This is where he was staying. They don't turn the heat on till
December 1st regardless of the temperature. He said it was very cold!!
Hurry Home Jeff!!
Monday, November 30, 2009
Last Skype Pictures (at least from this deployment)
Jeff was in Yokosuka, Japan last week and we got to Skype. Here are a couple photos from his time there :)
Baby Update!
Wow - I'm almost 37 weeks pregnant! I had a doctor's appointment today and she doesn't think I'll make it two more weeks. We'll see. I'm not getting my hopes up yet. My goal is to make it until Jeff gets back from deployment. I still have swollen feet which only go down if I lay on my side with my feet up higher than my head. Very comfortable...yeah right! I still need to pack my hospital bag and maybe pack an overnight bag for the girls in case I have the baby before Jeff gets back. Thank goodness for my great Navy friends! What a life saver they are!!
Madalyn's 9th Birthday!!
Madalyn celebrated her 9th birthday Egyptian style! She has been reading lots of books on the subject and decided she wanted an Egyptian party. We had a mummy wrapping race, colored bookmarks, made collars and belts and sculpted clay. They had a great time! Madalyn got to open her big present at the party - an Egyptian Play Mobile Pyramid. Huge hit :)
Baby Shower :)
Happy Halloween!
(Trying to catch up on posts before the baby arrives!)
This year Madalyn decided to dress up as Cleopatra. Amelia decided to be King Kamehameha. Here is a link for those of you who don't know who that is! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamehameha_I
They had a great night and got way too much candy!!
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Big Island Trip
I got home from Singapore on Thursday. On Friday, I took the girls and my parents to the Big Island. It was a good trip – hiked through a crater and lava tubes, watched lava flowing into the ocean, went to Black Sand Beach and some other stuff. When we got there, they didn’t have the rental vehicle that I reserved. They finally upgraded us to a 4x4 Ford Explorer – huge vehicle, uncomfortable drivers seat, badly designed 3rd row of seats – plus a gas guzzler. I was just happy to have a vehicle at that point. On the 2nd day, we sent down to Pahoa to watch the lava flow into the ocean. It was after dark when we left. I managed to hit a wild boar. Quite the thump!! There was no damage to the front of the vehicle – apparently, I ran over his head (2 puncture holes from his tusks in the tire) and that spun his body around to hit the side of the Explorer. While we were checking out the vehicle, someone apparently drug the boar off the road. The girls love telling everyone that I ran over a wild boar...lol!
Monday, October 19, 2009
Singapore
Where to start?!?! My parents came out to watch the girls while I flew to Singapore to see Jeff. We had such a great time! When he left, I was only 10 weeks pregnant. 18 weeks made a big difference in the size of my belly! He got to feel the baby moving and kicking. He even admitted he felt bad for me walking around in the crazy humid/hot weather of Singapore. His hips even hurt after a full day of walking around. Jeff's appearance had some changes too. (Reminder - for the boat's halfway, the guys paid $500 into the rec committee fund if Jeff would have his head shaved). They used a quadruple zero setting on the shaver! Luckily, he had about 2 weeks for it to grow in prior to Singapore. It was still very short, but at least he looked like he had hair. He plans to not cut the top till they get home. Hopefully it will be back to normal by then.
Day 1 - We arrived in Singapore at about midnight. I was on the same flight as the CO's family so that made the trip less stressful. Sleeping on a plane is hard. Sleeping on a plane when pregnant is nearly impossible. We were all exhausted by the time we got to the hotel. I think I fell asleep instantly!! We all met at breakfast to try to get acclimated to the new time zone (a day ahead, minus 6 hours). The guys were not pulling in till that afternoon so we went out exploring. We walked by several stores in the Orchard shopping district that I will never shop in - Dolce & Gabbana, Rolex, Tiffanys, etc. It was fun to look around though. Then we checked out the roof top pool. Beautiful view of the city and a nice way to relax. Then we went for a little walk to the Botanical Gardens (basically, wasting time till the guys got back). The gardens reminded me of London. Absolutely beautiful! Every city should have a garden like that. Singapore does a great job of utilizing all the available space for little gardens and huge trees. We were all sweaty when we got back to the hotel. And there sitting in the lobby was Jeff and the CO. So nice to see Jeff again! We went out for a little dinner and enjoyed spending some time together again. We walked down Orchard street and saw a fashion show in front of the mall.
Day 2 - We hopped aboard the Hippo Bus Tours and got to see an overview of the city. We stopped at the Raffles Hotel and Jeff had the famous Singapore Sling. It was a beautiful bar and a nice way to cool off. In the afternoon, we walked around Little India and checked out the temples. Getting back on the Hippo bus was a challenge, but we met a great couple from Australia during our walk. Later in the afternoon, we went to Chinatown and ran into the St.John family and another neighbor from McGrew. We walked over to Clarke Quay and went on a river cruise. We met another great family from Australia (they liked our accent...lol). I loved seeing the city at night. We even got an up close look at the Merlion from the water. It was another long fun day!
Day 3 - We went to Sentosa on day 3. Another hot day! They had a beautiful water area covered with mosaic tiles. It was interesting to check out all the animals interpreted with the tiles. We went to the butterfly garden (imagine you are in a very humid/hot country and then you walk into a butterfly garden which is even more humid - it was beautiful though), Underwater World, Fort Silosa (where we saw our first monkeys in the wild), Dolphin Gardens (pink dolphins!) and the Tiger Sky Tower. Jeff and the St John boys checked out the luge. I think all the kids enjoyed that one!! Jeff and I stayed till after dark to check out the Songs of the Sea water show. It happened to have already been raining so we were wet to start with and then the water spray with the lasers got us even more wet. It was a cute show - I prefer to watch the fountains spraying set to music with less of a story line. We managed to make it back to the hotel with our first ride on the MRT! Very clean!
Day 4 - Time for a day at the Singapore Zoo! They have an "open" zoo so there are few fences - mainly water barriers. It was great! We got to see some fox bats and three toed slothes up close! I could have reached out and touched them - not that I ever would!! It happened to be our 12th wedding anniversary. We celebrated by eating dinner in the first air conditioned place we could find - KFC!! We had Ben & Jerry's afterwards. Then we went on the Night Safari and watched the fire dancers. (bunch of crazy guys!!)
Day 5 - Jeff had to go to work till 2pm - so I went with the St.John family to the Botanical Garden and the Orchid Gardens. Absolutely beautiful! I even bought myself an orchid necklace (a real orchid that is dried and dipped in gold). It is amazing to see that many orchids in one place. Loved it :) On the walk back to the hotel, we got caught in a rain storm. (Of course, I had decided to lighten the backpack and took out the umbrella!) We sat under a beautiful gazebo and eventually the rain quit. When Jeff got back, we decided to walk around Orchard Drive.
Day 6 - We went to the Jurong Bird Park and saw lots of beautiful birds (and some ugly...lol). It also has the world's tallest man-made waterfall. Another great day!
Day 7 - Last day :( Jeff had to work till 2pm. I decided to take it easy and rested in hotel. When Jeff got back from work, we went down to Kampong Glam (the Arab part of Singapore) and looked around at the mosques and shops. Then we went over to Little India to check out a couple more temples. It is amazing how eloborately they are decorated! We met up with the St.John family at the Banana Leaf restaurant. Your plate is actually a banana leaf. The food was amazing. I can't tell you everything that we tasted, but it was all great! It was a wonderful way to end the trip!
Day 8 - Up at 3am to go to the airport :( It was hard to say goodbye, but it was a wonderful trip.
Day 1 - We arrived in Singapore at about midnight. I was on the same flight as the CO's family so that made the trip less stressful. Sleeping on a plane is hard. Sleeping on a plane when pregnant is nearly impossible. We were all exhausted by the time we got to the hotel. I think I fell asleep instantly!! We all met at breakfast to try to get acclimated to the new time zone (a day ahead, minus 6 hours). The guys were not pulling in till that afternoon so we went out exploring. We walked by several stores in the Orchard shopping district that I will never shop in - Dolce & Gabbana, Rolex, Tiffanys, etc. It was fun to look around though. Then we checked out the roof top pool. Beautiful view of the city and a nice way to relax. Then we went for a little walk to the Botanical Gardens (basically, wasting time till the guys got back). The gardens reminded me of London. Absolutely beautiful! Every city should have a garden like that. Singapore does a great job of utilizing all the available space for little gardens and huge trees. We were all sweaty when we got back to the hotel. And there sitting in the lobby was Jeff and the CO. So nice to see Jeff again! We went out for a little dinner and enjoyed spending some time together again. We walked down Orchard street and saw a fashion show in front of the mall.
Day 2 - We hopped aboard the Hippo Bus Tours and got to see an overview of the city. We stopped at the Raffles Hotel and Jeff had the famous Singapore Sling. It was a beautiful bar and a nice way to cool off. In the afternoon, we walked around Little India and checked out the temples. Getting back on the Hippo bus was a challenge, but we met a great couple from Australia during our walk. Later in the afternoon, we went to Chinatown and ran into the St.John family and another neighbor from McGrew. We walked over to Clarke Quay and went on a river cruise. We met another great family from Australia (they liked our accent...lol). I loved seeing the city at night. We even got an up close look at the Merlion from the water. It was another long fun day!
Day 3 - We went to Sentosa on day 3. Another hot day! They had a beautiful water area covered with mosaic tiles. It was interesting to check out all the animals interpreted with the tiles. We went to the butterfly garden (imagine you are in a very humid/hot country and then you walk into a butterfly garden which is even more humid - it was beautiful though), Underwater World, Fort Silosa (where we saw our first monkeys in the wild), Dolphin Gardens (pink dolphins!) and the Tiger Sky Tower. Jeff and the St John boys checked out the luge. I think all the kids enjoyed that one!! Jeff and I stayed till after dark to check out the Songs of the Sea water show. It happened to have already been raining so we were wet to start with and then the water spray with the lasers got us even more wet. It was a cute show - I prefer to watch the fountains spraying set to music with less of a story line. We managed to make it back to the hotel with our first ride on the MRT! Very clean!
Day 4 - Time for a day at the Singapore Zoo! They have an "open" zoo so there are few fences - mainly water barriers. It was great! We got to see some fox bats and three toed slothes up close! I could have reached out and touched them - not that I ever would!! It happened to be our 12th wedding anniversary. We celebrated by eating dinner in the first air conditioned place we could find - KFC!! We had Ben & Jerry's afterwards. Then we went on the Night Safari and watched the fire dancers. (bunch of crazy guys!!)
Day 5 - Jeff had to go to work till 2pm - so I went with the St.John family to the Botanical Garden and the Orchid Gardens. Absolutely beautiful! I even bought myself an orchid necklace (a real orchid that is dried and dipped in gold). It is amazing to see that many orchids in one place. Loved it :) On the walk back to the hotel, we got caught in a rain storm. (Of course, I had decided to lighten the backpack and took out the umbrella!) We sat under a beautiful gazebo and eventually the rain quit. When Jeff got back, we decided to walk around Orchard Drive.
Day 6 - We went to the Jurong Bird Park and saw lots of beautiful birds (and some ugly...lol). It also has the world's tallest man-made waterfall. Another great day!
Day 7 - Last day :( Jeff had to work till 2pm. I decided to take it easy and rested in hotel. When Jeff got back from work, we went down to Kampong Glam (the Arab part of Singapore) and looked around at the mosques and shops. Then we went over to Little India to check out a couple more temples. It is amazing how eloborately they are decorated! We met up with the St.John family at the Banana Leaf restaurant. Your plate is actually a banana leaf. The food was amazing. I can't tell you everything that we tasted, but it was all great! It was a wonderful way to end the trip!
Day 8 - Up at 3am to go to the airport :( It was hard to say goodbye, but it was a wonderful trip.
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