The end of May Matt had a business trip to Perth, Australia.  So, we pulled Kalani out of school for a week and explored Western Australia.  A very generous co-worker that we actually met while our two families lived in Aberdeen, Scotland invited us to stay at his home during our week and they served as our chauffeur and tour guides.  They have a daughter Kalani’s age and a son a couple of years older than Mason.  The kids all got along well so that was nice for everyone!

It was getting to be winter time in Australia so I looked forward to wearing jeans, long sleeve shirts and not sweating.  I checked the forecast for the week and we would be leaving Manila where it was around 98’F to Perth where it was suppose to be 70’F.  However for about 24-36 hours the weather dropped from the normal 70′ F to 55′ F, but still we went out and enjoyed Australia!

I took the kids out from about 10am-2pm.  Our host family’s children were in school while we were there, and their school didn’t start until about 9am.  We would come home from our day out and the kids would return from school around 3pm.  Then we spent the evening home enjoying a home cooked meal and watching movies or playing games.  The adults did go out one evening to see Perth at night while the 4 kids were being watched by a friend.  There really isn’t a whole lot more of Perth to see or do that we didn’t accomplish in the week we were there.

More photos of our Perth vacation here.

The Filipinos know how to throw a party!  I am assuming that the 1st year birthday is a big deal in the Philippines like it is in Hawaii because of tradition.  Years ago children did not live to see their first birthday, so this is a major milestone.  We were invited by a couple that both husband and wife are co-workers of Matt to attend their son’s first birthday.  Of course we went to see how the Filipinos throw a party…and we weren’t disappointed!

And some additional fun things that I didn’t get a photo of that were present at the party were:  MC guy who put on a party program for the kids, random photographers who took pictures of the guests and then you could buy each photo for about $1, a small play ground in the corner to use, a sticker booth where you could get your name placed on a Disney character sticker, a candy bar, an adult buffet, a kids buffet, hot dogs, popcorn and popsicles.

It was a really fun party.  I am glad that our kids got to experience it since I don’t ever plan to throw a party for them like this!  It is true what they say, “It’s More Fun In The Philippines!”

Back in March Kalani turned 9 years old.

9 Fun Facts About Kalani:

-She is following her father’s footsteps and is pretty good on the computer

-She normally wears flip flops everyday…but recently started to wear tennis shoes so she can play soccer at recess

-She now attends an International school and has 22 classmates

-She rides a super nice bus to school

-She has been to 10 different countries…and more are planned

-In Texas she would wake up between 8-9am…in the Philippines she wakes up by 6am

-She likes to make people laugh

-She loves meat

-She is honest, truthful and obedient

2 years ago Felicia came to visit us in Texas and we had a wonderful time.  Then she went on a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and served in Richmond, Virginia Spanish speaking.  She came home from her mission a couple of months before we moved to the Philippines.  Since we hadn’t seen her for a couple of years we got her to come out and visit us before she starts graduate school and her life gets crazy busy.

I think we kept her pretty busy for the 3 weeks that she was visiting us.  We filled her schedule with facials, massages, waxing, shopping, working out, sight-seeing and a trip to Thailand.  It was fun to have her here with us and we look forward to her next adventure…life after a mission!

 

Matt has business trips every few months to other parts of Asia. He was in Thailand in November and then again for the last week of January. He really wanted us to be able to visit Bangkok with him, since it is one of our goals to travel Asia while living in this part of the world. We left a few days before his meetings and were able to explore Thailand with a top notch tour guide. After our wonderful experience of having a guide in Cambodia, we decided to book one for our time in Bangkok, and found “Nok.” She was fabulous and well worth the $50/day. We had a 3 day tour with her and enjoyed our itinerary and would recommend her to everyone. After that, my sister-in-law (Felicia), the kids and I explored Thailand on our own while Matt had a few days of meetings. It was a fabulous vacation!

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4 & 5

More photos from Thailand here.