Waterfalls part 2

3.15.2015

We made it, and it was spectacular.

Our peeps are there at the bottom:

The spray felt good, but did get a little cold.

We have a picture like this at Toccoa Falls during our first year of marriage, so it was fitting to reenact it on our 12th anniversary! This time there is a baby on my back!

LOVE these people. This was quite a good hike, they did great!

We enjoyed a picnic lunch at the falls. Who knew there was a little stand to buy stuff? We turned the corner and I said: "I smell ramen noodles," sure enough, there they were.
We ate our packed lunch.

 The kids chose the bridge for their al fresco dining

This was a great outdoor adventure!

Waterfalls part 1

3.15.2015
To really accomplish our goal of 'picking up the excitement a bit' we planned a trip to some beautiful waterfalls about an hour and a half away, right near the border town.

I had been there 9 years ago and David had never been, he had only passed by them many times.
We got on our way on the road leading out of town...until we started to see less and less cars, which is very unusual heading to the border. We asked this nice lady, and she pointed to the turn off we thought we missed, it usually is not there at all, there is only one straight road out of town. Except for now, apparently. There is tons of road work going on so...go figure.

 Road scenes.

Temple in a village

Once we finally started seeing signs we stopped just one more time to make sure we were still in the right direction on smaller roads. Yep, 9km away this lady told us.

 The crew, geared and ready.

 LOTs of peacocks wondering around

The Ergo, by far the best baby carrier around, proved its worth once again.

Gabrielle did not complain a bit on our almost mile walk through the rain forest to the waterfall.

 The kids loved it too, admitting that once we arrived, it was a longer hike than they thought.

for a price you can feed fish through a bottle. Interesting.

 Lots of fun bridges and big trees to explore throughout the hike.

Did we make it? Wait and see....

Correction and Double Date Night

David says he was actually more of a hero at the horse farm than what my writing detailed. He is laughing out loud as he says this. I didn't detail it because I didn't know what really happened. He says he too was surprised he actually did anything at all. 

David really was the only one who seemed to be taking charge with any sort of inkling as to what to do, the other three people (trainer, hysterical mom, and another man) were all trying to get a handle on the horse, not trying to save the girl: David did seriously jump the fence, scoop the girl up, disentangle her foot from the stirrup and put her in her mom's arms. Super. Hero. (no sarcasm there, friends). 

That is the truth. But we just sat here and embellished the story a bit and got to belly laughing....because in my eyes it looked something like this: he high jumped the fence, chased down the horse like Dash, wrestled it to the ground in a head lock, and lifted the girl to safety. Super hero indeed.

We laugh now. it was scar-y at the time. And David tells me her face was quite banged and scratched up. We were so thankful she was okay, it could have been so much worse.

After our horse farm morning, some other ex-pats in town were having a drop-off birthday party and our three eldest were invited. We arranged for our helper to come and watch Gabrielle, and Poppy and CC and David and I went on a double date! I don't even think we did this in the States. It was a precious, fun evening, 

We started by going to visit David's masseuse. A blind guy who is from a local minority. David is good friends with all the blind guys that work in this shop, but this one in particular wanted to know what an American Dollar feels like. So we took him one and visited for a few minutes before going out to dinner.

We walked around in front of the main shopping district in our town. 

This guy is selling 'stinky tofu', it is molded and then fried. Gross, and it is a smell that in ten years here, I still cannot stand.

 
A bowl of pickled Chicken feet.

This happened to be the day before our 12th wedding anniversary, perfect timing for a date night.

We then went out to eat at Team Work, a place with a great atmosphere and great food, they loved it. We laughed, almost cried some, discussed lots of light and deep things going on. We love that our parents are our friends! This really was a special time.

We think we may get this kind of car for Sophia one day. It is electric and seats two people.

After we picked up the kids we walked the neighborhood and met these neighbors. Very sweet. These were the folks that slaughtered the pig in their front yard. Maybe next time we will get invited to the BBQ.

Both Sophia and Bella wowed Poppy and CC by singing all the States and their capitals!

Around the Town Excitement

The gate to Sophia's school at pick-up time. We are really showing Poppy and CC a good time :).

The adventures did continue, I promise.

Workers do morning exercises before starting work, a common scene.

Carrying as much as you can on your scooter.

And a fun outing to the square, with a fun play place!

Do you want to buy some or not?

Piled high with cardboard scraps.

They came home to Mexican Food.

Post-dinner walk, and playing in the pool. Ha Ha, if only we could SWIM in the pool.

 Starting early on the upper body strength. Poor girl is in like the 8th percentile for weight, so her skirt is falling off, it probably fits most 18 month olds.

A Scary Day at the Horse Farm

We took Poppy and CC to the horse farm again. The weather was perfect. It is our dry season so we can't quite see the mountains until the rains come. But still it is not too hot, not too cool.
This is the Buddhist Pagoda in our Town. The mountains that tower behind it are invisible.


A kindergarten class, kids Tobin's age, were riding so we had to wait.
We went back and visited our fave, xiao long.

David talked to the trainer who said it wouldn't be too long. Then, as we fed the horses at the back, we suddenly started hearing screaming....

And screaming from a mom who was running out to the middle of the corral where her daughter was dangling head first (towards the ground) on the side of the pony. The pony had taken off and the trainer on the other side was trying to get it to stop. Meanwhile the little girl, foot caught in the stirrup, dangled and banged as the horse ran faster.

My heart was in my throat, all of us were watching, not real sure what to do. I was sure we were going to witness a little girl get kicked in the head and killed.

I am actually not quite sure what happened next, except that it was David who picked the girl up from her upside down ride. The mom was a bit hysterical, and the girl quite banged and bruised, but otherwise fine.

I wanted to call it a day and go home. But we waited. After things settled down a bit, everyone got comforted, we talked with the trainer again. That pony had been ridden all morning, The girl was too small to be on it anyway. The ponies are not well behaved really.

The trainer was quite shaken up and was not trying to convince us to ride. In fact, he said his heart still 'felt so much pressure', that he would not even let Sophia ride alone, even though she was big enough and he completely trusted the horse we would ride.

He took the pony away, who was still in a foul mood, we could tell.

We decided David would go first and that the kids would ride with him. This horse, though way bigger than the pony, was so much more gentle. We have been around him before and also do trust this trainer.

Getting David suited up, CC commented that it looked like a scene from Downtown Abby.

 And off he rode on this much kinder animal.

Then Soph took a turn. (she was a bit scared after the previous scene but did great, and in the end wanted to go alone, which we did not allow).

 Bella up next!

 And Tobin man.

And finally, me. While walking, I had a little talk with the trainer,
'how are you doing?' I was wondering. "how is your heart feeling now?"
He told me that there are rules (which I knew), and even though it was a pony, that the girl was too little (all of them probably were, they were 3 and 4 year olds!), but that it was the old boss' son's class, so he had to let them ride.
He also described what happened in the girl jerking back possibly, the animal taking off and her not having the ability or know how to hold on, she went over the side.
He said he kept thinking it over in his mind if there was anything else he could have done and he didn't think so....
He was still unsettled about it all, and I sure would have been too.

But he wasn't nervous about adults being on this gentle animal, and remembering that I could ride, he got me trotting and posting and going a bit fast. It was fun, but I wasn't quite in the mood either, so after a few minutes I dismounted and we headed home.

 Just another crazy adventure in the Coker household.

We always explain to our kids that animals are animals. Any animal can bite, you can't always control an animal, this is exactly what the trainer told us too, before we got on: I can't guarantee 100% anything, it is an animal!

We usually have this conversation in regards to dogs that seem cute...and since David was exposed to Rabies from a cute little puppy, we don't mess around.