Part 2: Moalboal, Philippines

A little background...our trip is divided into 4 major parts:

1. Cebu (at Jen and Andrey's house), Philippines. I should note how we know Jen and Andrey.  Gary met Andrey at TWU about 20 years ago!
2. Moalboal: resort in the Philippines with Jen, Andrey and Ella
3. Bohol Island: island in the Philippines with just our family
4.  Chiang Mai, Thailand for one week.

This is sort of scattered but here we go...

Our photo sessions in Cebu went really well!  We got to learn more about the people and city by doing them so that was great.  We won't be sharing those photos (well, maybe Gary's?) but thankfully they did go well!  I also learned that people who live in the Philippines have very unique names.  Very.  They also like the combo names...think `Lougar' for our kids.  The vice presidents name is `Jejomar' for Jesus, Joseph and Mary.

Kai was desperate to try a coconut drink.  He didn't love it as much as he thought he would :) What we have been eating a lot of are mangoes.  Family favourite and so good here!

On Tuesday, we piled the 7 of us into Jen and Andrey's car and made the 2.5 hour trip to Moalboal.  In case you care, all the vowels are pronounced individually so it's `Mo-al Bo-al' :)  It was a gorgeous drive with greenery and rolling hills everywhere.  Oh, and a million little shops on the side of the road selling tires and bread etc.  A lot of that is on video.  It's tricky as we have the iPhone, GoPro, and our DSLR.  With three kids though, the easiest is the iPhone and GoPro.

We went to a gorgeous remote resort called `Club Serena'.  This was a pricier portion of our trip but it was totally worth it!  No car seats necessary for the kids as you actually don't travel very quickly.  Nya was definitely the most work as a car seat may have been good for her (and nice for me!!).  Travelling with a one year old is the hardest part of this trip.  Thankfully she is very easy going and we don't regret going, there's just very little down time with a toddler in general.

On the way, we stopped for some fresh coconut ice cream, so yummy!

Our hotel room was a treehouse which was really fun!  There was enough room for our bed, two mattresses for the boys and then Nya's travel crib (love that travel crib!!!!).  The AC was necessary, that's for sure.  The temperature has been in the low 30's but pretty muggy.  It doesn't bother us much.

The boys loved collecting coconuts and thankfully new ones kept falling daily to add to their stash. 

We spent about 3-4 hours a day in the pool and 2 hours in the ocean.  So awesome.  The rest of the time was eating at the restaurant.   Tough life I tell ya!  Other than Whistler, we haven't done a resort with our family before.  Three nights was perfect.

Gary and I each tried paddle boarding but uh, we weren't very good!  I blame the waves.

I loved the snorkeling and we just swam out a ways to the drop off and there were a plethora of fish, corals, etc.  Kai, Gary and Koen did get stung by jellyfish and Kai definitely got it the worst.  It was so bad that he actually refused to back into the ocean.  The only way we could get him in was laying on the paddleboard and sticking his head in to snorkel.

I have to say that the Philippines is much safer than I anticipated.  When I wake up every morning, I `smell' Kenya and it makes me miss it.  The roosters, open windows, heat, smoke etc.  However, it is much safer with way less corruption that's for sure!  The only thing I'm a little worried about with my millions of mosquito bites is Dengue Fever.

Feeding Nya to sleep in the cabana and catching up on emails while enjoying the view.  Wifi only available in that area.  Love my iPhone!!

Just one photo showing how clear the water is...I would go up to the drop off area but was somehow fearful to dive down at take photos.  There were bigger and bigger fish which made me think that other big scary things were there :)   It was a big scuba diving resort.  We have more underwater photos but not sure where they are right now...

We have one more night in Cebu and then we are off to another island without Jen and Andrey.  Time is flying by!  In less than a week we will be in Thailand!

We keep water wings on the boys and they are pretty confident in the water so that is good!  So far only Koen has had a bit of a sunburn on his face. Well, Gary and I also got a bit on our backs.

I love the the sand here, the grains are so large and white.  The anklet on Nya is a mosquito bracelet.  It doesn't really work on me or Kai but seems to be effective on everyone else.  Nya just got some ant bites on her feet.

Kai lives in his mask and snorkel.  Too bad there weren't fish in the pool:)

\

We could walk out so far as it was shallow for a long ways.

Jen, Andrey, and Ella waiting for dinner.

The Catamaran was where the drop off was.

Where we ate every day...right next to the pool and beach.

Andrey and Ella checking out the fish.  You can see how shallow it is!

Nya loved the border of the pool as it was just about 1 inch deep all the way around.

Gorgeous flowers everywhere.

We did a little hike which I miss.  We haven't been walking as much as we normally do so hopefully we do that soon.  I have a feeling it will have to be early morning walks due to the heat.  Talking about early mornings, Nya is up by 4:30 am most mornings. I am tired.  I can see why people bring nanny's along!  It's seriously a thought for next time...pay for a friends flight and then they help by babysitting a couple of hours a day?

Andrey taught me the perfect cannon ball entry!  The kids loved cannonballing!

A jellyfish that wasn't doing so well.

Fresh mango shake..mmmmm.  The food isn't actually much cheaper here...

We went for a little hike along along the beach and road.  

Found a sweet spot with thousands of hermit crabs and fun shells.

Tons of goats in the Philippines which Koen loved counting on our walk.

Koen eating some watermelon while watching the sunset.

So far, we are having a wonderful time and wouldn't change a thing.  Oh, Gary said he would bring more snacks and possibly an inflatable toy for the pool.

Highlights:

Nya: pool

Koen: mangoes

Kai: snorkelling

Louise: snorkelling and hanging out in the cabana RELAXING.

Gary: beautiful beach and time with Andrey and Jen

Lowlights:

Nya: lack of sleep

Koen: jumped in the pool without water wings and sunk.

Kai: jellyfish stings

Louise: early starts to the day.  Very early.

Gary: fatigue

Today we shopped for groceries for the next part of our trip.  Tomorrow we will take a two hour speed boat ride to Bohol Island!  Let's see how we do without Jen and Andrey's help!  I would say the #1 tip of international travel (if you are nervous or if you have kids) is to visit a friend who lives there :)

Hope you are all well!

Love, Team Chapman

Moalboal, Philippines

Currently holding napping Nya in the cabana while looking at the ocean in front and listening to the boys in the pool behind me. Awesome snorkeling. Gary, Kai and koen were stung by jellyfish and Kai got the worst of it. Will do proper blog post in 3 days with some Gopro snorkeling photos, such a great 'toy' for here! This place is def fancier than we are used to!

Cebu: Days 1 and 2

All right!  I have a few minutes (aka an hour) to sit here and blog about our first few days!  We left on Thursday at 9 pm and the kids were wide awake.  They have never stayed up that late!  They ended up staying awake until 11:45pm (well, Nya did not fall asleep until 4am!!!!).  

I will say that leaving at 2am was both a super terrible idea (kids that were sooooo overtired and all the passengers were trying to sleep and our kids were not) and a great idea (our kids were so tired the next night that they were pretty much able to get right on schedule 15 hours ahead).

{Had a subway sandwich and waited...}

{Boys finally passed out.  By the way, the pillow above has been AWESOME.  I use it to feed Nya on the airplane and then it allows her to stay sleeping on my lap.   One thing we would do differently is take WAY less carry on.  Each boy had a backpack and they did not need anything in it.  So, unfortunately they were half asleep carrying backpacks which was not ideal.  I would recommend rolling suitcases for kids if they are going to take anything, or really, just don't take much on board.}

I will tell you that the flight sucked. Yup, we are not `allowed' to say sucked but it sure did.  Like my friend Tessa said, it's like labour and you sort of just need to get through it and there's no stopping it.  12 hours.  They had the lights on from 2-4am to feed everyone dinner which was terrible for Nya.  I ended up spending the first few hours just holding her close to the engines so the sound would keep her quiet.  Lots and lots of walking the aisle with her while everyone else slept.   She was not terrible, but what do you expect with a 1 year old wide awake in the middle of the night?!   Random, but one of my least favourite things was the guy across from me crunching on pork rinds (so crunchy!!!) while I was so overtired and trying to sleep :)  Gary and I slept less than 2 hours in 36.

Gary got sick on the flight and spent some time vomiting in the bathroom. Not cool.  It was the combo of exhaustion and recycled air and lack of food.  Fortunately once we were in Taipei he perked up a bit.  We spent 2 hours in that airport and then took the 2 hour flight to Manila.  It went really well.  Loved that flight.  China Airlines was great, the ladies were all so friendly and helpful to our family.   The benefit of traveling with 3 kids is you get optimal seating and they move you through quickly!

Nya asleep after feeding her and I fill out a million custom forms.  This flight was my favourite.  Ample leg room and Nya slept!!  Let me tell you, by this second flight, Nya was good just feeding and going to sleep.  THANK YOU GOD!!!  So glad to be breastfeeding her even though there were a few people just staring.   She has been feeding sooooooooooooo much.

 Everyone had told us that the Manila airport was crazy but we breezed through our luggage, customs, ATM and taxis within 15 minutes and went to another terminal 15 minutes away.  It was perfect answer to prayer.  Then, we waited in Manila for about 4 hours as our flight was delayed.  We had pizza and the kids raced cars for a long time.  I should note that we did not take a stroller and used the Ergo instead.  This was a very wise decision as she loves to be held and then my other hands were free to hold luggage/kids hands etc.

People have been taking a lot of pictures of our kids. I would say that 90% of people thought Nya was a boy due to being bald.  Koen was a hit in all the airports because he just chats with everyone about everything.  He even smiles his `handsome smile' for photos.  Kai is not as exciting to them but he still sneaks into some photos.

We arrived in Cebu at about 4 pm which is actually 1 am our time!  Jen and her 4 year old daughter, Ella, picked us up and it was so good to see them!  We drove just less than an hour to their home.  So great to see Cebu!  We kept everyone awake for dinner and then we were all in bed and asleep by 7pm ( which was really 4am our time!).  We slept until about 5am which was not bad!  Nya was hungry and fed frequently.  It is weird to wake up in the night feeling really hungry.  We are all sleeping in a giant air conditioned room and it is perfect.  The loud AC means we don't need to tiptoe around :)

Nya and Koen in the playroom.  Koen checking out the chickens outside!  I thought they were roosters because they are the biggest chickens I've ever seen.

Ella showed Kai how to hold a chicken!  It is hot and humid here, I'm assuming low 30's and we just sweat all day but as recommended, just embrace it.  So I do.  Sunday morning, before church, Andrey and Ella took us on their daily walk.  It was really great to see what they do every day.  The kids were tired and hot but such good sports.

It is so hard to take any photos while keeping tabs on the three kids but wow, there are some amazing flowers and butterflies here!  Will have to get a few photos of those.  We walked to the bridge and checked out the goats and river.  This was at 8:30am and we were fully dripping in sweat :)

I felt a strange connection to this goat :)  So cute!

We went to church and it was good to worship in English and Cebuano. It was hot and we were really tired but I love just experiencing everything.  Poor Nya was so tired.  Beyond exhausted.  The boys did go with the kids for a bit.  After church, they had a little coconut milk/rice snack and then we went to a restaurant for lunch.

Yummy chicken and pork.  So so yummy.  Nya was still awake and so exhausted.  

Then we went to a pool for 2 hours.  So nice and refreshing!!  The boys are really improving in their swimming but wow, Ella is amazing!   She is 4 and can swim in the deep end no problem, dive down etc.  I think we have some video of the pool but no photos as I didn't want to take our camera there.  Nya perked up with the pool so that held her off of her nap until we got home. 

 We then picked up a local dessert/drink called Hola Hola.  Coconut, banana, ice, condensed milk etc.  We took them back to their house to drink.

Nya finally got her nap.  It's hard to know how much to go with the flow and how much to push your kids and how much is time change/jet lag etc.   I tried to wake her up 1.5 hours later (love our travel crib so much!!) and she just stayed passed out on our bed.  Poor girl.  Just really trying to get them on the Cebu time. 

Jen has made us some amazing meals (last night chicken tortilla soup and fresh guacamole) and we are so thankful for it! 

Last night was a much better sleep for her as she only fed twice?  The kids were up for the day at 5am.  Working on this.  

Today the plan is to rest at home this morning while Andrey works, Ella has school and Jen goes to several meetings.  I will be doing a photoshoot for 3 hours this afternoon for an organization here.  I'm nervous/excited for it.  I  will be the sweatiest mess ever.   We brought our back up camera along and not a lot of gear so hopefully it goes okay.  I'm thinking the diffuser would've been helpful.   Also, we have our travel laptop which makes editing a bit trickier, we will see!! Gary will be doing a photoshoot this evening in the dark for a street kids ministry. Will be tricky as the sun is down around 6:30pm but should be fun.   

Tomorrow we are off to Moalboal (beach resort).  We are really looking forward to it!

So far I would say that the hardest part was the flight over but being here is just the same as being at home really in regards to having the kids along.  I'm so glad that they are here with us and I'm glad that we are stationed in each place for 3 days or more.  They are still a bit off time wise so a little grumpier than usual but that is totally to be expected.  Koen spends hours racing his cars around :)  Nya loves exploring the home which is so baby friendly and Kai is playing cars with Koen and doing a little reading/DS etc.

Gary and I are getting along well. Phew!  If you could pray for our photo sessions today (I will be with people I don't know in places I don't know!) and also safe travels for tomorrow (2.5 hour drive), that would be awesome. 

Highlights so far:
Kai: chickens
Koen: mangoes
Nya: pool
Gary: seeing the kids explore the culture here
Louise: Just seeing how Jen and Andrey do life here and getting to know Ella better.

Thank you for reading, I def. will only post once per location!

Love, Team Chapman in Cebu, Philippines

Cebu!

We made it! After 24 hours of travel, we made it to Jen and Andreys house! Our last two flights were only 2 hours each so that was nice!

We all slept well and were up for the day at 5am today which is really 2pm back home so id say we adjusted well!

The kids and Ella have had fun together already and I think they will learn a lot from each other :)

Today we are off to church and then the pool.

Here's a quick photo of koen checking out the roosters in the yard. Lots of fun sounds to get used to!

Taipei

We are on a stopover for two hours here in Taiwan. In the last 36 hours, Gary and I have had about 2 hours sleep! The kids slept maybe 4? I don't really want to do that 12 hour flight again so we might need to stay here:). I guess all went well except Gary got sick from the air/exhaustion/flight. Not awesome. The kids are having a blast. Off to Manila in 2 hours and then onwards to Cebu.

Airport!

Made it to our gate. It's 11:15pm and we are all wide awake...uh oh :). Time to strap on the Ergo and start walking! i really won't be updating all the time, I promise!

Two thumbs up!

Trying to blog from my iPhone :). Two thumbs up for Gary and I getting along well over the next three weeks!! Thank you for all of your thoughts and prayers, we really appreciate it. We are off to the airport in just a couple of hours. I think once we are actually on the plane my stomach will settle down. I asked Gary about his thoughts and he said he feels a nervous anticipation about the flight (aka kids) but is looking forward to seeing Jen and Andrey!

Oh, I should mention that Kai said he is looking forward to getting a coconut from a tree. I don't know that this will happen but he says if he can't climb a tree, he will just throw a knife in the air.

Whistler 2013

Two years ago, my whole family went to Whistler for 3 days and it was awesome!  When Joanne suggested it again months and months ago, we were so in!! Although we are leaving in 24 hours (YIKES!!!) for the airport, we were so glad to fit this trip in.  A HUMONGOUS thank you to dad and Joanne for this Whistler getaway.  It is a wonderful stress free way to hang out as family.  We LOVE it. 

Whistler is just so `us'.  I hope that sometime in the next year, Gary and I can come here just the two of us.    As much as I love my kids and doing almost everything with them, I do need a break once in a while. Oh man, how are we going to do the next 3 weeks?! I can see why people bring a nanny along on holidays:)

We spent the past three days hiking, swimming, and eating. Loved it.  The kids probably did the water slide about 100 times.   All three of our kids LOVE the water.

{Joanne's daughter Annelise had a baby girl to add to the ever growing number of babies!}

Below is a video of Nya going down the waterslide.  She's a bit worried in the dark but then once we're out, she's a happy little girl!

Oh boy, I'm realizing that all of our photos are iPhone and GoPro ones...must get the real camera out on holidays!  It's just a bit trickier when our hands are already pretty full!!

{I know there are a lot of pictures of Nya and I together, she is pretty much attached to me now.  This is good as I don't have to chase after her but wow, my right arm is going to fall off.}

Here's one more video Gary put together of the water slide...

All right.  I've got to finish packing.  I feel like how I did the morning before Gary and I got married. Nervous excitement.  Can't say I like this feeling.   All my nervousness is kid related.  Please let them not be super overtired and CRAZY.  Please let them stay healthy and safe.  Please let them sleep.  Oh how I wish I had a glass of wine right now...

All right team.  The next time I post, we will be in the Philippines!!!!

Love, Team Chapman