TIME TRAVELER {the river between Vietnam and Cambodia}

last night while i was shredding chicken for enchiladas, 

i heard skype ringing over the sounds of the little mermaid soundtrack on our computer.

we all came running when we saw it was grandma carol.

right away she told us how she was

calling us 

ON A BOAT

in the

MEKONG RIVER

about to cross over

INTO CAMBODIA

from VIETNAM.

and i was all, "mom, are you on 4G?"

and she was like, "no, skype on wifi!"

and i was all, "on a boat?"

and she like like, 

"yeah! isn't that crazy! technology is so cool. 

i even had it in some of the jungle places i backpacked through too. 

wifi is everywhere now! so different from when i was here 5 years ago..."

and then she turned the camera around so we could look at the brown river water,

the boat she slept on last night,

a boat that was floating by them,

{brennan thought this was super awesome},

some Vietnamese travelers loading onto the boat they were leaving on,

and all of the vietnamese ship people coiling up ropes and other boat stuff like that.

and sean was all, "this could be on a skype commercial."

and my mom told brennan that it was wednesday morning where she was,

but tuesday night where he was,

so he ran outside to see,

but all we heard him say was, "but it's still light here."

so i told him that grandma was a time traveler,

and even though we were in tuesday,

she had time traveled to WEDNESDAY!

and his little eyes lit up like sparkling magic,

and you could tell that his brain was thinking about how she did it, 

and that grandma was pretty awesome 'cause she did.

then the vietnamese tour guide came over, 

and got after my mom who still hadn't put her life jacket on yet,

{you know, 'cause she was busy skyping her daughter, son in law, and grandchildren},

but the vietnamese lady was really nice about it,

b/c they have really good manners over there,

always so polite,

and then the signal started to get all blurry,

so we waved goodbye, 

blew kisses, 

and everyone said i love you,

all shaking our heads in amazement.

what?

is this not where your 67 year old mom skypes from with your kids?!

once in a lifetime.

and my kids didn't even know it.

and that's when i told sean that we can't travel with our kids anywhere awesome 

until they're older b/c they won't appreciate it right now,

so it's a good thing we can only afford to drive them to their grandparent's houses 

in california and highland, and places like that.

and then i spent the rest of the night thinking about 

how my parents took me to 16 different countries before i was 16.

once in a lifetime.

and i didn't even know it.

...

P.S.

my mom emailed me later saying that the boat's engine blew up 

right after we got off of the phone with her.

so they had to go back and switch boats.

and then she told me how glad she was that it didn't happen 

when they were further out and away from the dock.

i told her to make sure to keep that orange life vest on.

and asked if they rowed themselves back to the dock or what?

can't wait to hear what she says.

globe trottin' grandma.

that's for darn sure:)