MY Our Completed Bike

I'm so excited to say that the bike once called "Scoot" is now complete! I can't believe it. Ryan did such a great job, he got her all cleaned up, she's now re-wired, new custom muffler, all new lights and grips, new seat leather and of course a new paint job. There is so much more that he did to this bike that I don't even know about but it has proven to be quite the transformation:

The Back End

The Side View

The Guts

Now that I've seen the potential of the bike and how great of a job Ryan did restoring it I no longer think that the name Scoot applies. I have no idea what she'll be called but we'll be working on it.
I have always thought it was so kind and selfless of Ryan to build me my own bike although now that it's finished i'm not too surprised that the last few nights he's chosen to take MY bike into work instead of his bike. His excuse is that he needs to drive the bike for at least a week to make sure that it's reliable enough for me to take it out on my own. Seems like genuine concern but I have to admit that i'm a little suspicious and not totally convinced of his motives... not that I blame him, the bike rocks!

Cliff Jumping Filipino Style

It has been a busy week for us. Five American's have come to visit Focus and so Ryan has been busy at work and trying to help these guests see a little of what our area has to offer in the ways of fun. It's been a crazy schedule but today I think was a great day for the boys. We took everyone up to Mambukal Mountain Resort for a little cliff jumping. There isn't much more to say then that! Enjoy some of my favorite shots:

Everyone got their turn and after those first warm up jumps the experiments began and the poses really started to come out. We had splits, 360* turns, dives, the classic nose plugging and even a mooning from one of the local boys (don't worry, no pictures)! All these pictures were taken from the 6th set of falls of the 7 falls. It's a quick hike up but by the time you get there you're a little winded and defiantly hot. Even though it's a little cooler up on the mountain it's still really warm and mixed with the humidity that jump into the cooler water feels amazingly refreshing. It's also nice since it's so warm that you don't feel cold after while you're standing around waiting for your turn or taking pictures and you dry off quickly enough that you aren't grossly sopping during the hike back down!

They Must Be American

I was reading a Clifford book to the kids, one where Emily Elizabeth and Clifford go sledding. After a while in the snow poor puppy Clifford becomes quite cold and so they go home to warm up and drink some 'hot cocoa.' Brayden examines the picture for a while and realizes that they are drinking hot chocolate and he clarifies this with me saying "mom, their hot cocoa is what we call hot chocolate."
I nod my head in agreement and he turns back to the picture putting his elbow on the table and resting his chin on his hand and takes a few seconds to think something through.... "they must be American" he finally says as his justification to the difference.
All I could do was chuckle and say "yes Brayd, they must be."

Who Needs Taber Corn Anyway?

So I know I posted about our amazing garden recently but I just had to share a little something extra. Not only are all our pumpkins and cucumbers thriving, the coriander and chives have germinated, but most noteworthy, we were able to pick a perfectly ripened cob of corn. Oh... VERY exciting news for us over here, somewhat like Christmas. The kids thought it was so cool that we could pick actual, tangible corn from our garden.
So we picked the cob that was ripe, we took pictures of it and we fondled it. Seriously the neatest thing I've ever picked out of the garden and I felt like we were in the big leagues.
Now you might be asking 'how did it taste?' Well, to be completely honest I threw it in the garbage and we never even tried it. You see there was 1 cob and 6 of us (we have this amazing guest right now, Paul, from Utah) and what were we going to do? Cook this single cob, which was true to Filipino size, politely referring to tiny, and pass it around the table and have each person take one bite?
So in summary:
We have successfully grown corn. Tasteful corn? Still a mystery, but corn none the less!

P.S. To avoid questions about Brayden's hairline.... yes, he did cut it. No, it doesn't look good. That's right, I just don't care so he'll have to live with it for now.

Spins a Web, Any Size

Yesterday we attended the first annual Halloween party at the resort in our sub division. Brayden and Sydney were SO excited to dress up in their Halloween costumes but I made them wait until the early afternoon. I know I sound like a huge meanie BUT Sydney's dress already had a little tear in it and Brayden's was long sleeves, mask and long pants so I didn't really need a sweaty Spiderman. As far as getting into costume Madison was ummmmm.... not so happy. She literally freaked out. Madison and I ended up compromising on the costume. She decided that she would not wear the cute hat and shoes that went along with it but in return I got to do her make up a little so her cheeks and eyes sparkled.
Around 3pm we walked over to the Jarman's to meet up with them before continuing down the street to the resort. The kids had a good time. They got to dance, play a couple games, have their faces painted and of course they got to bring home some candy! Not the door to door trick or treating I'm used to but for these three it was just as great and all the same. Candy and costumes is what makes Halloween and I'm so so glad that they were able to get both and then some.

I had a good chuckle when later that night when I told Brayden that his costume was really cool and his face painting was just awesome. He just casually turns and looks at me giving the slightest shrug and says "Ya, I know." I know how excited he was and how cool he felt to have his face painted and for him to act so casual about it.... sometimes I just have to turn away and have a quick giggle.

Garden Update

I thought that since it's getting to that time of year where the first frost has hit I would brag a little bit about our year long summer. It's really hard to be so far from family and when something happens (good or bad) it just sucks to not be there to help out or celebrate. It's humbling to realize exactly how easily life goes on without you even if you are missed (or Brayden, Sydney and Madison are missed) and family traditions continue without pause. SO, to be so far sucks. But the one thing Ryan and I can do that most of you can't do right now is show you all pictures of how fabulous our year round garden is doing :P Muahahaha (devious, somewhat evil laugh).

While we went home to Canada our garden was left unattended and turned into this huge overgrown jungle in just those 4 weeks. I couldn't believe it, we seriously couldn't find the water tap for the sprinkler in all the overgrown grass. Thankfully for us a boy from our ward was preparing to leave on his mission a few weeks away and needed a little bit extra money for his last minute supplies. It was such perfect timing and so we took advantage of the situation and hired him short term to relocate our garden and weed it back into tip top shape. He did a great job and even plated a couple of papaya trees for us in the back of the garden... then Danny left on his mission and our garden once again became the jungle. We could see the tops of the corn seeding and once I even saw a tiny red tomato from the upstairs window but just barely. Thankfully, Jane was is in the same situation Danny was in and needed just a little extra to get her mission papers all in order and into the right hands and again we totally jumped all over that opportunity. She got it all cleared away for us and even made sure that the little damage that last typhoon that blew through the Philippines did was fixed. She used the leaves from the corn stalks to tie them upright again after being blown over and beat down from the rains!
We did notice however that our poor lemon tree was really suffering in the garden. The insects were eating the leaves and the birds kept stealing all our baby lemons. We decided to drive down the road and buy a couple of pots, one for the tree and a few others for my new herb garden. We spent some good quality time out in the garden and planted some herbs, carrots, lettuce, peas, pumpkin and squash. We also made sure that the plants that are still alive were well weeded and watered! We picked all our tomato's but left the green peppers to grow a little more and are now waiting for our corn cobs to grow a little larger so we can pig out on them one night for dinner!

SO, as you start preparing your homes for Halloween (something they don't do here) think of us over here and our garden so we don't feel quite so bad about our kids missing such a fun day of fantastic costumes and running around door to door (or trunk to trunk) filling their pillow cases with loads of candy I would help eat.

Fun with Wax

Do remember playing around with wax lips when you were younger? I totally do. Ryan and I went to Cebu City on Saturday to attend the LDS Cebu City, Philippines temple. To make a date out of the day we went out after our session for some amazing foods and to shop for some imported delicacies we can't get here in Bacolod. We found Lucky Charms, Crispex, fresh Dill Weed and croutons but I think the best thing was the wax lips and mustache we found. The girls each got a nice pair of red shiny lips and Brayden lucked out with a Sherlock Holmes types mustache.

It was a challenge to explain to Madison that she shouldn't eat her lips. Why in the world do they make these wax lips taste so delicious!?

MassKara Street Dance

MassKara festival started in the 80's when there was a farming crisis. Also that same year there was a huge tanker that sank and 700 lives were lost. With these tragedies occuring the city of Bacolod, known as the city of smiles (which it truly is!), decided to hold a festival of Smiles. It was a declaration to the city that no matter how bad times got they would be able to 'pull through, survive, and in the end, triumph.' It also gave them a reason to do something fun and forget their troubles. It is now a 3 week long street party with dancing, masks and parties!

This is our 4th MassKara festival since we moved to Bacolod and although we've been in the Charter Day parade we've never actually really watched any of the dancing which is pretty much what MassKara is. This year we decided to really do it up and today was the MassKara street dance competition. They shut down one of the main roads in the city which was fortunately close to our house so we all squished on the motorbike and found a less populated spot at the beginning of the parade to watch from. There were 20 different Barangay's competing against each other for the best dance, all wearing different masks and costumes dancing through the streets and sweating buckets. There isn't too much to say about it but I have some great pictures to show off how amazing these costumes were. Just imagine dancing down the street in these masks and costumes for 1-2 hours in the 35*C heat.... I have this huge appreciation for these dancers! I was sweating buckets just standing still.

MassKara Electric Parade

Last night Ryan and I tackled the crowds of MassKara to get a glimpse of the electric parade. They completely shut down the main road through the city to all traffic and it turns into the largest street party I've ever seen. All the restaurants are open with tables flowing into the street, there were stages built in an afternoon to accommodate all the live bands playing and people were everywhere! It was so loud with all the music and venders selling their brightly lit toys and masks. I was so glad we left the kids at home because there is no way that we would have been able to keep track of them in the crowds.
There was a 5 or 6 float parade and each float there were masked dancers playing drums and dancing to the music. They looked AMAZING!

The best part was when it started to lightly rain. For some reason Filipino's are afraid of rain water (it brings 'the fever') so as soon as it starts they scatter. The streets were half as full with the people under all the shops and restaurants looking for cover (it really was just a sprinkle!) so we were able to get close to the dancers and get a few great shots. Like I mentioned, they really looked amazing. Such brilliant colours!

Brayden is SIX!!

Brayden just had his sixth birthday and lucky for him that fell on a Saturday so he got to have a full day of partying. He woke up and as soon as he saw me I excitedly reminded him that he was 6 years old and he gave me a big proud look and told me "I KNOW! AND, I think I feel bigger." So I measured him against me like we do and he seemed to believe that he had indeed grown a significant amount over night.
When Ryan got home from work that morning we did the big unveiling of his gift (note to grandparents: we included you in this one so EVERYONE gave this to him). We had to keep it outside and around the corner so that he wouldn't spot it if he ran out there to play. Thankfully Ryan got home quite early that morning so we had just finished his blue '6' pancakes so I didn't have to make excuses for him to not be outside. He got a new bike! A super cool motorbike bike, which now is parked beside our 2 real motorbikes in the motorbike parking of driveway. Let me tell you, he really can go super fast on his new bike!

Later in the morning we headed out to the Caribbean Water Park with the Jarman's for Brayden's birthday party. We didn't really do anything huge for him in terms of extravagant parties but he had so much fun. We rented a Nipa Hut and bought some yummy Jollibee's chicken and rice with cupcakes for dessert. I made bubblegum and tutti frutti/watermelon flavoured icing and the kids got to pick which flavour they wanted to ice their cupcakes. He unwrapped his gifts from the Jarmans, who also bought the other kids a little something too... so nice! Then it was time for the water slides. The time went so quickly! The kids were up and down the water slides so many times it was hard to keep track of them. Madison was loving it too. She's learning how to kick herself around where she wants to go in her water wings and she just laughs and squeals. We came home and had time to give the kids a bath, fill them up with some dinner and opened up a pack of 15 glow sticks. It was already starting to get dark and so they were really bright and they had so much fun sticking them together, waving them around and making anklets, bracelets, necklaces. It was such a fun day, I think Brayden really really enjoyed himself!

Back to the Real World

Today we packed up and left Jomabo. As relaxing of a weekend as it was it's always nice to come home, isn't it!? To be back in your own space, your own bed and your children's own beds. There is something comforting about the routine that comes from being home and that as soon as we walk through those doors the kids just seem to understand when bed time is again. As nice as a weekend away in the sun and warmth is, it's nice to be back home to the sound of the frogs croaking enjoying the rainfall.
We really did have a great time at the beach. Not the prettiest or the fanciest but you can't beat being the only ones on the entire island! That was truly a first. The kids loved every second of the weekend and were so wired and hyper the entire drive home.
As we were leaving on the boat I was watching the island get smaller and smaller and I noticed that you could barely tell where the sea stopped and the sky began. It looked so pretty and made me feel pretty small as I was looking into what looked like eternity.