Viilu Visit Part One - Temples and Kanchanaburi

Our good friends the Viilus finally made it to Thailand!  They came the day after Christmas, and it was a great belated present.  We gave them one easy day of exploring the neighborhood in the golf cart, and then we went full Bangkok on them.  Vivi and I drove them downtown, and we took the BTS to the river taxi to see Wat Pho and Wat Arun.

We started with Wat Arun.  The grounds alone are always impressive.

The sky was a perfect, clear blue for photos.

Of course, that meant that the girls were partially blinded every time I tried to get them to pose for a picture.

They were good sports about it though.  We got some popsicles afterwards and did a bit of shopping.  We even saw some traditional Thai dancers.

The girls got some time to chill in the shade while we looked at another temple on the grounds.

Then we crossed the river to go see Wat Pho.  I love that temple, but getting a good photo sometimes involves practically laying down on the ground.

The feet were covered for touch up work, which was sad, but we got to see some touch up work in action, which was interesting.

After the temples, we walked one river taxi stop back, and then retraced our boat and BTS steps.  Luckily, there's a Chu's along the way, so we were able to refuel with lunch.  Vivian had pancakes even though it wasn't breakfast time anymore, big surprise.

It was a good first adventure, but we had bigger plans for the next day, Kanchanaburi.  We had a van pick us up bright and early, and they got to see some of the Thai countryside on the two and a half hour drive.

Kanchanaburi has a lot of WWII history.  Part of the Thai-Burma railway went through there.  We started our visit at the war cemetery.

Then we went to the Death Railway Museum across the street (no pictures allowed).  We finished up with lunch on the river with a view of the famous bridge over the Kwai River.

The restaurant was actually on floating platforms on the river.  When the girls were done eating they fed the fish from a bridge between the platforms.

After lunch, we got back in the van and drove for about another hour to the Hintok River Camp, a glamping resort near the Hellfire Pass.  Each family got a canvas tent with a bathroom in the back, my kind of "camping" ;-)

The rest of the grounds were beautiful too.  The reception area had a great balcony looking out over the river.

The girls had a lot of fun exploring the level camp ground at the top of the hill and the riverside relaxing area at the bottom.

They decided they wanted to try out the natural pool, so the dads took them, while the moms got some drinks at the reception area.

Everyone had a relaxing afternoon waiting for dinner.  Dinner was included in the stay, and it was a great, outdoor set up.

It really got going once it got dark.

The girls staked out a table for us, and we took our time enjoying the buffet.

After dinner, there was a fire to gather around, and it was actually chilly enough to be able to enjoy it.

It was a magical evening, with the bonus of the food actually being really good!  Eventually we made our way back to our tents.

We were surprised to discover that it was actually COLD at night.  We were totally unprepared for genuine cold weather, and it seemed like the camp wasn't prepared either, because there were no extra blankets.  We layered on clothes and tried to stay warm.  Eventually we were all tired enough to fall asleep.

Breakfast the next morning was fun too.  It felt like we were in a tree house.

Vivian chugged her orange juice, which her stomach did not appreciate.  It sent it right back up, so breakfast was a bit shortened.  She was fine a little while later though, and she and Kaitlyn were running around the camp until the driver camp to pick us up and take us to our next adventure, Elephant World!

It was back towards Kanchanaburi and home, so it took about an hour, but then we had a whole day hanging out with the elephants.  We started with feeding them.

Each elephant had its own area where it stood with its own basket of food and a sign telling about it.

After eating, the elephants walked down to the river for a drink, and we followed.

We hung out at a slightly raised area while the elephants wandered around and did their thing.

Then we went to make pumpkin rice mush balls.  We started with chopping up the pumpkin and some of the employees got the rice cooking.

While that was happening, the girls got to "hide" watermelon treats for the elephants to find later.

Then we all took turns stirring the pumpkin rice mush.  It was hard work!

Finally, it was declared done, and we left it to cool while the guide took us to watch educational videos about elephants.  Then it was feeding time for the humans.  They had a nice lunch buffet, and we found a little covered table area to enjoy our lunch.

They had an elephant craft for the kids too.

When they were done with that, the girls drifted back to the rail to watch the elephants play in the mud.

The elephants got good and dirty, which meant it was time to go back to the river and give them a scrub.  Vivian was ready for the challenge!

She and Jeff had fun in the water while I stayed on dry land and documented.

Then it was time to go back to our cooled off rice mush and make mush balls which we fed to the elephants.

Before the day was done, we had one last food task.  We had to fill the elephants' baskets with the foods that were on their list and then give them one last meal.

It was a full, fun day, and we all slept well that night.

Merry Christmas!

We had a fun, low key Christmas this year.  We got in the spirit the night before by having some friends over for a Christmas Eve dinner of chicken stew with biscuits.

Our neighborhood Santa also put in a few appearances the week before Christmas.  Elena was too scared for a picture (even though she knows this Santa well), but Vivian wasn't shy.

Regular Santa did right by the girls on Christmas morning.  Vivian got a whole set of Monster High dolls in her stocking.

Elena liked the dino in her stocking, but was even more thrilled with the doll stroller she found next to the tree.

Both girls liked the electric keyboard.

They also enjoyed Elena's new "fishing" set.

Young and Elena both got new playdough and shape cutters in their stockings, so they spent some time outside playing with that too.

Jeff and I got several Amazon gift cards, which quickly got turned into books and movies to enjoy.  It was a good Christmas for everyone.

Family Staycation!

We've done a lot of traveling, and we have more traveling coming up, so for winter break, we decided to just savor what we have here in Bangkok.  That was made especially easy by good friends of ours who have a three bedroom apartment downtown and were on vacation for a few weeks.  They left us the keys and told us to enjoy, so Jeff and I packed up the girls and Young and headed downtown.

Big surprise, our main destinations were malls, but in our defense pretty much everything worth doing is in a mall in Thailand.  My theory is that it has to do with the heat.  You want to be in an airconditioned place as much as possible.

We got our staycation started by taking the BTS, which is novel enough for the girls to be fun.  It helps that when Thais see them, they stand up and offer their seats.  My girls are so spoiled by the wonderful people here.

Our first stop was family favorite mall Central World.  They have lots of free stuff for kids to do, but before playing we had to fuel up at one of the hundreds of restaurants.  Some friends had recommend the S'mores restaurant, and it did not disappoint.

Elena wasn't so sure about the bears.

But both girls liked that the menus were paper they could color on, and that there were good kids' choices on the menu.

After lunch, we stopped for a quick bathroom break before continuing into the main part of the mall.  The wall outside the bathroom has all these posters which Central commissioned from some artist.  This one cracked me up.

After our rest stop, we were ready to hit the free kids play area.  This is probably one of our favorite places to play.  There were a bunch of other families who felt that way too, but luckily there were no major collisions.

Once the girls got tired, we went to relax at the bookstore around the corner.

Then Young took Elena back to the apartment, and Vivian got to stay at the mall with us for a special preview showing of Sing, followed by an Auntie Anne's pretzel and Christmas decoration viewing.  Good times :-)

As I'm looking back through the pictures, I'm realizing that our staycation was 100% about food and malls.  Breakfast at Chu's was a must.  The girls got completely addicted to their pancakes.

I decided to mix up my chocolate choice a bit and discovered the Belgian chocolate with cinnamon on top.  New addiction!

We went back to Imaginia at the Emporium mall.  It was extra fun to bring Daddy this time.

Then we went across the street to yet another mall for yet another meal.  The EmQuartier mall is pretty new, and they have a really cool sprial design with lots of restaurants along they way.

We settled on the Mexican restaurant which had delicious food and a great view.

By the end of several days downtown, we were all ready to go back to the burbs.  Downtown Bangkok is amazingly fun, but we agreed that it's probably good that we don't live down there.  We would be broke and weigh 400 pounds each!

Getting the holidays off to a good start

Vivian's winter break lasts three weeks, including the week before and the week after Christmas, so we knew we'd need to have plenty of fun planned.  The fun actually began before the break, since there were lots of holiday themed events going on.

For Girl Scouts, we did neighborhood caroling, a fundraiser at our local Mexican restaurant, and snack prep and cookie decorating at one girl's house.  That was probably Vivian's favorite.

Later that week was her holiday choir concert.  She got in the spirit trying on fancy dresses to see which one would spin the most.

Unfortunately, since she has been going through a determined tomboy phase, most of her fancy dresses are a size too small, and she got dramatic about her ability to breathe.  We finally found one that fit right.  Elena was so impressed by Vivian's fashion show, that she insisted on a fancy dress too, resulting in this adorable picture.

The concert was fun.  I went as family rep, and Jeff stayed home to look after Elena.

Hopefully Elena will be able to manage a concert soon.  She looks up to Vivi so much, but doesn't always understand the sit and watch versus run up and hug.  She is good about sitting and listening when Vivi reads to her though.

Vivian's vacation got off to a good start when I took her to see Moana with a friend.  It was one of her friends who also likes to sing, so the whole golf cart ride home was them singing "How Far I'll Go." At least they were in tune.

That weekend we were back at the mall for a friend's birthday party at Fun Planet, a new place at the top of the mall near the movie theater.  It was a fun party, because families were invited, so there were friends for both girls to play with and plenty to do.

Elena even got in the sand play area with the other kids!

It cracked me up that they had special boots the kids could wear, since they had to take their shoes off before entering the main play area.  Elena's favorite part though, was the cupcake eating.

We decided that Fun Planet was the perfect toddler birthday venue, so that's what we would do for Elena's birthday too.  We finished off a fun evening with dinner at Sizzler's.  The food was so so, but they had a great set up for kids, and Elena ate one of her best restaurant meals.

The next day Jeff and I were back at the mall yet again.  This time to see Rogue One in first class.  We decided not to take Vivian, since she had a complete meltdown at the end of Force Awakens.  We weren't sure exactly how Rogue One was going to end, but in Star Wars they said many people died to bring them the information, so we figured it wasn't going to be pretty.  We really liked the movie, and we definitely made the right call waiting to watch it at home with Vivian.