Technical Difficulties

Sorry about the lame-o blog. I am still trying to get used to the dynamics of the new computer, camera and phone. I'm not a whiz at any of them yet, which makes me not want to use any of them, which doesn't help me become a whiz at any of them.

Ya know?

Seriously, Sorry!

Three

My 3rd baby turned 3 on Tuesday! She is such a charming little thing. I have no words to explain my adoration for this girlie.



If you have had the pleasure of meeting my sweet thing, then you are as smitten as we are. It doesn't take long!

Wardrobe Change

Last Friday, April 16, I shed my 20's and gracefully donned a full 3 decades! I know what you're thinking, "how can such a cute, hip chick be 30?" But it's true and I'm happy.

In my 20's I got married, gave birth 3 times, bought 2 homes, deepened my belief in my religion, traveled the world, learned to eat right and exercise, along with other accomplishments that I'm proud of.

In my 30's I plan to give birth a couple more times, thus fully submerging myself into soccer/PTA mom. I guess I better buy myself a pair of keds and pull the overall capris out of the archives. I would also like to travel even more far and wide, get myself into even better shape, continue to serve in my church and build my testimony. These are the things that make me most happy.

For my big day John took me to the tulip festival at Thanksgiving Point. Then like the party animals we are, we went to REI to look at double jogging strollers. That was actually to kill time until our 6:00 dinner reservation at Tuscany. After dinner it was still early and we weren't ready to head to the hotel so we took the party to Home Depot where we looked at new kitchen sinks and ceiling fans (I'm serious). On our way back to the hotel we stopped at Denny's and ordered 4 different desserts to go (still serious). We stayed the night at the Anniversary Inn in the Phantom of the Opera room.
We gorged ourselves on chocolate desserts and slept soundly on the fluffy bed. By morning it was all over. We had to get up early and head home for 2 soccer games and a baby shower.

Thankfully, 30 never felt so good!

Today I went to Costco and came home with nothing

How? You ask. Remember my wallet was stolen by a thief in the night? My debit card was in there, which has since been canceled and replaced. But did you know that you have to go into your branch to set up a pin number? Who has time for that? Not me! So I have been using my new debit card as a credit card for the past 2 weeks, which hasn't been a problem until I loaded a cart at Costco today and even got so far as to swipe my "debit card". If you're not a costco reg like me you don't know that costco only accepts debit cards (with pins), Amex, or checks. I had none of these, so my only option was to go home and somehow scrounge up $175. GRRR. Last thing I needed today with a million things I wanted to get done so I don't have to do them tomorrow(if you don't know what tomorrow is I'm not telling you).
After a couple hours back home I was able to sneak away to the bank (to get my pin) and back to Costco. Half way to the bank I realized what my feet looked like. I was wearing my slippers! I was not about to turn around so I visited the bank and Costco in slippers.
Some days I'm a total airhead!

Manila

I'm sorry. I know this post has been a long time coming, but here it is...
We spent our last 2 days in Manila. I didn't know what to expect, but we had so much fun. We stayed at The Manila Airport Hotel. I know, it sounds so ghetto, but it was surprisingly nice and only 5 minutes from the airport.
This is the only picture we got there. The kids got good at back flips. The pool was decent and was surrounded by these little "villas." We didn't spend much time there though. We spent the first day at the Mall of Asia, which (I thought) was way cooler than the Mall of America.

Not only did they have an indoor ice skating rink, they also had a city of jump houses, dozens of great restaurants, movie theaters, animal stroller rentals for $4 for the day, and fantastic shopping.
But the most amazing part was this incredible kid's area. This is the biggest and greatest playplace I have ever seen. Parents are not invited. It's completely secured. You check your kids in to play for any amount of time (I think we paid $5 an hour per child) and you are free to roam the mall. Since we had very little alone time all month, this was not only fun for the kids, but a nice break for John and me. (we didn't take any pictures there, so these are all stock photos)
We started the next day at Ocean Park, which is a really cool aquarium. These pictures are out of order because I'm just happy to be getting this post up. Organized pictures are too much to ask!

It's easy to let your kids pick out a to from the gift shop when stuffed animals are $3 not $3o!

I love this pic of Bailey staring at the "Nemo" fish (yes, we spent half our time talking about Nemo and the other half talking about Ariel. We're raising a group of intellectuals here!)
At the end they had a little coloring station right by the shark tank. Austin did this lovely portrait of me on a paper plate. I love it and brought it home!
The sting rays were neat
This is in a tunnel that you walk through and watch the fish swim over you

We got to touch starfish (which are really called "Sea stars" because they're not fish)


The jelly display was our favorite. It was so mesmerizing. The only light is constantly changing color as Cannon in D plays. John snapped this cool pic when the color of the jellies was the same as my shirt.

This room is smaller than it looks. The walls were all mirrors (with signs on them to watch where you are walking. What a people watchers dream- can you imagine taking the signs down and just sitting in the corner of the room watching people walk into their reflections? I'm seriously laughing at myself right now- John doesn't think it's funny). It looked like you were surrounded by hundreds of jelly tanks. I thought it was a good setting for a scary movie.
From there we went to Old Town Manila and Fort Santiago.
Then we headed back to the mall- movie, playplace, dinner, then hotel for a good nights sleep before the trek home.

The next day we headed home. Everything went smoothly. I did not argue with any Korean flight attendants and getting home was about 8 hours faster than getting there (we saved time since we did the leg from Manila to Boracay 2 days earlier, plus flights and layovers were shorter)

How sad that this is my very last post of our trip! Thanks for sticking with me!

Where should we go next year?

Just Trying it Out

With everything lost, John bought me a cheap, used iPhone to satisfy a craving for electronics and give the kids something to play with on the flights home. I am still figuring it out, but wanted to try out a couple apps. One is Hello Kitty Camera and the other is posting from my phone. So this post is just a test. By way of good news, my new computer was delivered today so I should get pics of our days Manila up soon.

No Place Like It

Yes, we made it home

Safe and Sound

Late Thursday

Travels went well

As soon as I get my new computer (hopefully sometime this week) I will post about our 2 days in Manila (which were fantastic)

Happy Easter!
(I woke up to snow this Easter morning- Welcome Home!)