Kickstarter update: Less than 30 hours after we launched our 15 day campaign to get Following After Trek into paperback we succeeded! This is sooo rare! only 42% of Kickstarter projects succeed and of those only 25% get more than 10% of their goal We are amazed at how loving and generous all of our friends and family are. We have over 50 shares on facebook, an offer for an interview on a local news station, and even a $1000 pledge! holy cow-we are so happy right now!!!! Thank you all so much! Any money we get over our goal we will used to print more Following After Trek copies, right now we can print 200 of them, we would love to be able to print 1000 and even go to America to go bookstore to bookstore putting Trek’s book on the shelves. We would need $10,000 to do that. Right now I am just relaxed and overwhelmed with love that we are going to have 200 copies for sure of Trek’s book in hardcopy-ahhh, what a dream. Thank you all so much, we love you.

On our way out of Chiang Rai last week we had a plan to stop at the White Temple. We were tired and had a 7 hour drive ahead of us, but this place causes a lot of buzz and we could not miss it. So glad we stopped, it is one of Jarrett’s 5 favorite things we have done on our travels. It was amazing and a little bit creepy.

a Thai preschool on a field trip to the white temple

wishing well

the boys always wish for Trek to come back

we are not sure what these are for since we are not Buddhists and we cannot read Thai, but we never miss an opportunity to leave something for Trek around the world

Conner wanted it to say “Baby Trek come back”

everyone’s prayers and wishes

it was breathtaking

now the creepy part

i wore a long sleeved shirt knowing that Buddhist temples do not allow bare shoulders to be shown, they also gave me a wrap to cover up my legs

the pictures inside the temple are askew, cameras were not allowed, but the man told me I could bring mine in. (my camera did not read the sign and sneaked a couple of shots)

The artwork was amazing. It had angry birds, batman, the twin towers, Ben 10, and many other characters at the bottom in the dragon’s mouth. Then at the top all along the walls were boats of people and monks floating toward the statue of Buddha at the front of  the temple, I am guessing towards enlightenment.

I am always interested at what the boys will do in these situations. We have never really visited a Buddhist temple yet and it was a new experience. They walked in and sat indian style on the floor and just looked around for about 5 minutes not talking. It was so cute, we did not direct them at all. I think they knew the people around them were involved in something that was meaningful to them.