Turning Five and Roadtrippin' the West

Odin Lonning, Killer Whale Pod of Many Nations. 2006. Carved cedar with acrylic paint.




T&A ski tour just outside of Granite Falls, Washington.


Birthday girl Amaya below the salmon fry at the Seattle Aquarium.


Cousins Fisher, Maya and Amaya on a killer whale.


The Birthday girl outside the Portland Childrens Museum.



The Portland Party.


Olivia and Amaya.




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After a series of Birthday parties for our fabulous 5 year old (Granite Falls, Seattle, Baimbridge Island, Longview, and Portland), we packed up the truck and hit the road heading South through Oregon and into California.



Amaya below Mt. Shasta, northern California.



A rearview of the sunset near Yosemite National Park, CA.


Our mobile summer home on the east side of the Sierras, near Big Pine, CA.


Death Valley, CA.

We are now in Arizona and hope to update the blog again soon as the desert southwest is in bloom.

And the music never stopped...

Amaya ready to hit the streets with her super Swedish soul sister, Bubu.



Munchies? A mobile banana pancake bike offers immediate and such sweet gratification.


This tabby cat chills out above the locus pond near the River Kwai, Kanchantaburi.


HEYA, I guess its been two months since our last bloggerspot post---and we've finally played out our endgame... so lets catch it up! Back in February, we travelled south from Laos, crossing the Mekong river back into Thailand. We then stayed in the ancient city of Chiang Mai for about a week. An overnight train and bus ride later, we met up with some good friends living in Kanchanaburi. As a final destination for the trip, we made the journey back to the Treehouse on Long Beach, Ko Chang, Thailand. This pretty much took us well into March, and that long thought after "Point of Return." This was a great end to a great trip--afterall, we had started it all off on this same beach back in August; and many friends were still there.



Mick and Leaf kick it at the Treehouse on Ko Chang.


Amaya is taken in by Shavanti, Rory and Jakia---a power trio visiting the island from Queensland, Australia.



A couple of faces strained by travel...


After about thirty hours in transit, we finally finally make the ultra bizarre re-entry into the United States and reunite with our family. Above, Amaya and her dear cousin, Remy, at the Portland Airport. There's no saying how many times Amayar talked of Rem on this trip. Daily. It was a reunion to be reckoned with... and so good to be back.