A Bunch of Burts

We so were so pleased to be able to have Grandma Sue come visit us for a couple weeks this month. We all so loved having her here. Of all the things we had planned for her time here, I think we all were most excited about visiting the elephant farm. Normally, that is something people do right away when they arrive. For various reasons we did not go, and then we just put it off again and again until we decided to just go ahead and wait for Grandma’s visit.

It was such fun, and if anyone wants to come see us, we will be happy to take you too!

The show starts off with the elephants taking a bath. Naturally, who wants to see dirty smelly pachyderms, right?

One of our favorite portions of the show was painting. Yes, the elephants can paint! We got such a kick out of seeing these great big beasts holding a paintbrush and gently tap tap tapping on the canvas. We still get giggles thinking about it.

can you barely see the small paintbrush in the trunk of the larger elephant? He seemed to concentrate so hard and then just painted in gentle little taps. Hilarious!

They also played soccer, gave a ‘massage’ and had a dart throwing contest with an audience volunteer.

After the show we took a 1/2 hour ride. It was fun, but very bumpy. Leah and I rode together and she wondered out loud what you would do if you had to travel by elephant over any great distance. They are not exactly cheetahs you know.

Greg was able to converse a bit with his elephant driver, the mahout, who told him that each mahout has one elephant, and they will work with that elephant for life, their or the elephants. Wow, what a commitment.

Yes, it is rainy season, but those are really deep footprints!

Elephants are considered sacred and very important part of Thailand’s history. They were used in heavy manual labor, clearing forests and such, they were trained for battle, and according to tradition, each new king had to catch a baby elephant before assuming the throne.

During the Civil War, the King of Thailand wrote to President Lincoln and offered to send him some elephants to help him with the conflict.

Thank you Mom for treating us to a wonderful day at the elephant farm!

As promised, here is a glimpse at how we spent our first 4th of July overseas. This was a hard day for us to be away from home, as we dearly missed the people we have spent the 4th with for the past 7 years. Thankfully, the consulate here in Chiang Mai hosts a party for all us American ex-pats, to help distract us from the fact that we were not at home. We went with two other families and discovered that through our contacts at Grace, we knew lots of other people there too.

We all had a good time and will definitely go back again next year.

One of the things the consulate does is import some ‘goods’ not available here. This is the one time of year you can get a Mountain Dew or Dr Pepper in Chiang Mai, and we all savored them!

The girls spent a good deal of time at the craft booth, making all sort of jewlery out of red white and blue beads.

Zachary could hardly wait for the watermelon eating contest to begin, he was ready as soon as we got there! He dove right in, eating like a beast and finished 4th I think. He said that he thinks he could win next year, as the older boys who beat him will be too old to compete. Good strategy Zach!

He can’t wait to dig in!

Go zach go! Don’t waste time chewing!

Finished! Good show Zach! Need more pop now? hahaha
Notice the girl next to Zach, she very neatly and in a most ladylike manner ate her watermelon, still on her first piece when most of the others were finished! Her name is Adrian, is from Mississippi and definitely a southern lady!:)

As the sun went down, there was a bit of a sing along of patriotic songs and of course we finished off with some fireworks. This day was a good reminder to thank the Lord for the country which He has given us, the freedom to assemble to worship and speak His name openly, and for the privileges we have being from the US that so many other countries look at with longing. Thank you God for all the ways you show yourself to us and for being a God that is not contained within one country or one border, but a God who made and loves the whole world and desires all men to know Him.