We almost lost Cannon to a Monkey and Mya to Ants!

Okay, so the picture says it all. I can't believe that Brian caught it! We traveled to the Botanical Gardens here in Penang. This is what I pictured Malaysia to be in my mind. Not all of the buildings where we are staying. It is a jungle when you travel outside of the buildings. We went to the gardens because we were told you could see monkeys there. Great, monkeys in the US are in cages, great. Not in the Botanical Gardens in Malaysia, they roam freely as if you were seeing squirrels in Colorado. People feed them too just like the squirrels. They sit up in the electrical wires and we found one that had a mohawk. SO funny! They were everywhere!! Cannon was wary of them at first but soon got very comfortable walking around with them. I never got comfortable and was scared of them the entire time!!! Mya is Mya, never scared and wanted to chase them.

Cannon got to close to one and he bared his teeth at Cannon and growled, I thought he was a goner! He screamed and everyone turned to look and he ran away faster then I have ever seen him go. (Vicki, it was worse then the alligator in the Wild Life Experience.) He wanted to ride on Brian's shoulders the rest of the time! When we got back everyone kept asking him if he loved the monkeys, and he just said, "No, I didn't like them at all." End of story. By the time we left he was crying because he wanted to see more Monkeys, so I think we will have to go back.

Mya fell down one time trying to go down a hill when she stood back up she was covered in sugar ants. I thought it was just dirt but when I looked closer she was swarming. I am so glad they were just sugar ants and didn't bite her at all. I wonder what all the people were thinking when the crazy Americans were stripping the clothes off of her and beating them on the ground. We must have been a spectacle.
The Gardens are a very popular place to go and run. There were people exercising everywhere. Running, walking, and do Yoga, and Ti Chi (spelling?). I don't understand how people can work out here, I was dying and we were only sauntering around. Notice the kids hair, soaked like they just got out of the shower. The line from that movie, Fools Rush In, keeps going through my head, "The white people are melting!"

It's getting better, I just have to remember to carry something with me to wipe the sweat away. The Gardens were beautiful and very well maintained. We found a tree called the Cannonball tree. They were so cool! Also, this tree with this amazing root, huge!!! It looks like a wall but its the tree's root. I wish everyone was here to see it, the pictures don't do it justice!

When we were driving home we drove through this Indian market, there were so many people you could hardly drive down the street, we are going to try to go back tonight to see if it's there again. I want to walk around and see. They were selling everything under the sun! It might only be a once a week thing, but something I don't want to miss out on. I feel like my eyes can't take it all in. Notice the little girl standing the the blue dress, BEAUTIFUL!!! The clothes are awesome!! Love it!!

Thunder Storms

They have the most incredible Thunder Storms here. They are beautiful and amazing! You can see the thunder heads rolling in off of the sea and it blocks out your view of most of the land around us. They have a lot of thunder and they shake the house. It gets really warm before it rains and then cools off considerably when it stops. It clears out the air as well. It is always hazy here and I am missing the blue sky. The hazy is from Indonesia, where they are burning down their jungles to clear the land for building. It smells really smoky here in the mornings. I can't believe that the smoke travels all they way to where we are! Its strange to think that we in America are so concerned with clean air, but here its fast to burn the jungle then to clear it out with earth movers. I saw my first semi truck here today, kind of crazy, but I hadn't thought about them until I saw it and then, Wow that thing is huge! Cars here are extremely small. The family we are staying with has a Camry and it is considered big! Wonder what they would think of my Tahoe.

Church in Penang

We attended a small branch on Sunday in Penang. It was in a beautiful building about 10 minutes away from where we are staying. Brian drove! The roads are crazy! First of all they drive on the wrong side of the road and on the wrong side of the car. But there are motorcycles that weave through traffic like crazy. They are so close to the car that you could reach out and pat them on the back, and they come up on both sides of the car. They also don't require car seats here, so I saw a boy about Cannon's age riding on his Dad's lap while we were driving. Our car seats are so big and the cars so small that only the kids can ride in the back seat. So if we have more then two adults, we can not take the car seats. The kids are trilled, especially Mya who doesn't like riding in her car seat any way.

When we got to church guess who was there to greet us, but Elder Vance, who is serving in his first area here in Penang! Crazy small world. We were greeted by almost the entire branch before sacrament started. The branch president, (at least I think he is the branch president) sounds like he is from South Africa. Then church started and we found it was exactly the same! Except the music, sorry Castlewood Canyon Ward but the small branch and I mean small branch puts our hymn singing to shame!!! Everyone sings as loudly as they can and fills the entire building, it was awesome. They don't worry about who has a good voice and who doesn't, they are all singing and as loudly as they can. I loved it!!!
Mya attended nursery for the first time ever and did fantastic. There was one other little boy with her, but she had the attention of Sister Chrissy for the whole two hours. I think she loved it. Cannon was a little unsure about going to Sunbeams alone, so Brian stayed with him, but he was quickly okay and told Brian, "See ya later Dad." Sunday school was small and in a separate building, I was a little unsure about leaving the kids in the main building to go to Sunday School. But the Branch President said everything is great, and get to Sunday School. I had Sunday School and Relief Society lessons without any kids, Crazy!!
Next week is District Conference and all the members will be traveling to Ipoh (e-poe) by Coach.
(bus) It is two and a half hour bus ride to get there and the meeting starts at 10. Then the Ipoh branch will be serving lunch and a two and a half hour bus ride home. I think the members here are more dedicated, because they seem excited to go, and Brian and I looked at each other and thought, all that time on the bus with Cannon and Mya, No Way!!! I didn't take any pictures at church, but will post some next time we go...

11 Gurney Drive

Sunrise at 11 Gurney Drive. We have been seeing a lot of them! Gurney is a very busy street that runs right along the North coastline of Penang. Penang is a small island on the North West side of Malaysia. There are a lot of people who live here, and major mix of people. Mostly Malays, and Indians. I am not sure if that is the correct term, (people from the country of India.) There are also a lot of Australians, Philippians, Chinese, Japanese, Americans, and English.

Malaysia is a vacation spot for the English and Australians, we are only six hours by plane from Australia. The building we are staying in is right next to the Gurney Hotel which is huge! Down the street a little ways is the Gurney Plaza which is a giant mall. I think I counted five or six stories of shops and restaurants. In the bottom of the mall is the grocery store, which kind of reminds me of a Walgreen's, except with food. There is a great walking path that is on the other side of the street and right on the water's edge. If it wasn't so warm all the time I think I would like to run there. ha, ha,ha, run yea right! I see a lot of the people who are staying in the hotel running there. I am sure that we are going to get use to the heat. I think it will just take a while.

The "current" is very expensive here, (electricity) so they do not run the air conditioning in their homes. There are room Ac's in the bedrooms, so its not to warm to sleep, but the main area of the home is open and the windows open to invite the breeze in from the sea. (It is a soothing warm breeze, and very welcome!!) It feels so tropical. The home we are saying in is lined with sliding glass doors, and a balcony that goes most of the way around! Beautiful!!!

The area of the house that houses the washer and dryer has an open wall that doesn't have a door, its always open. I asked Lyn, the housekeeper what they do when the rain comes and she just looked at me like, What are you talking about," so I suppose it doesn't get wet. The woman that we are staying with, Joanne is short like me, and she had her her counter tops and stove custom made to fit her size, its really great to be able to look into a pot without standing on your tiptoes. It must be how everyone else feels:) We do not wear our shoes into the home and there is no carpet anywhere, my feet are achy! I am sure I will get used to that as well. Lyn couldn't believe that we wear shoes most of the time, or slippers. She says bare feet are best. Here they most definitely are.

We are here!

We made it to Malaysia! We are settling in on Gurney Drive, in Penang. It is SO beautiful here. WARM, WARM, WARM! I don't think I have stopped sweating since I got here. Cannon who sweats a lot normally has not had dry hair since we got here, and sweet Mya has beautiful rosy cheeks. We flew out of Colorado Monday evening the 19th. We flew to San Francisco. As we took off in Denver Cannon was yelling, Mom, I can see Africa from here." He looked out the window the entire time. He loved the airplane ride. As we were landing, Brian asked him what he thought of flying and he said, "Flying makes me hot." We thought that was a bit of a strange answer and then he started yelling, "I'm going to throw up." Brian who is a quick thinker found the barf bag in the seat and caught it as it was coming out. We had a four hour layover in San Francisco.

We met a missionary who was on his way to Singapore while we were waiting. He thought he had found someone to share the gospel with, poor Elder Vance will have to wait. He was traveling alone and was the only missionary in the MTC going to Singapore.

We had a fourteen hour flight to Hong Kong. That is a long time in an airplane! The kids really did fantastic. Mya got a cot on the airplane, which is a bassinet strapped to a board that pulls out of the wall, I kept thinking she was going to fall out, so I did not sleep much while she was in there. Cannon crashed out the minute we got seated and slept for about seven hours. Mya slept a little bit longer. I kept having to take her out of the cot because she couldn't be in there if there was any turbulence. Cannon watched movies the rest of the time. Luckily the airline offered about twelve kids movies and a lot of tv shows. I didn't even have to break out any of the puzzle books I brought for him. Mya was another story. She wanted to walk the aisles. So I was up and down with her, most of the flight. She did play with some toys and coloring books, but not for long. I think the stewardess' where happy to see us off the plane.

We had an eight hour layover in the Hong Kong airport. We ate Burger King hamburgers at six in the morning, cause it felt like the afternoon to our bodies. We walked around a lot and they had a couple of play places for the kids, so it really wasn't bad. I felt like we were still in America. There were a lot of shops, and places to buy clothes and purses, so it really felt like we were in a huge mall. I haven't met anyone yet that does not speak English. We Americans are so behind! Mya and Cannon are celebrities here, especially Mya with her big eyes. Everyone wants to touch them and talk to them, its really crazy. Asians do not have personal space, they put their hands all over the kids, rubbing their hair and their cheeks and arms. It really freaks me out! I have had people ask me if they can hold Mya, and I don't even know them. Lucky for me, Mya doesn't want anyone to hold her but Brian or I. But the people are so friendly!

We got on an airplane to Penang about three in the afternoon and Cannon fell asleep as soon as the plane started moving. Mya fell asleep about an hour later. They both slept through landing, getting off the plane, customs, baggage claim, loading the cars, (yes cars, we brought so much stuff that we had to be picked up in two cars.) and the drive to the condo. I have never seen them that dead to the world in my life. We all went to sleep very quickly after we arrived here. The kids slept until about 3 in the morning, and got up for milk, a quick look outside and some stories and then were back to sleep by 4 and slept until 8. The time adjustment has been the hardest on Mya. She falls asleep where ever and though what ever were doing. She is still sleeping at night, and for that I am grateful. We haven't made it all the way through the night yet, but this morning they slept until six, so we are getting there!