The End, I Swear

Does knowing that I had 286 pictures to choose from make you feel any better about 3 Thailand posts? This is the last of it. Cross my heart.

Several of the places that we ate at the owner or server would offer to hold Ander for us while we ate. I really appreciated it because inevitably Ander would be fast asleep until they set the food down on our table and he would suddenly pop his little head up and demand our full attention. The ladies always stayed nearby and just enjoyed him, it was really nice.
One afternoon we rented a jet ski for an hour. Nathan took the older 3 out and then I got my turn. We get plenty of looks on the beach with 3 children and then people realize there is a 4th nearby and I saw a few raised eyebrows in our direction. So when it was my turn on the jet ski I did my best Bay Watch run (not sexy so much as the kind where you are suddenly hyper aware you need to adjust a wedgie but you are afraid the entire beach is watching so that's the real reason you are running out into the water- to hide) out into the surf where Nathan threw me the oversized life jacket and I jumped out of the water and onto that jet ski and was off. It was a newer jet ski and I had such a great time out in the ocean by myself jumping waves. It was a stellar 20 min.

Please. Love him!

Random Fact: Ander officially turned 3 months the last day of our trip
It rained off and on the last 3 days and the ocean wasn't so calm and nice anymore but it was still warm and all but one storm was short lived so we played right on through most of it. One afternoon a torrential downpour started right as we headed to our taxi waiting for us. It is a little walk, 5 min, to where he was and we ended up completely soaked even with an umbrella. In the end we waited under a porch while Nathan took the kids one by one to the taxi. Everyone but Ander and I ended up soaked to the skin. The picture below is the flooded streets after that storm. Crazy.
We were headed to the "Aquarium" -quotes are cuz it was a pretty weak sauce aquarium. The only cool thing were these open tanks where you could feed turtles. Funny how the open tank with eels and some kind of shark had a simple sign with a line through a hand. Just a, "Don't Touch" picture. No bold "you may lose your hand to your wrist" or "sticking your finger in a sockets got nothin' on these eels!" just a lot of faith in one picture of a hand. And, I assume, good liability insurance.

I felt better about the tigers conditions, there was a sign here that said each tiger is only in the caged area for a short time each day. Could be lies but they seemed pretty content. There was a really cool bird show - and also a Tiger show as well. If I'm being honest with myself I kinda watched the tiger show just waiting for someone to get their head bitten off- I mean seriously, am I the only one who watched Animals Gone Wild? Seigfried and Roy? Anybody???
The show got cut a little short due to another cloud burst so you could go inside this area and they had an Otter, Owl and these birds you could pay to take a picture with. We people watched until most the crowd had left and then did the pictures and they let us take several which was nice of them.

So, the People Watching. (did you hear that? that was the sound of this tangent shooting off into oblivion) Thailand is also known as a destination for some terrible, unspeakable things. As we boarded our flight to Bangkok I found myself checking out any man traveling by himself, especially ones who didn't appear to be on business. I know I have an active imagination- but the guy sitting behind us on the flight CREEPED US OUT. 100% and ABSOLUTELY (as my BIL would say). I literally almost asked if the 6 of us or 1 of him could be moved. He talked to himself and was sending out a vibe that would make any parent take their child and run.

On our flight from Bangkok to Kohsamui we lost the creeps but gained a fascinating new breed. We saw them all over and eventually came to spot them easily. Older white guys out on dates with their Thai girlfriends. Or rather Older white guys out on "dates" with their Thai "girlfriends". It would be an older man with a really young Thai girl and they would make zero conversation through entire meals and they would bumble around as they went to hold hands etc. Nathan and I realized that as much as we wanted to give these men the benefit of the doubt, we doubted most of them deserved it. Made for interesting people watching though.

I also wanted to show this picture, did you know on International flights they have bassinets for babies? Sweet huh? It hooks right into the wall in front of your seat. Only bummer is having to wake a sleeping baby to put the bassinet away for landing :(
Love this pic of Aly's little feet as she ran off down the beach. Thanks everyone, for reading and sharing our memories of our Christmas this year. I guess there are some benefits of being on this side of the Earth since we couldn't be home with family.

Last but not least, we took pictures of all of our meals, mostly because they were all presented so beautifully. Enjoy.