Cambodia Trip

It has been a while, but we finally have some pictures up from our trip to Cambodia. We put together a slide show. We were there Aug. 5-22. First, you will see us in Phnom Penh, the capitol city of about 2 million people. In Phnom Penh we visited the Royal Palace, the Killing Fields, and the markets. Then you will be whisked away to Mondulkiri. We spent 2 days there. It is the most sparsely populated province in the country despite being the largest in land area. There are only about 60,000 people in the whole province. We went on an elephant trek there. Our guide was a local minority called Phnong. These people live and hunt in the jungle. They speak a tribal language, but he spoke Cambodian also, so I could talk to him. It was about a 4 hour trek through the jungle. It was awesome! From Mondulkiri we traveled to Siem Reap. In this province we spent three days exploring the old Hindu and Buddhist temple ruins. This is the most touristy part of Cambodia. We got a deal online with our Entertainment book, and got to stay in a beautiful 4 star hotel for only 25 dollars a night. After Siem Reap we went to Battambang for 2 days. This was a province that first opened while I was on my mission. Some of the families I taught there have now been sealed in the temple! You will see pictures of these families. It was so fun to have Joanna meet these special people. We then went back to Phnom Penh and on to Sihanoukville, a port city in southern Cambodia on the Gulf of Thailand. We stayed here for three days. We went snorkeling, hiked in the jungle, and played on the beach. We then went back to Phnom Penh, and the next day flew back to America.

The video is 14 minutes long. It is kind of long, but this is about 1/100th of our pictures. It was hard to choose. I hope you enjoy it!

Keith Urban ROCKS!

We went to the Keith Urban concert Wednesday night, and it was the BEST concert I've ever been to! He plays the guitar so crazy good. All those solos in his songs, that's him playing. And he can play them while singing, walking through the crowd, and dancing. He is such a fantastic performer, it was just one song right after another. We had SO much fun! It's so fun going to a concert where you know every single song, and they are all huge hits. Best concert ever!

Hey everyone. Here is the video that shows the charity portion of our trip. Thanks to everyone who donated!

We're back!

We are back from Cambodia!! We left Aug. 5 and got home late on the 22nd. It was a blast! I actually miss it a lot. A longer post is coming. We are sorting through a myriad of pictures and will post some soon. It was an amazing experience. I admit, I was a little terrified the closer the trip got, but I should have just relaxed. Once we got there, I saw how it was just a normal place, just a little more chaotic! We were able to do a lot of stuff there. I think we are the energizer tourists.

But...we turned a little bit Cambodian while we were there!

Cambodia

Joanna and I have been planning out how much we wanted to spend on charity items for when we go to Cambodia. We decided to let everyone else in on it too! We made a blogspot for this cause. You can read more about it there. Please take a look. Here is the link:

http://helpwithcambodia.blogspot.com/

Also- If you have a blog and feel so inclined, please make a post about this, including the link above. That way even more people can hear about what we are doing.

Mater

This is our tomato plant, Mater. He has struggled a lot, but we are proud of him. He had a rough start because we didn't transplant him into a bigger pot fast enough when we bought him. And then we watered him too much. And then too little. Nevertheless, he has survived deer, children, and construction vehicles and produced these 3 little beauties. I am excited to eat them! Time will tell if he will make any more tomatoes, but I think he might be done.