Phillips visits

Navine looking suave on the field

Here are a few fun photos of the last Phillips visits. We got to watch Kesh and Navine play soccer in Boardman, OR a few weeks before Thanksgiving, then we headed down to Madras for Thanksgiving. We hear Kesh was Homecoming King in between visits--congratulations!

RUUUNN!

Look at that cute baby Ruben!

Spoiled already--these are for you, Karuna!

Who is this guy? Gross! Do NOT drink out of the jar! That's one big can of peaches!

We are so thankful for all of you, even those we couldn't be with this year. When is the next Lyons's reunion? 2010???

These are recent pictures taken in October(?), maybe some a little earlier. Erica as Medusa, Sam painting, also dressed for Homecoming, Steve waiting for the homecoming parade, Steve dot and I grouse hunting, and one of a fuzzy caterpillar.

pictures of Erica

Cambodia and Malaysia

I think that one of my favorite parts of the trip was the Angkor Wat (which means temple) complex.

National Museum of History, Phenom Penh

Angkor Wat

Bayon (made up of faces)

Ta Prom ("jungle temple") - it really looked like the temple in the "Jungle Book". Inspired?

Various temples within the complex (we saw over 10 spanning a distance of 40 kilometers):

Woman tending her herd on the temple grounds



Perhenthian Islands, Malaysia:

Rather large morning visitor - a monitor lizard sunning himself on our porch!

While snorkeling (a first for me!) Denis put cookies in his pocket so the fish "schooled" + Sea turtle!!

Petronas TwinTowers Kuala Lumpur (used to be the world's tallest) + The world's largest free-flight walk-in aviary - so they say.

SE Asia Trip - Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia (+ Helsinki)

Denis and headed off to SE Asia for two weeks at the end of August. It was an absolutely amazing trip!! We flew to Bangkok (with a stop-over to see a friend in Finland) to start off our trip. Next we flew to Hanoi and explored Vietnam from the top-down by way of the "Reunification Express" train before taking the Mekong River up to Phnom Penh, Cambodia. From there we moved to Siem Rep to see the AMAZING temples of Angkor Wat. Given that we had been early risers as well as fitful sleepers (something has to go with so many things to see and do in such a short amount of time), we decided to spend a couple days on paradise-esque islands off the coast of Malaysia (about the only thing that one could do was go snorkeling and read in the sun/sand - which we did). I managed to acquire the worst sunburn I have ever had in my life. The trip ended with a final foray into the very multicultural city of Kuala Lumpur.

Beautiful Lutheran church in downtown Helsinki

- (Blurry) Bangkok skyline at night

- Suvarnabhumi International Airport, Bangkok

- Bangkok University Lake with a shrine to the King and Queen - huge shrines of varying style and taste were everywhere in Bangkok! In Thailand you cannot lick stamps because the King might be on the back and in movie theaters you have to stand up and listen to the national anthem that sings his praises.

Hanoi - Can you see into the home on the left?

Halong Bay - We checked out the "Surprising Cave" on one of the islands - very neat, immense limestone cave.

Hoi An - central Vietnam. It is renowned for these lanterns. It rained a lot during this trip...

Motorbike taxi in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City)

The Mekong (Great picture taken by Denis)!

Next installment: Angkor Wat and Malaysia