


Sorry the pictures are all crazy I am still trying to fugure out how to do this.




Us at the Grand Canal in Venice
Bayeux, France (did I spell that right Christine?)
Hiking in Switzerland
Riding scooters down a mountain in Austria
Hiking through a rice paddy in northern Thailand
Arc d'Triomphe........Laos??? The US gave concrete to Laos to build an airport, but instead built this monument. Laos was occupied by the French for many years, and the influence is still obvious.
Inside the CuChi tunnels in southern Vietnam. The Vietcong spend the whole duration of the Vietnam war living and fighting from these tunnels. And they weren't even this big! They made this one bigger for tourists to walk through. Crazy!!!!
Northern and Southern Vietnam still feel like 2 different countries. Saigon, in the south, has 10 million people driving 4 million scooters. Hanoi, above, is the capitol of the north and is clean and quiet. We are standing in the center of the city, which is a huge lake! The city has a midnight curfew. At 12, police drive around with horns making everybody go inside. It was so wierd!!
We ended our trip relaxing in Southern Thailand. It was so nice!!! Jared's sister, Alisa, was along for the adventure
climbing above the ocean in southern Thailand
And last, but not least, the wonderful, sanitary, toilets of Southeast Asia. By the end of the trip, we were thrilled if a toilet had toilet paper available. If there was soap and water, we were truly ecstatic!
I was really nervous about the red door at first, but I think it looks really good...so I was very happy about that! We are getting our final inspection today and then we can see if we can move in this weekend. If we don't pass we'll have to wait until we can get everything done that we need to! So I'll send another update once we are all moved in and stuff! But here's the latest of what I've been up to the past 6 months or so!!!!! :)


My favorite place in France though was a little mountain called Mont St. Michelle. It was amazing. There's a church at the very top of the mountain and the base of the mountain is a little town with shops. When the tide is high it becomes an island (except the road leading into it).
The most humbling places were D-Day beaches (the huge cemetery) and the concentration camp in Dachau. That is something I will never forget. It was just insane to see the pictures and movie of what happened there. We saw lots and lots of old churches (amazing architecture and art), museums (lots and lots of art) and definitely got a feel for the difference in culture. We went to Venice which was a crazy city...but very neat at the same time. No gondola ride...seeing that they cost a boatload! :) We just took the huge water taxi instead! (We also sweated like crazy in Venice...it was SUPER hot there.)
We stayed in Austria for a week and I loved it there. It was just small towns that were gorgeous. Fun houses with flowers on every balcony and very peaceful. It was quiet in summer but I can just imagine how hopping it gets in the winter with all the ski resorts. Switzerland was the most expensive place. Bryce got a big mac value meal and it cost him $10 for his alone!!!!! We felt quite lucky that we were able to go though. Bryce is now doing rotations until December so there will be no more trips for us (besides our 2 year anniversary...2 football games in 2 days!!!!!) :) Our house is about a month from being done and we are getting excited. I'll have to post a picture of that some other time though (once the front door is painted). Well it's always exciting to read about everyone's news and lives! I'm glad people are still posting and sharing everything! Hope everyone is doing great! :)



