Phuket, Thailand

For those of you that are my FB friends, you know we took a mini-vacation to Thailand in June. And yes, I slacked on putting together a post about it. I think I posted ALL of the pictures on Facebook but I know I didn't do a good job on telling y'all about our trip. 

 We met this lovely lady, Carol and her daughter at the airport in JB while waiting on our delayed flight. That was fun. Four hungry, tired kids waiting for an extra hour or so...Tucker chilled on the floor for awhile. 

Saw this lovely piece of Americana at a museum down the street. We never went in though. 😞

Surin beach...no one was there. Did I tell y'all it was monsoon season while we were there? It rained and stormed but we managed to fit in some fun stuff and made the best of it! 

 We went to Siam Safari elephant tours. It was educational and fun. We learned about water buffalo, growing rice, using coconut to cook and make oil, how to make traditional Thai curry and rode elephants! 

Between this first picture at the baby elephant show and riding the elephants, Cody lost my back pack. It didn't have anything important in it except our passports and things! I guess he just got a little too excited about getting to ride the elephants. I forgave him as soon as it was back in my hands and he profusely told me how sorry he was...and bought me a picture that one of the baby elephants painted! I'm framing it and hanging it in the dining room at home! 👍😀🐘

 It was really rather scary up there. Our elephant had a little bit of sass! She just did her own thing and did not like walking in the mud. Seriously, she'd go around it and through trees and too close to the edge of a hill to avoid the mud! 

One word...Zorbing! It was so fun. Google it. You get into this big ball with some water and down hill you go. Flying all over the place. I wish I had pictures of Claire and Tucker's faces as we flew down the hill! 

 The tuk tuk we rode in on our way back to Penn Villa. It was crazy loud and I think the driver has his music on repeat. Maybe his playlist was labeled "White American Tourists!" Regardless we jammed out, enjoyed awesome views and held on for our lives!!! 

We saw an elephant walking along side of the road. That definitely makes it up to the top of my list of "craziest things I've ever saw!"

Patong beach, just a 20 minute walk from where we stayed. That boat washed up just the night before. The waves were huge because of monsoon season. We went in the water, but barely. And Claire was lucky enough to get her first jellyfish sting. And it was a whopper! Basically her whole thigh! Poor kid! 

Our last night there the kids and Cody braved the pool. The water was too cold for me! But it was beautiful down by the pool at night. 

 Oh, and Winnie (who runs the hotel with her husband) taught Cody how to make Thai Black Pepper Fish. Yummo! It was delicious! The place we stayed was small. More like a B & B, but we couldn't have asked for better hosts. Winnie and Pete were awesome. So nice and helpful. She was more than willing to cook anything we wanted and encouraged us to try new things. They helped up set up all of our adventures and let us use their phones more than once, ours didn't work there. 

We had a fantastic time and I'd go back in a flash! Although next time, I'd stay longer and make sure it wasn't monsoon season! Haha!