My sister and cousin’s week in Manila before the rest of the family flew in.

My cousin had a direct flight from LA, California. We let her put her suitcase down and then took her to Matt’s basketball game. She didn’t last the whole game.

The boys had never met our cousin before, but quickly accepted her and would spend a lot of time sitting with her on the couch.

Jet-lag is brutal. These two would fall asleep around 7pm every night when they first arrived.

My sister came from Texas, so we loaded her up with goodies to bring here for us. Many of these treats went to friends and co-workers. The people here really appreciate sweets from the states.

I took the girls to Pagsanjan Falls. Blake and I stayed at the resort while they went to see the falls.

The girls went to Taal Volcano while I stayed home one day. It is always nice to get out of the city.

We tried out the trapeze and my cousin was really good at it.

We went back a second time to do trapeze with the whole gang.

Matt took my youngest brother out to do wake-boarding one morning.

We had to take them to Mall of Asia. In 2006 it was the largest mall in the Philippines, but now it is the third largest in the country.

We also took the crew to Sofitel hotel which is on Manila bay so they could experience Spiral Buffet.

When it was just my sister and I at home, Matt had a hard time telling us apart from the back.

First activity of the summer was to go to a 3D art gallery called Art In Island

Art in Island is claimed to be the largest 3D museum in Asia in terms of the number of 3D paintings available, around 200 incredible pieces. The kids had a great time running around the whole building since it wasn’t crowded and taking silly photos.

We spent a morning at Active Fun where Blake loved being around the big kids who joined him in the ball pit.

At the mall we went ice skating and the kids with their friends had the whole rink to themselves for nearly an hour.

Spent a couple of hours at Kidzoona where the kids were able to dress-up, make believe and play in the ball pit.

Kalani got to go to a hair salon and get her hair dyed ombre.

We had beautiful weather and lots of friends to be with while enjoying a morning at The Fun Farm.

We celebrated a mom’s birthday at a restaurant before going bowling. The boys were all very well behaved once the iPad was pulled out!

The kids survived the summer and they have completed a full week of school already.

For the El Nido resorts there is a private airport terminal. We are ready to go relax and play with friends.

Part of the Palawan island chain as seen from the plane…El Nido is there somewhere.

The middle cottage is where we stayed at Apulit.

The kids are ready for an adventure. We did all enjoyed a private island hopping tour.

Snorkeling with fish was fun, but the kids really liked jumping off the boat while it was anchored.

We hired a nanny to help watch Blake so Tia could snorkel and play. The nanny was not going to let Blake get sunburned!

During our private island hopping tour, we also had our own private picnic lunch on a deserted island. They brought the resort accommodations and food to us!

The second day we spent time at the resort. We had fun at the beach.

Many hours were spent in the pool playing all sorts of swimming games.

We did some paddle boarding and kayaking as well.

We saw some local wildlife. This monitor lizard was very near our table during breakfast…and Matt may have tried to capture it (on several occasions).

Below one of the cottages we saw a stingray hanging out in the morning.

Walking back from breakfast, we saw a baby black tip reef shark in the shallow waters near the cottage.

While traveling to return to Manila, to remind us that we are in the Philippines, we had to walk through three boats in order to get to the dock where our van was waiting for us. Luckily no one fell in the water.

Ready to leave Tokyo with our luggage and go by train to Kyoto.

We rode the Bullet Train for nearly three hours and had a pleasant time napping, reading and watching the countryside zoom by.

And since we took the train, we got to see all of the stores that are underground near the subway and train stations. This Japanese bakery was very tasty with a wide variety.

Our driver and the van that we rode around in Kyoto.

This is the Miyazaki Anime store. Now we need to figure out what/who all the characters are that we saw.

We saw a bunch of ladies dressed in kimonos and got a photo with them. Come to find out that you can pay to wear a kimono and visit tourist places and get a discount for wearing a kimono. Plus many people ask to take a photo of you dressed up!

We saw various school students at the tourist places we were visiting. Matt decided to make them all smile and take a photo with a group of school girls.

Kiyomizu-dera Temple

It was rainy while we visited Heian Shrine, but the gardens were so lovely.

Ryoanji Temple Rock Garden has 15 big rocks, but you can’t see all 15 at the same time from any one location.

The Golden Pavilion. The bottom part is not made out of gold because nothing is perfect in life, only God. And there is always room to improve.

Lovely Kyoto.

Cherry blossoms in full bloom here at the cherry blossom tunnel.

Arashiyama Bamboo Grove is pretty amazing with hundred of bamboos all around.

Fushimi Inari Shrine has hundreds of these orange shrines in a line.

Tenryu-ji Temple is so peachful

Even Mason can sit still and meditate in Kyoto.

We all got really good at taking off our shoes before entering museums and other buildings in Japan.

All of the strange and yummy treats that we brought home from Japan.

Our first stop was to Tsukiji fish market. This market has been open since 1935, but will be moving to the other side of the river soon since the building is so old.

With over 60,000 employees at Tsukiji fish market, not many people get to ride on these trucks that they use to take the fish orders from vendor to customer. But, we got lucky and a nice man invited the kids to jump on for a photo.

We were blessed with beautiful weather while exploring Hama-Rikyu Garden.

We saw a couple of different bride/grooms while walking the Hama-Rikyu Garden. This couple were nice enough to let us take a picture with them during their photo shoot.

We came to Japan to see the Cherry Blossom Trees and we had beautiful weather for a family photo.

We took advantage of the nice weather and had bento box lunch outside with locals.

Sensoji Temple is the oldest Buddha Temple in Tokyo. It is home to a small gold Goddess of Mercy statue.

Just outside the gate of Sensoji Temple is Nakamise Shopping street which is a large souvenir shopping area.

We went to the Honda showroom and got to see the famous Honda robot: ASIMO.

Mason really liked the motorcycles at the Honda showroom.

We got to experience the Shibuya Scramble at this crazy intersection.

Our tour guide arranged a private Aikido class, which we all loved.

Blake even got in on the action of learning the proper way to fall in the Aikido class.

It was rainy and cold, but we made it to see The Great Buddha “Kamakura” which is 13.4 meters high including pedestal.

A big hit for us was making our own “Cup of Noodles”. We designed the cup, picked the seasoning and ingredients. And then got it packaged and ready to take home.

We walked around the Cup Noodles museum and learned about the history of Cup Noodles and also played at the interactive displays.

We went to the Yokohama Science Center where TeamLab had a special exhibit. Mason colored a character on paper and then had it scanned into an interactive simulation where it animates and interacts with other characters on the screen.

Last place to visit was Meiji Shrine. It is a really large forested garden area that the city has been cultivating for decades.

We had a great time in Tokyo. Especially since we had such a wonderful tour guide. Yuka made our time there great, even though it was rainy and cold two out of the three days we were there.

Mason left his jacket in the van our first day in Tokyo. Our tour guide helped us contact the van company so we could get it back. On our last day (and after paying $10 USD) we got a package that had his jacket in it. But, it was this black jacket that fits Tia, rather than his silver hooded jacket that fits him!