When we found out that we were moving to the Philippines, many people told us to take advantage of living in that part of the world by traveling to “nearby” countries.  Every person that has been to Cambodia told us that out of all the Asian countries they visited, Cambodia was their favorite.  I must agree that it was pretty amazing.  However no one told us how HOT it would be, and we even traveled in December when it was cooler than other times of the year!

We booked a vacation package through HAS Travel and we were very happy with what we received.  They were there to pick us up at the airport in an air conditioned van.  All of our dinner and lunch reservations were made through them, they paid for any fees, and they were always on time and very friendly.  We only stayed in Cambodia for 3 days/2 nights, but we were able to see some amazing sites.  We visited at least 6 temples, bargain shopped at the local markets for souvenirs, ate a variety of food, stayed at a 5 star hotel, and didn’t kill each other.  Overall I would say it was a successful vacation!

Sokha Angkor Hotel pool

Cambodian roads were clean…at least the areas that they tourist see

Our fabulous tour guide giving us information about the temples…notice the long sleeve shirt, pants, scarf and hat to protect from the sun and getting darker skin

Cambodian schools are held in 2 sessions. A morning and afternoon session with each session lasting 4 hours. This school was taught by monks

Palm Sugar. They take the natural sugar from the palm tree fruit and boil it down and then pour them into these molds to sell.

Super steep stairs were pretty common in the temples

Amazing stone sculptures seen throughout the temples

Amazing detail. And this was just one small area of the Banteay Srei Temple

Stone warriors on a bridge leading into the 12th century city of Angkor Thom.

Inside of a functioning pagoda…It was pretty amazing with the art work all over

Angkor Wat (one of the Wonders of the World)

Banyon Temple is known as the “Face temple” with Buddha faces all over

Family photo at the Banyon Temple with locals

Ta Prohm Temple is referred to as “The Tomb Raider Temple” Angelina Jolie stood in this very spot (so they say)

Kalani and Robbie got to see the Banyon Temple from the back of an elephant.

Robbie bought these cool wooden puzzles that entertained Mason

We paid the $2 to have fish eat our dead skin cells for 30 minutes. It tickles a lot!

Kalani got her first massage in Cambodia and loved it.

This lady really ran through the night market after Mason. Glad so many ladies think our 3 year old is cute, but it is kind of creepy too.

The kids were troopers to see the temples, even in the middle of the day…but it sure was hot

More photos of our Cambodian vacation here.

Matt has great co-workers that tell him about places to go and things to try.  He has a co-worker in California who married a Filipina, so they return to the Philippines often and recommended a resort owned by his brother in-law called Eagle Point.  With it being the “All Saints Day” holiday, we decided to take a day trip to that resort.  The drive was about 1.5 hours away, and being from Texas we are use to having to drive to get anywhere!

Because it was a holiday we wanted to treat our household help, so we took them along for a “vacation” type of day and to also help with the kids so Matt and I could enjoy ourselves as well.  (They had the actual holiday off on Thursday, but the day after they came to work…think of it as Thanksgiving day as the holiday, and then Black Friday was the day that we took our day trip)

Something we were not aware of was the tolls on the road.  It was a lot like traveling in Europe where we kept having to stop on the freeway to pay tolls.  We paid about $8 each way just in tolls.

Day trip to Eagle Point from Makati, Manila = 100 minutes drive with no traffic one way.

Loading up in the “shuttle” to take us from the parking lot to the resort

Kalani helping her dad out with sunscreen so he won’t get burn.

Matt trying to get Kalani to snorkel in the pool with the black tip sharks…she didn’t want to do that.

Matt did get Kalani to snorkel with him out in the ocean.

Mason also tried snorkeling in the ocean with his mom.

The resort is called “Eagle Point” and they had about 6 “Filipino Eagles” there and a few other birds as well in their aviary.

The kids (and adults) really enjoyed this slide

Since we spent the day at the resort, we ate at their lunch buffet.  It was pretty good food with a decent selection and reasonably priced.  We spent around $65 for 5 adults and 2 children to swim, snorkel and eat lunch.  We will most likely return to this resort again and probably stay the night so we don’t have to be in the car for 3-5 hours in one day.

This past week Matt had a conference in San Diego, California.  Since Matt already had a hotel and frequent flyer miles, we decided to make it a family trip!  San Diego was great.  The weather was nice, warm during the day and cooler in the evenings…something different from the Houston weather we are use to.  The kids and I were really only in San Diego for 2 full days.  We arrived to the hotel around 5pm Monday night and then checked out of the hotel on Thursday at noon.  But, during the time that we were there the kids and I had a jam packed schedule!

MONDAY:  Fly in to San Diego, rent a car, drive to have dinner with cousins

Dinner with Sam & Melinda (Sam is Matt’s first cousin)

TUESDAY: Mormon Battalion Museum, San Diego Temple, LegoLand, Padres Game

We traveled back to 1847 to learn about the Mormon Battalion and what they did for San Diego

Across from the Mormon Battalion there are these old homes that have been restored that the kids liked walking around to look at.

San Diego Temple is now where Kalani wants to get married

Padres vs. Pirates at Petco Park. One of the CR vendors was hosting.

WEDNESDAY: San Diego Zoo, swimming, walking around San Diego

San Diego Zoo is HUGE and great for all ages

Kids had fun swimming in the hotel pool…but it was a bit too cold for Tia. We are use to the 80* swimming pool water, and this water wasn’t that warm.

Walking around San Diego in the evenings. As we are passing some restaurants a few of the hostesses outside smile and wave to Mason commenting how cute he is as we pass by. He then calls out “Mom! All the big girls love me! They say hi to me! .. And I say hi to them!”

THURSDAY:  Playing at a nearby park and flying back to Texas

Having tired kids is a good indicator of how much we crammed in a few days.

We had a great time being together as a family.   Fun memories were made and you can see more photos of our vacation here:  San Diego Vacation

The beginning of 2011 Kalani got really into Harry Potter.  We made a deal with her that if she would read all 7 of the Harry Potter books we would treat her to a trip to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Florida.  And Matt had an even better idea to have it be a mother/daughter trip.  We loved seeing her carrying a book around and even staying up late to read.  It took her a year to complete, but that isn’t too bad considering she was 7 years old!

Harry Potter World is only 1 out of 6 areas of the Island Adventure theme park.  We spent half a day on Monday and all day on Tuesday at the park.  Since we went towards the end of April the crowd wasn’t too bad…a benefit of homeschooling!  I really liked that they have “child swap” areas so Kalani could wait for me while I rode a ride that she didn’t want to ride or was too short to ride.

Howarts Castle...Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey ride is inside

The Hogwart's Express and conductor

Hogsmeade had a bunch of chocolate frogs for purchase...with a trading card inside

Kalani loved getting her own chocolate frog...it wasn't a "jumper"

Enjoying Butter Beer; they had regular and frozen...we tried both!

Triwizard Spirit Rally Characters

Water Taxi from our hotel to the theme park

I realized 2 days before we were leaving that I forgot to book a hotel for us.  So I went with one that Universal Studio recommends: Loews Royal Pacific Resort.  It was a bit expensive, but with our room card we got to the front of the line on nearly all the rides.  I don’t know if Kalani would have handled standing in lines longer than 10 minutes and I wanted to have a good time.  Also we were able to go into the park an hour before the general public was allowed.  Kalani loved the pool that was at the hotel and made friends with some other kids there.  They even showed Thor on a screen while Kalani was swimming.  Overall it was a pretty great trip.  I asked Kalani what she thought of our vacation and she said, “AWESOME!”

More photos here

A co-worker told Matt, “It was really smart of you to marry a Hawaiian.”  Any excuse we can find to go to Hawaii, we will take.  With my younger sister in Hawaii and recently having twins who would be blessed in our church, that was the excuse we needed to leave our own children for a few days and spend time in Hawaii.  And the bonus was that Matt’s brother was also going to school there and I hadn’t seen him in over 2 years!

The twins: Derek & Keith

My sister's family and us

Our brother recently returned from a mission in the Philippines

Enjoying Matsumoto shaved ice with ice cream in Haleiwa

Numerous waterfalls from all of the rain

The weather wasn’t great while were there.  It rained everyday and flooded in some areas.  So, we never put on our swimsuits or went to the beach since it was too dangerous to swim.  But, we enjoyed our time being together with our family.  I guess we will just need to go back again…I’m sure we can come up with another excuse!