On Thursday, Pascale and I decided to rent a jeep for the day to explore the island. We were soooo excited!!!!! It was so much fun to drive, finally! It was my first time in 3 months to drive, and boy did it feel good! We explored both sides of Ko Lanta, and stopped at a little restaurant up on the hill for some sodas. We found a little fishing village and had lunch sitting on the pier, watching little long tailed boat ferries putter past. I just can not believe how beautiful Thailand is, and yet how absolutely poor and underdeveloped areas can be. Some areas around Ko Lanta were hit by the Tsunami two years ago, and some things are being rebuilt. It was definitely interesting to see. We also went exploring to other resorts in the area and jumped in a pool at another resort, only to find out that that resort is not open yet....the manager came out and said we should probably get out....the complete Thai way to do things. A suggestion rather than an order, to save face. It was fun while we were there, we didn't know that we could not just jump in, there were people who used our pool that were not from our resort, so we thought it was okay. We also went into town with the jeep and did a little shopping and then picked up Kevin from his Scuba Diving. It was a very fun day!

Krabi Adventures Part Song (2)

So on Tuesday, Pascale and I took the kids snorkeling. It was such a wonderful day, and we took a very fun and fast speed boat out on the water, after picking up about 40 people from around the island. We snorkeled two different places before lunch, then stopped at Ko BoBo for lunch. Ko BoBo is a deserted island and it was something we would have seen in Survivior! I can not get over how white the sand was and how crystal clear that water was. Absolutely AMAZING!!!!! Our friends Bobbi and Andrew happened to be on the same boat as us, so it was fun to hang out and snorkel around with them. Etienne and Natalie were pretty adventurous at first, but Natalie got scared whenever Pascale would go down to look around in the water, so we tried to trade off a little bit. I saw so many amazing fish, some clown fish, like Nemo, tons of angel fish....some little black fish with neon fins....it was very exciting. I took an underwater camera, so hopefully I will be able to get those developed soon. After lunch we snorkeled one more place and then went home. It started to rain a little bit as we were going home, but that didn't really matter because we were already wet! Oh, and on the way out on the boat, I am pretty sure that I saw some dolphins....their fins were arching in the water, but I wasn't quick enough to take any pictures....I have never seen a dolphin before....hopefully someday I'll see one close up!

The next day, Wednesday, we hung around the resort, and played in the beach, and then the pool and and then the beach....ahhhh such is life!

Krabi Adventures Part Nung (one in Thai)

So I decided that each day I would talk about one part of the trip, because I could seriously write a novel about all of the adventures that we have had the past week, before we came home to our little surprise package named 'lil Katie....if you don't know what I'm talking about, read my past blogs.....

So....on to Ko Lanta....you know the saying, "just getting there is half the battle"?!?!?? Well....sooooo true!!!!! I flew from the new airport in Bangkok, only took 20 minutes from my Moo Baan, which is very exciting compared to the hour that it would usually take me. The flight was uneventful, there were no assigned seats and both the front and the back doors of the plane were opened so it took less time to board than other flights I've been on. Once I landed in Krabi, I had a driver waiting for me from the hotel with a little sign with my name on it....that cracked me up! It was a two hour car ride with two different ferries to finally reach my destination of Ko Lanta Yi or the Big Island of Lanta. When I was checked in and shown to my little bungalow just a few feet away from the beach, I thought I had died and gone to heaven. It was absolute paradise. Pascale met me and we had dessert and I had a drink while we listened to the waves crashing on the beach around us. The next day we played on the beach in the morning then we rode into town on a little motorcycle taxi, that has a little side car bench, easily fitting 6-8 Thai people or, in our case, 2 farangs and a stroller with two kids. We explored around the little town a bit, had lunch and I bought a hammock for my little bungalow's porch....ohhhh I was in HEAVEN!!!!! Ko Lanta is a wonderful place to visit!!!!

Huge Miracles come in Tiny Packages

So I just realized that all my plans to update my blog for the month of October are somewhat on hold. Kathryn, whom I like to refer to secretly as lil' Katie :), is such a wonderful bundle of joy and such a true sign of God's miraculous wonders. Her personality shines through as she proudly breathes on her own and she squirms as her little toes are tickled. She is such a precious gift. When I saw her the second day, she was all wrapped up and strapped down because she was trying to take her tubes out and was trying to breathe on her own. The third day, they let her breathe on her own, and she didn't even need an incubator or anything! Pascale is doing so much better too....up and moving around and she is able to have more than just three nasty egg whites....yuck! Pascale told me that 'lil Katie dropped a little bit of weight, but she is able to drink Pascale's milk, so that is a very very good sign. (A side note: As this takes presidence over our trip to Krabi and Ko Lanta, I haven't had time to update anything as far as our trip went....I will get some pictures up as soon as possible!)