Joshua's Visit

With Lee's absence in Albania (he went on a missions trip with our church), my parents, and also my now 10-year-old nephew, Joshua, who lives in CA came to visit. I say NOW 10-years-old because Joshua's birthday was June 29. We had a fun time, despite us missing daddy so much. We went to the Creation Museum, Florence Aquatic Center, Cincinnati Zoo, our backyard, and lots of other miscellaneous things. Here are a few pictures of his time here.

Isabel LOVES Joshua. I think I hear her say his name about 100 times/day

Slip n Slide fun!
Train ride at the zoo

Really, Ana was just as excited as the expression on my face to see the polar bear...really:) Happy Birthday Joshua!Everyone before they headed back to MI
Isabel inside her pillow case as I was changing bed sheets after everyone left

Father's Day Splash

We had a fun Father's Day! At least I think it was fun! No, Lee said it was a great day too! We got to go out to lunch together, splash in our blow-up pool, take a family walk, and just hangout! It's one of those days that just was a good day all around...and made us appreciate Lee all the more.

We all got in. So much fun and a great way to stay cool.

Ana about to give Lee a big kiss and hugLee and iBel hanging out playing games on his phone

Normal life again

So, after our trip around the world, it's taken some getting used to to get back to normal life, or what is our normal life. You know, cooking, cleaning, laundry, daddy going back to work, ok so maybe it's been more ME getting used to getting back to normal life. I think our routine (although very flexible) is back in place though. We've been trying to enjoy the nice days - playing outside, swimming in our a little pool, enjoying friends. I feel blessed to have such a life. I was talking with a friend the other day about the things I want versus the things I need. When you're in a country like the Philippines, you really take a step back and examine your life and see all the things you really DON'T need. The people are so happy there without all the bells and whistles of life here in the USA. I guess it just makes me think and am thankful for the life we have.

Here are a few pictures of things that have been occupying our time:

Isabel was fortunate enough to take a ride with a local farmer on his tractor

Hanging out with iBel's best buds while their mommy and daddy got away. It's movie night (hence the popcorn and intense stares):)

Saturday morning donuts...even Ana got in on this. Seeing how she has put a stop to eating any kind of baby food variety. She wants the real stuff now. And eat she can. I think she out eats her sister most days.Who hasn't had to mow their grass a dozen times after all this rain we've had?

And so there is some of our normal life, just like we like it.

Late night snack

It is Lee's custom to eat a bowl of cereal before bed. I think it comes from all his years of being deprived cereal (other than Corn Flakes) growing up. I bought Corn Flakes once because they were on sale, yea, the WRONG thing to do.:) He really does love cereal. So last night we were out running errands and Ana fell asleep in the car. So when we got home, she woke up and thought it wasn't bedtime anymore. Her little cat nap was enough and she would NOT go back to sleep. So here's a little glimpse of her sharing her daddy's late night snack:

Small Group Campout

The Friday after we got back from the Philippines our small group was going camping at Clifty Falls State Park. We have never been able to camp with our small group because of various reasons, but it seemed somewhat feasible this time. We had just survived 3 weeks of all sleeping in the same room, so we were prepared for all sleeping together in a tent. I have to admit, I was dreading going. Maybe it was my lack of sleep and still getting over jetlag, but I really didn't want to go. I got some moral support though from one of my small group friends and Lee made an executive decison that we were going. We do love the Madison area, so that was a plus.

SO...it actually turned out to be really fun and Isabel especially had a great time seeing all her small group friends again. Who knows, maybe we'll even do it again sometime.

Girl's hanging out in the McDaniel mansion tent, this thing was HUGE

Meal time

Just hanging out

Ana borrowing her sister's new sleeping bag
This is fun!

Dedication of Ana

On May 9, 2010, Mother's Day, we had Ana dedicated to the Lord at our church. Because our church has SO many babies (we'd probably have a dedication every week), they do a dedication once a year for all the families. In all of the blogs about our travels, I wanted make sure I didn't forget to post this. It's so important to us. We left the day after she was dedicated so I didn't have time to post it then, but I am now!

We are so thankful for Ana and the gift she is to us from the Lord, remembering that she is ours only for awhile, but truly she is the Lord's. She is changing and growing so much. Even though I'm the parent teaching her, she has taught me so much. I pray that someday she would know Christ and want to serve him, wherever that may be. We love you Ana Christina!

Here's a picture of her in a her big girl car seat we recently upgraded her to. Big stuff, I know:)

Trip Around the World - Week 3

We arrived back from Bantayan island just in time to celebrate the Guest House manger's, Mary, 50th birthday! It was so much fun! I hope some day to be honored at 50 like she was. They had amazing food, singing, people perform, etc. What a fun evening! I think if we lived closer, Mary and I would be good friends. I adore her.

Enjoying the party

Aunt Mary

The next day we met up for lunch with some of Lee's classmates from HS. We saw them last time we went and none of us had kids and one was not even married yet, so it was fun to talk about how our families had changed.

Then the last few days we were there, we enjoyed my brother and his family. My brother, Jon, works at an international school just outside Manila. The last time we saw him and his family was two years ago, at a family reunion in Yosemite National Park. It was so great to see him and his family! They made a special trip to Cebu (where we were) so we wouldn't have to travel anymore to see them in Manila. We had a blast with them. Isabel especially enjoyed her cousins (all 5 of them)! She called them "the boys." Because except for the newest one (baby Rachel) they are all boys - Joshua, Christopher, Benjamin, and Philip. Philip is Isabel's age, but she actually preferred playing with the older boys.

The first morning we met my brother and his wife, Marge, at Starbucks (kid free, except for Rachel) to just catch up on life. It was fun hanging out with them. Yes, they even have Starbucks in the Philippines, see all you coffee lover friends could survive there.:)One day we went to the Hilton hotel and went swimming at their beach for the afternoon. It was beautiful. The kids had a blast and as you can see the babies were wiped out:) Isabel thought her baby cousin Rachel was so sweet.

Isabel hanging out with her older cousinsCousin Philip

Another day we went to a water park at a hotel. It's a little different than the water parks here, but it was so much fun! They had 3 big slides you could go down and then a great play area for kids Isabel's size with a pirate ship. She was fearless.
The water in the pool behind Ana was so warm! She was such a happy girl. Included with the water park entrance fee was a huge lunch buffet. It seriously put the buffet's in Vegas to shame, if you've ever eaten at one of those. It was SOOO good!

One last thing to write about. Most of our stay at the Guest House, we had it to ourselves, but the last few days we were there, a group of Koreans arrived that were doing outreach work. They ADORED the girls! They wanted to talk to them, hold them, take their picture. One of them asked Isabel to sing for the group, and believe it or not she did. They applauded and chanted "encore, encore." She sang again. It was so funny. Here is a picture of them surrounding her while she sings. After that we received all kinds of gifts from them. One was a case (yea, not a box) of these chocolate cream pies. We ended up giving most of them away, but they were good. It was too funny!

Our last few hours in the Philippines, we just hung out at the Guest House. Enjoying our family. Ane Neneng and Ana admiring Ate Landa's (a cook at the guest house) new grandson. He was too cute.

Waiting in the terminal in Cebu to go home. Our flight was delayed so we got to enjoy waiting even longer for our plane to leave. And yet again, when we arrived in Hong Kong we had to RUN, go on a train, in an elevator, through security (twice), and run some more, but they held the plane for us and we made our flight to LAX.It's fun being on an airplane for 11 hours!:) I thank God so much that we were able to get her a bassinet seat!

Fighting jet lag was easier because our great friends the Pie's had us over to keep us awake and celebrate Memorial Day! Yea, we did crash as soon as we left their house though. Thank you Pie's though, we would have crashed much sooner if it were not for you guys!So that was our trip (in a nut shell). I'm sure there is so much more I could share, but that's a taste at least. Would I do it again? Would I travel to the other side of the world with two little ones? Absolutely! We LOVED seeing all of our family! It was a special trip! One we will never forget!

Trip Around the World - Week 2

The second week Lee's brother, Will, arrived. Isabel was THRILLED! She adores Uncle Will. That's almost an understatement...obsessed might be more appropriate. To keep him awake and to fight jetlag we all went bowling. My dear hubby was the champion bowler. Although all claim there has to be a jetlag free rematch at some point in time.

Then Lee's parents hosted sort of a Welcome dinner for all of us, so some of their friends could see Lee, Will, and Mart all grown-up, plus meet the their adorable granddaughters. It was at a restaurant called "Patio Isabel." Appropriate huh? They invited all of their friends and I got to meet some of Lee's friends from when he was a little boy. It was fun and everyone was so kind.

The next day we departed for a resort on Bantayan Island, an island off the tip of Cebu. We took a 2 hr car ride and 1 hr boat ride to get there. Lee's parents knew the owners of the resort and ended up upgrading them to this beautiful room, which also gave us access to a more private pool area. We spent hours in that pool. Isabel experienced her first time in the ocean. I didn't know what she would think of the salt water, but it didn't seem to bother her or anything. The ocean was like bath water. It was so warm. We would go out and just sit on the sand bar. One day there were hermit crabs all over the sand bar and Isabel would catch them and put them in a sand pail. We caught several dozen.

The boat ride

The girls first time in the ocean

This slide got used so much by usAnother time Lee and I were walking in the ocean and there was this small strip of sand that went out deep, the rest was surrounded by seaweed. We saw someone way out there so we thought we'd try to go out there too. We started out and I spotted a jelly fish. We kept going. All of a sudden we saw dozens of jelly fish. We decided to turn around. I don't know how that guy got out there. Maybe he got stung? We also saw ladies on the sand bar collecting dozens of small shells to make jewelry.

At the resort there was a restarant and all the ladies that worked there adored the girls. They would often steal Ana away.

Celebrating Ate Neneng's birthday. Two of Mart's friends also joined us for the week, Isaac and Kristina. They had just finished teaching English in Thailand. We had a fun time with them too.

Isabel's one request was that she wanted to see a star fish while we were there. Lolo searched for her and finally found one. Then later on we ended up finding two other kinds also (total - blue, chocolate chip, and a spotted kind).

Thank you Lolo!

Another one of her requests was to bury daddy in the sand

One of my favorite things we did was rent motorcycles for a morning. Isabel's always wanted to ride one and we have always told her, when she's bigger she can. So that morning we were able to tell her she was bigger and could ride on one. She loved it! It was funny cause we would ride along and she would hear a chicken or something and she would be like, "Mommy, do you hear that? That's a chicken." We let Isabel ride with us for a bit and then we dropped her off for some swimming with Lola and Ate and then we rode with the others to the other end of the island. It was so much fun. I think just the time with Lee was great too. We had so many waves from little kids walking by and I think it made their day when we waved back. Of course we had to stop for donuts too:) I tried taking some scenic pictures along the way, but trying to hold on while taking pictures, while moving didn't work so well. Oh well.

This is how some families do get around there, but we didn't take Ana for a ride, just a picture.

Check out the size of this hermit crab

We also were able to get some family pictures

We definitely had a great time on Bantayan Island. Okay, one more week to report on.:) Coming soon...