In Memory of Karen Rachel Jane Porter

We received word that Jonny's sister Karen died suddenly this morning. Karen was the wife of Richard, mother of Rebekah, 12, Erin, 10, and Ethan, 9 months, daughter of Sidney and Caroline Dallas, sister of Jonny, daughter-in-law, sister-in-law, aunt, niece, cousin and friend to many. She was my inspiration to stay at home with my children. She will be missed by everyone whose life she touched especially her family. Please keep us in your thoughts as we travel back to Northern Ireland tomorrow.

11 years later...

Today is a very special day for us. 11 years ago Jonny and I were married in Nebraska amongst 150 of our family and friends, 21 of those people traveling from the UK. It seems like time has gone so quickly and it is crazy to say we have been married that long, but it has been a great 11 years and hope to have many more fabulous years!

Today we are going to Rai Ra Spa for the Honeymoon Spa package for 2! I don't really think Jonny knows what he is getting himself into, but I am sure he will enjoy it. We also have dinner reservations for two tonight at a restaurant over looking the ocean. It should be a good day!

Elephant Trekking

After our scooter outing we went back to the villa and picked up the kids and headed on a mini-safari on elephants. We went on an hour trek in to the most beautiful jungle area. There were pineapple plants, banana and coconut trees, spiders and snakes in the trees. The elephants were very gentle and took their time strolling us around eating and drinking almost everything in site.



Here is a group photo. Sadie and Rock both were able to ride on their elephants neck.



Here is Namueng Falls.



Jonny with the kids after our little adventure.

Just call me Crash

Yesterday we thought we would join Sadie and Rock in the tour of the island on scooters. We had done this while we were on our honeymoon 11 years ago, so I thought this will be a piece of cake. Unfortunately it wasn't as easy as it looked and as we were getting ready to go on our tour I crashed my scooter into a ditch across from our villa. This may not surprise many of you as I have never been known as a good driver. Luckily I wasn't seriously injured, but I do have a huge bruise on my right thigh from where the handlebar landed, a scrapped up left knee and a small chunk of my toe is missing.

After Dr. Jonny fixed my foot I climbed back on to my scooter and gave it another shot. We went to the tomb of the Mummified Monk. Here is an exert I found on the web about the the monk:

The mummified monk is located in a smaller building in Wat Khunaram. The monk known as Dang Piyasilo also Phra Kru Samathakittikhun. The venerable ex-abbot of Wat Khunaram on Koh Samui. A native of Koh Samui he enjoyed a long prosperous family life until he was 50 years old when he decides to devote the last part of his life to the monkhood. After being ordain in,he became reknown for his meditation practice for about 20 years. He was also able to foresee his own death in 1973 when he was 79 years old. After his death his body remained undecomposed so his family and disciples decided to place his body in an upright position with in the casket as requested by him in written instructions. To keep as a symbol to aspire the future generations to follow Buddhist teachings and be saved from suffering.

Here he is in his glass coffin. He has decomposed, but he looks pretty good for being dead for over 30 years.

Wat Khunaram

I needed to be blessed after my little accident.

After our visit to the temple we stopped at a scenic view to see the ocean. Here is a picture of Jonny and I at the view.

As we headed around the island we stopped at a British grocery store called Tesco. On Wednesday I went to a Thai cooking course for half of the day to learn how to cook these beautiful dishes we have been eating. I was very happy to hit a grocery store to try and find some of the ingredients to make Thai food to take back to the 'Du since the ingredients in Thai food is very hard to find in China. I found lots of different goodies like different curry pastes to make a few of my favorite Thai dishes.

Our next stop was Big Buddha.

This was an enormous Buddha! Here is the story of Big Buddha. It was a very impressive statue with other statues of Buddhas all around.

Here we are with a sleeping Buddha.

Big Buddha is located on a penisula and has spectacular views. We are standing directly in back of Big Buddha.



Here are pictures of our personal Buddhas, Jonny and Rock!

Sadie and Rock behind Big Buddha.

I had one other mishap with the scooter. As we were driving back to the villa I drove right into the bushes. I was very happy to turn in the keys when we arrived safely home.

A Day in Chaweng

On Monday we hired a taxi to take us into town for a day of shopping. Sadie and Rock chose alternative transportation, scooters! Here they are getting ready to ride their hogs!



We were hungry when we got to town. We stopped at an Indian restaurant and had lunch. While we were sitting there we saw Sadie and Rock drive by on their scooters. They stopped into say hello! They had ran into a rain and were soaking wet!




We did quite a bit of shopping along the main road in Chaweng where there are lots of resorts. There are quite a few of Frangiapani flowers along the streets and they are my favorite!





There were also lots of places that would braidyour hair for very little money. Here is Gemma in the process of being braided. I thought she looked great with the braids.





After Gemma's braids we hit the very popular Chaweng Beach. It was quite a nice beach, but very crowded. Here are some pictures of the kids paddling.





Of course Angus always ends up in the raw!



While we were walking along during the afternoon we found a South African BBQ. We ended up staying in town and having dinner there. Here is a picture of Jonny and the kids with the whole pig they BBQ!



At dinner we met this great couple from England! They sat and entertained Gemma. Here we are with them at the restaurant.



We are having a lovely and relaxing time here in Koh Samui. We plan to come back in the near future. I highly recommend it!!! Thailand is an incredible place with extreme natural beauty! A definitely must see!