OK - I'm catching up on the last few months. I'm think I have finally figured out how to do this blog a little. You will notice I don't know how to change the background yet, oh well.

Anyway, one of the best event of last year was the birth of our eleventh grandchild -Kailie Harbor Theler. She arrived November 16th - three weeks early. She only weighed 4 lbs. 9 oz. and went down to 4 lbs. 2 oz. But she is a cutie - so I hope you enjoy her slide show!

China is an amazing country. They have emerged from the 19th century in the past 20 -30 years. Their national bird should be the construction crane. We saw them everywhere. We did get quite tired of Chinese food. But, we did see many beautiful places and sites. The Terra Cotta warriors were amazing, the Buddhist stone carvings were inspiring and beautiful to see. It was fun to go to the zoo to see the Giant Panda Bear, but also to watch the families. We enjoyed cruising on the Li and Yantgze Rivers. The Three Gorges Dam is quite the construction project. We met delightful school children - Jack gave one of the boys his BYU hat. Of course, the Forbidden City, Tiannemen Square, the Olympic Village and the Great Wall were interesting to see. There was one gentleman in our group who had a white, bushy beard - he made quite a scene, everyone wanted to touch his beard.

We had a fun day in Thailand when we went to an Elephant Park. You can see the pictures of Jack riding an elephant. We also visited a snake show that day. Jack got his chance to kiss a snake. We stopped at several Buddhist Stupa's. We learned a little about the practice and beliefs of Buddhism.

We were so fortunate the past few months to be able to go on three different trips - two with friends and one with our children and their spouses. The first trip in October and November was to Thailand, Cambodia and China. We had 16 different airline segments - so we were in airports way too much time. But then, in order to see those three countries it was necessary.

My favorite place was Siem Reap, Cambodia where we visited a floating village and the ruins of Ankor Wat. We also saw a memorial to the "Killing Fields" of the Khmer Rouge. Our guide's father was actually killed during that time. He related to us some of his story. We were able to purchase from him a small book written by one of the survivors of the prison we saw there in Siem Reap. It truly made us grateful to have been born in the United States.