The Beaven Family: November 13

We began November 13th with a nice, leisurely hike before church. The adults walked and the kids rode bikes and scooters off the University Campus.

We found these cool little plants that wrap around your finger when you touch them. Here is Amelia making it work...

The fan shaped leaves are the plants that fold. If you look closely, you can see 2 of them folded right in front of the pink flower.

Lia found a stick bug!

We took a route that the Ashlocks go on often, that ended with us on the property of one of the locals. They have a beautiful home on grounds that are even more beautiful. Once on the property, we parked our scooters and bikes and everyone walked. It was starting to get a little warm at this point, so some of us took a short cut.

This is the dragonfruit plant that grows those cool pink fruits (market pictures) the inside of which is white with black dots (airplane pictures).

Ryan, Lia, Madeline and Amelia took "the long cut", as Amelia called it. :)

So lush and green!

The home that sits on the property. It is built on stilts, which is quite common. It provides the occupants with a cooler, shaded outdoor area which is easy to clear of snakes so the children can play outside.

The family's Buddha statue. The little white bowl at his feet contains a food offering.

The elephant and monkey are bowing and giving their own offerings to Buddha

What a good looking group!

After our walk, we went to church, enjoyed a very yummy potluck and had a bit of a rest. In the afternoon, we drove out to another Buddha statue nearby. The Ashlocks refer to it as "The White Buddha". It is quite impressive from afar and up close.

The road driving in to the Temple. Notice how far up the hill the Buddha sits. There are steps all the way up to the top. You can see a few resting pagodas going diagonally on the lower right half of the hill.

The very ornate entrance to the Temple.

The temple's homage to the King

It is common for people to drop off unwanted pets for the Monks to take care of. Wonder what they thought when this guy showed up on their doorstep?

How do you say CRIKEY in Thai?

The Monks live on the temple site in these cute little bungalows. I could totally live here!

The actual temple with a cloud of incense burning. I have never liked the smell of incense, but I did in Thailand. I'm not sure if they have better scents or if it's because it's outside and not in an enclosed space, but it was actually quite enjoyable.

Jeremy heading up the first of many, many steps....

It's a long way up...(700+ steps) but we made it!

And the reward was oh, so SWEET!

The Beaven 5

Some smaller Buddha statues with lots of offerings. Flowers, food, drink, incense... it's all there.

Before we headed back down all those stairs (which was a lot easier, by the way!), we let the kids each ring these bells once.

In keeping with his funny self, Marshall CAREFULLY made his way back down all 700+ steps.

It really was hilarious! He was leaning so hard on his underarm that he had to push pretty hard to make any forward movement. I love that boy!

This looks amazingly like an ocotillo plant that you would find in Yuma!

See? Told you they love their animals!

(Disclaimer... I have NO idea what the signs say. It could say that these animals taste really good and if you kick them once a day they taste even better.)

This night we tasted our very favorite Thai specialty! Roti! It is SOOO good! You can find them at these little street vendor stands. Jeremy liked them plain (which is sprinkled with sugar and drizzled with sweetened condensed milk)