Our last full day in Chiang Mai we wanted to relax and do things that would entertain the children before the lantern festival. That morning Sean and I had massages in our hotel room while one of us watched the children by the pool. We had a traditional Thai massage which was right up my alley, but not Seans. It is a rather aggressive massage. I almost couldn't enjoy myself because I had to try to keep from laughing envisioning my husband be beaten on before me when he was expecting a relaxing, luscious massage. This woman literally sat on my back and pulled my arms backward making my sternum pop. A one hour massage was around $12. Massages are really cheap and quite available in Chiang Mai.
There was a little temple right next to our hotel.
Ely loved the pool!
Thanksgiving Dinner -Koa was sleeping on my shoulder
We visited Art in Paradise. Ely said that whoever painted all of these was a good painter. When you go on trips like this where you drag your children to temples and more adult aspects, you have to do things that will interest them as well. My little ones had a blast here. It was a fun activity to do with them.
I love my silly girl!!
I love Koa here. He was extremely clingy on this trip and wouldn't let me put him down, but he did for this picture! After this he relaxed a little, and would venture more than normal.
Doh! He's so cute!
I love this one!! 
I kind of feel like this photo summarizes the whole trip.
The Loy Krathong and Yee Peng Lantern Festival. This was an amazing and beautiful experience. We had several people tell us not to attempt it with small children, that it was overcrowded, overwhelming and generally not peaceful like it was supposed to be. I went into it with rather low expectations, but it ended up being everything I hoped it would be and more. There was such a positive energy at this festival. We stood next to some interesting and fun families. When we lit our lantern Ely proclaimed "Your the best mom ever"- she never says stuff like that so it of course made my whole night. Ely loves the movie Tangled and I thought she would be fascinated with the whole event. While she did like it, she quickly lost interest after we sent our lantern into the sky and was ready to be done. In the process to find a taxi and once the festival had died down fireworks began so we were able to see those. We saw lanterns being released our ride back to our hotel and smaller communities with their celebrations. I'm beyond grateful we were able to make this work and we were able to experience this as a family.
The Iron Bridge- We arrived early and released our lanterns pretty early. As we were leaving the bridge really started to fill up with people.
We released our Krathong the very first night of the festivities in Chiang Mai, not during the busier festival. I'm glad because the sides of the river looked a little intimidating with the large crowds the actual night of and I didn't want any of us falling in.
Thanksgiving Night, one of the most amazing Thanksgiving's I've ever had!
To the left you can see all of the people releasing the Krathong into the river.
You have to let it burn for a while, and not release it until you feel it start to pull upwards. There were a few people whose lanterns fell into the river upon release.
We stood next to these hilarious guys, and one of them offered to take our picture as this was a "kodak moment".
I kind of think it is rather miraculous we were able to make this work. Everywhere I looked said this festival was supposed to be the day after we left, but we were lucky and it was a two day event and we were able to catch the first day.
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