Thai Silk King

Former OSS (forerunner to the CIA) agent Jim Thompson came to Thailand after WWII and single-handedly set up the Thai silk industry--still arguably Thailand's most important industry. He loved Thai art and built a magnificent traditional Thai style home in Bangkok and furnished it with many precious Southeast Asian historical art pieces. His home today is a museum. Jim Thompson silk is Thailand's best silk and his name is a household word in Thailand. We visited the Jim Thompson museum. Here we are sitting on his doorstep.


Here Kyoko stands in the main entrance way to Thompson's home.



Here I am standing next to a huge (and valuable) jade statue of the Chinese god Guan Gong, carved by hand. We visited the Museum of Jade, which was actually a very high-end store to sell jade jewelry. I was impressed with the size and quality of this piece.

Later.

More from Thailand

Anyone who's been to Thailand knows that dirty old foreign men like to show off their young, Thai girlfriends. Everyone who saw the two of us together thought Kyoko was a twentysomething Thai.
Of course, no trip to Thailand would be complete without a ride on an elephant ...

... and the dinner with a Thai dance show.
I never got the fingers.

More to come.

Sawasdee Krap from Thailand

In Thailand for a few days of R&R from the rigors of Kabul. We needed a break, so we decided to live it up:

We had (herbal lemongrass) tea in the Author's Wing of the Oriental Hotel where we stayed. Many famous people stayed there: Joseph Conrad, Noel Coward, W. Somerset Maugham, and, now, A. Chester Wilson and his lovely wife Kyoko.


Kyoko and I enjoyed a morning walk on the beach at Hua Hin in southern Thailand, where we stayed at the Marriott Resort and Spa.


More later.

Snow in Washington

There was some awesome views of the snow over here that I thought we'd share as well. Though we didn't have the three feet of snow that Kamas did.

We'll miss you President Hinckley

Visiting Teaching Fun

This is hilarious, I had to share! You know this could apply to Home Teaching too! - Kevin

Call us crazy!

Hi! I did not send anything into the newletter, I feel like there is nothing to tell. So I decided to blog instead. The only exciting thing to share is that we got a second puppy! This time a black lab. His name is shadow. He is sweet. The two puppies and toddler (Logan) keep me jumping, literally. Take care. Love, Julie

Photos from Travis and Misako's Wedding

Happy Couple
Crazy sibs
Grande Dames
...with Simple Ben
Cuttin the cake

Idaho Duck Hunt

Andy and Arthur went duck hunting with a friend in Idaho.

Arthur's first kill.

Greetings from the North Pole

I figured if Lorraine and Joan can figure out how to post on this blog...so could I. I'm mainly doing this to see if I can figure out how to post a photo. Hope it works.

Remember your FNL to Travis by January 15. And yes, we've had a little snow here.

Elder Jospeh Wilson

Joey entered entered the South Africa Johannesburg Mission on November 15, 2007.

Holiday Activities: The Andy Wilsons'

Breakfast competition at the townhouse we rented in Park City















We spent a day in the mountains on snowmobiles.















Visited Grandpa's grave.













Andy and Arthur went duck hunting in Idaho with a friend.

Kate's baptism

We had a special day. Kate was baptized. We got to visit with Julie, Jon and their children as they were able to attend.

I hope that all is well for you in this new year

Trina

Doing great in 2008

Hi all! I have read your postings and this looks like a lot of fun! I thought I would add a bit from the Hicks house. We are all well and glad to be back in the swing of our work/school routine. I am back to my PTA duty's, baby-sitting, cub scout calling and running our household. Nothing very exciting. We had a great Christmas. Jon's sister and new husband were in town. We went into Seattle one day with them, Jon took them snowboarding and the rest of the time we hung out at home. It was nice to visit with family over the holidays. We are thankful for our good health and the many blessings we receive each day.

Julie

Happy New Year!

Well believe it or not I got into blog & am now will see if I can add my own words to Wilson Family Blog. This is so cool THANK YOU Kevin! You are so smart!
Many Thanks to Travis who set me up and coached me in this new thing.
Here it is 2008. Hope we all have a happy & stressless (ha-ha-ha) new year. My newest adventure is that I am planning to buy my own place. It is a nice 14 x 70 single wide mobile home. It is in a mobile home park about a mile south of where I am now, here in Springville. It is only $1500 and I am using $ from my 401k that I have to use by time I am 70, which is fast approaching. It has two bedrooms & two baths, one of which will be for my two kittens. I have to keep littler box in my kitchen, which is not always that cool. It also has nice carport (no more scraping snow & ice off my car) & big shed for all of my stuff. Will update as to new address, etc. Have a great new years.
Love to all.....Lori

happy New Year everyone!!!

Today is New Years day, 2008. I hope this is a good year for one and all. We started our day off by going out to breakfast the Kamas Cafe and now we are going to go to the movie. Hope you are all enjoying your day. Our FNL is due to Travis at travissowilson@yahoo.com by January 15th. I hope you all participate, with pictures. Everyone don't forget to be involved with the blog.
Joan

Howdy from Seattle

Hi everyone,

Here is the first post from Garry from Seattle! I'll be adding more soon! Happy New Year

Garry

Mariner Moose Gives me my Christmas Party invitation!

This picture is when we had Mariner Moose in the office handing out our Holiday Party invitations at work! Only a couple more weeks till Christmas!

We had our party this last Saturday and it was a blast. We held the party at Safeco Field in the diamond club. We were able to tour the facility and walk onto the field (not the grass) and try to bat in the batting cage and try our hand at pitching, which I should never do again! Trina is much better.

Kevin

Photos from Helo Trip to Bagram Airfield

Ready to lift off in our Blackhawk.

Here I am on the tarmac at Bagram Airfield. Beautiful day and snow covered mountains in the background.

Salam Alekum from Afghanistan

Sorry I missed Kevin's original advertisement that we now have a Wilson Family Blog. Travis drew my attention to it in a recent phone call. Thanks Kevin for doing this. It's a great idea. It's something we should have done long ago.

Anyway, we are surviving in Kabul, Afghanistan. Looking forward to seeing the Kamas crew in a couple of weeks. As most of you might know by now, we have rented a townhouse for a week in Park City where the (now extended) Andy Wilson clan can spend the Holidays together. We are planning lots of activities to do together as a family; skiing, snowmobiling, board (bored) games, daily brunch team cooking competition, foosball, football, hot-tubbing, etc. Should be a blast. Hope to have some good times and create some good memories.

Afghanistan is cooling off. Haven't had any snow in Kabul yet, though the mountains around us are all snowbound. Kyoko and I stay plenty busy in our jobs. We both work nearly 70 hours per week; 6-day workweeks. We (especially Kyoko) spend 98% of our time on the walled, barb-wired, armed-guarded Emassy compound. I get out occasionally for meetings, but Kyoko only gets out for Church--when she doesn't have to work. Friday (Muslim sabbath) is our day off when we attend church at nearby Camp Eggers. We attend the LDS Servicemen's Group there. We have about 25-30 regular members. Kyoko is RS Prez, with only two women in the entire Group, one of whom is currently home on a three-month leave, so that leaves Kyoko as the entire RS.

We've had a number of security-related incidents. On our fourth day in Kabul, a rocket hit about 100 meters from the Embassy. No one was hurt, but the loud boom nearly rocked us out of bed. We often have IED attacks (car bombs) in our neighborhood, when any nonessential travel is forbidden, and we have to stay inside the Embassy compound. Boring.

Hope you are all well. Let's keep this Blog going. Continue to get the word out so others will start contributing.

Andy