Jungle Jeeping

Today Kade and I went on a Jungle Jeeping excursion with Kade's Cub Scout Pack. Quite a few of the dad's here have Toyota Land Cruisers. They are great for tooling around camp and even better for taking off into the jungle to go 4X4ing. We had about 5 Land Cruisers taking about 15 boys + dads on our little trip.

It was quite an experience. We started out a few miles out of camp and headed to a Sawit plantation. Sawit is a type of African Palm tree from which the fruit is used to make Palm Oil. It was introduced to Indonesia by the Dutch and British in the early 1900's. Palm oil is used for cooking. It is probably the richest and least healthy type of cooking oil you can buy. Let's just say it is not endorsed by the Heart Association. The plantations are all over Indonesia and Malaysia. The rain forest has been burned up to plant this very profitable crop. This is obviously a big problem in Sumatra. Indonesia has set aside 25% of their natural jungle as off limits to human encroachment. This is a lot better than other countries but still a lot of jungle still allowed to be destroyed.

From the Sawit plantation we went to do a little trail driving. We almost got stuck in the clay like soil trying to get up a steep hill but avoided having to be pulled out. It was a little bumpy to say the least. We even had one of the boys in the rig Kade and I were in need to get out and empty his stomach. I have that same problem when I head out on the ocean.

After the trail driving we headed to "The Scab." The Scab is an area where they have taken a lot of the top soil to use in other areas of camp. For that reason it is basically on open pit with mud just right for jeeps to drive through and kids to play in. There were a few jeeps that couldn't quite make it through the deepest parts of the scab. It was pretty cool to see the mud bogging that took place.

Once all of the kids, I mean dads, finished up playing in the mud, we had a fire all ready to go for a good, old fashion hot dog roast. The boys had their Oscar Meyer hot dogs and loved it. Some of the guys here on camp made some homemade Cajun Bobi Hutan. I had one of those and it was awesome. The Bahasa word for pig is Bobi Hutan. That is your Indonesian word of the week.

The final activity of the day was the fire department coming out to demonstrate how to use a fire extinguisher and how to properly put out a grease fire. The boys and dads all got a turn using a fire extinguisher. From there the fireman used the water tanker to hose off the kids as well as the rigs.

This was a very cool experience for Kade and I. We were able to see some things we would have only seen from the road. Kade said his favorite part of the day was taking a mud bath at the Scab. The boys had a ball and the dads had fun as well. Kade and I were worn out by the end of the day but only one of us took a nap when we made it home.

Jungle Jeeping

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Answered Prayer - Isaac

All,

We got the "ok" to go home today, Monday the 16th, with an IV! Meaning Isaac is doing good enough to let us take care of him at home and we will be responsible for administering the antibiotics for minimum of 10 days through the IV.

We can't tell you how excited we are to hear his laugh again and see the energy a 6 year old should have. We know we could not do it without all the support, prayers and strength the Lord gave us. Isaac will be on an IV antibiotic with the first check up in 10 days. This check will look at blood work again to look at the infection levels and to see how much longer before we can give him medicine orally instead of an IV.

He will be allowed to go back to school once we are comfortable with his strength. Tami did a perfect job keeping him up on the school work from the 4 weeks he missed, making a hospital room exciting for 3 weeks and always showing the love only a mother can give while I focused on keeping his tickle sensors active and movie watching capabilities up to par!

Isaac has had no less than 30 doctors working with him, 2 CT scans, 15 X-rays, 25 needle pokes and countless blood draws. In addition to the 2 aggressive antibiotics he was on, they had around the clock Tylenol and ibuprofen in him to combat the discomfort and fever.

There were 2 additional breathing medications he had to inhale for 15 minutes every 4-6 hours for 8 days along with wearing a vest that shook his whole upper body to break up the pneumonia.

He was in the hospital for 23 days, had a fever for approximately 27 days and missed 4 weeks of school. He celebrated his 6th birthday and Halloween while in the hospital and will need to gain back the 12% of his body weight he lost.

He has quite a bit of dead lung tissue which we are told should slowly come back. He still has some fluid along with an abscess. All of which are the reasons he is still on the IV antibiotic for an extended amount of time

Emily his sister met numerous new people with all the blessed help picking her up from school and occupying her on a non-school days while dad and mom traded off watching Isaac and working. Dad was saved from cooking cereal everyday for meals with all the support we had from families dropping food off!

Mom is with Isaac today going through the training for the home treatment and all the hospital check out procedures and with any luck will be home by this afternoon. We were told several times not to underestimate the amount of infection he had in his body and the fragile condition he is still in for the next several weeks. Please pray for continued recovery, protection against any relapses over the next several weeks and for Isaac to regain his muscle and strength during his recovery.

Ray, Tami, Isaac, Emily and silly dog Baile

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Brooklyn's New Glasses

To my surprise this is how Brooklyn showed up to morning meeting at school. I guess she decided she needed some new glasses. That will teach me to leave down her Build A Bear tote.

Just for Isaac

Praying for Isaac - Camano Island

Praying for Isaac in Moses Lake

Praying for Isaac in Texas

Praying for Isaac in Tri-Cities

Get Well, Isaac! We are praying for you in Thailand!!

The Greathouse Family - Camano Island

The Grierson Family - Camano Island

Praying for Isaac in Phuket Thailand

The Cunningham Family is praying for Isaac - Camano Island

Isaac, we are praying for your complete healing!! Hang in there buddy!

The Thorness gang in Montana

Praying for Isaac in the Ukraine - Luba and Adam

Another Day in Paradise

Starbucks+Shopping+Beach +Happy Family= Kathi's Perfect Day

A little bit of Culture

Day #2 Thailand

Hello Thailand

While we love the Jungle Living we are experiencing in Sumatra we were told by the people we work with that getting "off the island" will be an awesome experience as well. Well as you may have seen from the pictures we are off of the island...at least the island of Sumatra. We are here with the Austin Family and so the kids have friends to play with which has made it really great. Dave was our travel agent for all of this. That guy could sell water to a drowning man. He was able to get us a great deal at the Laguna Beach Resort. I am never again using Expedia as long as Dave is around.

We came in very late on Friday night. Just in time to get settled and get to sleep. After waking up to a beautiful view of the Andaman Bay we headed down to breakfast. Just outside the restaurant here at the resort we were greeted by a baby elephant and her handler. She was amazing. It was great to see her handler being so gentle with her. She was very well trained and you could tell she and the handler were very good at what they do. She gave all of the kids high fives and he really liked giving Brooklyn kisses with her trunk.

After the Elephant we went in to an amazing breakfast buffet. They have everything you could want. You can have an omlete made just how you like it or waffles or pancakes. This was only a small sampling of what was available. There was also BACON! We have not had bacon in a long time. It was such a treat to get it. They even had a honeycomb sitting there with the fresh honey dripping out of it for you pastries or tea. So good!

Yesterday we spent the first part of the day playing in the ocean. The waves are very small here and pretty calm. Since our kids have only been to the ocean in Washington they were not used to being able to spent so much time in it without turning blue. After that we hit the pool. There are 3 different pools and a water slide also. It was great. The kids have been loving it. So have the adults. It is so beautiful.

Last night we were on the beach to watch the sun go down. Breathtaking! At sunset another baby elephant walks the beach. The pictures Kathi put up earlier were of that escapade. The elephant was told to give Kade a back massage and he ended up "pantsing" him. It was hilarious. Kade was a great sport and it was pretty neat. Not many people can say they have been pantsed by a baby elephant. Kade got on for a ride and the elephant put his truck around Brooklyn's arm and let her lead the way.

Last night we went to the Lotus Restaurant which is right on the beach and had a ton of food. They have tanks with live Crab, Lobster, Prawns, and fish that you can choose from for dinner. I had Black Crab and Kathi had some prawns. I also had a plate of Pad Thai which I love. On the beach they were selling these things that look like box kites. They would light something on the inside and then the heat would take it several thousand feet in the air like a hot air ballon. They would stay lighted in the sky for several hours. It was really cool to see.

We are here until next Sunday so we are in for more sun and fun. Kathi will be getting more photos up I am sure. We hope you like seeing them.