Josh's 5th Birthday

The weekend was great! The resort wasn't too great though. But anyway, my worries about having noisy hotel room neighbors were put aside as the receptionist put us in the other wing. I found out that half of the hotel or the left wing of the hotel (10 rooms) and 6 cottages were rented out by Koreans for a good 3 months and made the resort their "English school" until March. The Philippines has become a very popular destination for ESL students as Filipinos charge a lot cheaper than if they were to study in their own country.

So anyway, back to Josh's birthday. We all woke early on Saturday as I double checked our things and made sure we did not forget anything. Jet took a look at the things and asked me if we were goiung to be gone for a week. Duh, I am OC when it gets to packing, I have to make sure that we have everything we will ever need. So I brought Dash's bumbo and car seat. Jet convinced me to leave the bouncer, sterilizer and walker -- unless I was willing to hitch a ride on a bus ao that all the things would fit. So sterilizer, walker and bouncer were left. The trip was short, about 45 minutes to an hour. My Aunt and cousin were with us too. Jet's mom and his 2 sisters rode in a separate car. We checked in at the PTA (Philippine Tourism Authority) Beach Resort. It is a public beach resort which used to be run by the PTA when it opened in 1973 (uh did I mention that this resort is also very old?!?) which is now run by the local municipality. Anyway, Imelda Marcos developed this and made it her rest house. Let me tell you, this must have been a beautiful resort when it was still new. It still is a very wide and pretty resort except that it has become so run down already. Plus, their service sucks big time. So...After checking the rooms and the hotel facilities, Jet and I agreed to bring the kids to the Water Park and then come back at night instead.

Josh had a blast. He even went on the big water slide although I'm pretty sure he got a bit shocked after riding down. Dash loved the water. We got him a lifesaver where he could sit down. Oh boy he loved it.

For dinner, Jet and I were able to buy crabs and shrimps at the local market and decided to cook it for dinner. We also got Josh a mini-cake so that he could blow his candle. It was sweet of my cousin (who also happens to be Josh's godparent) to bring her gift for Josh so before we all went to sleep. Josh opened his gift and boy was he pleased to see another Thomas train and additional tracks.

The next day, we all woke up early again and took an early morning walk along the beach. They have a lovely beach front except that it is a dirty beach front. I don't think they comb the sand at all. Plastics and beer bottles were all over the place. So we decided not to try the water. We headed back to have breakfast and then took a dip in the pool. We had lunch and then headed back home.

I can't believe I have a 5 year old now. Time sure does fly -- too fast.