I am writing this on my very last night on Boracay Island. I'm freshly massaged by Weng after a day spent at the pool, beach, police station, and finally dinner at our favorite place "Manana's" and one last sunset sail.
By way of robbery update...I am in love with the lead investigator. I mean, they've done nothing for the case and I don't know if there's anything they can do, but he's got a killer smile and is so nice. John spent an hour or so there discussing options and after a few phone calls with the owner of Cohiba, we have come to a settlement that I think is fair for both sides. We absolutely did not want to make this situation more of a headache or cause more loss. We have truly loved our time here at Cohiba and want to keep doors open in case we want to come back. Even though the financial side is settled, my nerves are not. Night time is hard. When I think how easily someone slipped in and robbed me of valuables, I can't help but think how easily it could have been beautiful, blond, American children they were after. It makes me sick to my stomach. I have been sleeping with the lights on and double checking every door before bed. Then of course, I start at every sound. John and I have talked in depth about measures we will take on future trips to make sure everything (and everyone) is safer. By morning though, everything is better and I am less paranoid.
We will spend 2 days in Manila. Not sure what that will bring. I think it will be a nice change of scenery and quick little break before we begin the real journey...
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Monday, March 29, 2010
Saturday, March 27, 2010
My Addie Girl's Birthday
March 27, 2005 I gave birth to a PERFECT baby girl who has grown to a 5 year old with a lot of spunk and personality (where did it come from?) I felt a little bad that she had to celebrate her birthday here and I thought about letting the day slip by and celebrating later, but I just couldn't do it! I wanted to celebrate her birth as much as she did. We had a fun day starting at the beach, then lunch at the pool, then a special shopping trip for just the lucky mom and the birthday girl. She was so sweet and so fun and after 2 hours of shopping she said to me "All that shopping was so fun, I didn't even get tired of walking." I know, I'm totally raising her right! After dinner, I ordered a couple of these flourless chocolate cakes from our poolside restaurant. They are heaven on earth (mainly because there's as much frosting as there is cake). I found a 5 candle and we talked about a pajama party she wants to have when we get home over cake and ice cream. So glad we celebrated here!
In other news, we are working with Cohiba and our home owners insurance to be reimbursed for our losses. Cohiba has really stepped up the security. They have completely blocked off the access point that was used and now have security guards walking the property all night. For some reason this doesn't make me feel that much better because we really believe that this was an inside job (I mean the property has video cameras everywhere that a night guard is supposed to be watching ALL night. We know that they caught 2 men on camera outside of our apartment at midnight and that the man above us chased 1 man away at 2:30. So these men roamed this complex for over 2 hours and no one caught on. I'm not saying that the security guard was in on it though because the more we talk to people, the more we find out that he sleeps most of his shift). So more security to me, means men in uniform walking back and forth in front of my window all night- who are they? IDK. I've lost trust.
In other news, we are working with Cohiba and our home owners insurance to be reimbursed for our losses. Cohiba has really stepped up the security. They have completely blocked off the access point that was used and now have security guards walking the property all night. For some reason this doesn't make me feel that much better because we really believe that this was an inside job (I mean the property has video cameras everywhere that a night guard is supposed to be watching ALL night. We know that they caught 2 men on camera outside of our apartment at midnight and that the man above us chased 1 man away at 2:30. So these men roamed this complex for over 2 hours and no one caught on. I'm not saying that the security guard was in on it though because the more we talk to people, the more we find out that he sleeps most of his shift). So more security to me, means men in uniform walking back and forth in front of my window all night- who are they? IDK. I've lost trust. We are moving on though and starting to wind things down here. We leave tue morn for Manila. We will spend tue and wed there and head home thur morn. And by "head home" I mean Manila to Seoul to LA to Salt Lake- again!
I only ask 2 things of Utah: Keep my Camryn Ivy small (since I have given up on Baby Lex- Thanks a lot Shel. I told you SKIM milk!)
AND 70 degrees or higher. Is that too much?
AND 70 degrees or higher. Is that too much? Thursday, March 25, 2010
We've Been Robbed!
For Real
John was planning on leaving for a little trip this morning to an employees wedding, a 6 hour bus ride away. He packed all his stuff into his backpack and we went to sleep. I heard footsteps in the middle of the night, but had gone to sleep with a fever and thought I was just hearing things. I'm actually so glad I didn't register what was going on because I don't know if they had been armed or what would've happened if we came face to face (and by "we", I mean him and John).
John got up early and started getting ready to go. I wasn't thrilled about it since I was feeling so yucky, but it was going to be a good trip for him.
I heard lots of gasps and "Oh no"s from John in the front room, so I rolled out of bed to see what was up. He said "We've been robbed." The first thing I did was run to the kids room and make sure they were still there. Once I knew my kids were safe, I didn't care as much about all the stuff that was gone...3 laptops, 2 cameras, an Ipod, cell phone, the hard drive that backed up the laptops (awesome), my purse (again), some cords and other things that go along with it all. 2 other apartments were robbed as well. They got away with less in one of them because the man sleeping here was woken by the thief and chased him off! He thought that he, specifically, was being targeted, so he stayed up and played guard dog for the rest of the night. We found all of our useless stuff thrown over the cliff that drops to the ocean...beach toys, sunscreen, sunglasses, hats (the contents of my purse), not my wallet though that held my drivers license, a credit card and about $200. It looks like they had gone through John's backpack on our back patio and left his clothes and his passport! Thank goodness! After my children, our passports were the next thing I worried about. All the other passports were hidden.
Yesterday, John jumped in the pool with his wallet in his pocket, so he had laid all of it's contents out in our room to dry off. Which was another tender mercy in this whole thing because we still have his credit card, which is now our only way to access our bank account from here.
The German girl in the apartment next to us, who was also robbed has been going around the back alleys and talking to shady people about where she can buy cheap electronics in hopes to being lead to our stuff.
The complex here has surveillance cameras that caught only the backs of 2 men, one wearing John's backpack!
I have never been so thankful for my blog. All the pictures from our trip are gone except the ones I blogged! And thank goodness I blogged so religiously and was pretty much up to date.
So this may be the end of it people. For sure no more pictures! So sad. But I will at least try to get up a story or two.
Know that we are all safe and sound here. I'm not feeling too violated or upset about the situation and we are sure not going to let this ruin the rest of our trip, but I am starting to get anxious to come home...although even that waned a bit when I was eating dinner at the pool and said "Can I get more water. Oh and can you send out my laundry?"
Just can't wait to see my new niece though-
John was planning on leaving for a little trip this morning to an employees wedding, a 6 hour bus ride away. He packed all his stuff into his backpack and we went to sleep. I heard footsteps in the middle of the night, but had gone to sleep with a fever and thought I was just hearing things. I'm actually so glad I didn't register what was going on because I don't know if they had been armed or what would've happened if we came face to face (and by "we", I mean him and John).
John got up early and started getting ready to go. I wasn't thrilled about it since I was feeling so yucky, but it was going to be a good trip for him.
I heard lots of gasps and "Oh no"s from John in the front room, so I rolled out of bed to see what was up. He said "We've been robbed." The first thing I did was run to the kids room and make sure they were still there. Once I knew my kids were safe, I didn't care as much about all the stuff that was gone...3 laptops, 2 cameras, an Ipod, cell phone, the hard drive that backed up the laptops (awesome), my purse (again), some cords and other things that go along with it all. 2 other apartments were robbed as well. They got away with less in one of them because the man sleeping here was woken by the thief and chased him off! He thought that he, specifically, was being targeted, so he stayed up and played guard dog for the rest of the night. We found all of our useless stuff thrown over the cliff that drops to the ocean...beach toys, sunscreen, sunglasses, hats (the contents of my purse), not my wallet though that held my drivers license, a credit card and about $200. It looks like they had gone through John's backpack on our back patio and left his clothes and his passport! Thank goodness! After my children, our passports were the next thing I worried about. All the other passports were hidden.
Yesterday, John jumped in the pool with his wallet in his pocket, so he had laid all of it's contents out in our room to dry off. Which was another tender mercy in this whole thing because we still have his credit card, which is now our only way to access our bank account from here.
The German girl in the apartment next to us, who was also robbed has been going around the back alleys and talking to shady people about where she can buy cheap electronics in hopes to being lead to our stuff.
The complex here has surveillance cameras that caught only the backs of 2 men, one wearing John's backpack!
I have never been so thankful for my blog. All the pictures from our trip are gone except the ones I blogged! And thank goodness I blogged so religiously and was pretty much up to date.
So this may be the end of it people. For sure no more pictures! So sad. But I will at least try to get up a story or two.
Know that we are all safe and sound here. I'm not feeling too violated or upset about the situation and we are sure not going to let this ruin the rest of our trip, but I am starting to get anxious to come home...although even that waned a bit when I was eating dinner at the pool and said "Can I get more water. Oh and can you send out my laundry?"
Just can't wait to see my new niece though-
Camryn Ivy Hansen
(for more pics check out my sisters blog)
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Family Pictures: Boracay March 2010
My hair was a mess (no likey the humidity). I look pregnant (in my butt and thighs too)- Oh, I'm NOT! Sun was too bright. Kids were whining about the heat (so were my pits! TMI?) All made for a less than ideal family photoshoot. Our photographers (no joke, their names are Ice and Prince- how cool is that?) were so awesome and did so great even under really weird circumstances (OK, so I'm a total loser. Has this blog established that yet? I thought this couple was at the seminar to record the whole thing because I knew John had hired professionals to tape it all and they had some serious camera equipment. I blame my mom for this...I say to them "Can you just throw in family pictures with the seminar?" They were SO nice and seemed so happy to do it. I bossed them like a first child and told them to call us in the morning when they were ready, which she did. I told John that the seminar photographers were taking family pictures. He thought it was weird that I had met them and arranged a deal before he had even met them, but didn't voice this. So we got all dressed up and headed to the beach. Up walks our photographers and John starts laughing at me. He tells me that these are people that are here WITH someone that is here FOR the seminar. So I basically asked a random person to take our pictures and to call me when they were ready. But they did it and did great, even though I'm a serious loser!-with major junk in the trunk) 
Ok, they turned out better than that. I think there's at least one cute one to put in the darling turquoise shell frame I bought here.
Todd and Laci got some cute shots at least!
How on earth did she get her husband to do a kiss picture? I think I have a new mission in life.
Ok, they turned out better than that. I think there's at least one cute one to put in the darling turquoise shell frame I bought here.
Todd and Laci got some cute shots at least! How on earth did she get her husband to do a kiss picture? I think I have a new mission in life. Monday, March 22, 2010
Finally! A Girl!
Baby Girl Hansen
7lb. 10 oz.
March 22, 2010
My sister gave birth to a perfect baby girl yesterday (it's yesterday to me, but probably still today to you). I know, super rude of her to plan to have a baby while I'm on a tropical vacation. This makes it so hard to be away!
After 3 Hansen boys, we are so excited to welcome this little girl. We adore all the boys in the family, but my girls are the only girl cousins, so I'm thankful Cami is helping me even out the numbers. She didn't know the gender, so this is all new and exciting to us.
I LOVE this picture. Big brother Clay has been so excited for this baby. He was constantly hugging Cami's belly and talking to the baby. I think he's happy to finally hold her on his own!
You know these are still the mush face, funky skin pictures because she is fresh out. More pictures and name to come
Sunday, March 21, 2010
A Splash of Pictures
In no particular order...
If you're at all interested (and by interested, I mean looking for a good bedtime story because this may put you to sleep) I'm going to quickly explain a bit about what John does. He started out with internet marketing. He would build websites for affiliates in various fields and work his search engine optimizing magic to get to the top of search engines for relevant key words. He got so busy with this that he decided to start hiring employees. He hired a couple of Americans, but they were expensive and short term. Someone turned him on to hiring Filipinos. They are hard working, inexpensive, and very loyal. After a few years of hiring and training employees, people started to ask for his expertise in outsourcing to The Philippines. Now he has put together a whole training program to help other internet businesses out source here as well. So he held a seminar for business owners to come to the country and learn directly from him. (Not sure if I even got all that right!) He and his partner Dan did such a great job. I'm so proud of John and his amazing work ethic. So here is where the seminar took place. Laci's husband Todd was one of their speakers. It was a 3 day event with breaks for scuba diving and (of course) sunset sailing. It was fun for the kids and me to be around. Austin was so interested and seriously sat in on hours of the meetings. It was a great weekend, but we are glad it's over since I was alone with the kids for most of it and John had to be "on" all the time.
Sorry about that. On to more exciting things like ice cream on the beach
Makes everyone happy
Watching TV, sharing a chair. Just so sweet
Girls getting up the hill together
A little Kim and Laci time. This is our very favorite place for a smoothie. Jonah's Fruit Shake.
It's a little ghetto, but we loved it and frequented it almost daily (there, are you happy "MisterEd"? Whoever the heck you are- You weird-o)
And a lot of shopping together at D*Mall (that's what the sign says behind us)
Of course, a little more Speedo spotting
Check the tan on this couple. My Uncle Dana is probably drooling! (thanks for not sporting a speedo at least!)
There's not a lot of animal life that we've seen on the island (nothing like Costa Rica), but Bailey caught this tiny lizard in her bathtub! She carried around in a cup until she got brave enough to touch it, then hold it, which lead to squishing it to death. Poor guy!
We found this big daddy crawling around our patio. Seriously the biggest hermit crab I have ever seen. 
We are really on the count down now. We leave Boracay a week from today, spend two days in Manila and are home April 1.
If you're at all interested (and by interested, I mean looking for a good bedtime story because this may put you to sleep) I'm going to quickly explain a bit about what John does. He started out with internet marketing. He would build websites for affiliates in various fields and work his search engine optimizing magic to get to the top of search engines for relevant key words. He got so busy with this that he decided to start hiring employees. He hired a couple of Americans, but they were expensive and short term. Someone turned him on to hiring Filipinos. They are hard working, inexpensive, and very loyal. After a few years of hiring and training employees, people started to ask for his expertise in outsourcing to The Philippines. Now he has put together a whole training program to help other internet businesses out source here as well. So he held a seminar for business owners to come to the country and learn directly from him. (Not sure if I even got all that right!) He and his partner Dan did such a great job. I'm so proud of John and his amazing work ethic. So here is where the seminar took place. Laci's husband Todd was one of their speakers. It was a 3 day event with breaks for scuba diving and (of course) sunset sailing. It was fun for the kids and me to be around. Austin was so interested and seriously sat in on hours of the meetings. It was a great weekend, but we are glad it's over since I was alone with the kids for most of it and John had to be "on" all the time.
Sorry about that. On to more exciting things like ice cream on the beach
Makes everyone happy Watching TV, sharing a chair. Just so sweet
Girls getting up the hill together
A little Kim and Laci time. This is our very favorite place for a smoothie. Jonah's Fruit Shake.
It's a little ghetto, but we loved it and frequented it almost daily (there, are you happy "MisterEd"? Whoever the heck you are- You weird-o)And a lot of shopping together at D*Mall (that's what the sign says behind us)
Of course, a little more Speedo spotting
Check the tan on this couple. My Uncle Dana is probably drooling! (thanks for not sporting a speedo at least!)
There's not a lot of animal life that we've seen on the island (nothing like Costa Rica), but Bailey caught this tiny lizard in her bathtub! She carried around in a cup until she got brave enough to touch it, then hold it, which lead to squishing it to death. Poor guy! We found this big daddy crawling around our patio. Seriously the biggest hermit crab I have ever seen. We are really on the count down now. We leave Boracay a week from today, spend two days in Manila and are home April 1.
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Cohiba
Welcome to our home for the month! We have loved Cohiba. It has been even better than expected. Even though it's a full apartment, this place is run like a hotel. I have housekeeping come in everyday with fresh towels for bath, pool and beach. I send my laundry out. My sheets are changed on Saturday unless I ask for it more. I do still do the dishes if we have dinner here, but I don't touch breakfast dishes because they do all that. Haven't made my bed all month or cleaned floors or toilets! We have even gotten one of the cute cleaning ladies to babysit a couple times.
So this pic if from the front door looking down the hallway/entry way
If you turn right, you go into the kids bedroom. You can see the trundle on the floor for Bailey. They have all been sleeping great!
If you turn to the left, you go into the front bathroom. That door in the bathroom takes you into the guest room, but you can also get there by going around.
Walking down the hall and almost into the family room, on the right, is the master. That glass door takes you to the back patio.
When you walk into the master and go left, there is this hall way that I have grown to love. On the right are closets and left is the bathroom.
There is no door on the shower, which I first thought was cool and tropical, but now I think it's messy. Bailey loves the bathtub. We can fill it up in the morning and she will be in and out all day long!
This is just a view from the other side so you can see the toilet (kind of) and sinks
Out of the master bedroom is the family room
Opposite the glass doors is the kitchen
Through the kitchen to the right is the dining table has become our homework table
That door that you can barely see on the left takes you to the guest room
Out the glass doors you get to our backyard. We have a huge grass yard and patio.
We LOVE our back patio. Any meal eaten at home is done so on the table on the right. The bed on the left has provided for hours of cozy reading, napping, talking and massages!
There are a couple things that make this place less than ideal like it's not right on the beach and it's up a hill, so we don't get many trikes this way, so we have to walk down to catch one or take the shuttle (which is way more expensive- $3 instead of $1). But we have just loved it here and will be so sad to say good bye next week.
So this pic if from the front door looking down the hallway/entry way
If you turn right, you go into the kids bedroom. You can see the trundle on the floor for Bailey. They have all been sleeping great!
If you turn to the left, you go into the front bathroom. That door in the bathroom takes you into the guest room, but you can also get there by going around.
Walking down the hall and almost into the family room, on the right, is the master. That glass door takes you to the back patio.
When you walk into the master and go left, there is this hall way that I have grown to love. On the right are closets and left is the bathroom.
There is no door on the shower, which I first thought was cool and tropical, but now I think it's messy. Bailey loves the bathtub. We can fill it up in the morning and she will be in and out all day long!This is just a view from the other side so you can see the toilet (kind of) and sinks
Out of the master bedroom is the family room
Opposite the glass doors is the kitchen
Through the kitchen to the right is the dining table has become our homework table
That door that you can barely see on the left takes you to the guest room
Out the glass doors you get to our backyard. We have a huge grass yard and patio.We LOVE our back patio. Any meal eaten at home is done so on the table on the right. The bed on the left has provided for hours of cozy reading, napping, talking and massages!
There are a couple things that make this place less than ideal like it's not right on the beach and it's up a hill, so we don't get many trikes this way, so we have to walk down to catch one or take the shuttle (which is way more expensive- $3 instead of $1). But we have just loved it here and will be so sad to say good bye next week.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
People Watching
If you are a born people watcher, and you go on vacation to a place like this, with another born people watcher friend, suddenly your world is complete!
Laci and I took a little people watching walk and this is what we came up with...
This pic is for you Katie Jean- The matching outfits
The beach nap
Setting up for volleyball (how would you do it?)
The group stretch
A little Asian chicken fight never hurt anyone
Just as Laci took this picture, this sleeping beauty looked right at her! OOPS! Thought she was asleep
I call this one "My mom and Me in 30 years"
We have been speedo spotting all month. This handsome guy has been in the cabana next to us for a couple of days. As much as I love the "tramp stamp" tattoo on his lower back, I have to say, the tan line is what really gives me the giggles
Love this cutie cooling off in the water and checking to make sure the 6 pack is still there (it's not)
2 for 1
RED- my favorite color!
We find it funny that people forget that they are not alone on the beach and like to use it as their very own photo studio. We have watched some good photo shoots.
This one went on at our pool
Gotta love props
We could not figure these ladies out. They were doing the raciest poses
No, we did not take a picture of the same pose. They switched photographer and model and each got one with their legs in the air!
This chica was the best. We watched her walk the beach asking random people to take pictures of her. She disappeared for a while then reappeared in a different bathing suit and a cowboy hat. 
This is our jackpot shot- A speedo taking a picture of the super model!
Love the wave
Now really, what would you do in this situation? Our super model ran out of people to take pictures of her, so she was just wandering the water line. Laci and I decided to get our feet wet by her and see if she would ask for our services. Which she did. I so wish we would've videoed this because she was really working it. I also wish we got a close of her face so you could all see her mustache! No joke, people. This one may have been good from far, but she was far from good!
John snuck up behind us to get this pic of us in serious people watching mode (this was not posed!)
This one is posed
My stomach just hurts automatically looking at these pictures because we have just laughed so hard about this.
Laci and I took a little people watching walk and this is what we came up with...
This pic is for you Katie Jean- The matching outfits
The beach nap
Setting up for volleyball (how would you do it?)
The group stretch
A little Asian chicken fight never hurt anyone
Just as Laci took this picture, this sleeping beauty looked right at her! OOPS! Thought she was asleep
I call this one "My mom and Me in 30 years"
We have been speedo spotting all month. This handsome guy has been in the cabana next to us for a couple of days. As much as I love the "tramp stamp" tattoo on his lower back, I have to say, the tan line is what really gives me the giggles
Love this cutie cooling off in the water and checking to make sure the 6 pack is still there (it's not)
2 for 1
RED- my favorite color!
We find it funny that people forget that they are not alone on the beach and like to use it as their very own photo studio. We have watched some good photo shoots.This one went on at our pool
Gotta love props
We could not figure these ladies out. They were doing the raciest poses
No, we did not take a picture of the same pose. They switched photographer and model and each got one with their legs in the air!
This chica was the best. We watched her walk the beach asking random people to take pictures of her. She disappeared for a while then reappeared in a different bathing suit and a cowboy hat. 
This is our jackpot shot- A speedo taking a picture of the super model!
Love the wave
Now really, what would you do in this situation? Our super model ran out of people to take pictures of her, so she was just wandering the water line. Laci and I decided to get our feet wet by her and see if she would ask for our services. Which she did. I so wish we would've videoed this because she was really working it. I also wish we got a close of her face so you could all see her mustache! No joke, people. This one may have been good from far, but she was far from good!
John snuck up behind us to get this pic of us in serious people watching mode (this was not posed!)
This one is posed
My stomach just hurts automatically looking at these pictures because we have just laughed so hard about this.
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