Siam Elephant Trekking/ Thailand Part 2

The one thing I knew we wanted to experience while we were in Thailand was riding the Elephants. We started talking it up to Z weeks before we even left to go.  I wanted him to be thinking about it and  hopefully not be afraid once we got there to actually do it. He talked about it and kept telling people we were going to do it. A few days before we went he started adding to his story that "it's not scary" which made me worry that the was getting nervous, but it went great! He was excited from the first moment we saw an elephant.

The resort made arrangements with  Siam Elephant Trekking for out adventure.  It was about a 2 hour trip there and a 2 hour trip back, but SO worth it. They offer several programs some of which include meals and a much longer day.  We opted for a 40 minute ride which was plenty for Z.

When we arrived at the camp we were immediately taken care of and led with all the other guests that were participating in the same program up to their elephant education area.  They had a young elephant and her handler there and the guide shared information about the elephants, how they are taken care of and about Asian elephants in general.  This particular camp is known for the fact that it is actually a preserve for elephants, their elephants are fat, healthy and well taken care of and clearly loved by their handlers and other staff.

After the guide was finished she invited anyone who wanted to purchase a small fruit basket to feed the elephant to do so.  Z was very eager to do this.  He was a little apprehensive the first time the elephant reached her trunk out, but it didn't last long.

Our actual ride was through the jungle.  Lots of beautiful views.  We got to see rubber tress up close, it was really interesting to feel what the "Rubber" is like straight from the tree and then seconds later.  Zane's favorite part was of course when our elephant pooped...boys!

We had the opportunity to feed the elephant we rode after we returned to the loading area.  And this time he got to feed her pineapples and corn along with her bananas.  He was surprised that she didn't eat peanuts.

It was an awesome adventure!

Thailand Adventure/ Part 1

When we decided to travel for Chinese New Year we knew it would be hectic and crazy at least at the airports and we planned accordingly but I was still so surprised when I walked into the airport the morning of our flight. It was SO packed....very long lines, people and baggage everywhere. We had allowed ourselves a little under 3 hours which would normally be more than enough time.  I often make fun of John and his "status" on the airline.  He takes it pretty seriously, we try and fly United or Star Alliance Partners when we can to get our points.  I will say that this particular morning I was SO happy that he had Gold status because the line for Thai Airlines was super long, but because he was Gold  we waited behind one person prior to checking in.

If you have never flown international, and I assume it's for all international not just if you are flying in Asia, you have to present the credit card you bought the ticket with when you check in.  We planned and purchased these tickets months ago and John rarely carries a credit card except the company card.  SO when we got to the counter we didn't have the card he purchased them with and were not even exactly sure what card he used. He generally uses only one card and they said that was not it.  He convinced the lady behind the counter to tell him the last four digits and through process of elimination we determined that he used a card that we NEVER use and is actually laying on the dresser in Oklahoma.  Luckily she said they just needed the full account number, he located that fairly easily and we were checked in.

We made our way to security with Zane setting in his stroller.  When we got close we noticed again a VERY long line, but they quickly let us bypass the line because of the stroller.  What could have easily been an hour in security was only a few minutes.  Z will look a little silly in his stroller when he is 10, but he may have to continue to ride!

We flew Thai Airlines this trip for the first time.  They were great.  It was clean and organized.  Our only issue, and it was going and coming, was that we wanted the stroller when we had a layover in Bangkok.  We asked several times and several different people if we gate checked it would have it in Bangkok, the whole reason for gate check. We did not on either side of our trip.  But other than that, and that was really no big deal, they were great to fly with.

Our destination was Phuket, Thailand.  We chose our resort based on a recommendation from a friend and it was perfect for us.  We stayed at the JW Marriott.  We had arranged for a driver from the resort to pick us up and he was waiting when we came through baggage claim.  From the moment we arrived at the resort I knew we had made a good choice.  The lobby was open air and beautiful and we were greeted immediately by name and taken to a comfy area and served a fresh fruit drink while they got us checked in.

Our room was amazing, seriously.  We splurged for a bigger room than your standard hotel room because we were going to be there a week and if you have ever traveled with a toddler you know you need a little extra breathing room.  We tend to spend a little more time in the room when Z is with us than if we were alone.  There isn't a lot of laying by the pool sipping fruity cocktails and reading a book when you travel with Tiny. The room had a view of the ocean and a deck that wrapped around the side of our room so there was shade almost all day at some point on the deck. We also had a private covered hot tub that came in handy when Z was tired of the sun but still wanted to play in the water.  We turned the temp way down and he had his own mini pool!  He was in heaven. We actually spent a lot of our time on the deck.

the view from our deck

The view from our deck

Just hanging out 

Loving the "hot" tub!

The first evening we just walked around and got familiar with the property, ordered room service and got ready for the next day!  The resort offers a variety of restaurants and cuisines.  There really was something for everyone. Plenty of Western selections.  We ate poolside for lunch many of the days we were there.  It was convenient and tasty. The Siam deli offered easy carryout and the room service was good. It is resort pricey, but not outrageous. The Siam deli had my daily iced Latte which made for a happy momma. Adults traveling without children or families traveling with older kids would have a very different experience than I will describe, but it is genuinely a resort for everyone.

Checking out the place

Iced Latte and the biggest donuts we have ever seen!

The resort as a whole is very family friendly.  They have a daily calendar full of activities for all ages.  The kids club offers the opportunity for parents to drop their kids, older than 4, off for activities. We arranged a babysitter twice during our stay for Z.  Once so we could do a Thai cooking class and once while we went to dinner.  You can have the sitter take your child to the kids club and watch them there or you can have them come to your room.  We chose to have her come to the room.  It worked out well for us both times.

The resort property is beautiful. And the staff is very friendly, most speak some English, we never struggled to communicate while there.  They arranged any of the offsite activities that we did and they went smoothly. The staff that we interacted with frequently while we were there quickly learned our names, especially Z , and made it a point to call us by name.  I liked that.

We spent the bulk of our time at the kids pool which was awesome.  It was waist deep for Z throughout a big portion.  There were bubbling fountains that erupted from a raised area that he could crawl and play in.  There was a dividing wall made of stone turtles and the coolest water slide.  He liked the slide the first day but then we couldn't get him to go again, not sure why.  but it was shallow enough at the end of the slide that John could wait at the bottom and catch him and not worry about him going under.  There was ample seating with plenty of shade.

We spent time at the beach as well.  The resort has a long stretch of private beach that is beautiful.  early morning and early evening just before sunset were our favorite times to be there.  The sand is nice and the surf while we were there was mild.

I would definitely recommend the JW Marriott to anyone going to Phucket.  I would especially recommend it if you are like our family and want to spend most of your time at the resort.  It is not in the center of activity so it is a bit of drive to go anywhere or do any sightseeing, but that isn't really what we were after on this trip. We were in for relaxing and sunshine and we got that for sure!

In the next few days I will share more details about our activities, specifically our Elephant trekking Excursion and lots of pictures of our boy on the beach.

Baking With a 2 year old....

Zane enjoys being in the kitchen with me and I love having him there.  I want him to enjoy cooking and baking and the only way for that to happen is to let him help.  I have learned some things and made some mistakes when it comes to baking with a toddler, I have had LOTS of experience.  I want it to be fun for him and for me.

My first bit of advice would be, do this on a day when you have time to have a mess, because it will be messy.

 You can have every intention of just letting them pour in a few ingredients, that should be simple, right?  But then they miss the bowl completely and you are both wet or sticky and the floor  is a mess...see where I'm going.

 You can not anticipate what will happen when you have a little one in the kitchen. You need to be okay with it being messy!

My second piece of advice would be to do as much prep work as you can before you invite the toddler to the kitchen. I like to have the ingredients measured out and ready to pour in the mixer.

 Most 2 year olds do not have the patience to wait while you gather ingredients and find measuring cups and all the tedious tasks that lead up to the pouring and mixing.

This might make a few extra dishes for clean up at the end but I promise it will make things go a lot more smoothly and it will keep your little one engaged in the activity.

Something that works well for me if we are making cookies or cupcakes that need to be decorated is to break the activity up into two parts.

Like this morning we were making cupcakes so we made the cakes after breakfast and then went about our morning while they baked and cooled.

 Later this afternoon after the Tiny American got up from his nap we decorated them.

I would suggest something like this or if you aren't sure your toddler has the attention for both you could always bake the cookies or cakes ahead of time without them and just let them help you decorate.

The last thing I want to mention, when baking with a toddler do not have expectations of how something will turn out.  You can have Martha Stewart in mind and have imagined this lovely end product that will wow your pinterest followers....this is probably not going to be the case.

 It's important to let them use their imagination when doing something like this, it's supposed to be fun.  I believe it is important for them to learn to follow directions and that is what the baking part is for.  You do have to be specific when it comes to what goes into the cake or cookies, but not so specific when it comes to decorating.  Provide a variety of decorations and let them decide how they want their creation to look.  It will be messy.  Today I had red sugar all over my white counter and floor, but he was happy.

 He was proud of the cupcakes he made and is eager to share them with his friends.

I believe that letting him know that I respect his ideas and creativity is important.  I want him to know that what he thinks matters, even at 2.  I want him to remember that we baked together and it was fun, not a stressful activity that I made him do.

I want him to remember licking the bowl while he stood on the stool at our counter....and I want him to remember that the cake that he made was delicious, because HE  made it.

Honey Sriracha Chicken

I really enjoy cooking, it's kind of therapy for me. Somedays here it is just more trouble than it is worth but the effort is usually worth it in the end.  I have been dodging rain showers for the past few days so getting to the store has been a challenge to say the least.  Luckily we caught a break in the rain and the Tiny American had just had a nap so we hoofed it to the store and  stocked up on a few things to make a couple of easy meals.  I wanted to try a new recipe and I am SO glad I did.  It came together quickly and it was really good....VERY spicy, but very good.  You can of course modify the spice level by how much sriracha you add, but we like it HOT!  I also liked this recipe because I could easily cook the Tiny American's chicken at the same time I cooked ours because you make the sauce in it's own pan. So after the chicken was cooked I just pulled out his portion and then mixed the sauce and chicken together to finish it up.

This chicken has just enough sweet to balance the heat.  The breading  gives the chicken a little crunch but not heavy at all.  If you didn't want to do that step you could easily eliminate that step and just cook your chicken in a little oil. You could probably even oven bake your chicken if you wanted to for an even healthier version. However you do it it will be yummy, the sauce is where it is at! I served ours over steamed rice.  When I was cleaning up the dishes there were a few pieces of  stray chicken and a little sauce left in the pan and J made his way into the kitchen to clean that part up...I won't say he licked the pan clean, but he did his best to get all the sauce!!

Honey Sriracha Chicken

*This recipe serves 4

Ingredients

3-4 Chicken breasts, diced
1/3 Cup Cornstarch

sauce:
1 cup water
2-3 tablespoons sriracha
5 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1/4 cup sugar
2-3 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons cornstarch plus 2 tablespoons cold water

Instructions:

1. In small-medium saucepan, combine all the sauce ingredients except the cornstarch . Bring to a boil over medium heat.  Whisk together the cornstarch and water until dissolved.  Add to the sauce pan, stir until thickened.  Reduce heat to low.

2. Add diced chicken and 1/3 cup cornstarch to a large ziploc bag.  Seal and shake to coat the chicken.  Drizzle a large skillet with oil over medium heat.  Add chicken and sauté until browned and chicken is cooked through.  Add the sauce and stir to coat.

Serve over warm rice.  YUM!!

Happy Space

When we made the decision to move here we struggled with what to do with our home and our belongings.  Of course we would bring some things with us but we were moving into a furnished apartment so we couldn't bring it all. We wanted to make sure that the Tiny American's transition was smooth so packing up his toys and what was most familiar to him was a big deal to me. I knew I wanted to bring lots of my kitchen, but had to make some modifications based on what would realistically work with the oven I was getting. Pictures and things to hang on the wall presented their own set of problems as most places will only let you use 3M tape to hang things, and yes you can hang a lot with 3M tape but some things just don't work.

We struggled with what to do with our house in Texas.  I LOVE our house in Texas and was really enjoying decorating and furnishing it so I was not happy with the option of selling it.  In the end we put most of our things in storage and rented the house to a cousin. I won't lie, I miss my house and I miss my things. Yes I know they are just things, but they are my things and I have spent a lot of time and energy gathering them all up and I miss them. Im not talking about TV's and things like that.  I'm talking about the old windows and doors that I have gathered up at junk sales.  I'm talking about the hutch that I had just refinished that my grandpa built me when I got married.  I'm thinking about the type tray that hung on the wall in my living room filled with the little rocks and shells we have collected from the places we have gone. These are the "things" that I miss.

The apartment we moved into when we first came to Taiwan a year ago was super nice.  It was  in a really nice building with lots of staff.  It was furnished and it was comfortable, but we never felt at home there.  It was dark and honestly a little depressing.  We had NO outside light.  No view of what was happening outside.  For people like us, that was a struggle.

We knew from the start that if we were going to live here for awhile we needed a different apartment. Finding one is a bit of a challenge.  Luckily we happened to mention it to the right person at the right time and we found the perfect place.  Well I say perfect, there were a couple of bumps in the road.  First it was not a furnished apartment,  second there were no closets, strange, but not a deal breaker.  I figured out what we would need for storage and a trip to IKEA solved both of these problems.

The best thing about the apartment was the windows.  Every room has floor to ceiling windows!  SO much light.  This has been great for our moods, we need sunlight!  The view is awesome and with us picking out the furnishing it feels so much more like home. We have found a couple of places to shop for "junk" to make it feel even more like ours.  I had a friend take some pictures of us around our neighborhood and this week I had those printed and hung them up.  I also printed some really cool pictures of Zane at different places we have visited in Taiwan and have those on the wall now as well.  It's amazing how much some pictures on the wall make it feel like home.

This is my favorite space in the apartment.  When I am in the kitchen J and Z and sit in these chairs and talk to me.

It's not perfect, it's an apartment, but with some time and a little patience it is quickly feeling more like a place we want to hang out in instead of the place we HAVE to be.