Sawyer 11th and Ryder's 9th Birthday Party and Australia Farewell Party (March, 2015)

We were sad to leave our friends and life in Perth, Australia and wanted to have a big party to celebrate our friendships and have a little fun before taking off.  We rented out a big gym and invited many of the kids' friends from school and from church and had a combined birthday and farewell party for Ryder and Sawyer.  We had a great turnout and it was very fun.

Addy, giving zander a push on the rope swing.

Sawyer, upside down on the bar swing.

Sawyer, on the balance beam.

Great group of kids.

Ryder, climbing the rope.

Sawyer's high bar dismount.

Tori and Alex...going to miss these girls.

Big pizza party.

Murder Mystery Farewell Party, Perth Australia (March, 2015)

For Cody's birthday party (and a pre-farewell party), the girls organized a murder mystery party with the Kemps, Bollards, Glossops, and Whippermans where we each had to get into character for the party...the assignments were handed out a week in advance and we all had a role to play.  We had a great time trying to guess who was the murderer and had a great cast of characters.

Rick and Alex.

Adam and Kristie.

Cody and Eliza.

Our whole group, in character.

Joe and Tori.

Cody's Guys Trip, Bangkok, Thailand (March, 2015)

We had an 8 hour layover in Bangkok on our way home from Japan and we took advantage of this by hopping on the train from Bangkok International Airport and getting into the city to go to a Muay Thai fight.  The fights are just about every day and they last from about 6pm to 10pm.  There are 2 main Muay Thai boxing stadiums in Bangkok (Lumpinee and Rajadamnern).  On the day we were there, the fight was happening at Lumpini stadium.  We paid 2,500 Baht each for our tickets, which were on the front row.  They reserve the front couple rows for the tourists and they charge us a lot more than the locals that pay 540 Baht each to see the fights.

 Muay Thai fighting in Bangkok, Thailand.

 Muay Thai fighting in Bangkok, Thailand.

Muay Thai fighting in Bangkok, Thailand.

We grabbed a taxi and the driver had an extremely hard time finding the place. We were struggling with English/Thai translation and the traffic was terrible, but we finally made it to the fights. We watched a bunch of Thai dudes pummel each other with some Buddhist prayers in between. The costumes were elaborate, the Thai men packed the stadium and were betting on all the fights. We were on the front row and had great views of everything that was happening. Overall, this was a great experience and a lot of fun. We took off after about 5 fights (there were 10 total) since we had to get back to the airport and catch our flight back to Perth.

Cody's Guys Trip, Niseko, Japan (March, 2015)

We booked 5 nights at the Hilton Niseko Village using 24,000 Hilton Hhonors points per night (120,000 points total).  This was an awesome use of Hilton points as the room was going for $571 + tax per night.  We were also able to use our Hilton Diamond status and get free breakfast and free internet.  The hotel doesn't have a lounge, but it does have an Onsen (giant community hot tub) that one can relax in after a long day on the slopes. For the last 3 nights, we were upgraded to a panorama room which looked out over the ski slope.

 Joe, Cody, and Rick at the top of Niseko Village Ski Resort.

 Views of the volcano in the distance were amazing.

We had 2 full days of skiing and took full advantage of the Onsen when we were in the hotel.  We took a break from skiing the next day (the weather was pretty bad) and booked a snowmobiling trip with Black Diamond tours.  We planned to ski the following day, rented our gear, bought our passes, waited in line for the gondola and watched several groups head up, but when it was our turn to board the gondola they decided to shut the lift down due to high winds.  We were literally putting our skis on the lift when they shut it down.  We headed back in to return our gear and get refunds then headed back into town.

 Joe, Rick, and Cody taking a break from snowmobiling near Niseko, Japan.

 Riding up the lift.

 Lunch Break.

Sexy men, ready to hit the onsen...hard.

We also got a lot of use out of the free hotel shuttles into Niseko and got massages and found some great restaurants in town which had very affordable prices and amazing food.