Elephants & Octopi in Samui

Having all 6 of us share a bungalow that was basically a room the size of a hotel room plus bathroom was just fine. The kids are a little older so they don't mess around for as long before falling asleep usually. We bribed them with a piece of gum- if they were quiet in the mornings they could have one after breakfast. They were all over it. Kennedy would read quietly to Kohen and Aly- it's one of my favorite things that they do. Bribery rocks.
Ander spent a good portion of the week in this carrier. He is the sweatiest baby even in cooler conditions so I was excited to find this Bjorn with lumbar support for me and made of this cool material that is breathable and helps with the sweating. You know the waffle material on running shoes? It's like that. Love it. Having Ander not lose half his body weight in water every time we are out? priceless.

A highlight of the trip was the Elephant Trek. The boys were on one and us girls on the other and we got to ride an elephant through the jungle. It was awesome. Not the most comfortable ride of your life but certainly up there in uniqueness. I think I was amazed/terrified by the elephants sheer strength the most. They would stop and put their leg on a tree about 5-6 inches around and they'd give it a little push and crack! the tree was down. They'd eat some leaves off of the fallen tree and then we'd move on leaving busted trees in our wake.
Another time a coconut fell and the trainer had the elephant step on it to crack it, then use his trunk to hand it up to the trainer who then proceeded to cut out pieces of coconut to feed to the elephant. The trainers did seem very at ease with the elephants and to have a relationship with them. I have seen one too many Animals Gone Wild to forget no matter what these are basically wild animals. Thankfully they were nothing but mellow for us. Before and after the children got to take turns feeding the elephants bananas- to feel their trunks is so creepy and cool- as long as there is antibacterial soap in the near vicinity.

Kohen's mind was blown when toward the end of the trek the trainer asked if he wanted to come sit up front. So next thing I know, my 5 year old son is having the time of his life steering around a 6 ton animal. He played the part well, speaking loudly but kindly and hilariously, "No, not that way silly guy, this way!" He reported on the awesomeness afterwards and finished by telling me the elephant's hair was just a little pokey but that was okay. You may want to enlarge the pic below to see his face if you are a gparent/aunt/uncle and want a closer look :)

Again, the food was something Nathan and I looked forward to every day. Still surprised about that actually. We walked to most places from Coco Palms, the evenings were balmy and gorgeous. Even when it rained. Keeping the kids contained until the food came each night was...special. But we kept the spills in the double digits and managed to only shatter one glass so I feel pretty good about that.
Okay, the "Monkey Show"- and I'm not talking about my children in the backseat of the taxi's. It started out like a good idea and in the end I was mortified we'd paid $ to encourage these poor monkey's lives and living conditions. We went in and bought the food you could feed all of the caged monkeys. These ^ babies had it down. They whine and cry at you like they are starving (could very well be) and break your heart. The conditions...let's just say PETA would not approve. I was ready to leave before the show even started but my children, oblivious to the monkey's plight, really enjoyed the "show".
There were only 6 other people there for the show besides our family. They took a turn letting anyone who wanted get a pic. I was super hesitant to let my spouse or children do this (after seeing the Oprah with the lady who got her face and hands eaten off by a chimp, wouldn't you be?!) but after a few others went without incident I could see my husband and son didn't care what overprotective mom had seen on tv and they went for it. The monkey looks scary but they'd actually get him up there and tell him to yawn to produce the look.

Even Kenna tried, I was outnumbered.
They had the little guys trained to shoot hoops, twirl a baton of fire (while singing the fur on his knees every time he twirled it) he burned his hand and dropped it once and I was ready to walk. Though the show lasted all of 20 minutes I had had enough of the shady place. On our way out the trainer guy insisted we all watch the monkey go up a palm and get coconuts down. It's taking the poor little guy a while, clear up there in these tall palms, all the while the trainers are shouting at him to "HURRY UP!!" He drops one and as they are still shouting he dropped a second one, which plunged right through the trainers tiled bathroom roof. It was awesome. I felt like it was just a little bit of justice jungle style.

We really did spend a lot of time swimming, we were perpetually pruned. It was great. The first half the ocean was really calm and we would go out and swim together and Nathan would dive down for shells. The water was warmer than the pool and very buoyant so you could stay in for a long time comfortably.
Nathan discovered this little octopus (or squid?) in a shell and we found several more "Squishy's" over the next day or so. They would change color and ink when we let them go- they were so cool we spent forever trying to get a picture of them. The video shows how cool they moved, try to ignore how sure I am it's a squid, I don't know what I'm talking about. Try pushing play and if it doesn't work click the part that moves as the video plays, and let me know if the videos are working for you.