Where to start?

So where did I last leave off...   I think in my last post I was in Bangkok.  We went to an amazing flower market.  The market started at night so the flowers won't die in the heat and people buy and ship them all over the world.  I loved the stacks of irises and orchids!  The whole market was AMAZING!!  It was probably my favorite thing so far!

These bundles of roses sell for 30 bot - that is about $1 for 3 dozen roses!! 

Yesterday was Alex and I's third wedding aniversary.  We decided to splurg and get a $18 dollar room in Ayuthaya.  We got what we thought was a great deal on a beautiful room until we figured out that there was no running water in the bathroom.  UGH!!  In the heat of Thailand, a shower is a must!

The room we almost had.  I won't post a picture of where we ended up as it was very very plain but did have water. 

After Bangkok, alex and I headed north to the town of Ayuthaya. It has lots of neat ruins and was a very cute town to wonder through. 

View of some of the ruins from afar.

They give elephant rides around the Ruins.  How cool!!  We didn't do it.  It really didn't look that comfotable and they were very smelly!

Some of the Ruins up close. 

After a very hot afternoon of wandering the ruins of Ayuthaya we cooled down in our airconditioned room and then headed to the night marked for dinner.

Grilled Calamari anyone?

Today we headed, via a very crowded local train, up to the small town of LopBuri.  It is famous because the town has several very large troops of wild monkeys.  They roam the streets and live like kings at some of the ancient ruins.  We had a lot of fun playing with them.

This monkey was trying to take Alex's water bottle.  He put up quite a fight for it.  Earlier, alex got to close to one and it jumped on his shoulder. I tried really hard not to touch them as I don't think they were the cleanest things.

I was trying to pose for a picture next to this Buddha, all covered in Monkeys,  when small baby monkeys kept trying to climb up my legs and jump on me.  In this picture I am tell them who is boss.

Agghhh, it's good to be the Alpha!

Life as a monkey in LopBuri is such hard work.

After our visits to the large Monkey clan we walked through the Day Market.  I love watching people buy and sell stuff in these market and looking at all the strange stuff you can buy.  We found this one spot that had lots of live seafood for sale. 

Fresh live Eel anyone?

Alex bought some dried fish as a snack,  yummm!!!  

We visited a monistery and while I was meditating in front of the Buddha Alex sat enjoying his dried fish.  When I came back out, this is what I found..... Alex surrounded by a pack of wild dogs.   Apparently he gave the skin of the fish to the dogs. 

Well, I have tons of pictures I would love to post but they are going to have to wait.  The computer has already crashed once while posting this and I can't stand to wait while I do it all over again.  I will post again when I get time, hope everyone back home is well.

More Pics and Day # 2

So it is 4pm in Bangkok which makes it 4AM in Colorado.  Alex is in our room taking a nap, but I was afraid if I laid down again I wouldn't get up till tomorrow.  I didn't want a repeat of last night so I decided to go blog. 

Today was fun.   Bangkok has a HUGE Chinese population so we spent most of the day wandering through Chinatown and neighbouring "india - town".  We also wandered through a several of the many markets here  in Bangkok.  Oh, and of course we went and got another message at the end of the day.  We are planning to go to this really neat night flower market tonight, if I can stay awake.  : ) 

Below are a few more pictures from yesterday and today:

Typical street food spread.  Yum!

Inside the Grand Palace

Ornaments on the side one of the many temples in the Grand Palace.   (I am so glad I brought my "real" camera - it is totaly worth the weight of carring it!)

The lotus buds/flowers are amazing!

The reclining Buddha.  It was huge, I couldn't fit the feet in the picture.

Me being silly at the Grand Palace

I had eggs, toast, tea and fresh squeezed pineapple juice for 2 dollars for breakfast.  Alex.... He had fish from a street vendor for less than 50 cents.  Oh the options! 

Namaste. 

I took tons of cool pictures of the strange food and market stuff in Chinatown but I don't have enough time left on this computer to upload them.  It will have to wait for another day, plus...I need to go wake alex up and go to dinner.... Pad Thai anyone?

Check back latter, we are getting the heck out of Bangkok tomorrow and headed north!  Yippee, the smog and hastle will be behind us. 

We made it!!!

Hello All!  Alex and I finally made it to Bangkok!  We left Denver at 3AM, sat on the runway for over two hours while Lovely Northworst arlines fixed the plane - twice! - and then we made it to Mineappolis.  From there we boarded a plane to Tokyo - 12+ hour flight.  UGH!!  Oh, what I would have given to have been able to crack my ears!!  The Tokyo airport was really neat.  We have never been to Japan before so we really enjoyed walking around the airport.  Then we got on the plane to Bangkok - only another 8 hour flight.  : ) This is where I could not take the pain of my sinuses anymore or the nausea and so took a darvacet and went to sleep on alex's shoulder.  We arrived in Bangkok at 11pm caught a cab to our B and B and went to sleep!  What a long trip but it will be worth it!!

Day # 1 Bangkok---  We had a great first day.  We went to the Grand Palace and to Wat Pho.  Then after hours of walking in 95 degree heat we went to the mecical school and got a one hour Thai message for 10 bucks!!  We had planed on going out for dinner but when we made it back to our hotel room at 4pm we made the mistake of laying down ---  we woke up at 3am.  Ooops.  I guess we needed the sleep.  The time change is 12 hours and it is tough to completely change your time clock.  Below are a few pics from the first day.  I took over 200 put I promise to only post a few.  I will get the rest up on Flickr when I get time.

View of the artic from the plane

Alex in our first room in Bangkok.  Simple yet only $20 bucks! 

Becareful which ketchup you grab. 

Alex and I at the Grand Palace. 

I tried to upload more pics but it took FOREVER so here are few for now. 

I think I can, I think I can!!!.....

I am trying to convince myself that I can get over the crud I have before Alex and I leave for Thailand on Saturday.  I tried to go to work today and made it through most of the day until my ear got so infected that I couldn't open my mouth wide enough to talk to patients and my sinus got so stuffed that my "illness" started coming out my eye.  Talk about gross!!!!  At this point I had to go home as I could give all of my patients and the staff Pink Eye.  I was more than glad to go home as I felt like total $&^^*&%. 

When I got home I took a bath and I think even Bree knew I felt SUPER sick.  Her mom Bailey use to wash her up until the day Bailey died.  Well Bree came up to me in the Bath and grabbed my head with both paws and started washing my hair with her scratchy kitty tongue.  By the time she was done I had a giant rats nest soaked with kitty spit on my head.  She was cleaning my head the way Bailey use to clean her's.  It was a strange yet somewhat comforting experience.  I appreciate her snuggling with me now that Anthony is back at the Guy's house while we are in Thailand. 

I may not post for several week while in Thailand but if the towns we are in have internet, and my husband will put up with me blogging on vacation, then I will update as our trip progresses. 

So spoiled!

Alex and I have had a lot of fevers lately with our colds and so the temperature in the house has been all over the place.  Alex was afraid that Anthony was cold and so he stacked his pillows infront of the gas fire place.  And oh boy did this make for a happy puppy.

A very warm and spoiled puppy!

"mom are you better yet?  Were tired of you constantly being on the couch"

This is where Anthony has stayed the whole time I have been sick, right by my side.  What a sweetie.

"I know you are weak and can barley stand, but can't you please tug with me, Please?"

Miss Eve is ready to party!

Miss Eve is still in heat and therefore is not able to go on outings for a month.  Her raisers - Brianna and Rob - cought her trying to sneak out to a party the other day: 

What a sexy lady!

I think they caught her just before she was going to board a plane to New Orleans. 

Thanks Brianna for letting me share these pictures.

Happy Birthday Anthony!

Anthony is 8 months old today!!!  Happy Birthday big boy!

Anthony celebrates by laying in a sunbeam.

Sick Days

Happy New year everyone!  To celebrate 2010 I came down with some horrible flu bug and haven't been able to get out of bed for over three days now.  UGH!!  Anthony has been great, staying right next to me and giving me lots of fuzzies! 

Now I know you may say, GDB puppies are not allowed on couches.  Well, he isn't on the couch, he is on my legs and in my defense, I am super sick, my husband is skiing and I need some TLC!  And don't worry, I put him there and he is very aware that he isn't allowed up on his own accord.

I keep getting teribble chills and fevers and Athony, who has been toughing this out with me laying on the floor next to the couch most of the time, gets a kick out of it when I through my clothes and blanket on top of him when my fever is out of control.  At one point he was so snuggled into one of my sweaty t-shirts that I put it on him.  I know its mean but I'm sick and obviously not thinking clearly!

Anthony and Bree say hi. 

"come on silly kitty, play with me, this is a really cool toy!"

"I know you are sick but will you tug with me?"

Before I got sick I took the stuffing out of a bed that Anthony had chewed a giant hole in so that I could wash Eve's "heat" smell out of it.  My hope is that Eve's sent is why Anthony decided to eat it. I went into the office today and found someone snuggling in the stuffing. 

Can you find Bree snuggled in the stuffing?

Strange?

The people on our street get reaally into the holidays and put up lots of lights and decorations.  The family across the street from  us puts the same decoration up every year.  I always just kind of find it a bit strange.  Does anyone else find this a bit odd or is it just me?

I mean, I understand the point but it just seems strange to me to have Santa praying over baby jesus. 

keep reading below, I posted a several posts tonight.

Toys

So one of my last post about Anthony talked about his infected boy parts.  Well, he went to the vet, was put on antibiotics and seems to be SO much happier now.  His parts look tons better and he is a lot more playful.  He even got a bath today. 

One of Anthony's favorite toys is a guide dog approved jolly ball that comes with a big rope through the middle of it to tug with.  Well.... its been almost a year since we have had the toy and the rope finally fell out.  Anthony loves carring and banging the ball around.

The big guy carries the ball with him everywhere.

"Mom, you wanna tug with me?  Please?"

"Aaagggrrrr I am going to bite the ball in two"

Shortly after I took the above picture I told anthony to drop the ball, as we were going outside to DYB, and he didn't drop it.  So I bent down and grabbed the ball and gave the command again.   And again he didn't drop the ball.  Very unusual for Anthony.  That is when I realized that the ball was stuck on one of his bottom teeth.  YIKES!!  I was able to get it off without any damage but sadly that means the end of one of his favorite toys.  I don't want him to loose a tooth so I had to retire the ball for good.  

The balls replacement.   He loves to try and figure out how to get them separated. 

He gets them back apart by rolling around and banging it on the floor.

Almost there big guy.

"Look ma, I did it!   Can you put it back together for me?"  Gotta love GoNoughts!

Keep reading below as I am playing catch up and posting several post at once.

Play date

So while Alex and I were skiing on Wednesday (see post below), Anthony got to spend the day playing with Ashley (another Guide Dog being raised by Virginia).    Thank you virginia for sending us the pictures of Anthony and Ashley and for watching Anthony for us!

Ashley on left, Anthony on right

Sharing Anthony's toy that Santa brought him.

Ashley on left, Anthony on right.

See below for more posts.

A fun day skiing with friends

This past Wednesday Alex and I went skiing at Vail with our friends Brianna and Rob. We had a fantastic day!!  It was snowy yet relatively warm and we all made it through the day without any major injuries.  Below are some pics of the day. 

I know this may seem redundant, but I just love all the snow covered trees at Vail!

Brianna - yes, she and I have the same coat.

View from lift in game creek bowl.

Self portrait of Brianna and I on a lift.

Rob has been skiing his whole life but Brianna is just learning.  By the end of the day we took her down a black with all of us.  She did GREAT!!!!  The person on the right in this picture is her coming down the black with her hubby Rob following behind her in case she falls. She has some serious natural talent.

Alex, Stacie, Brianna and Rob at the end of the day.