Thailand and Greenland

I know everyone is bored out of their skull looking at yet more pictures of someone else's super cool trip, however I have decided that I can subject you to them because it was a mission trip, people.  And people will at least pretend to be interested in pictures and trip details if it was a mission trip.  

Here is Brandon standing in front of a mysterious cool thing in Paris.  

Does anyone know what this is?

Have I mentioned that Brandon REFUSES to blog about this trip, thus rendering me clueless as to what the heck this is in this picture?  That big thing.  There.  Behind Hot Brandon.

While in Paris, Morgan-the-best-babysitter-ever and Phill got engaged.  Check out the size of that ring pop. 
And I think I have figured out why the airline industry is losing money. Follow me for a minute.  The cheapest seats we could find for the group to fly to Thailand was on Air France.  They left Houston, flew to Paris, France, and then on to Bangkok.  At some point between Houston and Paris they flew over Greenland.  Greenland.  I don't have a globe.  But I have a vague recollection of world geography back in 6th grade.  And I'm pretty sure the shortest distance between Houston and Paris does not involve Greenland in any way.  (Brandon says yes it does...something about the earth being round and following the curve is the shortest distance.)

Now, I'm paying almost 4 dollars per gallon for gas to go to the Kroger.  How much cheaper would Brandon's tickets have been if they didn't have to pay for extra jet fuel to see GREENLAND??  And how much wood could a wood chuck chuck if a wood chuck could chuck wood?  

And what if it was an African swallow?

Here is Greenland as seen from Air France.  Not many cities or people in Greenland, no siree.
Don't see this every day:
It's a praying mantis.  Cool.  (Sidenote:  today I overheard Brandon talking to Dane about our garden.  Some bugs have started to eat some of the leaves, so Brandon's contemplating putting mesh around the little corner garden and putting ladybugs in there to eat the other bugs.  Because, as he explained to Dane, "Ladybugs are the Ninja Turtles of the insect world."  Makes perfect sense to me.  I'm thinking the ladybugs will only work if our garden is being attacked by aphids or moist raisins.) 

Here is a really pretty garden in northern Thailand somewhere.  Not an aphid in sight.  
I promise only one more post about Thailand, and several more really cool pictures.