Thailand

Since we don't sit still for too long, we went to Thailand!

source

Our first stop was to the island of Koh Chang for some relaxation.

source

 

Then we headed north to Chiang Mai which was a good mix of city and nature.

The city was bustling.  

We had fun exploring markets and eating street food.

Chiang Mai is surrounded by national parks.  We appreciated the outdoors by going on a hike to find a tribal village which provides produce for the citye. 


 And of course we desert dwellers were ecstatic about finding waterfalls during the hike.

Apparently Thailand doesn't just let people wearing fishing shirts tromp around the jungle, so meet our guide.  He didn't know much English, but we pointed out the snakes so I was happy.

We really enjoyed the food in Thailand (shocking!) so we attended a cooking class to recreate dishes in our own kitchen.

Are you still reading? This is a really long post, so I will end here and return later with temple photos.

January Wrap-Up

The month of January kept us busy and finished with a bang celebrating Jonathon's birthday.  So what has been keeping us so busy?

Just the normal activities like hanging out with a co-workers pet lion cub.

Work brought Jonathon's Dad back to the area so we all got to attend the European Open. The top photo is Ernie Els.

I made a work trip to Oman and got invited to a Bedouin family's home for dinner.  We sat on the floor and I learned to eat with only my right hand:

Chamonix, France

After a wonderful time exploring Christmas markets we headed south to Chamonix, France.  See green circle:

source

In addition to celebrating Christmas in the gorgeous French Alps, we also celebrated with very special people. 

Drive from Strasbourg to Chamonix:

In Chamonix, we rode some fierce gondolas to the top of the Alps for some great views. 

Looking down at Chamonix:

 
Mount Blanc:

Our Chamonix adventure also included exploring glacier caves.

 

We also went to Annecy because Rick Steves told us to and he hasn't disappointed yet.

 

To finish the trip, we were treated to a beautiful snowfall.

Happy birthday to the best husband and photographer ever.

Christmas Markets

Remember when Christmas happened about a month ago, well here is my extremely overdo post about our fabulous trip to Christmas markets on the border of France and Germany.  We used Stuttgart, Germany and Strasbourg, France as home bases.

We enjoyed this area so much when we visited this summer (see here) that we wanted to return for longer.  This time we were just a little more bundled up.  You would think that after five days at some thing called "markets" we would have bought all you readers souvenirs.  We really like you, but we got distracted by all the wonderful smelling food and our drooling got in the way.  So we didn't bring back too many trinkets, just a few extra pounds and real big smiles.

Our first stop was at Christmas markets in Stuttgart, Germany:

Then we visited the oldest Christmas markets at Strasbourg, France:

   

We took advantage of the amazing clean air around Freiberg, Germany and did some hiking before finding their markets:

Colmar, France is where we ate our favorite meal (amazing Germany sausage in a delicious France baguette) and surprisingly saw the Status of Liberty:

No matter the location, we kept warm by drinking yummy gluhwein.

Happy birthday Grandpa Lyle and Mike.  You both deserve wonderful birthdays!  Sending extra cheer.

2015 Movin and Groovin

Our year started a little sportier than normal.  I ran my very first marathon and was happy with my finish.  It was a small race in Doha, but I had the best cheering section.

Everyone was jealous of my spectators.  They were phenomenal.

We also went to the Qatar Tennis Open where we were first entertained by a robot.


Then we were really impressed watching the 3rd and 4th world ranked players compete against each other.

But I was beyond excited when David Beckham presented the winners trophy!  I saw David Beckham with my eyeballs!

For other expats, I really enjoyed this article.  It articulates how living abroad changes your interactions with non-expats.  (Have you read this Lindsey?)

http://masedimburgo.com/2014/06/04/17-things-change-forever-live-abroad/

Happy birthday Trudy.  I will try to make opossum stew in your honor.

Bring On 2015

Happy New Year!  We rang in the new year with great friends, huge hair (thanks for all the lessons Baugh), and cheesy prom photos.  We are looking forward to new adventures in 2015 and wishing you a year of happiness.

 Welcome Liam.  Sending so much love.  Happy birthday Mandy.  You are amazing and deserve an amazing day.