Saturday, May 17, 2008

More of Vietnam

According to a sign close by this is the end of the world.
Bridge in the jungle as we were looking for the ancient temple ruins.
I was asked recently when my friend saw this picture, "Were the bugs bad, did you see any snakes or crazy insects or anything?" It looks pretty crazy I guess, but it was not at all bad, no problems, we saw one lizard but it was not anything to tell a story about. More than anything else there were a lot of butterflies. It was the most beautiful, peaceful hike that I have been on in a long time.
Both Jorie and Audrey are close to the same height as this woman. She sold us some bananas, this is on the Japanese Bridge, notice Audrey's peace.
I like to tease Jorie about how she puts out the peace sign in a lot of pictures these days. I think it has something to do with the water. This isn't popular in the states is it?


Silk worm breeding tour, the white stuff is hundreds of worms, 3 days old. The green is mostly leafs with a few worms. Motorcycle tour, the guide drove Bentz and I since I don't have motorcycle skills like Beau.

We drove past a wedding and they asked us to take pictures. Aparently Bentz was not done looking at the bride in this picture. Thanks for helping with the pose Audrey.
This is the pride of my photography for the trip. I think it looks like a postcard. I just have to say that if you take enough pictures (i.e. 480 in 4 days) something is bound to turn out GREAT!

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Hoi An Vietnam

We hiked through the jungle and found the ancient ruins of tmeples that are from the same time as the Cambodian temples that Beau and I went to.This is the Japanese Bridge in Hoi An, there were both Japanese and Chinese communities living here and the Japanese built this bridge to connect the two communities. Originally built in 1500's.
There were a lot of women carrying these baskets on their shoulders with a variety of different things. Hard working women!
There are several temples in Hoi An from different cultures. This one was very bright. The Japanese temple had beautiful gardens, the Cantonese temple had ornate dragons all over the entrance. I don't know what this one is but it was very bright so it caught my eye, it is also much smaller than most of the other temples.
Bentz is driving the boat, Our driver was so happy, he smiled like this the whole time. He gave each of the kids a turn driving.

This is Winn, she has family in Garden Grove CA, she was so nice to the kids, Audrey chose a lantern to match her dress. Bentz thought he should pull all of the tassels that he could reach.

Beautiful girls riding on the boat. They are wearing the Vietnamese dresses that we bought for them. The women working in the shops, hotels, and airports all wore these type of dresses.

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

In flight. . .

Here's some excitement. Yesterday on our way home from Vietnam I took Bentz to the tiny little bathroom on the airplane cause he needed to poop and he still likes to go in the toilet most of the time. So after he told me a few times that he was indeed done with his business I proceeded to clean his bum and then started to maneuver things so I could put his diaper back on while I was holding him in the cramped space that we were in. Then I saw some poop on his bum and thought I must have missed something, well I was mistaken, I didn't miss something he decided to poop some more! All over me! So then I called in some help. . . "Beau, HELP!" This was my wispered shout down about 6 rows to where Beau was sitting with the girls. Lucky for me the hotel staff gave some t-shirts to the kids as we left so they were in the carry-on which they almost made us check. Phew. I cleaned my skirt the best I could and then changed my t-shirt. Just so you know I should never wear a t-shirt intended for Audrey! I made it through the last 10 minutes of the flight and changed my clothes as soon as I got our suitcase, yes I did a deck change at the ticketing counter as we checked in for our second flight.

I will post more from our trip later, just thought I would share this bit with you.

Thursday, May 8, 2008

Really????

So I got a new calling in church.
Now can you tell me please does this look like a Relief Society President?
I was completely surprised myself! I think it will be a great learning and growing experience! I am really excited to be able to serve in the awesome branch that we attend.

P.S. For those of you that do not belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Relief Society is an organization for Women, motto: Charity Never Faileth. Such a great organization to be a part of! The branch that I refer to is our local congregation of the Church.

More monkeys and Cambodia

Okay our kids are the monkeys in these first two but they are monkeys!
Audrey is swinging on a vine, gotta love hiking in the jungle!
Jorie is pretending to swing on a vine.
Here is a real monkey. I will have to post better pictures this one is not the best.
One of the many awesome temples in Cambodia that looks even cooler because the trees are growing all over the temple.
Here is Beau in front of the famous door from Tomb Raider, I haven't actually seen the movie, is that the door?
This blogging stuff is pretty fun. I really like looking at everyone's blogs to see what you are up to. Thanks to everyone for keeping in touch!

Bentz broke his arm.

So sad to see a two year old wearing a cast!

He has a small fracture near the wrist. The Dr. says that young children will pull off the cast if it does not go up over the elbow. We were playing around, the kids and I, when Bentz got his arm pinned under his body in a weird position, I think that is what caused the fracture.

In three weeks he will have the cast removed, just in time for his second birthday. He will be back to fighting fires/slaying dragons and swinging on the playground like a monkey again in no time!

Sunday, May 4, 2008

Monkey Mountain

This is our most recent hiking adventure.
There were signs that said not to stare or make eye contact with the monkeys.
Audrey learned what happens if you do.