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| Hannah at DIA waiting to board our first plane. |
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| View of my grandmother's (Yai) house . |
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| Hannah eating Shrimp Chips at Yai's house. |
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| Hannah, Jaxon and Yai Ya playing the in the water. |
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| Hannah playing in the water. |
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| Papa and Jaxon playing in the water. |
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| They loved playing the water. |
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| Jaxon playing on Yai's patio. |
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| Two of my neices playing in the water with the kids. |
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| Hannah making "Rice Soup" at Yai's. |
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| More "rice soup" with one of my neices. |
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| Hannah looking cute at Yai's. |
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| Hannah looking cute at Yai's - again. |
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| Hannah "washing dishes" at Yai's. |
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| Polly and Jaxon at my Uncle Chet's house. |
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| Polly and Jaxon at my Uncle Chet's. |
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| My home town - Klong Dan. The Market. |
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| Two ladies negotiating for fish in the market. |
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| The road to the Wat (church). |
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| Part of the Wat and monk school grounds. |
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| Part of the Wat and monk school grounds. |
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| Part of the Wat and monk school grounds. |
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| Kids playing on our way back to Yai's house. |
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| Two of my neices in Yai's house. |
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| Yai and Yai Ya. In loving memory. |
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| Yai, Yai Ya and Hannah on Yai's bed. |
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| The view out of one of Yai's windows. |
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| Jaxon waiting for Polly to buy a purse in Pattaya. |
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| Hannah and Polly petting a tiger. Yes, it's real. |
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| Hannah and one of my cousins with the elephants. |
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| Hannah and my cousin Chont watching the elephants. |
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| Jaxon and my cousin Chont feeding the elephants. |
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| Jaxon at a seaside lunch spot waiting to eat. |
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| Jaxon and Polly relaxing by the ocean. |
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| Hannah, Jaxon and Polly by the ocean. |
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| A ride in a tuk tuk in Bangkok. |
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| Papa looking for something to eat on Khao San Road. |
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| Hannah with one of my neices. |
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| Jaxon hanging with the boys. |
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| My cousin grilling squid on the driveway. |
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| John with his cousin Chont and his uncle Chet. |
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| Hannah riding a "zoom zoom" with my cousin's wife. |
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| Jaxon got to ride one too. We rode to the temple to buy some of the bracelets shown to the right. |
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| Bracelets made from gold leaf used on the buddha statues. |
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| The shoe collection at my uncle's house. |
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| Hannah practising her "Sawatdee" - the traditional Thai greeting. |
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We received news during the first week of May 2008 that my grandmother had suffered a stroke. She was in the ICU of a Bangkok area hospital. We thought it would be prudent to make an emergency trip to visit her in case things turned for the worse. Polly and I had visited Thailand together before, just after we were married. However, we were waiting for the kids to be a bit older, before we made ethe journey home with them in tow. Knowing that this could be a final opportunity for them to meet my grandmother, we chose to take them with us. It was a good, but hard journey - a journey that we will remember for a lifetime. Our hope is that Hannah and Jaxon (through the help of these visual aids and story-telling) over time will have some impression left on them as well.
My grandmother passed away Saturday morning, July 12th, just a few days after her 89th birthday.
We will miss her dearly and pray that God grants her peace and joy in the life to come.
© copyright 2008 millersonline.us. all rights reserved.
site design by johnsmiller.com.
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Most of these photos were taken with my new Nikon D200 (pictured on John's page).
The layout is arranged chronologically to help us remember the trip as we experienced it.
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My grandmother's house has undergone much renovation since we were last here. It is now two stories tall and has a significantly larger patio/garden area. My grandmother's room is upstairs and is equipped with AC, though it is still difficult to keep cool due to the severe temperatures and humidity. The lower patio/garden area is the family eating/working/playing area. The house is mostly constructed of beautiful teak, but surrounded by the typical sights and odors of developing countries. Her home is definitely "command central" for the family and she is under 24 hour care by rotating family members.
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The best way for kids to cool off in the heat is to play in the dish/clothes washing buckets on the porch under Yai's house.
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On the whole, Jaxon really struggled with the trip. Playing in the water was one of the few distractions that made him really happy.
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Since Hannah spends time at my mom's restaurant, she enjoys doing some of her own "cooking". She made "rice soup" on several occasions while we were here by finding seed pods on the ground and breaking them up into a bowl.
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Hannah was an absolutre angel on the trip. No problems with the planes, time changes, weather, toilets, or food. We were quite amazed.
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This face says it all - Hannah's the real Thai baby in the family.
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This is a typical Thai dinner at Yai's house. Everything is served family-style and they chose dishes according to our preferences. Meals were a given any time we were around.
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My uncle's house is down the road from my grandmother's house. This is the house my mom and dad had built when we lived in Thailand in the early 70's.
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Polly is cooling Jaxon off by placing her cold glass on his head - which he obviously appreciated.
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Klong Dan is a fishing town. The river flows into town and the fishermen live and park their boats along it.
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