it to help fertilize the rice fields.
Not on my list of career choices but impressed............. Poor lady!! Can you imagine??

The elephant ride.....

Quite possibly the funnest thing ever! After we left the elephant camp, our tour guide took us to a place that wasn't for tourists. They had elephant rides at the camp but ours were "authenic". The had some rice farmers ride us around on their "work elephants". Amazing! I kept having to tell myself, "I'm really on an elephant with a rice farmer sitting on it's head steering by the ear somewhere in a jungly area in Thailand!" Just surreal. The scenery was beautiful. Honestly, it was a little scary at times but we trusted in our barefoot farmer who couldn't speak a word of English, for some reason. Well, maybe they were the farmer's sons. They looked about 15 and kept getting off the elpehants to roll smokes!
Rollar coaster?
Look how close they were to the edge in this next one and how much Whitney is squishing Evan!


L.D, Pin and Angelina waiting for us.
Their "driver" let Evan be in charge for awhile. He loved it! Truly, this was the chance of a lifetime. We had a blast and would do it again tomorrow if we could!

Tribal Villagers

As part of our Golden Triangle tour we got to visit a few tribal villages in the jungle near the Burmese border. It was amazing and humbling. Some of the pictures are mixed but most of these are the Longneck People. Most have come from Burma but we learned there are no records of these people anywhere. They are not Thai citizens and can't go out into the country. As long as they stay in the jungle, the government doesn't bother them. They grow a few crops and sew things to sell to the tourists. It was hard to imagine that these people live like this in today's world....but they seemed happy. Evan posing with one of the Longnecks.
This little boy walked all the way down to the village with us and made sure we had walking sticks to help us on our way. Our tour guide spoke to him and learned that he was in the fifth grade. As we were leaving he showed up at our van waiting for his tip. He was adorable. We didn't see it but heard that there is a school room where they are taught in one of the huts.
Another beautiful child. Notice she is having her soup for lunch. One thing we noticed is they seemed happier before the pictures were taken. They look sad in them but didn't before. Maybe they just don't like to pose for pictures??
These precious little girls met us as we walked up by singing Happy Birthday in English. We were told that they probably learned it from Christian missionaries and now sing it to all non-Thai people that come by.
One of my favorite pictures of the trip. This little girl couldn't have been more than six or so. She is hard at work weaving a scarf. We were told they work on these all the time and finish two in two or three days. They are sold for the equivalent of $3. Notice the strap around her back supporting her. We got to pick up a set of rings that they wear around their necks and trust me, they were HEAVY!!
Whitney and a Longneck girl.
She was from anothe tribe. All of them had the big ear things. We were just struck by how beautiful they all were.

Rockband in Abqaiq.....

I could go on and on about how wonderful Evan's school is....but that's another post. One of his favorite things, last year in eighth and this year in ninth is what's known as Rockband (nothing to do with the game). It's a class where they play and learn instruments from Mr. Craig. (Evan still plays the trumpet in the 'real' band, but this is cooler and funner!) Evan already plays the guitar and the bass so he tried out for the afterschool Rockband and enjoys that. They stay after school and practice several times a week and preform. This past Thursday (like our Saturday) they had a preformance in Abqaiq (pronounced Ab-Cake) about an hour from us. Brad and I and some other parents rode with them on the Aramco bus. An extra bonus was that it was Abqaiq's "International Cuisine Day"! Lots of booths selling yummy and interesting foods. The weather was beautiful and we enjoyed spending the afternoon listening to all the bands.

Bands from all the Aramco schools played three or four songs each. Some were quite good and some were just ok, but all of them had a great time.

Here's a shot of the wonderful Mr. Craig with his awesome three-necked guitar. He's also Evan's Geometry teacher.

Evan waiting for their turn to play. He doesn't seem happy to notice Brad has the camara on him, does he? We rode the bus back to Dhahran about six. Very enjoyable day!

Halloween '09....

Halloween is always a big deal in our family. Back at home, we always had a huge party with chili and treats and tons of people. We were feeling a little sorry for ourselves here in Saudi but it turned out to be really fun. Here are the nerds, Whitney and Angelina with their basketball star friend, Tori.

The Mason's invited us over for a delicious "dinner in a pumpkin". We sat in their driveway and handed out candy and all the kids took off trick-or-treating.

Evan went as an Aramco worker. Check out the Nomex.

A couple more pictures of the nerds. And a big shout out to my talented, crafty, thoughtful friend, Kristin, for making me the cute Halloween banner in the background. She also sent me a Thankful one for Thanksgiving! I love them!