Yes, it is 4:15am and Josie and I are hanging out in the bathroom at our hotel. I have no idea what time it is in Seattle, but it is clearly a time when Josie is usually awake. And so we sit on the bathroom floor while I try to keep her quiet so she doesn’t wake up the boys. Oh how I wish we were all soundly sleeping right now. At least all the boys are. I am both excited and nervous about the day…mostly nervous about being so sleep deprived. I am so excited to see things! The ride from the airport was interesting. Josie was on my lap sharing my seat belt. The boys all had seat belts. It was so nice being greeted with smiling faces at the airport. As soon as we got in the van, Judah set his eyes on Sutthida, who is from Thailand and a friend of Charles and Jo’s and now ours. They played peek-a-boo the whole way to the hotel. Judah steals yet another girl’s heart! I am off to clean up messes from exploded shampoos. There is a reason my grandma always told me to pack everything in individual bags!

(I have this entered as day three, but it might just be a continuation of day two.) Anyway…

This day had its rough moments. After barely sleeping the night before, we all got up ready to go bright and early. Every morning at this hotel we have a huge breakfast with lots of great food. We had a van come and pick us up to take us to the palace. Now I am thinking “palace” probably inside…air conditioning…no problem. I wasn’t quite prepared. I have never been in such heat. I literally thought I might pass out at one point. No sunscreen, no water, long pants… yep, this American had no idea. So most of this tour was outside in the sun. Poor Judah got a fever. He felt so hot and was so out of it, it started to worry me. Everything we saw was beautiful and our tour guide was very gracious and brought us water and tried to shade us from the sun with an umbrella. We had lunch at a Chinese restaurant and the AC felt great! Judah slept through the meal on Aunt Sarah’s shoulder, Josie ate her first of about 50 bowls of fried rice, and Charlie and Coleman learned to use chopsticks by Suriwan, another friend who took great care of us. We all came back and took a nap and then headed out to dinner with a whole big group of friends and colleagues of Charles’. I felt bad because we were all so exhausted. Judah was still miserable, Charlie and Coleman were falling asleep. Fortunately Josie kept everyone entertained. Everyone was very understanding when we left early since we were so jet-lagged and falling asleep.

Arriving at the airport in Bangkok.

The van we traveled in.

Judah and Aunt Sarah, sleepy after long travels.

Travelling pretty light for 10 people!

Jo checks out the fruit at breakfast.

Let the sweating begin!

The shorts didn’t work so Andy got to wear pants for the tour.

Josie loves fried rice!

Suriwan enjoys watching the boys learn to use chopsticks.

Sarah and Judah try to stay cool.

Edmund and Sarah in front of the gold temple.