Growing Up

Once we got back to California it finally hit us that we were no longer in Provo. We graduated and were entering a new chapter of our lives. Graduation was a lot of fun and we were so happy to have so many family members and friends come to celebrate with us.


After all the graduation ceremonies we had a BBQ in Rock Canyon Park. At the BBQ I could see my mom's grandmother hunger grow. Every picture we have of her from that day she has a baby in her hands.

Mom, I put this picture of Dad up for you.... look he is showing teeth!


For any of you that know Lance's mom, she is the Banner Queen. She sent us a banner to hang at our BBQ.... we loved it!



Although we miss Utah for a lot of reasons we are really enjoying California. It has been fun meeting people, finding new places to hang out and explore, and decorating a new apartment.

The Real Reason I Love Thailand

Well this is my last post on our Southeast Asia Adventure. I'm sure you can see from all our pictures a few reasons why I love that part of the world so much. However, one of the biggest reasons I love Thailand is the people. Our last day in Thailand was a Sunday, so we headed to the closest area that I served in ( Bangkhen). We went to church and I was lucky enough to get called as a speaker (without them asking me first of coarse). It was so good to see the members and the investigators I taught that are now members or still going to church. It was fun to introduce Lance to all people so he could match names with faces. The next day we left early for the airport and headed back to reality.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Well after enjoying the beautiful beaches of Thailand, we went to visit family in Malaysia. Lance's cousin and his family live in KL and we were very nice to open their home to us. They were great hosts! We got to see Petronas Towers, which are the world's largest twin towers and second and third largest single towers. Another big attraction we went to was the Batu Caves. Batu Caves is a limestone hill that has several caves and temples inside. The big statue in front is Lord Murugan, and behind him are 272 stairs that we climbed to see the temple inside. They also have an annual festival called Thaipusam where millions of people come to show their devotion to the Hindu religion. We watched a video showing scenes from the festival and it's pretty crazy. Google Thaipusam for some interesting pictures. Our hosts also took us to the China Market and out for some yummy Malaysian food. We had a great time visiting and seeing the city, it was tough to leave.

Rai Lai

This is what Rai Lai usually looks like,

unfortunately this is what we saw, rain & muddy water! It was still a really cool area and it was quite an adventure getting there. When we left Koh Phi Phi it had started to rain a little. The further away we got from Koh Phi Phi the worse the weather got. I started to get a little scared when people began to put their life jackets on. We got to the main port with just a few really scarey moments and a lot of prayers. No one told us that from the main port we would have to take a little long tail boat to our hotel. The rain was coming down pretty hard, but the water wasn't too rough. It was pretty crazy! Although we saw a lot of rain and mud we still had a great time there. We just hope next time we go we will see more sun and white sand. When we left the next day we had to walk in the water to get to the boats, not the best time to have short legs. I really like this picture of the guy running to catch the boat before we left. His face is so classic.

English is a tough language

We found a few more signs with english slip ups but we hadn't thought of documenting at that point in our trip.

Koh Phi Phi

Once we left Coral Island we hopped on a ferry to go to Koh Phi Phi. It was amazing. Just our luck we had a little overcast so we couldn't as many islands along the way, but it was still incredible. The overcast was actually really refreshing and kept us cool throughout the day.

We stayed at this beach for the day and then headed to Rai Lai that afternoon. I didn't go past the boats but from the shore line to the boats it was white sand (no rocks, coral, shells, etc to cut up your feet) and crystal clear water. If anyone is thinking of going to Thailand for a little vacation I strongly recommend going to this island it is soooo beautiful.

Sorry for all of you that are sick of our Thailand pictures. It is hard to share all that we did and saw, but we have had some requests to put the rest of our pictures up so give me a few more posts on Thailand and then I'll be able to move on. The slide show below has pictures from Coral Island. We had a great time snorkeling, sleeping, relaxing, and bird watching. I didn't think bird watching would be too exciting, but it was so much fun. Between 3 and 5 in the afternoon hornbills come hang out at the poo. We sat out by the pool reading our books and not really expecting to see anything. But they came and they were beautiful. They are a lot bigger than they seem in the pictures. They are really interesting birds because they are monogamous and go everywhere with their mate. We saw around 5 pairs.

Welcome to Coral Island

Going South

After our wonderful time in Cambodia we flew to Phuket. Once we got there we had a driver from our hotel pick us up and take us to the boat dock. Unfortunately the rain followed us so it was a really wet boat ride to our own little island. We stayed on Koh Hae also known as Coral Island. There is only one hotel on the island so it was pretty quiet, especially since we were one of four couples staying there. During the day tourists from other islands would come over to snorkel, scuba dive, ride the banana raft, etc. After 3 the whole island was ours, it was really nice.




What a lovely picture I know. The first night on the island I ordered Tiger Prawn, look how big that thing is! It was pretty tasty.

Other Temples at Angkor Wat