My Thanksgiving for Children and Grandchildren

Wow, how lucky am I?  I got to spend Thanksgiving with so many of the people I love!  On Wednesday night the New York crowd drove for many hours to join us at the Shumways in Boston.  How fun it was to see all those great people including Lyla who has grown like a weed and can even do the trick!  How adorable is she?

McKay is talking up a storm and we also got to meet Tal's new girlfriend Anita who is a delightful person.  Having all those children and grandchildren gathered into that warm and lovely Shumway home was just about as close as you can get to heaven!

  

Then I got to get on a plane early the next morning back home to Utah via Phoenix.  Although my plane got diverted to Tucson because of freaky fog in Phoenix so I missed my flight but only had to wait for about three hours to get home.  I was so excited to see dad after a being without him for a week. He picked me up at the airport and wisked me off to the Carvers when he had just had dinner and where they had a delicious plate of Thanksgiving dinner ready for me.  It was great to be home after eight weeks of being on the road!

The Loosli family joined us that night at Baliwood and then the next day Saren helped me shop and prepare a nice Thanksgiving dinner for Grandma Ruthie and all her family members in the area. We had twenty adults, two babies and the five Loosli kids.  It was so great to see them all together.  Rawlin and Karen have been out of town for the last two family gatherings so it was especially good to see them and Jake, Elizabeth, Patrick, Lana and her little niece. 

All twenty at the same table!

 

 

 

 Squealing grandchildren at the feet of grandfather. A great time was had by all!

We missed those who weren't there but hope to get you all at Christmas...which is coming like the tide!  So much to do...so little time! 

Sweet Baby Emmeline Rose Eyre Shumway

Well here we are with this sweet little baby!  She is just so good!  She has already lost the baby glazed-over look and seems to really focus on people who talk to her!  When I first picked her up she just looked at me as if to say, "There you are!  Where have you been?"  She is a delight to her parents and Hazel and Charlie are taking great care of her too!  They are gentle and loving.  Charlie with his magnificent vocabulary handles her with ease as does Hazel with her mature thinking skills.  We are having so much fun!

 

 

These two pictures are Charity!  This is the Laura Ashley coat that she wore when she was four!  Hazel looks adorable in it!  Don't worry Charity, Saydi will save it for your little girls too!  It's a classic!

Is she adorable or what???

 

 

So all of Jeff's hard work paid off when they hauled in the new countertop for the Island that he just installed. It is just fabulous!  It gives them twice as much counter space and looks so great with their black and white backsplash tile.  The New York guys will be seeing it this weekend.  For the rest of you, here you go:

 

  It is REALLY hard to get Saydi to take a nap..but sleep deprived as she is, she still manages to have friends and work associates here every other minute, and send out all those Thanksgiving cards.  Jeff has been so great too. He is truly a champion!  Just released as the Elder's Quorum President, he taught his first Sunday School lesson to the Valiant B's today.  Sure wish I could have been in his class when I was that age. 

Amazing Asian Infrastructure

Before we leave the topic of Bangkok, we need to post some pictures of some of the most amazing infrastructure in Asia!  This grand Hyatt is one of the grandest on Earth.  It is a truly amazing building taken over several years ago and made into something wonderful!

 

Just outside the door is the central Shrine for one of the Buddhist sects.  90% of Thailand is Buddhist:

Just outside the door also are shiesters (spelling not in the dictionary) who run scams every day. This woman was the second one who told us about a big government products sale that we shouldn't miss.  She just ran onto us on the sidewalk and started asking questions about where we'd like to go in Bangkok.  We were on our way to shopping for gifts anyway so she kindly told us exactly where to go to buy Thai gems and silk at greatly reduced prices. She showed us her sapphire ring and then put us in a little tuk tuk to get in on the "big sale".  This picture was taken just as we stepped into our "transportation" which magically appeared out of nowhere and took us to a jewelry and Thai silk store that was totally deserted except for us. You know dad and gems.  He thought it would be good to get some of his money in something solid before it toally disappears in the market so we bought a 1.1 caret ruby ring with two little diamonds on each side set in a gold band.  It's really pretty (I never would have bought gold but dad insisted that it's coming back plus the stones were better than any of the others).  I need Eli here to show me how to take pictures of rings but this will give you an idea...except that the stone really is the same color as my car!

 

As soon as they offered us a ride anywhere we wanted to go after we bought the ring, Dad started thinking we had paid too much.   When we got back to the hotel, the concierge told us that those people are out there 24/7 looking for people who look like tourists to scam.  Dad thought it was hilarious.  We do think that it's a real ruby but how much it's actually worth is something we'll have to ask Curtis Bennett about when we get home!  FUNNY!

The next morning we left from the amazing Bangkok airport which is the most amazing airport on earth to the Kuala Lumpur airport which runs a close second.  The infrastructure of these developing nations is nothing less than spectacular!

The king and queen are everywhere, especially the airport!

Here's an enormous statue a bevy of men carrying a giant three-headed snake!  

From Bangkok to Kuala Lumpur!

The their Twin Towers!  (Muslim design)

Independence Square where Malaysia declared independence from from Britain in 1957.

 

Relaxing before we start: 

Here we are in the forest above Kuala Lumpur where we are doing workshops for 2 1/2 days with 12 YPO families.

Enjoying great food, including fish head curry on a banana leaf!  Complete with wonderful condiments!

Our electronic technician on a cell phone.

 

Smart YPO members put their kids in charge of the event.  Here are two eighteen year olds who have planned and executed the whole thing. They are so cute and very capable!

 

 

The families are staying in these ultra big tents! 

We got a room at the top of the path!  Whew!

 

Dad's getting pretty relaxed here toward the end. Presenting with yellow toenails and his beloved hat (you'll be glad that the toenails don't show up in the picture)!

Gorgeous forest complete with monkeys!

We're starting to count days on getting to cuddle that little Emmeline Rose.  Another day and a half of workshops here, then an event at a school in Kuala Lumpur and we'll be on our way!

Fascinating People in Bangkok!

Our event was last night at our hotel where the buffet is not quite like the ones we see at home but wow, was it good (and VERY chili pepper hot in some cases).

One of the attendees was a member of WPO...World Presidents' Organization (older YPO members) who is the sort of the Jon Huntsman of Asia. He has 30 businesses (including Tyson Foods International) and is on the boards of numerous foundations and Universities, is the Commissioner of Cultural Arts  as well as having a University named after him.  As we talked we found that we had quite a lot in common.  He had been to Utah several years ago where he had a private meeting with President Hinckley, the President of the Mormon church there.  He said that President Hinckley had given him a bronze statue after a one hour meeting with him.  With a good natured smile he said that he had a very hard time getting the gift through security at the airport. They simply would not believe that President Hinckley had given it to him! 

He is the man to my right.  The man on his right was our host, came from France and had a delightful French accent. He is in the medical field and is just starting a business for people who need heart surgery. They have places here that look like four star hotels but are actually a medical unit with the best surgeons in the world and state of the art equipment.  Instead of costing $150,000 as it would in the US, they can do it for around $30,000.  Truly an amazing idea!  The woman on Dad's left came up afterward and said that she had spent three years at the University of Utah which is about a mile from our home in Salt Lake City.   It was a great night full of fascinating people here in Asia. 

Today we did four private consultations and it was again fascinating to get inside of family issues.  Though we're been in very different cultures (for one things,everyone has one or more nannies, housekeepers and drivers) many of the issues are exactly the same as in any culture. Some are afraid of disciplining their kids, some don't have much a relationship with their spouse and some are just worried about sibling rivalry. One family had sent their youngest of four, an eight year old, to a boarding school in England just because the child thought he really wanted to go. Then he called home crying to come home and they had him stick it out and stay. Now he's twelve and still there except for school holidays four times a year. They are loving, caring parents and they talk to him almost every day but....wow...what a sacrifice!  For the most part these great people are just terrific families doing their best with the way they were raised as a backdrop. 

The traditions in Asia are fabulous.  yesterday was a huge celebration day here that occurs only once a year.  They decorate small floats or boats (most are only about 12 inches across) with flowers, incense and candles and send their lighted floaters down the river after dark. Some say it is symbolic of sending your sins down the river and if you don't, you'll have bad luck for 10 years.  Others say it also signifies saying "sorry" to the river (and the goddess of the river) for the pollution.  Both are delightful ideas.  The fireworks and lighted boats (huge boats full of people along with the little ones) going down the river last night after our event were spectacular!  Wish you could all have been here! 

Today we are going to see the famous reclining Buddha and the royal preparations for the cremation and funeral of the King's sister which will be tomorrow. This is still the Kingdom of Siam!  Nothing bad is EVER said about the royal family...unlike the royalty situation in England.  It seems as though even though we are sitting in one of the great business markets of the world, the good citizens here are also very aware that they are part of a great Kingdom!  

Exotic Bangkok and Sensational Siam

Burgeoning business, designer stores that rival any in the world, wild architecture amidst worshippers at shrines at the very center of Bangkok (about 20 yards from our gorgeous Hyatt Hotel with every imaginable amenity) and shucks, even McDonalds fill the streets of Bangkok to overflowing!

 

Overhead railways, elevated highways and even subways don't seem to dent the traffic jams.  Some of the stop lights are 20 minutes long!

This morning we went on a lovely day trip to the floating markets.  Even though we had just seen the floating market in Vietnam, this was another story.  Much more commercial and colorful with overanxious salespeople on every site.  "You buy this, just for good luck lady."  over and over.  Dad LOVES boats so we certainly got our boat time in today!

  

 

Next we stopped at the amazing cobra show!  Here we saw venomous snakes of all kinds:

Golden tree snake!

Vipers:

 

And a very scary cobra show!

Just look at the venom that came out of this poor guy!

 

Next it was on to an amazing furniture carving shop:

Here is our cute little guide Tao who just kept talking about the Leever.  We finally realized that she was saying "river".  That and waluable (valuable) were her best words.  She was delightful and filled us in on so many facts:  There are 30,000 temples in Bangkok, the Thai people NEVER say anything bad about their royalty.  The king is 81 and the queen in her seventies. Their son, who has three wives may or may not take over the kingdom.  The Grand Palace (which we visited last time and which we know Eli and Charity visited also when they were here) is probably one of the most spectacular sights on the earth (that was my thought, not hers):

  

We took a private boat trip down the Bangkok River (called that because we can't remember the name, nor could we pronounce it or write it).  It was so fun to see life along the river and catch glimpses of that fabulous Palace!

There were also exotic fruits...also yummy!

 

 

 

There is a national holiday tonight and this wild boat race with all women racers was so fun to see (it was part of the celebration). The flags are the finish line!

We look forward to the candle-lighted small boats floating down the river...some say they are symbols of "sending your sins down the rivers."  Others say it is a celebration to say "Sorry" to the river for polluting it.  I think it's both.  Here are the "offerings they send down the river with incense and candles, flowers and festive decorations:

 

Fireworks went off like the Fourth of July!  Boats were decorated with lights to the hildt.  Boy, I bet there are a few big bankers who would like to send their sins down the river!  Fascinating Day!