Palau Amazing Adventure

For the kids spring break, we wanted to stay closer to home here in the South Pacific so Palau seemed like an obvious choice. The Republic of Palau is an island country located in the western Pacific Ocean. It is geographically part of the larger island group of Micronesia, with around 21,000 people spread out over 250 islands. However, random factoids do not speak to Palau's unique people and their ocean. Fresh fish daily, snorkeling, scuba diving, kayaking, dolphin encounter, and the warmth of the Palauan people all culminated in one of our best trips.

Our first day, we spent at the dolphin encounter. The kids learned about the bottlenose dolphins which had been rescued from Japanese fishing nets. Both Sienna and Nathaniel overcame their fears and interacted with the dolphins including petting the dolphins and "shaking hands". Nathaniel was later quoted as saying that he was not afraid of dolphins anymore because they are his friends.

The following day Andrew spent diving while the family lounged at the resort. He dove both blue hole and blue corner. The reef sharks and the large Napoleon Wrasse are the highlights. See the video for the visuals.

Next, the family went on a kayaking tour with snorkeling. The Rock Islands are amazing which hold some surprise features such as many caves, and historical sites from WW2 and the stone money production sites. We observed the many native birds in addition to the small cave bats.

Our final tour was the Rock Islands and Jellyfish Lake. The Rock Islands hold so much to see. We did snorkeling at three different sites and were quite amazed by the diversity in each site. The highlight was the 7-8ft silver tip reef shark we saw snorkeling. Jellyfish Lake is a lake in the Rock Islands that holds a unique species of jellyfish that evolved to lose their stinging cells. They are found nowhere else in the world. The hike into the lake and the experience of swimming with millions of jellyfish is indescribable. The video does better justice. The kids were pretty scared at first as was I. By the end, they were pleading not to leave. The jellyfish are also their new friends in addition to the dolphins.

Well we are back in Guam but already dreaming of another trip to Palau.

Click here to view pictures from Palau
Click here to view our video 

Happy New year, Thailand

We celebrated New Years on an airplane to Thailand. We had such an amazing adventure. Our first day, we went to Tiger Kingdom.  We were able to play with the baby tigers, lay with the sleepy ones and participate in bottle feeding them.  Sienna overcame here initial fears and pet the babies. Denise got the courage to interact with the adult tigers. What an experience that was! It was so unreal for her to interact with such deadly predator. She got to take a lot of photos with the tigers including lay/spooning with a sleeping tiger and rub the belly of another.

We then took the kids to a monkey park. After being being traumatized by the monkeys in Bali, this was an interesting experience. Again, Denise was able to hold a baby macaque and even got kissed by Sam the monkey. Sienna was conquering all fears this day. She touched Sam's hand and even posed for a picture. 

Day 2, We took the kids to Maetaeng Elephant Park where we did ox cart ride up the mountain to then meet up with our elephants for a nice ride down the river.

Once we got midway we launched on a bamboo raft down the river.

We then went to see the village of the long neck tribe. This was an interesting place with interesting people. 

The rest of our trip we spent exploring the city, trying new fruits and foods. We had an amazing time in Chiang Mai, Thailand. We spend our last day in Bangkok. Wow was it hot. I'm not sure I liked it. We spend the day at The Grand Palace and then did a city tour in the river canals. 

The kids were exhausted by the end of the trip but we had such an amazing time. 

Our World Travelers

Happy New Year! Here's to a wonderful start.

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Catch Up

I can't believe how much time has gone by since my last blog. So much has changed since August. Our close friends that we did everything with moved back to the states in September. It took some adjusting but we made it through the change. 

For Thanksgiving (my birthday), we had neighbors over for potluck. We had turkey, ham, and traditional sides. The usual, we ate too much and had turkey and ham leftovers forever.

My parents decided to come visit in December. We had a great time. The kids could not get enough of them. We had a busy first week with them seeing all the historical sites and the most picturesque spots. The second week was all about relaxing island style; beach and pool lounging. We were sad to see them leave right before Christmas. 

The kids started surf lessons recently and they are already progressing. Both kids have moved up to level 2 and are looking forward to competing in a surf contest in March.  Sienna and Nathaniel are super stoked and daddy is also having fun with them. 

We leave Monday for Chaing Mai, Thailand so another blog and pics to come soon.

Best Waves of the year!!!!!!!

Don't forget to check out videos of surfing
Click here to view videos

First day of school

 

Today, we dropped off our kids at their new school, Harvest Christian Academy. Sienna started kindergarten and Nathaniel started preschool. The kids and mommy were very nervous this morning. Sienna did such a great job going into her class and sitting at her desk. Mommy was holding back the tears. Nathaniel had a little harder time. He had the teacher come out because I didn't give him a hug and a kiss (I did, he just conveniently forgot). I gave him his kiss and off he went. The tears then started coming down when I saw his face. It didn't help that their was a kid nearby waling and holding on to his mom for dear life. 

Overall, the kids had a great first day. They had stories to tell and lots of treats from other classmates. 

Bali 2012

Wow, I was exhausted. Within a week of being back from Cali, we had our vacation to Bali. We arrived in Bali on July 15 and stayed at the Grand Hyatt in Nusa Dua. The hotel was amazing. Day 2, we had our driver take us to Kuda where Andrew surfed and the kids played on the beach. We drove the west coast of the Bukit Peninsula checking out all the surf spots for Andrew. At the end of the day, we arrived at Uluwatu Temple. We were warned about the monkeys that reside at the temple. We left all jewelry, glasses and anything else these monkeys could take in the car. Just inside the temple grounds, we watched another family feeding a couple of monkey. One of the monkeys got a little too close to Sienna and she motioned to kick the monkey. The monkey promptly stole her sandal and ran away. The temple staff showed us that you can trade the monkey food in return for the sandal back (in this case, we traded a banana). The sandal was a little chewed up. The whole experience traumatized Sienna and she did not want anything to do with monkeys for the rest of the trip. We stayed for the sunset which was really beautiful. 

Day 3, Daddy went surfing, the kids went to Camp Nusa and Momma went to the spa for a treatment. Most of our days for the rest of the trip were spent like this. Mommy got a lot of rest and relaxation over the 9 day trip.

Cali trip 2012

What a great trip we had. We arrived in Cali on May 24th. Everyone was surprised by our arrival. We didn't let anyone know we were coming until we were in Hawaii. We had a busy 6 weeks. Lots of visiting with friends, family and of course lots of visits to Disneyland. I stayed with my parents. The kids enjoyed playing with cousins on a regular basis.

Andrew joined us for a week in June. We had a great party for the kids and got to see the whole family. While on vacation, Nathaniel had another visit to the ER for stitches on his chin. It had only been 5 months when we took him for his forehead. I guess I have to prepare for many more. 

I spent a week in Redlands for a week of camp at out church. It was fun to see friends on a daily basis and to watch the kids reunite with their friends. They acted like they never left. We were hoping to spend the 4th of July with family but Andrew purchased our tickets for our flight home. I didn't think it was going to affect me to leave because I was missing Guam  and my hubby.  It was hard for me and the kids. Nathaniel and Sienna were crying in the airport because they didn't want to leave and that got me crying too. People thought that I was crazy or something. I was blessed to have a TSA worker help me get through security and helped me with my luggage all the way to the gate. Every time I felt overwhelmed, God put someone in my path to help. 

I finally arrived in Guam to a nice welcoming from my husband with a nice orchid plant and our friends the Stehpenson's

Mac flight home

On May 22, 2012, I went on my own adventure with the kids. We took off on a C17 military plane  from Guam to Honolulu. The flight was great. We left at midnight and we made beds on the floor and slept the whole way. Unfortunately,  we were unable to get a military connecting flight to the states so I had to purchase a commercial flight. Lugging the kids, a double Bob stroller, 1 large suitcase and 3 carry-ons was a big challenge. It took almost three days traveling but we made it.