The beach in Singapore!!!

Tanjong Beach, Sentosa - Saturday, November 21, 2009

You'd think that because we live at 1 degree north of the equator that we'd go to the beach all the time. This is not the case because Singapore's beaches are not very good. However, there's a place here called Sentosa (it's kinda the Disneyland of Singapore) where the beaches are pretty nice. So, on Saturday we went to our ward beach party there. Mike planned this whole party since he's our ward activities committee leader and he always makes everything fun so we knew that it had to be good. As expected, it was really fun!

One of the activities he planned was a Body Building competition. Here's Carson showing off his muscles in the competition. So as not to keep you in suspense I'll tell you now that Carson was the first place winner of the body building competition! He got a nice gold medal for that too.



Jack was the third place winner of the body building competition. Just look at that six pack!







Here's Sammy having a swim in the water at the beach...



This photo shows the kids from our ward playing some relay games in the sand. You can see Mike and Sammy standing there watching and I am in the background with a red rash guard.



The last photo is of Bailey and her friend Madyson goofing around with Madyson's dad.



There was also a swim competition for the adults which Mike and I participated in. We had to run into the water, swim over to a small island, run and touch a big rock and swim back to the other side. I swallowed lots of warm, salty water...yummy!

It's the rainy season from now until January so the rain came down really hard 3 different times while we were there. Some people took shelter in a covered area nearby and some just kept on playing on the beach like it was no big deal. You really can't let the rain stop you from doing anything because it rains pretty much everyday! The rain was actually nice because it was not so sweltering HOT like it usually is here.

Sammy went to a Fear Factor birthday party before the beach party so she had 2 fun parties in one day!

We saw the new roller coaster that is being built next door to Sentosa; where the new Universal Studios site is. That opens up in 2010 so that will bring a lot more tourism to Singapore.

We love you Singapore, lah!

Halloween 2009

The rainy season hit Singapore hard this week. We've had hard core thunderstorms with lightning and massive amounts of rain the past few days. Halloween looked like it could be a complete washout but somehow the lightning and thunder remained just in the distance of our "Little America" on Halloween night. It was a great sidekick for the vampires and werewolves out but not the little ones who were a little scared. It did rain for a bit but not hard enough to keep the hard core trick-or-treaters (like Bailey) indoors.

We continued our tradition of inviting several families over for soups, cornbread and pies. Somehow the number of families about doubles on Halloween night though. We had over 20 people in our small living room at one point while 20 people were in the pool or the pool area.

Mike and Rich jumped off of the roof into the pool for an added surprise this year to the existing craziness. Bobbing for apples was especially fun as everyone seemed to really get into it this year with their whole bodies. We also had homemade root beer which was so yummy it will definitely be a new tradition for Hallow's Eve!

We also invited Marnelie's boyfriend over and got to meet him for the first time. He and Marnelie had a great time passing out the candy to all of our trick-or-treaters.


Carson with some homemade root beer!




Yeehaw...it's cowgirl Bailey!!! And I had to get some shots of the kids sorting through their loot and making trades.



Yummylicious Luke Skywalker!



Luke Skywalker with girlfriend Tinkerbell.




Marnelie with her boyfriend Nassir and friend Paz. They passed out candy to the 2,000 trick-or-treaters who came to our door between 6-8pm Halloween night.


Mike and buddy Rich in a bobbing for apples race.




Sammy with 2 of her bestest friends - Sophie & Natasha.


The Daynes Fam...yee-haw, meow-meow, and May The Force Be With You!!!


Obi One Kenobi and Cowgirl; Luke Skywalker and Tink.



Cowgirl Bailey with her friends Sophie and Kierica.


Carson was an awesome Yoda. He was totally in character as a 500 year old creature. He even had Mike bring him back a walking stick from Indonesia. This was an important part of his costume (to him). He also refused to use a light saber unless it was green.


Jack Sparrow and Obi One.


Sammy Cat - three years running!


Obi One, Luke Skywalker and Master Yoda.


School Halloween Parties.

Spotlight on Bailey

This is Cowgirl Bailey at a daddy/daughter event for Activity Days at our church. Guess who her "dad" was? ....me (mom). Dad was in Rome on a business trip so I was lucky enough to be the substitute dad!

Bailey has a fun teacher this year! She is doing great in school and is involved in the following activities after school:

Monday - gymnastics, soccer practice
Tuesday - piano lessons, fighting fish (swim team)
Wednesday - Fighting Fish, achievement days at church
Thursday - Irish Dance
Friday - Fighting Fish
Saturday - soccer game and sometimes swim meet

She's trying out for the select soccer team tomorrow and if she makes it on the team I'm not quite sure where she's going to squeeze in her practices and games. Maybe we need an 8th day of the week...we can call it "Bayday." Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Bayday, Friday, Saturday. It fits in there perfectly!

Bailey was also very proud when she became a member of the marathon club at school recently. She was required to run 26 miles in one month. So, for a month she ran one mile per evening or morning before school to accomplish this goal. She did it! She got a t-shirt and will have her photo in the school magazine.









It was UN (United Nations) Day on Friday. All the kids are supposed to dress up in costumes from their home country. Bailey's class sang 2 songs in the assembly and they are both tear jerkers! I'll attach them to this. I always cry at UN Day b/c the kids are singing about peace, harmony, why can't the whole world just get along and love each other, etc. It's so true!









Today is Saturday so Bailey's soccer game was at 8:30a.m. as usual. It was so hot & humid all of us spectators were dying of heat exhaustion. The players seemed fine just a bit sweatier than usual. Bailey got kicked in the knee by a player on the opposing team so she had some tears and was carried off the field by her coach. She wanted to play again soon after but couldn't put much weight on her leg so she finished the game at goalie. She didn't let any goals in although she was only playing at about 75%. They tied 1-1 against the toughest team in the league.

After the soccer game we walked down to another area of the school to get our pumpkins from the "pumpkin patch". It's not as dreamy getting our pumpkins from the "squishy court" at S.A.S. as it was in Connecticut. In CT we'd go for a hay ride, pick a pumpkin from the field still attached to the ground, pick apples, drink hot apple cider and breathe the crisp autumn air. In Singapore we pick out a pumpkin quickly before we collapse from heat exhaustion and then we pay way too much for it, we also have snowcones to drink and then we take our pumpkin home to the air conditioned house to that is doesn't get moldy before Halloween. What a contrast!

Here's a few photos from the pumpkin patch. Guess you can tell who doesn't mind getting their picture taken!














Bailey is a great organizer which is great! She got her bedroom all nice and organized recently and it looks so nice.

Bailey's nicknames are still "Bails" and "The Bail Monster." She is a sweetie pie with zillions of friends and always has a smile and hug for everyone.

Found this Funny...

Sammy spent the night at her friend Natasha's house last night...now Natasha is spending the night at our house tonight. This is the life of 12 year old girls! Anyway, Natasha is from Melbourne, Australia. Right when they showed up at our house today they were hungry for some lunch. So...Marnelie whipped them up 2 PB&J's really fast. Natasha took one look at it and said, "I don't eat this stuff. I think it's gross. Do you have any vegemite?"

8 Days & 7 Nights In Mongolia

I left for Mongolia on a Monday evening. I flew to Beijing first. I was planning on staying at a room in the Beijing airport b/c I had an 8 hour layover there. Well, long story short I couldn't stay in that room b/c I had to pick up my luggage and go through customs in Beijing. So...I tried to stay in a room by the hour in the terminal where I'd be checking in for the flight to Ulaanbataar. However, there was no room in the inn. So, I spent my layover on some chairs in the Beijing airport. I was glad that I had my suitcase so I could pull out a coat for a blanket and another coat to use for my pillow. I was cold! It's already cold in Northern China and Mongolia - especially since I'm used to the weather along the equator.
I met up with Jonna - my travel buddy - in the lounge on Tuesday morning. Mike is a solitaire member with Singapore Airlines so that makes me automatically a solitaire member. That helped Jonna and I along the trip when we had too heavy of baggage and when we needed a lounge on our layovers. It would've been nice to have access to the lounge on my 8 hour layover but then I may have been too pampered.

Here we are on arrival in Ulaanbataar at the Ghinggis Khan Int'l Airport.



Adorable Mongolian girl




Here's some photos from the Mercury market where my friend Jill shops.






Ghinggis Khan (pronounced Chinggis Han in Mongolia) is revered in Mongolia for his leadership. Here's some photos from a visit to his newly completed statue made of stainless steel. We actually walked up into the horse he's riding on.









There's even shopping in Mongolia! It's not Wal-Mart by far but there's local markets that are so colorful and interesting...we loved this one called the Zakh.







This market was enormous! Mongolians from the country dressed up in their traditional dress for their trip to town to stock up on their needs. You could find everything from hog heads to furniture for your Ger (Mongolian house).




Here's Jonna and me shopping for Cashmere and Wool items. These are the only clothes made in Mongolia for export. No surprise there!



Once you get outside of the city limits of Ulaanbatar there aren't many paved roads. We were lucky to have my friend Jill Andersen to drive us all over the rocky roads. Land Cruisers really are amazing cars. We drove through rivers, up and down mountains, etc. One day we missed our turn and were lost out on the Mongolian steppe for a couple of hours. Then we hit traffic back in town and got hit by another car. Jill assured us that this was just another typical day in Mongolia.

Here's the scene of the accident:



Here's the Landcruiser with a flat tire from off-roading:




We stayed for 2 nights at a Ger camp alongside the Tuul River. Here's a photo of the outside of our Ger:



Here's the inside of the Ger...3 beds and a stove in the middle to keep us warm.




We came prepared with supplies for s'mores...we had Russian chocolate, marshmallows and Nilla Wafers. They tasted so good we had them for breakfast! (We liked them much better than the mutton.)






We rode horses while at the Ger camp. Mongolian horses are on the small side. We ran them as much as we wanted...galloping a Mongolian horse at full speed on the Mongolian steppe is a memory I'll never forget!

This is one of our amazing horsemen:





We hiked up the mountains nearby:





You never know what you'll find once you get to the top of the mountain:



Here are many other unbelievable sights that we would see as we were out driving on the Mongolian steppe:

Interesting Animals:

Yaks!!!





Interesting People:






I like this shot of this lady fixing her Ger:



Terelj: This is me making my way across a rickety bridge to hike up to a Buddhist/Tibetan monastery. We said our prayers the Tibetan way by spinning each one of these in a clockwise direction...don't think I did it correctly b/c this is the day we got completely lost in the middle of Outer Mongolia and we got in the car accident!:)




This is me in Terelj in my stylin' new hat that Jonna knitted me for my b-day! Who would've ever thought that I'd spend my 38th b-day in Mongolia???


What an amazing, inspiring, informative, invigorating trip. I actually chose this trip to Mongolia over a trip to Rome with Mike if you can believe it? He's in Rome this week while the kids are out of school which was partly the reason I didn't go. Also, I figured I'd get back to Italy someday but what were the chances that I'd make it to Outer Mongolia again?

Now that I know what Mongolia is like I'd like to take the family there to stay in a Ger and experience a piece of that life. I'm really glad that I got to go while Jill was there and get a personal tour. That made it all the more special. The LDS church is doing really well in Mongolia. There are 9,000 members which is a lot considering there are only 3 million people in Mongolia. The members there are sweet and it was truly inspiring to experience their faithful spirits. They are all pioneers since the church has been there just 15 years.