Keeping up with the Rosses

The blog has fallen silent in these past few weeks and I have just 1 reason- Elliot returned home, finally, from an 8-month-long deployment. Since his return, extracurricular activities, blog included, have been unintentionally suspended while we focus just about all of our energy on being a family of 4 again. Right now, though, we’re on a last minute trip to Thailand and I certainly have to blog about this!

We spent all of yesterday getting here- Okinawa to Taipei to Bangkok to Chiangmai. It all went remarkably well, even with Asher in underwear, and no car seats on the planes (by choice). Isla literally skipped through the airports, happy as a lark. She took care of her brother and proved herself, again, such a great travel partner. Asher really held his own, too. The thought crossed my mind- these kids could travel anywhere in the world. Travel seems to stoke their flames, just as it does to their parents.

We arrived late in the evening to “Paradise on the Ping Pong River,” the villa where we’re spending this vacation. I’ll write a separate post on this villa. It deserves no less! We woke up this morning, cooked a big breakfast, then took a swim in the pool. We would’ve been content spending today exploring the grounds of this villa, but we have some concern that the weather may not cooperate with us on this vacation. Today’s weather was perfect, though, so we decided to venture out. We went to a tiger zoo, an elephant poopoo paper farm, and a bug museum before coming back home for more pool time and take-out dinner of real Thai food (way spicier than the American version!). I could write and write about each place we visited today. I could. Instead, I’m going to let the pictures tell a few stories for me while I catch some sleep like the rest of this family.