For our second weekend back in Canada we had the Beattie family reunion which included Ryan’s mom and dad and all the brothers and sisters. Whoever had trailers brought those and the rest of us stayed in tents. The weather was great and it was a lot of fun to have everyone together. I’m sure that we annoyed a couple of the campers beside us as the 9 grandkids ran together in a wild pack of craziness but they had a blast. We were able to climb in the hoodoo’s which are rocks eroded away over time into a climbing playground of dips, caves and peaks. We spent an afternoon on the beach although the current in the Milky River was strong the kids took a ride in the raft letting it carry them down the river. Ryan spent his time setting up a huge underground tunnel system in the sand which turned into a trap waiting for some little feet to trample over it unaware and fall in. We finished the day with a pirate treasure hunt for the kids where they collected treasure at every stop and gaining pirate patches, hats and swords.
Sunday morning we had our own Sunday school class before packing up and heading out. Yay for the Beattie family reunion!!
After a very long, tiring journey we made it to Honolulu Sunday evening. Our hotel was great and we were only a couple blocks from Waikiki beach so we decided to check it out our first day so we could stay close to the hotel in case we needed some pick me up naps while adjusting to the 16 hour time difference from the Philippines. It was crazy the amount of people that were there but even through the crowds the beach was beautiful and the water looked great. We had a good time playing in the waves and the currents sucking us back into the water. We were able to find a quiet place under the palm tree so we had some shade, we ate breakfast and relaxed for a couple of hours!
After the beach we walked around Waikiki looking at the different shops and vendors. It was busy but the weather was perfect and all the different people kept the kids entertained and there were alot of different things for the kids to look at!
Well I haven’t updated in quite a while so I thought I’d just get everyone up to speed on the last couple of weeks!
For those of you that heard about Typhoon Frank, in our area everything is back to normal and dry! We’ve had quite a bit of sunshine for rainy season but it was needed to help people air out all their wet belongings. I read somewhere that they’ve only found 34 survivors out of the 800+ that were on the ferry when the Typhoon capsized it but waters are still high and rough which was hurting rescue parties.
Ryan will officially start his Masters in September so we’ll be living the students life once again but it’ll be the next chapter so it should be good.
In 24 hours we will be sitting at the Guam airport eating breakfast waiting for our flight to Honolulu where we will spend 5 days before continuing onto Lethbridge. We’re all really excited go to Hawaii and do the tourist thing for a bit. It’ll be a great holiday before our month at home. I think we’re mostly packed which is good because we leave in 10 hours! We’ll spend our morning at church, come home… rest, pack and clean and then off to the airport. I can’t wait!! Brayden is so excited to go on the airplane, go to the beach and see Kaden his cousin!! He will be there picking us up at the airport and so this week Brayden’s favorite toys have been his two airplanes.
So off we go… wish us well and please please please send my children sleepy vibes!
Ryan and I decided that it was time to get ourselves to Manila and go to the LDS temple. It’s the closest one to us and is found an hour north by plane or a 20 hour boat ride. We were able to get a couple of kids from our ward to stay the night at our house with Brayden and Sydney and Ryan and I took off Thursday morning. Since we’ve done all our journeys with our kids I hadn’t realized how wonderful and stress free everything was with out them.
Our hotel was across the street from the Manila Bay and the U.S. Embassy. We tried to take a picture but apparently that’s not aloud and we got in trouble by the security guards. We were also a block away from a place named “Rizal Park” 
where the Philippine Hero Dr. Jose Rizal was executed in 1896 by the Filipino native infantry backed by the Spanish troops. He was charged with implication to the Philippine Revolution against the Spanish rulers and was sentenced to death which ironically the catalyst that precipitated the Revolution. Also at Rizal Park is a HUGE statue of Lapu-Lapu, a Muslim chieftain who was first national hero that resisted Spanish Colonization. We were able to take some great pictures but unfortunately most of our pictures didn’t turn out! 
The left is a picture of Dr. Jose Rizal guarded by 2 soldiers 24/7 and the right has a statue of Rizal being led to his execution but you might have a hard time seeing it through Ryan…
After our walk through Rizal Park we explored a bit until we found ourselves at the Manila Bay where we walked along the coast line. It was so disgusting! Where we started they were filling up this garbage truck with trash from the ocean and then only a little bit away were these kids swimming and washing themselves. Other then the trashy ocean it was a really beautiful walk with a breeze to help cool us down from the hot hot sun.
The most famous beach in the Philippines in on an island named Boracay. We’ve been fortunate to have already been with family on 2 occasions and really enjoyed it. Ryans aunt and uncle made the trip out to the Philippines for a week to visit us and check up on what Ryan has been doing at Focus.
After their arrival on Sunday we left Monday morning for the journey to Boracay arriving in the afternoon and easily finding a beautiful beach front cottage with 2 bedrooms, a hot shower bathroom, sitting room and great porch. It was one of the nicest accommodations i’ve ever stayed in and everyone had enough room.
We stayed for a couple of nights and although there have been some typhoons blowing through the Philippine area we were able to enjoy the on and off again showers by playing on the beach and in the huge waves. We spent one day on a boat snorkeling and going around the island. We enjoyed the great food the tourist savvy island had to offer while Ryan and I experienced our first Lobster as a late night snack. The first night we were able to get to a place and sit down while they brought the Lobster out of the tank, trying to wriggle out of the guys hands. It had beautiful green and blues to it, it was almost too bad they had to take it away and cook it. The second night Ryan’s uncle went to the wet market and bought the Lobster himself taking us back later to show us the market. Prawns the size of your hand, tons of fresh Lobster and Crab, we even saw an Octopus. It was great.
Unfortunately we had to make our way back to Bacolod so that the boys could spend at least one night in the office working so we left early Wednesday morning starting out by taking a pumpboat and arriving back in Bacolod that afternoon.
We decided that we had to do one last beach trip before my sister, Kaitlyn, left back to Canada. A close, inexpensive place was an island we’ve been to once before just north of Cebu Island. The trip is a little longer but no shorter then any other decent place. We started by driving an hour north along the coast line to a town named Cadiz. From there we took a boat for a 4 hour ride to Bantayan town were we headed to look for a place to spend the next couple of nights.
It’s a small island lined with a white beach and resorts. We stayed 2 nights in a decent bungalow just off the beach and finished our last night in a big hut on the beach.
The weather was great, rained all night but the sun was out and shinning all day long. We toured a bit of the island on the two motorbikes that we rented for the weekend. Ryan drove one with Kait and the kids and I drove the other.
We were met on the north part of the island by a group of kids who followed us, taking the kids hands and leading them along the beach and helping them along a pier. We also met a young Canadian couple were just finishing up a 6 month tour of Southeast Asia and shared the extra company for dinner one night.
Last week Focus had sent two IT guys (Bill and Ben) from Utah to hire and train some tech people here in the Philippines. We thought that after they had spent a full week of working both night and day shifts they deserved a weekend away from the city for some R&R. We thought we’d take them to Sipalay, a small town 2 1/2 hours south of Bacolod. The weather was perfect and we were able to rest on the beach, do some snorkeling on the coral reef and see the vibrant fish, starfish and coral. Ryan and Bill ran into a sea urchin conference and had to dodge some jellyfish in their journey. I also had the chance to punch the head of a jellyfish and was shocked by the hard slimy texture after expecting a jelly type mush. The kids enjoyed playing with their sand toys and the best part about the weekend was that there was no one else to share the beach with:
To the kids it doesn’t seem to matter that there’s a white sandy beach with warm water filled with starfish to play in; if there’s a pool near by it’s better! I’m assuming that after a while of playing in that salty water their eyes were burning and it probably felt good to flush them out in the pool water!
Everytime I see the golden sunset on the ocean it takes my breath away. To be relaxing in the warm breeze with the palm trees above is one of my favorite feelings.
The last time we were in Bohol we stayed on the beach the entire time, barely venturing out of our resort at all. This time we decided that we would check out exactly what Bohol had to offer! The day started at 8:30am when we all piled into our tour van and headed into town. Our first stop was “The Blood Comtact” site where the Filipino’s and the Spaniards made a friendship of the two countries through blood.
After a long drive through the man made forest of mahogany trees planted by the people we were at the famous Chocolate Hills. These hills were all made from a once flat landscape when the water from the fresh rain forced the coral up forming these 1268 symmetrical hills. In the hot summer months the heat and lack of moisture cause the hills to turn brown in colour.
After the hot climb to the top of the viewing spot for the hills we climbed back into the air conditioned van and headed to the hanging bridge that crosses the Loboc river. On the other side of the river were all venders selling coconut milk, bbq banana, and many different crafts and jewelry.
It was almost lunch time when we boarded our Floating Restaurant. We found our seats and started to eat from the buffet lunch when the Restaurant took off and we cruising down the river. During our river cruise we listened to the live entertainment of a man and his guitar singing classic oldies. We pulled over once to watch a group of people sing and dance before turning around at the waterfall to head back.
Finally after our lunch we headed to the Targiers. They are the smallest primate in the world with eyes bigger then their brains!!! They were so cute, tiny and ugly all at the same time. After a fun photo shoot with the little guys we were back into the van and heading to yet another destination…
This time we stopped off to see the largest Python in Philippine captivity, below is a short clip of the MALE tour person at the python spot…
Next and last stop on our Bohol Tour was the original church of Tagbilaran which our tour guide told us was 400 years old!!
We had decided to head to Bohol Island with my family. It had been quite rainy here the last week and a half so I was excited to get off Negros Island and head to sunnier skies. We started the journey by taking the 25 minute flight to Mactan, a little island right off the coast of Cebu. The two islands are actually joined by bridges so the drive to our hotel in Cebu city was short and easy. We spent our day in Cebu doing some shopping and relaxing by the pool which was on the roof of the hotel over looking the city.
The next morning we made our way to the Pier and took a ferry to Tagbilaran city, the main gateway to Bohol Island. We then drove over another bridge to the small Panglao Island where we checked into our hotel. It was such a great feeling to know that we were finally on holidays, a place where we could relax, let the kids play on the beach and in the sea and not worry about anything. The water was warm, clear and extremely inviting. We were all anxious to jump in for a swim!!
We spend the next day just lounging on the beach in the hot hot sun until we were all a little too crispy! The kids had a great time playing with the starfish and digging around in the sand. My sister, Kaitlyn, got a couple stings from a sea urchin, we found some booger looking jelly type creatures in the sand. We also found an abundance of “D.O.M.’s” (dirty old men) with their pretty young filipinas with them. I don’t think that I could ever get bored of waking up to white sand, warm water and the hot sun shining down on me…
We did make one quick into town to pick up a couple things from the grocery store where Brayden was able to hop into a jeep his size and take Sydney for ride!
The four of us Beatties spent a week of December in Utah to visit some family and have Ryan spend some time with some of the “Focus” hot shots. It was such a great visit and it felt like we were able to stay busy and get everything done that we hoped to. We went into Salt Lake and spend some time at Temple Square, we went to a couple of Ryan’s cousin’s (Nathan) basketball games, watch his other cousin (Alyson) cheer and spend time with Wesley (yet another cousin), who is leaving for his mission the beginning of January.
Out of all these wonderful things I think the highlight for Ryan was when we was able to go with his Uncle John to the top of a mountain and help some guys carry their elk down. These guys had got themselves a pair of elk and once the elk had been killed, they needed some help getting the big animals down the mountains. Ryan and his uncle made the way up on horseback and met up with the others who were cutting up the animals so the meat could fit on the houses for the journey down, then they all walked down together. John was able to catch the moment with his phone and I wanted to share the beauty of the mountains with you:
For our second weekend back in Canada we had the Beattie family reunion which included Ryan’s mom and dad and all the brothers and sisters. Whoever had trailers brought those and the rest of us stayed in tents. The weather was great and it was a lot of fun to have everyone together. I’m sure that we annoyed a couple of the campers beside us as the 9 grandkids ran together in a wild pack of craziness but they had a blast. We were able to climb in the hoodoo’s which are rocks eroded away over time into a climbing playground of dips, caves and peaks. We spent an afternoon on the beach although the current in the Milky River was strong the kids took a ride in the raft letting it carry them down the river. Ryan spent his time setting up a huge underground tunnel system in the sand which turned into a trap waiting for some little feet to trample over it unaware and fall in. We finished the day with a pirate treasure hunt for the kids where they collected treasure at every stop and gaining pirate patches, hats and swords.
