2010-The Philippines Adventure

Okay, I wrote this post a couple of months ago, but kept having problems with the computer that has all the pictures I wanted on here. So....once again better late than never :) Here's a first glimpse of what we've been up to:

Nothing like starting a new year off with a bang! We left Jan.3rd to Salt Lake-despite Jeremy having the flu-and drove all night to Salt Lake (it took all night because we were pulling our huge trailer and Jeremy was so sick he had to keep stopping). We waited until late that night to leave so we could be there for Sara Sargent's wedding and reception on the 3rd-which was very nice by the way.
While we were in Salt Lake we had car trouble (we've never had trouble with that car. I was worried it was a bad omen :). The fuel pump went out and we were stranded on the side of the rode, cold and hungry. Luckily Jon and Stephanie came to our rescue, and also Taco Time was in walking distance (hurray!). I figured it was actually a blessing that it happened then and not when we were driving in the middle of the night or when Brett and Sue were driving it. Brett and Sue drove our car back to Idaho for us (thank you!)

It was incredibly hard for me to leave Idaho Falls. Especially when I walked out the door of my house for the last time. We had lived in that house since Gracie was about 8 months old, and we were in the process of having it built while I was pregnant with her, so it really felt like we had raised our kids there (yes I know they're still young-I'm just a bit dramatic). Anyway, it was also VERY VERY VERY hard to say goodbye to friends and family. I'll leave it at that :)

I was nervous for the flight. I'm always a little nervous flying, but this time I was mostly nervous for how our kids would handle the traveling. Especially after the car trouble omen. Gratefully it was wonderful!!! I didn't know kids could be so nice under such circumstances. When we got off the final plane after a full 30 or so hours of traveling, Samantha wanted to get back on a plane! Yes, there must be angels among us.

So we made it! We got there in the evening, and Jeremy left for work early the next morning. We only had 5 days before my sister Stephanie and her family were moving here, too. We wanted to have the business started as much as possible and have a place for their family to stay.

The hotel we were at was awesome! The kids loved the pools-even a waterslide-and it really felt like a vacation-except Jeremy was gone to work of course. The bad thing was the hotel was about an hour away from the office. So we decided not to have Steph's family stay there.
Long story short, we found a house and just moved in the day they arrived, only to find out it had all sorts of problems and we moved out 6 days later. The day before my birthday.

So we moved back to another hotel. The Waterfront. Which is nowhere near the water, but also had very fun pools. It was a great hotel. We stayed for quite a few days. I was ready to get a bit more settled. Living in a hotel with little kids is not the easiest thing I've done.
We found a very beautiful house with a great pool, fully furnished, and we moved in as soon as we could. Jon and Steph moved in with us also. We always had at least one person staying with us downstairs, too. At one point we had three families, 4 individuals, and 3 people who worked at the house all staying there. Pretty crazy.

We had been trying to figure out the school situations for the kids since we moved, but didn't have much luck. Once we were in a house we really hit it hard looking for a school. We found one: B.R.I.G.H.T. Academy. The kids had to be interviewed, then take a test before they could be admitted to the school. This process took about a month. The kids have only been in school now for a couple of weeks. Lucy and Sami have probably been in 3 weeks. They like school. They wear cute uniforms and do lots of neat stuff at school. I think Gracie likes school too, but they are WAY further ahead here academically than back home. It's probably stressing me out as much as Gracie, but she got thrown into a very hard situation. Top that off with the fact that she goes to school here from 7:45-3:15 (back home it was 8:20-2:20)and we end up with one tired little girl. She's a good sport about it all and we are trying hard to catch her up to the class here. She sure misses her class in Idaho. I miss it, too. She had a wonderful teacher, Mrs. Reed, and lots of cute and nice friends. They are keeping in touch with her which really helps. Oh, and here she has a different teacher for every subject.


The girls have breakdowns about missing home every now and then, and so do I. But we are also having a good time here and am already grateful for the experiences we've had thus far. The girls really look forward to the weekends when we hire a boat to take us out on the ocean and snorkel. Sometimes we stop at a beach, and sometimes we just stay on the boat all day. My girls are amazing in the water. They snorkel and dive all over the place. They also love to sit or stand at the front of the boat while it's going. Things they could never do back home.


Here are some of the highlights for the last 2 months:

One of many fruit stands on the way to the beach


School Uniform

School Uniform

Fun on the boat!



Lucy and her big bunch of starfish. She worked hard to find them!




Gracie and a seahorse!



Cute sisters


Watch out for the sharks!

Sami liked the pot that is used to wash your feet before you go into your hotel room