Angkor Wat, Bug Dances, & Cute Kids!

Note: This post is what I wrote yesterday - another one plus update will be coming soon as we are now in Samui, Thailand instead of Vietnam! Another post coming soon!

We are in Siem Reap, Cambodia now – the location of Angkor Wat & all of the accompanying temples that are so famous. We flew out of Bangkok yesterday afternoon and had a safe and easy flight, and got into Siem Reap late in the afternoon. It’s only an hour-ish flight which is pretty nice, though as we were descending and just minutes from landing I was quite worried about where we were going to land as all surrounding areas seemed to be completely immersed in water!

About 3 minutes before landing sure enough some land showed up in our window – thank goodness! We got picked up by our hotel which is always nice, got checked in, and just chilled out last night as there was a huge monsoon rain that prevented us from venturing out. Where we are isn’t so populated that there are tons of taxis available, so we made due with a delicious hotel restaurant dinner and some movies while listening to the storm outside. It was actually nice to get some rest, so we didn’t mind as we had booked our tuk-tuk driver to come and get us at the hotel at 5 a.m. so we could make sunrise at Angkor Wat… yikes, I hate waking up in the 4’s!

Morning came quickly, and as promised our tuk-tuk driver, Mr. Lika was there to greet us at 5 a.m. A tuk-tuk is like an open cart made for passengers attached to a motorbike, and they are specifically licensed to take tourists around Angkor Wat. We got to the park, got our tickets, and got on our way to the temple. Curt was hyper and hurrying as the horizon was turning a brighter shade of blue, so he turned to tell me to hurry along, or something, and ended up clocking me in the head with the tripod strapped to the backpack! I cursed aloud, which of course broke the peaceful morning calm, but it hurt like hell! He was really sorry, but I was kind of sour so I held back from the hyperness and just followed as we scouted our spot, and started to set up the cameras.

Then we were reminded of Cambodia’s humidity as our lenses started fogging up, and Curt went into overdrive to start trying to defog his so he could get his shot… I just stepped back and decided that I would at least enjoy the sunrise if my lense was going to be foggy, but he was fanning, blowing, wiping, and had set the backpack on the ground.

Next thing I know Curt’s jumping, slapping, and creating a crazy ruckus in the quiet morning of Angkor Wat’s sunrise causing the other tourists to turn and look, and he’s exclaiming he’s covered in ants… apparently he set his hat down on one of the adjoining temple ledges and ants covered it and then rained down on his head, neck, and back when he put it back on… poor guy, I was picking off these tiny, crazy biting ants for a few minutes before we got most of them. But what a bug dance – LOL! I know they hurt, too, I got bit by a couple myself, and it’s no fun I’m sure for them to be in your hair, haha!

I just couldn’t stop chuckling to myself, and when he asked what I explained what a ridiculous disaster the morning had been thus far, and to top it all off, the sunrise wasn’t even a great one as it was cloudy (great for a day of being outside to minimize heat but made for some lackluster sunrise photos)! Hilarious…

Thankfully the rest of the day went just fine… we enjoyed walking around the temples, and were surprised at just how many there were! We saw a large majority of them, took loads of pictures, and appreciated the amazing structures that are so ancient. Imagining so many people making pilgrimages to this place and seeing the tree roots trying to take them over was just really cool...

We wandered around at least 10 temples, and saw even more from our tuk-tuk, and by lunch we were tired and ready to go.

All along the way, as we came out of each temple the kids and even adults were begging for us to buy all kinds of things – t-shirts, cold drinks, snacks, flutes, bracelets, Asian guitars, etc. Talk about tugging on the heart strings – they’re talented, persistent, and adorable – no – beautiful, children. It’s not hard to see how Angelina was affected and ended up adopting! They are well looked after (so it seems) and easy to smile, so we just kept saying no thank you, and when they realized finally we weren’t buying they gave such a sad look that it was killer… aww, all I could hope is that they have the acting down. The other kids on bikes (tiny kids on huge adult bikes, so cute!) and anyone we passed along the way would give us the biggest smile and wave – they so melted my heart!

We also saw along the way two bands at the entrance and exit of one of the major temples playing beautiful Asian music – strings, drums, small cymbals, etc. They had CD’s and a tip jar that went to benefit landmine victims, which almost every member of the band was. I would say the men in the band are maybe 15-20 years older than us, and some had no legs, some had crutches, prosthetics, one limb missing, etc. so I’m guessing they are old injuries from closer to the war. They had a sign posted that said they wanted to live with dignity and earn a living, so they formed this band instead of turning to begging for handouts, and they were really good, so of course we were glad to give some money.

After Angkor Wat we headed to the market to check it out, and it was huge and fun to browse, then headed back to the hotel to grab a late lunch, rest, and let Curt catch up on some work… what a great day!

Tomorrow we head to Nha Trang, Vietnam, to do some more diving and see another great country!

Enjoy the pics (posted the other diving ones, too so see below!)

Sa-Wat Dee Kaa Tiger Temple!

Sa-wat dee kaa = hello!

Today was Tiger Temple for a day with the tigers… YEA!

There is a Buddhist temple that takes care of tigers (about 46 to be exact) that have come from the jungle as orphans from poachers, etc. It started small as these usually do, and has grown over the last decade into Tiger Temple. We started the day by being picked up at 5 a.m. (it’s a 2.5 hour drive from Bangkok), and visited a war cemetery first… apparently very near the temple is where there was a lot of action during World War II.

The cemetery had mostly British, Dutch, and Australian soldiers that were prisoners of war held by the Japanese there in Thailand in war camps. They were captured and sent there to build a railway, nicknamed “The Death Railway” as it claimed over 100,000 POW lives in the course of one year due to poor treatment, malnutrition, and diseases like malaria. The cemetery was beautiful, very well kept, and the Thai government had donated the land for the soldiers to be buried there. Each soldier had a plaque headstone with their name, the insignia of their corresponding unit/division of military service, and it looked as if each family had the choice to insert a religious symbol (Cross for Christian, etc.), and a couple of lines of their choice. Some families had beautiful messages, or the names of their remaining family members, some scripture, etc.

I was reading some of them out loud to Curt as we were slowly going – taking time to look at the ages (average probably 24 with the oldest being one 39 year old and the next oldest at 32), the dates they died (most in October/November which is right when the railway work was finishing up - heartbreaking), and when I got to a message that had a personal favorite verse, “Greater love hath no one than this, than he who lay his life down for his friend,” I only made it past the word “hath” before my breath caught, I choked up and then broke down. I then walked silently on while Curt took a few photos behind me, then we read a plaque at the front that told more of the story before it was time to go with the expectation we would see the actual bridge and railway after the temple.

Then we got on our way to Tiger Temple where we first ate breakfast with the monks and watched them pray, then we got to feed the baby tigers their milk (aged 3 months) out of bottles and play with them for a bit before it was time to take them on their walk. Then it was time to walk the 9 month olds and take them to play in the waterfall area where they let them off their leads and we played with them in the enclosure. It was great… we had toys, and they were running around playing like crazy. Then it was time to give them their baths (much like bathing Maverick), then time to feed them some warm chicken from our hands… the whole time we’ve been told how to handle ourselves around them as though they are hand-raised they are still wild animals with loads of instinct!

Then back to the baby-babies to play with them in their enclosure for awhile… they’re just like little puppies really, but bigger, with a lot more power. You get to pet them, swat-play with them, use toys and tires, and just enjoy their youth and playfulness in such an unreal way.

Then it was time to go walk one of the big boys down the canyon to watch the big tigers play in the water for a bit… how AWESOME! Walking the tiger down was getting to witness a power in an animal that I’ve never seen so close before… two people, one on each side, leash in one hand and other hand firmly on the tiger’s back. Then down in the canyon they had 9 tigers off their leashes with us (4 tourists) in an open cage with their trainers “guarding” us in a line just in case the tigers during play happened to venture too close… we were literally feet away from watching these tigers play with each other. It was just the coolest thing ever to watch them splashing around and seeing their behavior so up close.

Then we had a photo opportunity with one of the big boys, Tosho, who is that picture perfect specimen of a HUGE and beautiful tiger… got to kneel down by him, hands on him, and just awesome!

Then it was time to leave Tiger Temple after 4 hours of constant interaction with tigers of all ages, to go to see the bridge over the Kwai River, which is part of the Death Railway. We got there and it was really a small village/town with a few things around the bridge area but not much else… I kind of liked it that way because the “second war” was really the focal point.

There was an old train that the Japanese used to transport supplies that was pretty cool, a war museum, and we got to walk across the bridge itself and think about the conditions and what it would have been like as a POW. Panali pointed out where the US monument was dedicated to our soldiers who died, and she was careful to note to us that there are no Americans there as we chose to repatriate our dead back home. We lost 356 men on the building of the railway, which isn’t as many as the other countries as it was built from 1942 to 1943 when we weren’t quite in the war yet… our Allies lost thousands more than we did on this railway as a result.

We also learned about the bombing of the bridge by the Allies in 1945 and wondered what it must have been like – a mixture of happiness, relief and fear, I’m sure, of getting through yet another obstacle. The Japanese tied POW’s to the bridge in an effort to deter the Allies from bombing their supply route, which I can’t even imagine, and how every year there is a memorial with fireworks to honor the bombing (that sounds funny but they have a plane fly over and precisely when it crosses over they shoot off fireworks) as Thailand was under occupation by Japan and it symbolized the beginning of the end of the “second war.”

I wanted a flower… they’re usually everywhere, but of course not when I needed one, so Panali, our so sweet Thai guide sent her son on a scooter to go get some orchids and jasmine for me to throw off the bridge into the river. Curt stayed behind to take some pictures so of course again I became a basketcase walking out on the bridge.

Overall it was an unexpected element to the day, but I felt proud to have witnessed it, and I felt proud that the locals are proud of it as well. It was very humbling to learn about this piece of history and very important to remember, no matter how awful it is to imagine, because I believe when you choose to overlook or forget the unpleasant parts of war, you dishonor those who gave their lives trying to make this world a better place.

As an extra bonus right there at the river market there was a baby leopard that Panali had told us about – orphaned and about 2 months old and ADORABLE, so we paid 100 Baht (roughly $3-$4) for me to hold her, feed her, love on her and get pictures of her. She was so soft (softer than the tigers) and just gorgeous… it was just an awesome day!

Then a 2.5 hour drive back to Bangkok where we had a late lunch and are now resting… Having a great time though and excited for Siem Reap, Cambodia and then Vietnam next… should have more great stories!

Diving, Diving, Diving

After our first day of diving we had 3 more days of diving left – another 2 tank dive day, a 4 tank dive on “Super Sunday,” and a 3 tank dive on Monday which was our last day in Phuket. The rest of our diving was smooth (even if some days the water wasn’t!) We went diving all around the area, even out to Phi Phi Island which is where The Beach was filmed, and on Super Sunday did a night dive at Koh Doc Mai which is a wall dive… night dives always make me a tad bit nervous (because it’s dark and obviously you can’t see what might be checking YOU out) but it was great.

On all of the rest of these dives we saw some incredible marine life I’ve never seen before… leopard sharks (some swimming and resting in the sand), nudibranchs (mollusk family), an octopus (a TRUE highlight – watching him change colors was out of this WORLD), black tip sharks (non-aggressive towards people though not small sharks), Kuhl’s stingrays which are smaller than ones we’re used to but have bright bluish purple spots, cuttlefish, which we’d never seen, new species of eels, and of course loads of new fun fish large and small… we even got a shipwreck in, which are always very cool, too!

On one dive we took Ninja Flat Stanley Cameron which was interesting, and got some great pictures of him around underwater... what was funny is that for whatever reason, a couple of flute fish (long fish - about two feet long with a long snout) were VERY interested in Flat Stanley (I can only assume it was him as on all of our other dives they stayed far away from us) so I looked over at one point and this fish was literally right next to me checking Stanley's laminated "wetsuit" out, LOL! Curt saw it, too, so that was kind of funny.... must have been the reflection?

We made great diving buddy friends, including our dive master, Pete, a Brit who was our dive master the whole time (that was so nice – it’s so much cooler when you get to know someone and they get to know your style of diving – makes for a much more comfortable experience) and so great, the food was fantastic, and we had a fantastic time. Diving for 4 days in a row with multiple tanks is a ton of nitrogen in the body and exhausting if you don’t do it all the time so we were (and still are) a bit tired from the constant going!

What made for an exciting getaway was a little “Amazing Race” type action for Curt – he forgot his flash charger on the boat and in about 45 minutes took a dingy out into the bay at about 7 a.m. as our pick up to go to the airport was 7:30 a.m…. I wasn’t there so I can’t tell the story, but poor guy was drenched in seawater and sweat when he got back to me just as our shuttle was leaving us… turned around and reloaded our luggage – whew!

Then back to Bangkok to get ready for our trip to Cambodia, where we ventured out in yesterday after our flight got in. I had read about a market so we decided to go there, Or Tor Kor, a local and huge fresh food market. It was cool – we walked around, both bought something to try, and then walked around the city some more. Our hotel is in a nice area, and by the time it was time for dinner we opted for good ol’ McDonald’s. We’ve eaten Thai food pretty much non stop so went for a familiar favorite and oh man, it was so good! After that we ended up at an Asian restaurant where we had some tea and dessert which was nice, and then back to the hotel as our pick up was scheduled for 5 a.m.!

The Treasures of the Oceans + a Few Hiccups :-)

Today was our first day of diving, and what a day it was! We started out at the dive shop, got all of our stuff together, headed out to the pier, and got on our way to dive Shark Point. Sea Bees (our dive shop) has an amazing fleet of dive boats, undoubtedly the most luxurious dive boats we’ve ever been on, so breakfast was served and we started our hour and a half journey out to the dive site. Along the way we were briefed on the dive site, and got to enjoy the lovely scenery of Phuket and the surrounding islands… Phi Phi Island, and a ton of smaller ones dotting the ocean, all uninhabited and mountains that just fall into the ocean. Our dive master, Pete (a lovely British young man), also pointed out which island The Beach with Leo was filmed on – yes! I love that movie and we were just talking about that yesterday… so cool!

When we arrived to Shark Point, we got geared up and stepped (one large stride) into the water off the boat. The water was a little rough, but once we got down it was only a slight current as we were sheltered by the rocks… I knew immediately it was going to be one of the most gorgeous dives I’ve ever been on. As soon as we got down (about 60 feet max depth) it was clear that there was so much beautiful wildlife – colors so vivid, all kinds of fish everywhere, and just so much for the eyes to take in. We were down about 45 minutes and saw a couple of eels, lionfish, puffers, shrimp, a beautiful and pretty large cuttlefish (I spotted it – it was amazing and a great find if I do say so myself as they are master camouflage artists), beautiful clownfish (just like Nemo!) and many more great fish. What was most impressive though was how huge the soft corals and anemones were… I’m talking bean bag chair-sized anemones flowing in the current, huge fans as large as a large kitchen table, I mean just HUGE and all different colors and sizes… just BEAUTIFUL, I can’t even describe.

At the end of the dive we came out from behind our shelter and the current was unbelievably strong. We had to do our safety stop (when you go a certain depth you have to level out 15 feet below the surface for a few minutes to avoid getting the bends) and it became quite an exercise to stay stationary to avoid drifting too far from where the boat would be to pick us and for a few moments caused some “underwater drama” but all was fine… only drama because obviously communicating under water is very difficult, and nothing more than that, so don’t picture any unnecessary drowning panics or anything, haha…

Then we came up for an hour and a half surface interval, which was perfect for a great Thai lunch and trucking along and enjoying the turquoise blue waters and scenery… then we got to Koh Doc Mai, or Flower Island, and time to go in again!

This was a wall dive where we got to a max depth of 75 feet, and it was dark down there! We dove and saw a couple of shallow caves, more eels and tons of fish schooling, some great Crown of Thorns (these were beautiful bright purple but they are coral eaters so you usually don’t want to see TOO many), some baby eels (they were so cute, one baby was biting Pete’s pointer stick which made me laugh underwater, haha)!

When we finished this dive it was time to head in, so more chatting and mingling with the other dive groups, snacking on some fresh fruit, and appreciating life in general! Curt took some amazing pictures with his new camera and housing, so I can’t wait to get those uploaded…

When we got back we hung out at the dive shop and shared Curt’s pictures, then headed back to the hotel to log our dives by the pool. Along the way I noticed that one of my diamond earring backs got lost – what?! My earring was still in, thank goodness, and since I didn’t have anything really to put it in, I decided to leave it in and take it out as soon as we got back to the hotel… BIG MISTAKE. I realized after showering it was GONE… dread fills me… Curt got those for me when I got back from Italy and I’ve always worn them so I start scouring the floor, called Curt to start looking, so we spend the next 30 minutes retracing steps with me sulking and feeling like an idiot (with Curt being so sweet and not agreeing), and then giving up.

I walked into our bungalow, and literally said to Curt: “I push it (my luck), but God sometimes comes through for me on things like this” (meaning not always, and I guess not this time, but it was ok). Then I laid down on the bed, defeated, Curt went in to take his shower, and as we were still talking he was still shining the light. He walked back out, our conversation never skipping a beat, and since I was mid-sentence about how stupid I felt, he came in and took my hand. He slipped something in it, I opened it and there it was… I was dumbstruck! My first thought was that he’d had it the whole time, but turns out he just happened to shine the flashlight just right on the bathroom floor (which I’d already scoured on my hands and knees – they’re all small rocks) and saw it sparkle. It was amazing… like God heard me! Talk about a needle in a haystack moment – only God can do that! He never ceases to amaze me, and impress me with His love for me, even regarding things so small.

Another highlight in the day… right outside of our bungalow walking in, I saw the tiniest hummingbird I’ve ever seen. It was literally smaller than some bees – smaller than an inch and beautiful markings. I’m going to see if I can look it up and see if it’s the smallest species but it was so exciting!

Also had a great Thai dinner that was beyond spicy – mouth on fire – and now we’re resting up as diving makes me oh so sleepy and we have three more days of diving Thailand to go!

What a day – a few crazy hiccups and yet still AWESOME!

And UPDATE: Curt heard back from our dive shop in Vietnam and they said they weren't hit at all, SO things are looking up for the rest of our trip to Cambodia and Vietnam... whew!

Thailand, The Land of SMILES! :-)

It’s our second day in Thailand, and sometimes I forget that we’re here… it so reminds me of a place in the Caribbean or Latin America that I have to remind myself that we’re literally a world away!

Our journey here was quite long – which you would expect, really, but when I say long, I mean ridiculously LONG…. With the Fall Festival looming (a huge Chinese celebration and holiday) Curt thought we should get to the airport very early to make sure traffic wouldn’t set us back, etc. Good plan, but of course when you put a huge time buffer in then you usually don’t end up needing it right? So we got to the airport at about noon, I believe, for an 8:50 p.m. flight…. Hmmm… AND we got up around 6 a.m. so we could go into his office so he could finish a few things, so the day was one of those that never seemed to end… I almost did a jig by the time it was actually time to board our flight, only to remember that we still had hours and hours until we actually landed in our connecting city in China at 1:30 a.m., and then back on the flight and more flying until we got to Bangkok at 3:30 a.m. – yes, a.m. as in the morning… We got into bed in our hotel by 4:30 a.m., and woke up at 9 a.m. to make our free breakfast before it was time to head right back to the airport to catch our flight to Phuket.

Everything past this point was smooth sailing… we agreed Thailand is great – we love the food, the people are SO friendly, and we are looking forward to seeing more of it!

When we arrived in Phuket we were shuttled to our resort, the Palm Garden Resort which is a dive resort owned by Germans, and it’s beautiful here! We were given our dive debriefing, which we will start tomorrow, so spent the rest of the day exploring, resting, and relaxing. One of the ways in which we relaxed was by spending an hour getting an amazing Thai massage in the yoga hut for about.... $15 for the pair of us, haha... love, love, love!

This morning we headed out for our elephant tour at the Island Safari. There we saw a monkey show/demonstration where they showed how the monkeys assist in picking coconuts (they are very highly trained, cute, and talented!), a rubber demonstration, a rice demonstration, rode in an ox cart, went canoeing down a river, saw a Thai kickboxing demonstration, rode on the elephants for about 30 minutes, fed the elephants bananas (they are quite cheeky but so adorable that it’s overlooked – I LOVED every minute spent with them), watched the baby elephants perform a very sweet show and fed them bananas, watched a Thai food cooking demonstration, and enjoyed a wonderful traditional Thai lunch… it was a jam packed day!

Today was also the day that we pulled out Flat-Ninja-Stanley-Cameron! Notice he's in the above kickboxing picture... don't worry, Ashley, we have tons more, I just thought Cody would want to see his Ninja with two authentic 17 year old Thai kickboxing CHAMPIONS! haha... for those who don't know what "Flat Stanley" is, it's a project where kids color a buddy for others to take along and take pictures of around the world - it teaches them about international things, I guess, so we always have him with us!

This picture (above) is during the baby elephants show where this elephant (4 years old) gives a massage and some kisses which I absolutely loved... he's SO CUTE!

When we were finished we came back to spend the rest of the afternoon by the pool where I read and Curt played with his camera housing and camera, had a wonderful Thai dinner, and now are chilling out... tomorrow is our first dive day which I’m pretty excited about – will have more to write then but for now I’m unbelievably exhausted so forgive how short all of this is!

The rest of our trip is up in the air at the moment – Cambodia and Vietnam experienced a typhoon which may throw a wrench in our plans, so we’ll see what happens there, I guess? Regardless, we’re in this for a great adventure, and so far, it is that…

Coach, You Have a Customer for Life!

So this week has been and will continue to be busy. I leave for China very early on Saturday morning so I'm making my rounds and saying my "bye for nows," and doing lots of misc stuff shopping and starting to gather my piles so packing for my trip back will be as easy as possible...

One thing I've also been working on over the past month is getting some of the more obscure to-do's done, as well. One of those to-do's involved letting go of my favorite Coach purse so I could send it off to be fixed... the stitching had come loose, and since that is covered in their commitment to quality, they fix it for free and all you have to pay is round trip shipping, which I don't think is a bad deal at all.

So a few weeks ago I took it in, and knew it would probably arrive after I was already in China, but today I got a call from my local store informing me that it can't be fixed - huge bummer, right? BUT before I had the chance to even be *slightly* bummed, they told me that they had already cut me a check for the balance of what the purse was worth the day it was made which is even more than what I had bought it for since it was already at the end of that season! And they're shipping it back to me, so if I want to carry it around with an inch of loose stitching I still can (and will b/c I do love it) AND I get a new purse (or two if I really try hard)!

Superior customer service hardly exists like that these days, and I have to say I was so impressed, like *shocked,* in a very pleasantly surprised way! I can't wait to start looking to continue to build my collection of Coach purses... I currently own 4 in varying sizes and colors, so obviously already loved them as a company for their quality, but with this they sealed it that I will be a customer for life, and most likely an exclusive one at that...

Another fun customer service experience is that I bought a pair of jeans from the Buckle after I complimented Chelsea on her jeans. She told me that they were Buckle, but the best part about them was that they do alterations on your jeans for FREE! What?! Personally, I've never gotten my jeans altered although almost every pair of jeans I've ever bought needed it done (b/c I'm so short), but it's one of those things that seems silly to pay for, right? But knowing that it's done for free just clenched it, and these jeans are SO cute!

When I bought them they told me to take them home, wear them and wash them a couple of times and then bring them back... did that this morning (Tuesday) and at the LATEST they will be back to me be Friday (what? not like 8 weeks from now?) - slam dunk!!

I love that some companies refuse to skimp on quality customer service when almost everyone else is, using the "recession" as an excuse... makes me love them even more!

Speaking of people using the recession to the hilt - that brings me to Craigslist... love that website and at any given time I have something posted on there and have for almost 5 years now. So with this latest round of stuff I posted, I noticed that even though I checked "no spam email" I'm getting like 10 junk emails a day with people "counseling" me on how I should sell my stuff in these "hard, economic times." I'm like - people - regardless of the state of the economy I sell stuff that I don't need, so I don't need to click on your best friend's cousin's spam link to "learn" how I can sell off everything I own so my baby daddy can eat Taco Bell tonight... weird and annoying. Hopefully some real buyers will be in the mix somewhere, haha!

Anyone else having some horrid or amazing customer service experiences lately? Or anyone noticing people using the recession in never-before-seen ways?

The Lighting is Different...

So half of me loves that fall is here (it's my favorite season!), and the other half can't really believe it! I feel like it's too early that Fall decorations are all over the place, and that the Halloween Costume temporary stores are popping up everywhere...

Somehow since China I've fallen into this mindset that time should be standing still because we're gone, or something like that so when I wake up and realize it's an entire season later, it takes me by surprise, haha.

I remember having that same experience when I studied in Italy, or when I was working in London - that somehow it was wrong that time marched on without me, and I find that I guess that is happening again... time is moving so fast, and while I'm not stressed about it, sometimes when I'm trying to remember what month it is I find myself confused for a split second when I realize we're already well into September.

What HAS helped is that in the last week I've noticed that the lighting has changed (as in the way the sun shines and the colors of how it lights everything up) - it definitely looks more like fall in the afternoons and evenings, so nature is helping to catch me up, I guess! I pointed this out to my mom yesterday afternoon as we were watching a movie in the late afternoon, and she took a second to absorb by studying the light coming through the windows and agreed...

I leave to go back to China in less than two weeks, and while I'm excited for Curt and I's big diving trip that he's been planning, I'm kind of sad as well to be missing most of my favorite month - October! I can hardly stand it that I can't buy pumpkins for the front porch, won't spend weeks getting a great costume together, and won't see the changes in the weather for myself, and of course I'll be missing a couple of football games as well... sigh... BUT I purposely booked my flight back to make it for Halloween, so I will be attending the Aggie game in costume - WHOOP! I mean how many times does Halloween fall on a Saturday, let alone on a home game weekend? I couldn't miss it... :-)

Then it will be time for Courtney's wedding which will be so fantastic - I can't wait!

Other than that I'm just trying to make mental lists of what I need to do before I leave... have been doing Crossfit, running, and some Bikram yoga which has kept me busy, and spending a lot of time with family and friends, which has been awesome, too! My 10 year high school reunion is this weekend, which is also a time wake-up call (what?! I can remember that like yesterday), but should be a blast since Ash and Tiff are both coming in from out of state so I cannot WAIT to see everyone! Should be great...

Until later...hope everyone is well and take care!

Keeping Things in Perspective

So I go to Crossfit, and I love it... not just because it's a great workout, usually kicks my butt, and makes me feel strong, but also because it's fun just to meet and talk with people along the way who are putting their bodies through similar punishment in the endeavor to be better human beings...

Anyway, after today's workout while I was stretching, I found myself introducing myself to the guy beside me as I've seen him there a few times, and at that point it's almost awkward to not know each other (it just seems to be the Crossfit way, besides my own way - know who you're working out with so you can encourage each other, etc.). Turns out he's a Marine in between tours... I'd say he was a few years younger than me, has already done one tour in Iraq, and will be on his way to Afghanistan in February. We talked for a few minutes about it - I asked him if he was ever scared, to which he replied sometimes, but more about the leaving than the actual being there, and we had a good discussion about making peace and how important that is (totally weird, I was just discussing this the other day...ugh). I thought it was so sweet, too - he said the hardest part last time was saying goodbye to his mother, so if he could just get through that this time ok he was pretty sure he could handle Afghanistan as it's where he feels he needs to be for his country. I was so "in thought" about all of the wise things he was saying that I forgot to say thank you, so now I'm excited to tell him tomorrow!

And yesterday, Kendyl had me in tears talking about a coworker (she didn't know him personally) who died this week... apparently he was an older guy, wife, 2 teenage kids, and his wife had been sick with cancer for awhile but she's been doing so much better lately... They were on their way back home from one of her treatments, and a drunk driver hit them. When first responders arrived he was yelling at them to get his wife out first, and they followed his instructions, and as soon as they had her free the car burst into flames and that's how he died... in sacrifice for his wife, who was sick, but he still gave his life for hers... oh yeah I cried (and tearing up again). Kendyl and I went over the hypothetical "wow, do you think you really would do that in that situation?" and I responded to her honestly by saying that there are probably only a handful of people that I can honestly say I really and truly wouldn't think twice about it giving my life up for like that...

I've had some amazing, fun times lately - an awesome weekend in Austin recently with two of my best friends where I crossed off the bats with Cody and Cade (I've always wanted to see that), seeing Sylvia and Patrick get married and having the honor to stand up beside them as they did, going to Alaska and seeing some of God's biggest and most mysterious creatures up close, and of course fun trips with Kendyl like Muddy Buddy and Costa Rica... it's all been awesome, and all of it has been a nice reminder of what is most important in life.

It's all about keeping perspective... and I think it's no coincidence that everything comes down to love :-)

Muddy Buddy in Boulder, CO!

I can’t believe how quickly summer is passing by… I mean, it’s basically almost over?!

Kendyl and I just got back from a sure-to-remember highlight, Muddy Buddy in Boulder, Colorado! It was amazing, and definitely a whirlwind trip… here it goes….

So this whole thing started when Kendyl emailed me while I was in China wanting to do this race with her called Muddy Buddy – I’d heard of it from when we lived in Fort Worth, always thought it would be cool, so I told her “why not?” Well the catch was that the two that are in Houston aren’t until October and March, and I was worried I might be in China at those times, so I suggested we go to Boulder in August since a) we both LOVE Colorado, b) we could find a free place to stay with our many contacts there, and c) it would be a great sister adventure together while I was home from China! She thought I was crazy, but because she was missing me, she agreed… haha

We kept up our running and normal workout schedules, though admittedly (by the both of us) we didn’t do anything extra to get ready for the 6.5 mile course in a town that boasts 5400 feet in elevation – we were plenty confident in our abilities in the current shape we were in!

On the Thursday before we were to leave (literally one day before), Kendyl called me from work to let me know that a meeting had been scheduled for 10 a.m. on Monday morning – so what was to be our leisurely drive back was to turn out to be a petal to the metal, no bathroom breaks drive back right after the race… sigh… oh well, more to come on that!

So Friday morning I was finishing getting Aurora packed up, Kendyl went into work, and by lunchtime she was at the house with the bike, her gear, and at 12:08 p.m. we hit the road – Boulder or Bust! We put in some great tunes, and I drove us to Fort Worth where we switched, then she continued on until dinner at Dairy Queen in Quanah around 7:30 p.m… I kept going until we reached Dalhart that night around 10:45 p.m., by which time we were deliriously tired… we got a room at the Holiday Inn Express there, and agreed we’d wake up at 6 a.m. to shower, eat the free breakfast, and get on the road to make Garden of the Gods for a picnic lunch.

One of the funnier moments of the trip (to Kendyl, at least) happened on our way into the hotel. I was exhausted, we were loaded down with our bags, and I had all of our dinner trash, including two huge half full drinks of Sprite (hers) and Pink lemonade (mine). We check in, drive around to the back where are room was so we could make sure to see the car from our room, and while we’re walking up the stairs in the back of the hotel, my flip flop gets stuck (or I didn’t lift my leg high enough – one of the two), and I *completely* eat it on the stairs! What was hysterical about it is because I had all my stuff (Vera Bradley bags AND huge drinks), I kind of went stiff like a board and just fell onto the stairs in front of me, which Kendyl found to be so hilarious she couldn’t help but immediately start laughing BEFORE she found out if I was ok – LMAO! I just kind of laid there for a second, stunned, and not believing that I hadn’t spilled a drop (how the heck?!), and then slowly got up, QUICKLY browsing the ceiling corners to see if there was a security camera. Kendyl saw me looking up and then burst into even harder laughter, asking me if I was looking for them (she totally caught me, but I mean, with you tube and stuff these days, you never know)! I landed mostly on my arm, so knew I’d have a nice straight bruise, but we were so tired, and laughing so hard we were crying at the silliness of the whole thing… anytime we even think about it we both start giggling, which then turns into big ol’ belly laughs when she starts reliving what I looked like in front of her… oh well.

Morning came pretty quickly, and we got our breakfast and hit the road with Kendyl taking us into New Mexico… sad side note, right before we hit the Colorado border we saw a bear that had been hit on the side of the road, I’d guess sometime the night before – I didn’t even know there were bears around Raton – but it made me sad… I called the Game and Wildlife number for Raton (iPhones are so handy on road trips) and let them know, and they told me they’d already been informed just hadn’t sent an officer out yet… so that was good at least.

We pulled into Garden of the Gods around 11 a.m. and holy smokes it was such a gorgeous day… sun was hot, wind was cool, sky was oh-so-blue, and we were in heaven. We got into our cooler and grabbed some lunchables, pudding, a kit kat to share, and some Gatorade and set off to find the perfect place for a picnic! It was pretty crowded (not a huge surprise because of how gorgeous it was, but I hardly ever see it like that so I still kind of was), and there were a ton of rock climbers there, too, which was really fun to watch! We had our own fun on the rocks for the next couple of hours, and we were both just so happy to be there… it’s such a special place for me – like magic.

Around 1:30 p.m. we decided we’d better head on to Denver, so Kendyl called David (her coworker, who she had talked into doing Muddy Buddy with us with another coworker, Albert) to get directions, and an hour later we were at his place in downtown Denver! We got settled in, went grocery shopping, went out to get some new mountain bike tubes considering Kendyl’s had never been changed in the 10 years she’s had that bike, and then we went back to his place to get cleaned up. They worked on changing the bike tubes, and in the meantime I worked on baking David’s birthday cake (his birthday was Sunday), and then we all went out for a birthday celebration dinner to a local BBQ joint, which was really good! Then we walked around downtown, stumbled upon a free concert in a small park, so hung out there until we were all ready for cake (yea!) and then an early bedtime since we had to wake up in the 4’s the next morning to get to Boulder in time for packet pick-up!

Again, morning came quickly, and even quicker because Dad was texting us like crazy from Australia to remember to be careful with the altitude (I guess when we first moved to Denver when I was little he went running, felt good, and then when he stopped he almost passed out and keenly remembers that and wanted to remind us ever few hours on our drive up and up until the race, haha). We assured him we would be careful and got our last few minutes of sleep before it was time to head out… we left at 5 a.m., got there at 5:30 a.m., got our packets, and watched the sunrise over Boulder reservoir… turns out we were there WAY earlier than we needed to be, but we had so much fun watching everyone arrive, looking at the fun costumes, and getting our stuff ready so we could get the boys going (they were in the first wave, and we were in the ninth, out of twelve or so, I think? There were thousands of people there by the time we started!

The costume contest was first, and that was HILARIOUS, and then we got to hear from a boy that benefits from the charity that Muddy Buddy contributes to for challenged athletes. This boy was about 5-6 years old, and had been born with something rare that had caused his parents to have to decide to get his legs amputated at 15 months old. Since then he’s learned to walk, run, and do everything a normal boy would do using athletic prosthetics, and he did the Austin Muddy Buddy last year, has done the Kid’s Ironman, and a ton of other inspirational stuff – as they were telling his story and he was answering questions, Kendyl and I became complete basket cases… I mean, bawling – neither of us could hold it together – geez! But we for sure got our inspiration for the race!!!

And here’s a background on Muddy Buddy – in each city they set up a course that runs from 6-7 miles long where you and your buddy alternate in a duathlon-type race. Kendyl started out on the mountain bike, and I started running. After a mile and some change, she dropped off the bike, did an obstacle, and start running the next mile and change. When I finished my run, I did the obstacle, found the bike, and then I’d start riding (and pass her somewhere along the trail), so we’d continue leapfrogging like that, with me running 3.7 miles total (Kendyl biking that), and me riding 2.6 (Kendyl running that).

So when it was finally our waves turn to start, we were so excited and pumped… the sun was warming us up (it was around 8:15 a.m. by that point), she got going on her bike, and then a few minutes later us runners got to follow them! The first mile for me was the hardest of the race… I could definitely feel the altitude, and was worried for a second that the whole race would feel like that! By the time I got to the first obstacle, the army rope crawl, Kendyl was long gone! The second mile (my first bike mile) wasn’t as hard on my body, but was a really hard mountain bike mile – all uphill! First a gradual incline, which wouldn’t have been bad but it was mostly gravel so most of us girls only made it halfway up before we had to get off and walk/run to a much STEEPER hill where a line had formed for people to walk the bikes up! It was a slight bottleneck, and a huge hill, but got up it and jumped back on the bike for a nice flat area to the second obstacle which was a rock wall up one side, and a net you had to climb down the other. Kendyl was waiting for me there along with a few others, so I handed off the bike and she got going! I started running, and this mile was much easier for me, though it was longer… I guess my lungs had expanded enough and my body had started to acclimate so it wasn’t as bad…

I caught up to Kendyl who had to get off the bike to walk it through part of the lake (only about a foot deep of water, but by the time we got through after 8 waves of teams it was a HUGE mud puddle so we got wet and dirty pretty early on in the race), so I helped her get the bike up the next crazy hill before she took off riding and me running again, haha! She said later she was sure glad I was there to lift that bike up so she could climb up, lol!

The third obstacle was a balance beam – piece of cake – and then I found the bike and got on my way… I passed her and cheered her on (we are huge fist pumpers, LOL) and got to the fourth obstacle, a huge inflatable mountain you had to climb up then slide down, pretty quickly. Again there was a line, but I wasn’t complaining – having a nice break to catch your breath was good bull. Then as I was running out I saw Kendyl run in, so I told her where to find the bike, grabbed some water, and got going on the last leg, which physically wasn’t that hard, but just seemed to take FOREVER! Kendyl passed me, cheered me on again, and I kept on going around the lake…

I felt like I was doing pretty good because I was passing a few girls, and even a few boys, and then finally I rounded into the sea of cars, then we had to run on the beach (running in sand in water and mud logged tennis is way hard), and finally up the hill to meet our partners who were waiting for us to go through the final obstacle, the HUGE MUD PIT, before we crossed the finish line as a team! Kendyl grabbed my hand, we ran to the mud pit, and crawled in… you have to crawl under flags, so they make sure you get dirty, but we were laughing and loving it… the mud was extremely goopy (they did a great job in preparing it!), cold, and wet, so by the time we got out of it we were oh-so-dirty!!! Then we ran the last little ways to the finish line and crossed at 1:05:30! Not too bad! Out of our age group we placed 51st out of 77 teams, which we were pretty happy about considering all of the other teams but 2(?) were from Colorado/Wyoming with the fastest team at 50 minutes, and the slowest of our group at 1:30 minutes, so we were stoked!

We didn’t have to time to celebrate though – David and Albert met us at the finish line where they were taking pictures of us, then we got some pictures together, headed to the reservoir to jump in and get the mud off, dried off at his truck, packed stuff up, then headed back to his place in Denver. Kendyl and I were in and out of there with showers in record time, and on the road by 11 a.m. Denver time – wow!

So here was the part we’d been trying not to think about… driving home from Denver straight… I drove us the first hour to Colorado Springs where we had to stop for gas, and as Kendyl had caught a quick nap she told me to do the same so we switched (races take it out of you, I tell ya), both popped an Aleve, and then she was good until we got to Amarillo where I made her get out so she could sleep. I drove us from there until Fort Worth which was around 1:00 a.m., and then she brought us in the rest of the way home with us arriving at Mom’s at 4:15 a.m.… right at 16 hours from door to door… we only stopped 4 times, had many laughs, sang SO many songs, and missed each other the next day when Kendyl went to work. I LOVE HER! She’s the best sister ever, and I can’t wait to do a ton more Muddy Buddies!

Quotes from the trip that set us into fits of giggles and crying laughter:

“I don’t know, Tasha, I’m not a flippin’ farmer… I mean we grew up in the same place!” – Kendyl’s response to me when I asked her what a field of crops was… you maybe had to be there but her tone, face, and everything made me go crazy, it was hysterical!

“Smell deep” – me telling her to smell my pillow because it still smelled like West Virginia (not in a bad way, just how a place smells), and what was funny is even though my comment was slightly weird, she knew what I was saying so she dove her nose into it and took a deep breath, and agreed with me, then repeated, “smell deep, huh?” (writing this right now is making me die all over again, LOL)

“I love this song” – said by the both of us probably every third song, which would be maybe hundreds of times (we lost count very early on)

“No funny businessssss” – the part in Paper Planes that Kendyl loves to hear me imitate, it cracks her up every time and never got old even though we probably saw a train every hour or so? LOL

Trip theme songs:

Paper Planes by MIA from Slumdog (the train scene) – we played it literally every time we saw a moving train, which was then followed by Jai Ho… we determined the both of us are excellent Bollywood dancers, and if there was such a thing as car dancing, we’d take the award HANDS DOWN!

Use Somebody, Kings of Leon… sigh… we love this song :-)!