Christmas Vacation

This was our walk to breakfast & dinner each day...beautiful indoor pool to the right, buffet on the left and outdoor pool and mountain straight ahead!

We just returned from an awesome, wonderful, relaxing, peaceful, fun, and much needed get-away!  Did I say how great it was???  It's been over 6 months since we've been able to go on a trip due to my health so needless to say, I could NOT wait to get out of dodge! We were picked up on Tuesday morning and driven about 2 1/2 hours south to a brand new resort tucked away next to some beautiful mountains.

 

a local making a thatched boat

the finished project!

Us in the finished project and proof that it floats!

On our boat ride we see the man working in the middle of this river, but he's on his cell phone!  Maybe you just had to be there, but this just cracked me up!

entering a cave...

in the cave...way cool!

 

our view each morning...beautiful setting!  Mountains, swimming pool and yummy buffet.

I love all the old gates and doors that are everywhere in this country!  Love these 3 peeps, too.

Small (?) road block

We all went on an incredible trekk through a couple of the neighboring villages.

Our next house?  Seriously, so humbling...these ARE many people's homes.

A lovely local having a stare down with Audrey An!

Rest stop!

enjoying the scenery, enjoying each other

family portrait...that rock was a pretty good tripod.

trekking into village #2

tranquility...

I just absolutely love the old architectural details we see here!

simple...

The following video is of me accompanying a monk.  Pardon my poor sightreading skills, but if you watch to the end he has quite a beautiful voice.  What a very neat experience!

{Well, this video refuses to load properly for some reason.  I am sure it's operator error!}

 I ADORE this lady's smile! Now, I freaked out her granddaughter with my big, black, honkin' camera though!

another happy boy...all these villagers were SO friendly!

beautiful children (this was before I made the little one cry!)

Audrey An was swarmed by these ladies.  They kept touching her hair (unusual...because it's always Abigail's hair that gets touched) and kept trying to convince me of AA's country of origin was not China.  

This gentleman had quite the personality!  He was trying to get the girls to put their arms around each other like they were long, lost friends.  We all had such fun interacting with these lovely people!

I can't tell you how happy I was this morning!  I felt my heart was about to bust out of my chest.  David couldn't wipe the smile off my face.  I can't describe the feeling of interacting with people (who you can only communicate through body language and smiles), exploring God's beautiful world (so simple and less complicated), and being welcomed by strangers into their village.  Ahhhhh, wonderful day! 

They are ALL precious in His sight!  What a privilege to get to be outside my box (which I don't like being in a box...have you figured that out yet!?!? LOL!)

I can't get my videos to load tonight for some reason...check back later and you'll see some pretty cool footage (I think!).