Chiang Mai (thank goodness for friends!)

So we've been here for two weeks and it's been a pretty crazy ride the whole time. John's been away on business all but three days (he comes back tonight :-) ). Sam and I spent the first 5 day just trying to survive and overcome jetlag. Then our good friends Brad and Becca came for a visit. It was so great to spend time with them away from their busy lives in Philly and it was awesome for me to have some company while John was away. John did make it back for the weekend though :-)

Brad and Becca helped me learn my way around the city (which I am pretty good at now).
Also thanks to Brad and Becca- I have pictures to post for the first time in ages! Thank you, thank you thank you!

I also met my doctor and really liked her- we'll go over our birth plan next appointment, but I have a good feeling about her. On the downside, my baby isn't really in the right position, so I'm really praying that he'll get his act together and turn around. On the upside- Sam and I had fun hearing his heartbeat and Sam is play acting a lot with baby dolls to show me how gentle he'll be- it's really precious.

Sam is growing verbally by leaps and bounds- whole 4-5 word sentences and loads of vocab- even John hasn't seen what he's capable of yet, but it's really fun for me.

Okay, now on to the pictures...

Brad and Becca and John and I went out to eat while Sam stayed with a babysitter one night. Becca found an awesome map of the city with loads of recommendations so we found this idyllic spot on the river.

Becca snapped this great shot of Sam eating wide noodles :-) I'm hoping that we'll be able to settle our diet to more healthful fare sooner than later.

When John was here, we took a day trip in the surrounding countryside- we saw some great views, went to a butterfly farm, and to an elephant camp. This first pic is to remind us of when Brad got accosted by an elephant- he was holding all the bananas and sugar cane we were feeding to the elephants before the show when one came up from behind and took the whole lot- also untied his belt with his trunk :-)


The show was kind of fun- the elephants played soccer and most amazingly...painted beautiful pictures of flowers and birds and one did one of an elephant!

And one of the aforementioned great views
On a different outing we visited a temple overlooking Chiang Mai- we'll be living just a little to the right of Becca's head :-)

We also went to a local park where we bought a huge bag of animal food for 25 cents. We fed the pigeons (Sam was a little scared) and the fish in the pond (Sam loved that). I like the progression in these two shots- all the bird flocking around the boys while Becca takes the pic and...

the boys' prank on Becca- throwing food her way so all the pigeons would attack her :-)

Today, Sam and I went to a yard sale and bought kid's books and craft supplies. We are trying to get as much of the furniture and appliances for our new house used as we can, so each Friday when the classifieds come out, we're making calls. I have a few good leads so I'm hopeful that we'll be able to get a good start on outfitting our new place. Tonight we're going to see our new house and meet the landlady, so we'll have a better idea of what kind of stuff (and size) we'll need to fill it up. I'm really looking forward to that.