Thailand Part 1

 Why hello there! 
Greetings from Thailand, from a place of yummy food, family, friends, travel.. and of course, greetings from a season called summer .

This is a post long past due, due to a lack of rest, which is also long past due.

I'm actually mourning the fact that we're already in July! Goodness me, I'm already feeling like I'm in crunch time for school.

Ryan and I traveled with the crew (Michelle, Kyle and Marley) to Bangkok at the beginning of June. I came straight from my last day of school, still recovering from strep throat, humming songs from our school play and wiping off shaving cream and popcorn from end of the year festivities. 
Us "seasoned" travelers were excited to accompany Marley on her first international flight-- showing her the tricks of traveling, such as leaving your passport in the duty-free store. (ahem.. kyle) 

After many hours of sitting, eating and catching up on movies, we landed safely in our dear home city of Bangkok. 
The day we got in we jumped into a car, sat in 6+ hours of traffic, and then jumped onto a speed boat heading to our beloved island of Koh Samet. "Marley, tip #2, don't forget to leave your suitcase at home when you're heading somewhere." (ahem.. Kyle. :) I'm allowed to pick on you)

There we joined a crew of 8 other friends and family and began our island traditions and festivities. Our first day we celebrated two birthdays including the 63rd birthday of my dear father-in-law. 

I was pretty proud of how I fought off jet-lag when I got here, but these pictures show otherwise. I was determined to get a few rounds of our family game shanghai in that first night, despite the sleep that was dragging me under. I think I might have lost that game, but I'm going to say I just can't remember. 

We ventured around the island, telling Marley about "back-in-the-day.. yada yada yada" and often creating a hype over what was actually very unhype-worthy. There were just so many memories to live up to. 

Below are pictures of our favorite snorkeling spot across the island where we once found our beloved "pearl of great price"! (yada yada yada)We trekked via truck-taxi to this oh-so-special spot and to our great disappointment the waves were too rough to go in. poor Marley.    

We made sure to start getting our Thai food fix right when our feet touched land and the beach was a good place to start. Fresh fish, fried bananas, breakfast buffet, we were living the life.  

Our island trip was short, but oh so sweet. We even tried (without 100% percent success) to relive our glory days of L&O* football (*land and ocean football~ A once brutal and endless game played by young and old.)

Just for the sake of reminiscing, since we were so obsessed with it..Here are some pics from our trip back in 2006.. 

hmm... notice Ryan's swim suit.. (this is what happens when you take traveling tips from kyle)

 So many more fun memories made. 
Til' next time. 

Naomi