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Philippines Vacation – Subic Bay

April 21st, 2019 Tia Farley No comments

During the three years that we lived in the Philippines the first time (2013-2015) we traveled to a lot of foreign countries. Now that we are back and planning on living here for a couple of decades, we want to explore more of the Philippines! Many people travel to Subic Bay as a get-away from Manila and we finally went to see what it’s all about. November 1 & 2 are holidays here, so we drove up to Subic for a long weekend.

Day 1 – Zoobic Safari

Since our driver had the day off, Matt and I drove our huge 11 passenger Super Grandia up to Subic Bay. Our first stop was at Zoobic Safari.

The drive to Subic is quiet and full of nature

We got inside a caged jeepney and drove around a secure area where adult tigers came up to the jeepney in search of meat. The guides then threw meat on the roof of the jeepney to entice the tigers to jump on top for a fun ride.

Day 2 – Ocean Adventure & Water Park

In the morning we spent time at Ocean Adventure. The best dolphin and sea lion shows we have every experienced were here. They were educational and very funny. Then in the late afternoon we went to the nearby Adventure Beach Water Park. (no photos since we were busy swimming and having fun)

Ready to discover what Ocean Adventure is all about

Blake is excited to feed the sea lion some fish

We paid for Mason to have a dolphin encounter (he is the shirtless kid)

Day 3 – Inflatable Island

We played in Subic Bay for an hour during the mid-morning

Our scheduled time to play on this floating island of inflatables was early afternoon

We had a great time being together as a family and exploring more of the Philippines.

Categories: Family, Philippines, Travel Tags: blake, kalani, mason, matt, philippines, subic, tia

Farley family on the move

April 20th, 2019 Tia Farley No comments

In 2014 Matt started to look into what kind of career opportunities were offered by Asian Development Bank (ADB), since many of our children’s classmates had parents working for them on permanent expat assignments. One of Mason’s classmate’s father worked in their I.T. department, so we had them over for dinner and Matt asked him about working there. Matt then subscribed to the job postings and was curious to see how well their compensation competed with what we currently had. We have always been very happy with Chevron and how well they have treated us for 12 years. After spending 3 weeks in the Philippines for our 2017 Christmas vacation, Matt felt a strong pull to live in the Philippines once again. In the spring of 2018, Matt told me he was going to clean-up his resume and really put forth some effort in getting an interview with ADB. He told me not to worry about it, that we have a beautiful home that we had just built and moved into the previous year and that he had applied before to ADB, but never heard from them. I knew that if Matt really was going to put forth the effort to apply, then I needed to get myself ready mentally for the possibility of a move. I tried not to think about it since I had a fun road trip coming up with my sister for the summer. Well, that is when things started to really move quickly, while we were apart for 3 weeks. Matt was given a job offer on August 1. By August 8 we told them that we would accept the offer. Our “dream home” was put on the market on August 25 and we accepted an offer about 2-3 weeks later. Our house was all packed up on September 21 and we were on a flight to Manila on September 23. In less than 2 months we sold everything that we didn’t want/need in the Philippines and started a new career and school in another country.

Our “dream home” we sold after living in it for 18 months.

10 suitcases in one minivan, riding business class to Manila and after 18-20 hours of travel time we arrived in the Philippines.

When we knew that we were returning to the Philippines I quickly emailed the International School of Manila (ISM) to get our kids into school. Luckily there was space available for Kalani and Mason to start school on October 1. It was helpful that they are former students and that we were coming back with ADB. Blake was put on the waiting list for Pre-school 4 since there was no space available at that time. Kalani and Mason were able to jump right into school. Some of their former friends/classmates were still at the school and they knew where things were located so they had a pretty easy transition back to ISM. Many teachers told me that they are the most well-adjusted “new students” they had ever met!

Although we miss our friends and family in the US, we feel like this is the place that we are suppose to be at right now in our lives. Everything fell into place perfectly. And now our friends and family can come visit us in the Philippines!

Categories: Family, Journal, Philippines Tags: adb, blake, ism, kalani, mason, matt, philippines, texas, tia

2018 Road Trip

July 28th, 2018 Tia Farley No comments

A year ago my sister asked me if I would want to drive to a family reunion together from Texas to Utah and then continue on to California to see more family. My first thought was that it would be a very long drive, but the more I thought about it the more I was wanting to do it. Just my younger sister and I in charge with seven kids. We rented a 12 passenger van which gave us three extra seat belts. On this road trip I just really wanted to go to “The Four Corners”, the Grand Canyon & Alcatraz. I didn’t really care what else we had on our agenda. My sister and I worked really well with each other. We planned most things out in advance and then my sister is good at finding other things to do to fill in time. We also were sure to schedule “down time” as well and to just enjoy our family. Overall, it was a great trip and I would do another road trip with my kids, my sister and her kids. And a bonus to the trip is that we were travelling with a 4th grader and were able to get into all of the National Parks for free by visiting Every Kid in a Park website.

Our road trip plans

Day 1

Everyone is excited to start this road trip. 2 moms and 7 kids in a 12 passenger van

An hour or so after we started driving, we got pulled over for speeding. But, the cop had compassion on us and didn’t give us a ticket.

Day 2

We were able to make it to Four Corners

Day 3

We made it to the Grand Canyon

Horseshoe Bend was free to see and worth the short “hike” to get there

Day 4 & 5

Family Reunion at the Alton Lodge in Southern Utah; where 8 out of the 9 Poulson siblings attended. In total we had about 65 people at this reunion.

Grandkids and great-grandkids that attended the family reunion

Day 6

Bryce Canyon…pictures can’t capture the complete beauty

Day 7

Woke up early to see the Balloon Festival in Provo

Grateful to see this flag wave on the 4th of July

We were able to attend Stadium of Fire where One Republic played and then watched a great firework show

Day 8

I drove up to Logan, Utah to pick up my sister and we stopped at Gossner Diary where we got some delicious long term shelf life milk that all the kids love

About 15 minutes away from Gossner Dairy is the Pepperidge Farm Factory & Thrift Store where we got the “oops” goldfish which are $2 for 2 pounds

Day 9 & 10

I drove up to Heber to see a good friend from Texas and have our kids play together for a day and a half

Day 11

My sisters and I said good-bye to our brother and headed off towards California

Stretching our legs and exploring the Salt Flats on our drive west

Day 12

My sister-in-law and husband invited us to stay the night at their condo in Lake Tahoe and go tubing with their boat. We all had a blast!

Day 13

Movie morning at 8am! The Incredibles and Ant-Man & Wasp were the reason for the early morning since all other times were sold out

Day 14

I went with my mom to take in the recyclables that had been accumulating for a year. We decided to split the profit between ALL the grandkids that were in California. They all got $10 to spend however they wanted (everyone got something at the Dollar Store).

Field Trip to Sutter’s Fort

We drove by the Sacramento capital building

Family night watching the musical play “Newsies” at the Music Circus

Day 15

Another field trip. This time to Alcatraz island

Hanging out at the Botanical Gardens in San Francisco

Stopped near the Golden Gate Bridge to get a photo

Day 16

We had a girls morning of pedicures

For the 5 days that we were at my parent’s place, lunch/dinner time looked like this. Cousins all sitting together.

Day 17

As we were leaving California to head back toward Texas, we decided to drive through Yosemite

We did a small hike in Yosemite to see the Giant Sequoia trees

We made it to our aunt & uncle’s home where our other aunt & uncle also came by to see us and hang out. The kids were happy to see their cousins again.

Day 18 & 19

We made it safely home and logged in 5627 miles in 19 days!

More road trip photos here.

Categories: Family, Travel Tags: blake, hansens, kalani, makana, mason, tia, travel, vacation

2017 Year Review

January 28th, 2018 Tia Farley No comments

As a new year begins and I reflect on the past year that just ended I find that I forget the good and bad things that we experienced. The purpose of this blog is to act as a family journal for posterity, and also share family updates with close friends and relatives. So here is a quick look at our 2017!

We bought a new home and moved into it on March 31

In April, I got to go to Utah for one of my mission companion’s wedding.

The beginning of May, Matt’s sister got married in California.

Towards the end of May, Matt & Tia flew to Utah for the sealing of close friends we met in the Philippines.

There was a really good airfare deal, so a lot of our family came to visit us. We made a trip to Waco to visit the Magnolia Silos.

In June we had a family reunion for the Limary side of the family in Las Vegas. Nearly all of the siblings and grandkids attended.

While in Vegas, we were able to attend the wedding of my brother Robbie.

Right after we got back from Vegas, Kalani and I went to a church girls camp for a week.

Beginning of August, my 17 year old brother passed away. All of the siblings and spouses were able to attend the funeral in California.

The end of August, Matt & I took a trip to Florida to scuba dive and visit with close friends that we had met in the Philippines.

We got hit with Hurricane Harvey in August. So most weekends in September were spent “mucking” homes as we raced to tear out sheet rock, carpet, cabinets, etc, before mold could set in.

Halloween was a wet evening, but the cousins got together to trick-or-treat (despite the downpour) and got a lot of candy.

Mom & Dad Farley visited us in November.

We had a full house for Thanksgiving that we hosted.

Kalani was in a lot of plays this year. Fiddler on the Roof, Little Women, Cinderella & Macbeth to name a few.

When it snows in Texas it is worth staying up until midnight for a snowball fight.

And finally, we spent 3 1/2 weeks in the Philippines to celebrate Christmas and ring in the New Year.

Categories: Family, Friends, Philippines Tags: birthday, blake, Homeschool, kalani, manila, mason, matt, philippines, reunion, siquijor, tia, vacation, wedding, year end

2016 Year Review

January 27th, 2018 Tia Farley No comments

As the year comes to a close it is crazy and fun to remember all the adventures that we had.

At the start of 2016 we were still living in the Philippines and we had to say good-bye to our helpers.

We had a long flight to get back to the states. This was Blake’s first time to the USA.

I was able to be reunited with my two sisters and aunt. It is so nice that we all live near each other.

Kalani sprained her ankle at a friend’s house while jumping on the trampoline. Now she sprains it often.

Matt and I flew back to the Philippines to attend his co-worker’s wedding.

We got a black-headed python for a pet.

Limary parents came to visit in March.

9 weeks after our belongings were packed up in the Philippines, we received them at our home in the US.

Farley parents came to visit in April.

In May we were able to attend the University of Southern California graduation for my brother.

After the graduation, we spent a day at Disneyland.

Kalani was in the play “Suessical Jr.” She has since been in “Annie jr.” where she played Ms. Hanigan and “Elf jr.” where she was a police officer.