Fall

A few weeks ago we headed out to watch the ducks (not real!) being dumped into the river for the annual rotary duck race. What a sight! We also got a few fall pictures along the way.

Back to School

First day of school! This year Kylan is in Ms. Fawn's class. Thankfully his best buddy, Colton moved up this summer as well. He loves school and runs into class the moment he can. He barely gives a wave goodbye. As for me, I am teaching 3rd grade this year. I have a great group of kids! The only bummer is I have been putting in lots of extra hours trying to remember 3rd grade material ( from when I taught it 3 yrs. ago).


Go Ducks! We went to the Missouri St. game and enjoyed watching the ducks get a big win.

End of Summer

Here is a quick photo recap of the end of our summer- It went way too fast!!

First Em's game- Kylan wasn't into the game so much as he was into the mascot "Sluggo". He still talks about him.

Kylan's first night in his big boy bed!

Annual Gasser campout

Uncle Jaron and aunt Carly get Married!!

Petting Uncle Jaron's ducks and chickens

Cambodia Part 3

Here is the last of the pictures I will share- Time to move on! We took over 1500 pics so it was a little difficult to narrow them down!

Learning how silk is harvested- very interesting!

A sweet girl I met, Lee, trying to sell fruit at the rest stop along the way. She actually spoke really good English because she could afford to go to school half days. She loved my white skin (really?!?) and told me that was why she was so covered up in the intense heat; so that her skin could be as light colored as possible.

Angkor Wat- The biggest temple. It was huge, impressive and insanely detailed.

Layover in Korea- we took a tour and visited the Friendship Monument.

Cambodia part 2

The whole point of our trip? A wedding! Congratulations Michael and Chantra!! Notice the outfits. There were 3 outfit changes ( a typical Khmer wedding has up to 8 outfits).

Visiting and paying our respects to victims of the Khmer Rouge. This is Toul Sleng which used to be an Elementary school but was taken over by the Khmer Rouge and turned into an interrogation/torture prison.


The Killing fields


The Royal Palace

And another crazy traffic picture- the guys walking across the street to get bottled water. Don't worry this is how you are supposed to do it- there are few crosswalks so people just go and the motos move around them. Slow and steady is what we were told!

Cambodia Part 1

It took us almost 22 hours to get there, and 48 hours to travel home but it was worth all the effort to travel and see another side of the world. We were busy the entire time, met great people, saw very interesting things and ate lots of delicious food. Here are the first round of pics.

Still smiling somehow... we were getting ready to board the last 6 hour flight to Cambodia. This is after our 11 1/2 hour flight to Korea from San Francisco.



We woke up the first morning to lots of noise outside our window. They were cleaning up from the market the night before. The market was mostly food (VERY smelly) where produce and meat were sold to hotels and restaurants. This loader would pile it up on one side and it would fall over the other side. He went back and forth for about an hour until it all fit somehow.

The first morning in Phnom Penh we walked around the market and took in the sounds and sights of the busy city. Traffic is chaotic and moves in all directions at all times. Pedestrians, bikes, motos, tuk tuks, cars and trucks all share the road and zoom past each other. There are few lights or stop signs so people just go when they want and stop when they need to turn causing everyone else to always be on guard. Its also not uncommon to have a tuk tuk come straight at you against the flow of traffic because that side of the road is less crowded then the other half of the street.

There are few traffic laws and those are rarely enforced. We always cringed when we saw little kids precariously perched on a moto. We were told moto drivers had to wear helmets but many do not on the back streets. If you get caught (we only saw a policeman once the entire trip) the fine is $2.50 paid immediately to the cop.

Taking bananas to the market- they were one of our favorites for breakfast.

The sign that greeted us at our hotel. We laughed a little at first but saw similar signs everywhere.

Taking a tuk tuk. A little scary the first time.

Meeting Chanthra (Michael's fiance' ) and her parents for the first time. This meal was very good, a combination of Khmer cooking and Thai food.

Cambodia Bound!

Most of you know that Steve and I are leaving tomorrow for Cambodia. We are excited to travel to the other side of the world and attend Michael's wedding. We look forward to meeting his soon-to-be wife, eating lots of yummy food, touring the ancient temples and learning about the culture. However we are dreading leaving Ky. He will be in good hands (grandparents!) and will have so much fun while we are gone. I'm sure he will barely know we are gone. We will miss him so much! That adorable smile, the pudgy strawberry fingers reaching for a hug, the "Momma!" I hear 50 times a day. I already can't wait to come back to it all...