Santa Visits Phayao, Thailand!
Santa Clause came to visit us!
We had a very special visitor the other night in Phayao. We went to eat dinner at Haley’s house and while we were there we decided to sing some Christmas carols. Well, right in the middle of singing Jingle Bells, wouldn’t you know it, Santa Clause came walking in the door. Most of the kids were excited, but Teagan and especially Esan, were a little bit concerned and probably more confused than anything. He had a present for all the kids and the parents had more fun than anybody. We made a little video and took some great pictures. You can watch the video below or click here to download it if you want to.
Gigi goes to school in Thailand!
It’s been so much fun having Gigi here with us. She’s been here for a week and finally took her first nap today, I can’t believe how long she can go on such little sleep. The boys have enjoyed lots of new freedoms with her here and argue every time we get in the truck to go somewhere about who is going to get to sit in Gigi’s lap. She’s ridden in the sidecar on Tonya’s vespa, made Christmas cookies, gone swimming, visited the market, gone to the lake, walked around the “Phayao Winter Festival”, and most importantly (as far as Corban is concerned) gone to school. Ever since Gigi said she was coming to visit us, he has been talking about her going to school with him and spending the day.
Well, once she got here he didn’t waste any time talking her into to it and convinced her to go the second day she was in Thailand; and if you know Gigi, it didn’t really take any convincing at all. She’ll do just about anything for her boys and absolutely anything for her grandboys! Well, I wanted to share it with you all and let you see what her second day in Thailand was like and what they did at school.
Christmas Comes Early In Phayao!!
In the past week we have had two wonderful things arrive in Phayao: our container from America with all our stuff, and my mom. Our container arrived on Saturday night at about 7:00 p.m. Back in Texas before we left for Thailand, we were told it would arrive in Thailand around October 20, well, it got here on December 12, almost eight weeks late. I guess that’s just the way it goes. We were just happy that it was here and that all of our stuff was still in it!! I made a video of us unloading it, if you want to see it, click here.
A Container Truck delivered our container from Bangkok
We were so excited to see our stuff again. It was like early Christmas!
My mom arrived in Chiang Mai on Monday morning about 11:00 a.m. We’re already having so much fun with her being here. Today she went to Corban’s school with him and stayed all day. She brought five suitcases full of all sorts of goodies and snacks. Thank you to all of you who sent things to us.
Playing at the waterfall on the way to Phayao
Gigi's first meal in Phayao
Visa Trip to Burma
Well, we had to take our first visa trip last week. Right now we have non-immigrant visas that are good for ninety days at a time. So that means every three months we will have to go out of the country and come back in to renew them. The easiest and cheapest place to do that is at a border town called Mae Sai. It sits on the Burmese border about two and a half hours from our home. We drove up one day, went across the border (which all in all took about two hours), and then went to another city called Chiang Rai that is on the way home, and spent the night at a hotel, and then came home the next day. It was a fun little trip and the boys loved getting to stay at a hotel. The border town of Mae Sai is a very interesting place because there are always so many people there from all over the world.
Getting new visas in Mae Sai, about to cross over to Burma
Teagan Eats His First Bite Of Rice!!!
For those of you that know our sweet and wild Teagan we have some exciting news. The guy has an aversion to most foods unless you consider candy a food group so getting him to eat is a difficult ordeal. So we face that ordeal, oh, as the eating schedule goes, about three times a day. Up until now the only good things he would eat that are good for him are bananas, peanuts, and yogurt. Well, since mom and dad feel up to it, we set on our quest to get him to eat rice. We figured that rice would be most available everywhere we go whether home or a way. So the exciting news is well, you can probably tell from the picture, he ate rice and has been for a few days now. We are so proud of him and wanted to share a small yet huge victory in our daily lives.
Yeah Teagan!
Giant Caterpillar!!
This is a caterpillar that was in our yard, and actually is still in our yard. There are at least nine of these things living on a tree in our yard right now, and they are awesome!! They are all in different stages along the way to becoming the world’s largest moth; the Atlas Moth. I took a whole bunch of pictures and added a picture gallery of them in the sidebar, or you can just click this – Chris’ Atlas Moth Pics. Esan and Teagan find them yesterday when they were playing outside; one had fallen out of the tree and they found it in the dirt. They showed it to Tonya and she thought it was awesome and immediately called me to bring the camera. The two little boys were so excited to show their big brother what they had found when he came home from school; it was a lot of fun. A few of them have already made their caccoons and will be in there for about four weeks. We will keep our eyes on them and try to get some more pics when they emerge from their chrysalis. Check back for more later.
Atlas Moth Caterpillar - Largest Moth In The World!