One night in Bangkok...

was all we had left.  :(

Once again, it was the trip of a lifetime!

We had so much fun catching up with our friends and the educational experiences my kids received from this trip are truly priceless to me.  I'm so grateful that Jeremy was willing to take us again and that the Ashlocks were willing to be our hosts/tour guides/interpreters again.  We can't wait to see them on the East Coast this summer, but I am so glad that we (and the kids) will have had these shared experiences.

I made Jeremy take one last picture with the goatee that he grew while we were away from the Marine Corps' strict standards on his hair.  I absolutely loved this different look.  I think it's completely unfair that men look so good as they get older and women just...get older.

Marshall reading one last story to Madeline and Lia

And one last photo with my beautiful friend.

What an awesome group of 6 kids!
I love the bonds that are formed that not even time and distance can diminish.  I have no doubt that when we see them next, they'll seamlessly mesh themselves back into this group, bigger, able to do even better things and loving each other all the same!

Is my son a lucky man or what?

Our trip back to the US was uneventful.  The long flight (Hong Kong to LA) is only about 13 hours coming back this way.  Marshall watched Home Alone for the first time and laughed so hard he was wheezing, which had the rest of us laughing pretty hard too.  While we waited for all of our luggage to be unloaded at LAX, a little beagle working for the USDA kept coming around and sniffing our bags.  I finally told the woman that she was welcome to look, that we had taken a few last mandarin oranges onto the plane, but that we finished them LONG before landing.  She didn't look.  The sad look on my face at having no more mandarins probably convinced her that they were gone.  ;D

This picture of Amelia is truly representative what jet lag feels like.  We collected our things at the airport, took a shuttle to the parking area and were heading to visit with Aunt Connie and Uncle Dan for the evening before heading back to Yuma the next day.  What an AWESOME trip!