Thailand Bound!

After receiving a call from our friends letting us know that they would be leaving Thailand the Summer of 2012 to come back to the States, we decided that we needed to take "A Trip of a Lifetime" AGAIN!!!  Don't judge us... one taste of those sweet buttery mangoes, and you'd do anything to go to!  ;)

We left our house early in the morning even though our flight didn't leave L.A. until after Midnight, Pacific time thanks to the recent time change.  We left ourselves plenty of time to stop at Hadley's to FINALLY try a date shake.  We got a banana date shake and it was so good!  They put cinnamon and nutmeg on the counter for you to spice them up.  Then we had lunch and visited with our great friends, the Olson's who we knew when we lived in Whidbey.  After leaving them, we drove to Aunt Connie and Uncle Dan's house to catch up with them (and their sweet puppy Dancer!).  Needless to say that by the time we got to the airport, checked in and through security, we were all a bit bleary eyed and beat!

2/3 holding up strong at the gate!  1/3 clearly taking advantage of her baby brother.

When we finally got on board (45 minutes late, but who's counting, it's only 2 am Yuma time!), Amelia was asleep before take-off and actually managed to stay asleep!  I'm not sure how you can do that, but I was happy for her.  The 15 hours to Hong Kong are certainly long, but the individual tv's preprogrammed with lots of movies and tv help to occupy that time.  They even have movies that haven't come out on DVD yet, so it's tempting to just stay up all night and stare at the screen.  ;)

Cathay Pacific is an incredible airline and once again, the service was amazing.  The food is always delicious and they have quite a few vegetarian options.  I had Indian food...which was great right up until they served me curry for breakfast.  I admit a pang of jealousy at everyone else's yogurt and muffins at that point.  This picture was actually on our second airplane from HK to Bangkok.  Can you tell which Beaven watched a little too much Cars 2?  Hmmmm? 

The girls were doing fine!

After getting to Bangkok, retrieving our luggage and scooting through Customs, we found our friends!  (And we figured out that our warm LA in winter/airline clothing was much too much!).  They had a nice ride to Muak Lek waiting for us, complete lots of hugs, conversation and lunch.  Amelia's late night obsession with The Lion King is catching up with her...


(Who can tell me what is missing from this picture???)

Once at their house, we greeted the rest of the Ashlock clan!  Cute little Carmel must have forgotten that puppies are supposed to grow up, so he's still just a tiny bit of a dog, but he seemed to remember Marshall!

Thai Juicy Fruit, anyone?

How about some Flower Juice?

Or this little green snake we found slithering across the sidewalk one day?

What's that?  You'll have the gum after all?  I thought you might.