Camping on Long Island

So after having such a LONG winter we've had some beautiful weekends! This was a few weeks back, but it was so wonderful I couldn't pass up putting up a picture. We had a wonderful time traveling all over a side of the island we've never been before. Cindy and Evan were there with their kids and all the counselors came on the skiff later in the evening. Of course you can see that Roscoe had a wonderful time too!

Bath Time!

Stephen and Evan enjoying a bath in a tub from 1937. You two are sooo cute!

Kodiak Meet the Wellensieks'

Stephen and my summer has been quite the whirlwind adventure! It seems from the first week of summer we've been on the move, or having visitors! My parents came and visited in yearly July and from my persective they had a great time! Dad climbed his first real mountain on his birthday and they both enjoyed (I think they enjoyed) some time on the ocean.

It was fun for me to see them actually relax a little bit! Of course they got thrown into Mission life, but they handled it great, even making some friends with our Mission team from Indiana. Even though I'm only making it home once this year having some of our family come up as been a huge blessing!

Cambodia Part IV

I'm going to try and wrap our trip up in this blog. There are so many pictures I wish we could share, but I'll try and show our favorites! Being with the Missionaries was probably our favorite part of our trip. We were so blessed seeing how the Lord calls us all over the world and it was at that time I was so reassured of our work in Kodiak. Debby said something that has and will stick with me for the rest of my life as a missionary. It is her prayer that one day she will no longer be needed to do her job. That the people will find Christ and develop a healthy community serving each other with our Lord at the center. The Holy Spirit is so alive in their home and their work! After our visit we went back to Phnom Phen and got Thai massages and ate pizza and lemon water. I must say the most funny part of the trip was the massage! We were all in the same room and at one point the girl giving Evan his massage fell off. Evan kinda toppled over her (I guess you had to be there). The next day we travelled to the beach! Sihanoukville, Cambodia. It was so bizzar being able to swim in the ocean and run along the water and not be cold. We rented motos and ate at a couple great places before traveling back to Bangkok to catch our plane to Hong Kong! There's a picture of one of our four ferries that we travelled on. The only difference with our ride was there were 6 cars!

Hong Kong was the most unbelievable part of our trip. It was the 4th of July and it was a light show seeing all the boats and huge buildings. We climbed up a mountain that ended up having a Mall on top, totally unexpected, but kinda cool.

We made it back to Seattle after another 13 hour flight and besides getting incredibly sick upon our return everything went great! We feel extremely blessed to have had the opportunity to see such an amazing part of the world with our wonderful friends! Thanks to everyone for all your prayers!

Cambodia Part III

Pheon Pehn was the next stop on our journey. We didn't spend much time there, but we were able to see a nice big elephant! Stephen and I were trying to find a little breakfast at the market and instead we found an elephant.

You can see the background of the second picture the van we took out to see the Missionaries. We met the driver in Pheon Pehn but right when we were going to leave the van wouldn't start so we found a little restaurant ate a yummy breakfast and then we were off. Out to a small village near the Vietnam boarder.

Along the way the driver stopped and got some corn that was the most dreadful thing I had ever eaten. We found out later that they used antifreeze to help cook the corn hotter. Good thing we stuck it in our backpacks and didn't eat it.

We made it out to the Coats' after a 3ish hour bumpy van ride. I can't explain just how amazing everything looked out there. It was like being in a National Geographic! Debbi and John were extremely welcoming and they had a very traditional Khyma home, bamboo.

We took off right away on some bikes and visited many of the people there. They were all friendly and happy. These people didn't have anything yet they did not mind at all. They loved having us there and we had a wonderful afternoon!

Our trip to Cambodia Part II

I broke my terrible habit of finger nail biting, or at least I did for the entire Cambodia trip and I've kept with it pretty good since being back. It seemed that we were always on the go throughout our entire adventure. We spent an entire day exploring the temples of Siem Reap starting with Angkor Wat. It really exceeded all of our expectations. Every corner was filled with intricate details and the entire temple was breathe taking!

We had a wonderful time exploring every corner and taking fun pictures. If you can't understand why we're all posing just look at the lovely ladies above us:)

We had a tuk-tuk driver take us to so many temples I lost track. Some were very well kept while others were overgrown with huge roots and trees. Buddhism is the most prevalent religion in Cambodia and there were signs everywhere we went from monks to incense and of course the color orange.

At the end of our templing we decided to go to a market and look around. While there we found some crickets (they were in season) and Stephen was getting a bit hungry. So he went against everything he'd be taught and ate a great big roast cricket.

After the market we found a great little place for supper and we were all in bed by 8:30 PM. It was a wonderful day!

Our trip to Cambodia Part I

Now being back in Kodiak it's hard to believe that just a few days ago we were so far away from home. We started our adventure in Seattle where we regrouped from the plane ride from Kodiak at our close friends and traveling partners, Cindy and Evan Jones' home. Stephen and I love these two like family and knew this trip would see just how close the four of us really were. We took a 12 hour flight from Canada to Hong Kong where we flew to Bangkok, Thailand where we took a cab to the train station. The picture below is of Cindy and Evan at 4 in the morning waiting for our 5:55AM train. The train was slow and a bit rickety and the fresh warm breeze was our air conditioning. Stephen took great advantage of this and enjoyed looking at the rice fields and for our 5 hour trip.

We arrived near the Cambodia border and took our first Tuk-tuk ride (I'll post a picture later of a tuk tuk) to Poipet. It was a bit crazy getting across the border. But it wasn't terrible. The government is so corrupt that the workers have to make a little money some how. So our $20 visas only cost us each about $23. There were three stations to get through before being able to enter Cambodia and all I really remember is it being extremely hot and Evan's zipper broke to his pocket with his passport in it and it took a pair of scissors to finally retrieve it.

Once through the border stuff we traveled by Camry car to Siem Reap, Cambodia. It was a 3 hour ride on a very muddy, bumby and busy road. When I say busy I mean, bike riders, motos, cows, pigs, pigs riding on motos with 3 other people on as well, tuk tuks, trucks and camry cars. Wow it was crazy! Praise God for his amazing protection!

As you can see from the picture below we made it to the temples and the next day was spent exploring all the intricate remains!