Bailey's School Trip to Myanmar

This year I had the opportunity to visit the country of Myanmar on my freshman interim trip. When I first chose where I wanted to go, months before the actual trip, I had the idea of travelling to Burma/Myanmar because I had heard of how cultural as well as beautiful the place was. My dad also happened to be in Myanmar at the time of my interim pick, and fully supported the idea, making me more and more excited to travel there. Obviously, I had never been to the country before but indeed had been to surrounding areas such as Thailand, Cambodia, and China; But Burma is a completely different place with a different religion, culture, and overall feel so I had absolutely no idea what to expect, besides what I had researched, leaving me anxious for the experience.

On the first day of the journey, we woke up early and flew to Yangon, a well-known, busy city in Myanmar. We spent that day touring the country, studying Burmese politics and significant destinations in which we visited. The sudden realization of differences between third world countries and first world countries first hit me on that day, when we went to a local restaurant. We were all shocked after noticing that the people serving us were quite small. None of us exactly knew why, we just assumed that these young boys were either small for their age or were actually younger than us. Our tour guide, Myint Zaw, then informed us that boys such as these are usually forced to leave their families to work and earn money which eventually is sent back to where they came from. These boys earn less than $80 USD per month and are only given a day off twice a month! After witnessing this, it’s less hard to remember that the life I live is almost the complete opposite of the lives of thousands of 14 year-olds in countries around the world.


Another huge part of the trip was visiting and learning about Burmese culture, as it is a “Global Studies” interim trip, but most memorable, the beautiful Buddhist temples. The first temple we toured was the Shwedagon Pagoda, a fascinating as well as extremely large temple filled with tourists as well as different ethnic minorities that all wanted to visit the Shwedagon before death. It was interesting that we were able to feel so connected with the people we met and culture we discovered as the week went on because I especially felt like we were a real part of the everyday Burmese life.

Overall, my trip to Myanmar really was a special one. Even simple things such as sitting on the floor at lunch, shopping in local markets, visiting the homes of past leaders, catching the sunset from tops of temples, and even riding oxen across an island made my experience that more exciting. I am eternally grateful for the opportunities I receive to travel around the globe and will forever remember how I felt as I travelled through Myanmar.

Christmas Eve

We had our last Christmas Eve in Singapore with our friends the Furners.  We did all the traditional stuff that we do every year:  Santa showed up and brought everyone a gift, as usual!

Does Santa look familiar?

Sarah brought her Bouche de Noel (chocolate Yule log cake) and I made my regular Mexican feast with chocolate mousse pie for dessert.  We had our nativity dress-up program, with Mateo at the piano.  We also read The Night Before Christmas.  It was a lovely night!  We also opened our one gift of pajamas - at everyone's request.  We sure love the Furner family and we really LOVE Christmas!

Day One Krabi, Thailand

So...we finally travelled to Krabi!  We went in January, over the Christmas holidays.  We've had friends invite us there so many times over the years but we hadn't gone bc Mike went there with colleagues and never wanted to go back.  However, I finally insisted because I'd heard so many amazing things about it!
It really was awesome!  We stayed at the Sheraton which the kids all absolutely loved!  They could roam around the resort on their own and get drinks at the Coco Vida club all on their own.  It was such a dream!

                               We had all of the girls in one room and the boys in another. Such fun times!

Hong Kong Disneyland

Today we went to Hong Kong Disneyland (Jan.9, 2015).  I'm going to get some thoughts down before I forget them!
Disneyland reminds me of Christmas because there's something to make everyone happy!  Even me...who has hated roller coasters my entire life has a wonderful, magical time at Disneyland!  I suppose it's because I so love to see my family happy...and everyone is always happy at Disneyland!

We started out the morning early.  We had a 7:30 breakfast reservation at the Disneyland Hotel for breakfast with the characters.  Skylar brought her dress-up Elsa (from Frozen) costume and wore it the entire day long.  She had it on at breakfast where we hung out with (and took photos with): Pluto, Minnie, Mickey and Goofy.

Skylar was SO shy with the characters!

It was so fun talking to Skylar about the characters and feeling her excitement.

Everyone was so excited for our day.  The weather was absolutely perfect.  Slightly cool with no humidity!  It felt amazing and such a nice break from Singapore weather.

Hong Kong Disneyland doesn't open until 10:00am so we were at the front of the line at 9:30, waiting for the doors to open to the park.  We all ran in as fast as we could and ran (literally) over to the spot to get a reservation to meet Princess Anna and Queen Elsa (from Frozen).  We got a card to come back at 10:45 then we ran over to the Toy Story area and were the only ones on the rides there.  It sure paid off to get to that area early.  Everyone went on a bunch of rides by ourselves before anyone else showed up!

One of the highlights of the day was when Skylar got to meet Anna and Elsa.  Elsa is her favorite princess by far so meeting her and talking to her was a big deal for her.  She was SO shy and would barely talk to them but she did give them a hug at the end of their meeting so she was starting to warm up to them...they gave her stickers and the whole thing was just picture-perfect!

At the Elsa and Anna meeting area the employees there gave us a "card" for Skylar to have a special spot with all of the princesses in the 3:00 parade, later in the day.  We didn't know this...but they pick some little girls in princess costumes to sit in a special section, along the parade path, all lined up in a row.  It was the cutest thing ever to see Skylar lined up next to 9 other princesses.  She was the only caucasian princess.  All of the others were Chinese.  I don't think the photos were able to capture how darling these 10 little princesses were, watching the parade go by right in front of them!

Other highlights from today:

Merry Go-Round was fun for all!

Bailey took some awesome photos today.  She is a great photographer!

We made it to 3 shows, all of which were great, and almost every, single ride in the park today.  We were extremely productive.  We didn't stop for food until 7:30pm.  The food was not very good.  I told my kids that with only one day at HK Disneyland we needed to have a "Fun before Food" attitude today.
Two of my favorite quotes from today were:
Jack - on the bus ride home.  "Thank you mommy for taking me here today!"
Skylar - at the end of the day getting into bed, "I'm tired a million!"

I love my family!!!!  Today was one of THOSE days...in a good way!

Jack is growing up

Jack announced to me on Sunday that he was throwing his "pankies" in the garbage.  He warned me a few days ahead of time that he was going to throw them away and I guess he decided that Sunday was the big day.  He also told me that he never sucks his thumb anymore and doesn't need his pankies anymore.  I asked if I could take a photo of the pankies before he throws them away and he said "no."
I'm so glad that the pankies are gone and that the thumb sucking is over but...I'm not happy with what all of this means...that my little Jack-Jack is growing up!  :(

The Christmas Season 2014 (Part 2)

This happiest time of the year also included the following events:

Mike and Bailey participated in a charity WOD (workout of day) for Addie Napierski: They raised quite a large sum of money for the Napierski family and Toys For Tots.  (I didn't work out bc of my on-going back probs as of late but I did go and take photos.)  Many other friends were there too including Cade & Austin Napierski and Carrie & Mason Gammons.

Before workout

After workout

We did a LOT of shopping on Orchard Road the week before Christmas!

Sky at the Takashimaya tree.

In front of the Nativity on Orchard Rd./Takashimaya area

Skylar

At the big tree in front of Ion Shopping Mall.

Sky really got into posing for photos this season!

I think that this is my favorite photo from this season!  This is Sky standing behind the North Pole display at Tanglin Mall. So fearful ,yet curious about seeing Santa.  Love this girl!

Sammy "put her foot down" about my required Santa photos this year.  She said she'd only do it if dad and I were in the photo...so we gladly obliged!  (I'm not in this photo though bc someone had to take the i-photo!)

Bailey and I stuck in crowds on Orchard Rd.  We "ducked out" of that spot because it was so many people...we were nervous someone would get trampled!

Random Christmas display of pink unicorns on Orchard Rd.  Not sure why
there were pink unicorns but Skylar enjoyed them.

We squeezed in some family photos with Nicole Ekberg 3 days before Christmas, hoping we could get some last minute Christmas cards out but they still haven't made it out...insert sad face.

I loved this street off of Orchard Rd. called Emerald Hill.  It's an old area full of old Singapore shophouses.

We all decided that this was the perfect Christmas gift for Mike!!!!  Jack modeled it so well but there were none left for sale.  :(  We settled on an all blue mask for him instead.  What else do you get for such a fun dad????

Jack the Duck!

The next photo is during one of my all-time favorite moments of the season.  We found a grocery store and bought candy canes and handed them out to strangers in Ion Mall, near the MRT station.
I loved following behind my kids as they passed them out to people; for no particular reason at all.  It was so fun to see children's faces light up as my sweet kids passed them a candy cane, with no strings attached.  One of the many reasons why...I LOVE CHRISTMAS!!!!!

Sammy & Skylar made this awesome gingerbread house together.

Bailey, Carson & Jack each decorated a gingerbread train.

On Christmas Eve Day I took the kids ice skating at J-Cube.  Mike had to work (bah humbug!) but the kids and I had fun with some family friends.  As a "special" Singapore deal they raised the prices for skating on that day.  (Thanks a lot Singapore.)

This ice rink has these cool penguins to help little kids skate.  It makes it easier for me to take my little kids by myself.  Jack loves ice skating the most of all my kids, I think!

Sammy & Bailey are amazing helpers too.  How I adore those girls!!!

We will miss this NY's Eve tradition!

 One of my other most favorite moments of this season was when we went Christmas caroling at this hospital very last minute on Christmas Eve.  Sammy arranged it but we couldn't find any other families who could make it with us so we showed up just the 6 of us and made the best of it!  We have never, ever sung in front of people as only "The Daynes Family" singers.

We sang to some dementia patients first then we got taken downstairs to sing to some children with some pretty serious problems.  I was SO PROUD of my boys for behaving, singing and smiling at the sick children.  (I'm always proud of Sammy & Bailey's behavior in situations like this bc well, you know, they're amazing!  But I was SO stinking happy to see Carson and Jack step it up and sing their little hearts out to these sick kids.  Like grandma Bernice used to say, "they done good!"

The hospital wouldn't allow me to take photos of the children there so I only have pics of my kiddos instead!


We rushed home from singing at the hospital in just the perfect amount of time for the Furners to show up for our annual Christmas Eve party! (next post)