NO TIME!

So sorry guys, I have not posted in forever and will not be posting for a while. We are on our way to Hawaii in just three days for my sisters wedding. My camera is FULL of pictures of the past 2 months. We had our trip to Oregon, Ben's High School Reunion, meeting the crazy adoption scammer, the McMurray Family Reunion, Rachelle's bridal shower, my weekend trip to Vegas, and so many other things that have gone on that I need to put on here. The problem is, there is NO TIME! Work has sucked every second of my day for the past month and the last thing I want to do when I get home is get back on the computer. I will do better! We should be approved for adoption in just a few short weeks and life is good...just busy! I will update when we get back and have tonz MORE pictures to post!

Home Sweet Home

We have been home almost four weeks.  I cannot believe it!  I have been horrible at posting, but I cannot believe how  busy we have been.  We have spent tons of time with family and friends.  We had to find and buy a new car, get Ben signed up for school, start looking for a place to live, etc.  I have been back at work for almost three weeks.  Most importantly we have been working on getting our adoption paperwork up and going.  That has included many phone calls, meeting with three different agencies, attending orientation at LDS Family Services, getting fingerprinted, filling out many many different forms, meeting with our case worker for our intake interview, meeting with the Bishop to get his reference letter, and this weekend attending 9 hours of training.  Those things have taken up all of our time.  We are loving being home though!  I had forgotten how completely beautiful Utah is.  The mountains, trees, green grass, the crisp, dry air.  It is so awesome.  Also, since being home I notice myself really feeling gratitude for things that I just took for granted before.  Some of those things are goofy, like the self-checkout at Wal-Mart or fountain drinks and free refills.  Other things are not so goofy.  Anyway, we are glad to be home and I will do better at blogging!

We got to stay in LA for 24 hours and visit with Kristen, Nolan, Aiden and Regan

The day after we got home our nephew, Spencer, graduated from high school.  We were able to attend with a LOT of other people.  He is loved!  

We attended our niece, Hailey's, preschool graduation.  ADORABLE!

I went to breakfast with my best friends from college (and still) and some of their kids.  All in all, 6 adults and 5 kids attended (even though there are actually 8 kids between them).

We got to spend the afternoon at Trafalga Lehi enjoying our recently purchased passes.  Everyone had a blast!

Just over a week after we returned, Ben's very best friend (who is also my boss) and his wife had their ADORABLE baby boy.  We were so excited to be able to visit them just a few hours after he was born and to be able to go visit any time we want.

We are so excited to be home to spend more time with these cuties!

and this one of course!

The view from right outside my office.  Seriously, it is breathtaking!   

Goodbye Philippines

We leave Cebu in 24 hours and I cannot believe the time has arrived.  We have cut our expected time here short by more than 1/2 and have only been here for about 10 months.  Again, I will explain that at some point in the future when I actually have a chance to sit down and put some coherent thoughts down.  Right now, I just want to sit down and write down the thoughts and feelings I have had over our last few days here in the Philippines.  I just have to say that no matter how hard certain things have been about living here in Cebu, we know we were here for a reason and we are so very grateful for the many, many lessons we have learned in our short time here.  We have met some wonderful people, people it is very hard to say goodbye to.  I have worked with people who have been so great to me and have taught me so much.  We went out to dinner and bowling with my team last night and saying goodbye to them was so difficult.  I hope that I will have the chance to return here in the future and to see these people again, but there is a possiblity that I will never see them in this life again.  When I think of that, I am sad.  We said goodbye to people in our ward today, and I had the same thought.  We have met and gained friendships with these people and thankfully we have the internet, blogs, facebook and will be able to keep in touch.  But, life will move forward and this part of our life is ending and that is sad.
This afternoon we spent time with my coworkers, Grant and Branigan, and their families.  It was a good time with good food and friends.  It was beautfiul outside with the palm trees and the sunshine (although it was VERY hot and humid).  When we left Grants house and walked out the gate, the sunset was amazing and there were people playing basketball outside in the field across from his house.  There were dogs and goats running around and a small hut in the distance.  There were palm trees and the sunset behind them and it was a beautiful scene and I thought "that is like the ultimate Philippines scene" and it made me a little sad.  Then, we took Branigan, Julie and Beau Knowlton home and we laughed and talked through the horrible Mactan traffic, but as we got closer to their house the reality of us leaving really started to hit and we all got just a little quieter.  We got extra big hugs from Beau and said goodbye to the people who have been with us through this whole experience and I was struggling to hold back the tears.  We came out here together with big plans of the things we would do and the adventures we would have together and I cannot help but feel like we are abandoning them a little.  They have been so supportive and they understand why we are going, but we are going to miss their little family more than I can even express.  As we were driving away and I had tears streaming down my face for the first time through all of these goodbyes, Ben told me that watching their family and especially watching Branigan interract with Beau really helped him to solidify even more how much he wants to be a dad.  So, Knowltons, thank you for that!  We know we will see them again back in Utah and we will be friends, but the things we shared in the Philippines are over for us and that is a sad realization for me.  I have a hard time with endings, even if it means new beginnings.  Anyway, I just wanted to share my thoughts, put them down in writing so I remember.
Living in the Philippines has taught me many things.  I have learned more about Ben and his culture and his family.  I have seen real, true poverty and had the chance to really get to know people living in these type of situations and learn from their example.  We have enjoyed seeing beautiful locations, beaches, waterfalls and places that some people will only ever dream of seeing.  We have experienced living in another country with all of it's ups and downs.  So, for now, Goodbye Cebu and Goodbye Philippines....until we meet again! 

Our Shangri La Weekend

So,I am not even sure how or where to start this post. First of all, it's been a month since I have posted and that's just way too long. This month has seriously been chuck full of a million things. My boss came into town and we had our Managers Summit which included an assignment for me to present for a full hour. Um.....unlike my husband and my dad, talking in front of a bunch of people is not my thing. It went well, but I spent more time preparing for that thing than I thought possible. Ben knows, he had to listen to me whine for like a month about it.  We did some other fun stuff this month, like celebrated my birthday with another trip to Bohol.  I am sure there were a million other things but right now I can't remember.

Another thing that happened was Ben had a little accident last week at the gym at the Shangri-La. We are members at the resort and workout there on a regular basis. They have these nice big showers with huge glass doors on them. Well, as Ben was getting out of the shower after working out, the door shattered into a billion little pieces around him. He was left standing there, buck naked, with little pieces of glass all over him. He had tiny cuts all over his body, just a few of them were more than tiny scratches. Well, lucky for us, as a way of making it up to us, the management let us stay at the resort for the weekend. We figured it would be a good room, but it was AMAZING! It was totally a suite and huge with a beautiful ocean view and huge balcony. They also gave us free breakfast buffet for the two days as well as a free dinner buffet. OH....and they invited us to their Ocean Club Lounge where we were able to get free drinks, snacks, etc. It was seriously amazing. We agreed that it was the BEST weekend we have had in the Philippines so far. It was so nice and relaxing and beautiful.

The other thing that made the weekend so fun was hanging out with friends. The Knowltons came over and enjoyed the dinner buffet with us on Saturday night. It was so fun to hang out. Although we moved to the Philippines at the same time and Branigan and I work together, we just do not see them enough. Our sleeping schedules are different, plus we live in the city and they live on the island. We LOVE spending time with this little family. They are the thing we will honestly miss the most in the Philippines. Beau is so much fun and just a joy to have around.  On Sunday, the Knowltons as well as our frind Jake Sohn and our new friend TJ came over to watch the Pacquiao v. Mosley fight. I will tell you, Manny Pacquiao makes me proud to be a pseudo-Filipino. He is amazing! Anyway, we all watched the fight, ate a great lunch, drank free sodas from the lounge, hung out, talked and just really enjoyed the day together. It really was so much fun. Oh, and since it was Mother's Day, it was a GREAT way to celebrate. (Mother's Day isn't really my favorite and this totally made up for that)

Monday morning we skyped with our families from the hotel and then went to the breakfast buffet. I ate way too much, but I honestly don't know if I have ever had better french toast than they have at the Shangri La. It really was a completely fun and relaxing weekend and we are SO glad we got to do it even if it meant Ben standing naked covered in glass in front of a bunch of people to make it happen. It was completely worth it.

The front room of the hotel suite

The amazing bedroom with the ocean view

Huge bathroom with a shower AND a bath.  This was the first bath I have taken in the Phils

I even had to show you the huge closet

The balcony and the gorgeous, breathtaking view

The view....oh how I will miss the beach!

Isn't she the cutest mom ever!

We love you Knowltons.  We will miss you when we are gone!

How can you not love that face?  He was in heaven jumping on the bed.

And this is the reason we are coming home.......we want one of our own just like him:)

So, I realize that this is the first I have even mentioned the fact that we are coming back to the States already.   It's a long story and a whole post all on it's own, but just know that we are excited to come home.  We have had so many amazing experiences here and are so grateful for all of the adventures.

Palawan

Last weekend Ben and I were able to go on a really short, but great trip to a place called Palawan. The Philippines has so many beautiful beaches and natural places to visit it's hard to choose. I actually have to thank my sister Rachelle and her fiance Bret for suggesting this place to us. I think they read about it online or something and told us we should go. The draw is the natural underground river, but it ended up being a lot more than that. So, we booked the trip. It was only 48 hours and if we were going to do it again we would make sure it was longer, but it was a lot of fun and we are glad we got it in.

Look behind me....it's so clean.  Palawan has an anti-littering law that is obviously VERY effective.  In my opinion, the reason it works is the citizen that catches you littering gets 50% of the fine paid to them!  Smart!

The other reason it was SO nice, clean, calm.....NO TAXIS and NO JEEPNIES allowed!!!  SO AMAZING!

We went to this Wild Life conservation place that was mostly crocodiles, but had some other animals as well.  Ben quite enjoyed posing with the baby croc.

I did not love it so much

I look a little more confident in this 

ya, they are pretty dang scary

This place was pretty awesome.  It was this great park, playground, just beautiful place.  

The beach in Sabang.  We got to hang out here for a few hours, it was gorgeous.

At the entrance to the underground river there were monkeys just hanging out, right next to people, it was pretty amazing.

Oh and these huge like 3ft long lizards

Us starting our little trip to the Underground River

The entrance.  It really was gorgeous and such a cool place.  It really is a huge cave with a river through it.

bats and bat droppings (the guide thought it was pretty funny to make bat poo jokes but didn't use the word poo....ya, the tour wasn't really for kids

My goofy husband inside the cave

Another gorgeous beach right by the entrance of the underground river.

We are very grateful for the chance to visit these types of places, seriously...such a blessing.

The Philippines isn't always just sunshine and beaches and I will do my best to share some of both with you in my upcoming posts.

My Late Philippines Friday Post: Cebu-Taoist Temple and Tops

We have our own little "To Do in Cebu" list that we have put together.  We want to take advantage of this city that we live in while we have the chance.  I think in every town or city in the world there are those "must do" things that all the tourists do, but the some times us "locals" miss out on because life gets in the way.  We don't want to miss those things while we are here in Cebu.  So, Monday morning, after spending the entire weekend home sick, we wanted to get out of the house and decided this was the perfect chance to knock two things off of our to-do list.
Our first stop was the Taoist Temple.  This was built in 1972 in the very posh neighborhood of Beverly Hills of Cebu (not the 90210 one).  There was not a lot to do there, but it was fun to hike up the stairs to see the Chinese architecture and decor.  I got a lot of fun pictures too.  (click on image to view larger)

Next on our list was Tops.  This is a "park" located literally at the highest spot you can reach in Cebu.  I felt like we were driving uphill FOREVER.  Anyone who knows me knows I HATE driving up high mountains and on small roads where the sides just drop off.  It makes me so sick to my stomach.  With our awesome 1999 Toyota Corolla  I was seriously worried for our safety.  But, we made it ok.  We originally stopped at the place that I thought was Tops, but it ended up being a cemetary.  Oops.  The view was pretty cool, but when we actually made it to Tops the view was ridiculous.  We were so high above the city it was almost hard to see it.  We got some great pictures and got to overhear quite an entertaining conversation between some old white married guy and his Filipina girlfriend (blog post to come).  It was worth the little trip and we are glad we are out seeing what Cebu has to offer.

Click here to see more pictures of our fun day.

It's FRIDAY

Today, my Philippines Friday isn't really about the Philippines, but I thought it was appropriate because Ben has probably watched this video a MILLION times and laughed the entire way through.  Come on guys, it's Friday, Friday, gotta get down on Friday!