Update from here

I am catching up on blog posts this evening so if you don't always scroll down be sure you read down to catch the other posts I made this evening on Hong Kong and our recent visitors.
Things here are pretty normal right now.  Dannette continues to enjoy her new school.  Halie is getting more verbal every day.
We officially have booked our family leave trip! We will arrive back to Chicago on July 1st and won't return to Singapore until July 28th!  We are all really looking forward to it. Our plans are to stay at the house in Lake Bluff so that we will be centrally located to all of our friends and family. I will need to work two days a week so that I don't use up all my vacation but I think it should be fine.  With the time difference I will be able to work Sunday and Monday evenings (6pm - 2am) and then enjoy the rest of the week!
In other big news, I am excited to say that a last minute trip has been planned for me with work.  I will be leaving Saturday night around midnight to hear for........................wait for it....................................................

DUBAI until Thursday!  I am so excited as Dubai has been on my wish list of places to see for a very long time.  I should have all day Sunday to myself so I hope to get a chance to explore and hopefully take a few pictures.

Hong Kong

After our visitors left Saturday evening, it was off to Hong Kong for me on Sunday evening.  I spent two days in the main city center. Hong Kong is a bustling metropolis that is so completely different than Singapore it takes a minute to adjust.  Of course, no where is as clean as Singapore but its also far more crowded.  The skyline is amazing as you come in at night!

For those interested in a little history, Hong Kong is one of two special administrative areas (SARs) of China.  The second being Macau. Hong Kong technically only came into existence in 1997 when the transfer of sovereignty occurred from British rule.
I really would like to take the whole family back to Hong Kong to explore Disneyland Hong Kong, Ocean Park (a huge amusement park that houses the An An and Jia Jia two giant pandas!) and Macau (Las Vegas of Asia).  Hopefully we will have the opportunity over our time here.

Our first visitors!

Our first visitors have officially come and gone!
We had a great time with Dan and Anna.  After spending nearly two weeks in the Philippines they took a quick two day trip over to visit Singapore.
I think we did a decent job of giving them a feel for the city:
a tour of Orchard Rd
the local favorite dish - chicken rice

Sup-Tulang a local Indian dish recommended by Anthony Bourdain's show. Its bones served in a spicy curry sauce.  There is little food, you simply use a straw to suck the bone marrow from the bones and sop the sauce up on crusts of bread.  John and I did not try it! 

trying out some local delicacies at a hawker stand
the Night Safari at the zoo

and a trip to MacRitchie Reservoir to hike the Treetop Walk.
We all enjoyed having people come to visit.  Its nice to share our new life with people in person instead of only via the blog and skype.
Always welcoming new visitors!  If you are interested, just let us know.

First Trip of the New Year Complete - Malaysia

No pictures today, just a quick update.  I returned last night from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.  It was a busy two days of work so I never got to see anything of interest and our offices are outside of KL in a suburb state called Subang.  From what I saw Malaysia is more lush and green than Singapore which makes sense as they have far more land.  Traffic is insanely bad at peak hours as they have almost no public transport in the suburbs.  Everyone here at home did well.
Dannette seems to be enjoying her first week at the new school and is starting to get to know some of the girls.  Halie is starting to mimic a few words and has expanded beyond the frequently used "DaDa" to saying "cat".
Our weekend plans are looking to be low key.  We were supposed to have lunch with another American family that I met at work but there was a conflict in schedules so we will have to reschedule.  Heading to the zoo for a bit  today with Halie as it looks like its going to be a nice day.  Other than that not much on the schedule.
It will be a shorter 4 day week for me as I will be on leave next Friday!  So excited as Dan and Anna arrive from Manila on Thursday afternoon! I can't wait.  We plan to take them to the Night Safari so it should be a good time.
Enjoy the weekend!

Happy 1st Birthday Halie!

It's officially here, Halie has turned a year!
We celebrated in style with a small party of the four of us at home.
Originally, plans had been made for John and Dannette to go to Gymboree today with Halie to play as part of her birthday celebration but those plans fell through as Halie decided that today was not a day to nap.  In order to prevent certain meltdown, they stuck closer to home.

Dannette in her balloon mound last night after her party prep

Once I got home from work we all celebrated with a brief party complete with more balloons than Halie had ever seen in her life, noise makers, gifts and cake.  The balloons were a fun addition to the party.  Dannette had come up with the idea and went out yesterday to get them and spent all last evening blowing them up. She kept them hidden all day until I came home and when we brought Halie our of her room for the party she was able to be besieged by balloons.

Princess Halie holding court while opening her gifts

 We all were in a good mood and got in the act as well as you can see by the pics of John, the court jester photographer and the video of Dannette with the birthday cake!

A bit unconventional but Halie was so excited to see Tom on her cake!

Evolution of a 1 Year old with Cake

What a dainty bite this neat child took!

Hard to see but she has bits of cake on her forehead and in her hair.

This was just seconds before she tired of the whole cake thing and tossed it in one piece on the floor!

Birthday cake is more difficult to find here than you can imagine but I thought these mini cakes did the job for a first birthday.  It was especially cute to me as John and Halie (ok, really just John) watches Tom and Jerry on Boomerang each morning.  She immediately recognized Jerry and started pointing at him as soon as the cake got close to her.

John getting into the act as the court jester photographer.  He even fancied himself a director as he would yell "Action" and "Cut" while he videoed her birthday!

Pictures and video are far better to express the day so I am keeping this brief in order for you to all enjoy the pics.

Bali, Indonesia

We spent the week between Christmas and New Year's in Bali. It is definitely a trip that all of us took something away from and will remember.....for some of us, like Halie who is too young to remember, the only thing she took away was a bad case of "Bali Belly". Which is the Eastern Hemisphere's version of Montezuma's Revenge.
In all seriousness though, we all had a really nice time.

View from our pool out to the ocean

Bali is a beautiful island and we really liked the Indonesian people that we interacted with. After a brief 2.5 hour flight from Singapore and a 10 minute cab ride we were at our hotel, The  Discovery Kartika Plaza, a large resort on South Kuta Beach. Kuta is the main beach community of Bali due to its large amount of hotels and wide span of beaches. It is also the main area for restaurants and shopping. As it was high season the area was extremely crowded and we all could have done with a bit fewer people but none the less it was enjoyable.
Bali is very similar to any small Mexican resort town with islanders at every step looking to sell you souvenirs, jewelry or other useless tourist items.

View from breakfast during our bike trek through Ubud villages

My favorite day by far was our second full day on the island when we took a 24km (15 mile) bike tour through the inner villages and rice fields of Bali in an area called Ubud. I had researched this company as it is owned by a local man. His company comes and collects you from your hotel first thing in the morning and drives you about 90 minutes inland to a beautiful restaurant set on a hillside where you can get breathtaking views of the terraced farming and mountains in the distance.

Terraced Farming of Rice fields

Halie's Initial reaction to the bike helmet

We ate a quick local breakfast of plantain pancakes and freshly squeezed juice before being driven another 15 minutes to start the bike tour. The benefit to this company is they have bikes with baby seats and small infant helmets

Halie cheered up for a few seconds with the helmet but shortly after this we gave up and let her ride without it.

as well as air conditioned vans that follow discreetly behind in the event that you need to take a break or can no longer ride.  This came in quite handy with Halie who did not enjoy the wind in her hair as much as we thought she would. I was only able to complete the first 1/3 of the ride or so and spent the rest in the van with Halie but that was still a great way to see the villages. My favorite part was the initial portion of the ride where you get to visit a

Halie harvesting rice with the villagers

family compound. A family compound is where all family members return for holidays and important family moments.  Many of the family live there year round and are called "active members". These individuals are responsible for everything in the compound from farming, religious ceremonies, caring for the animals, housekeeping, cooking, cleaning and minding the children.  The "inactive members" are allowed to live away from the compound to earn money which is shared by all members of the compound but must still return for all holidays and important family times. Compounds house large numbers of people, some as high as 30! Everything is quite primitive but I admire their resourcefulness and complete reliance on themselves. They make only what they need and eat only what they can grow.  The family compounds are passed down from generation to generation and can never be sold.

Touring a family compound

The goats were for meat, not milk.

This compound also has chocolate and nutmeg!

We also got to go into an actual rice field and see how they harvest rice. In addition to observing them harvest rice, we all got to try it ourselves.  Dannette got an extra bonus as an elderly woman asked Dannette if she would be interested in meeting her grandson who would be needing a wife soon! We all got quite a chuckle out of that.

A village temple

Enjoying our Balinese lunch after the long ride

The ride continues through numerous villages where the children come running out to greet you and wave from the roadside.  This is something I will always remember as they were so genuinely excited to see us it felt like being in a parade.  The ride ends at the owners plantation home where his wife and several other members of the compound prepared a traditional Balinese feast for us to enjoy for lunch. The food was delicious.  We all really enjoyed this one spicy noodle dish that they made and I fell in love with these toasted soya beans covered in a thick peanuty soy sauce. Yum!

Dannette enjoying her boogie board

The rest of the trip was very low key with lots of swimming and relaxing.  Halie proves to be much like Dannette and enjoys the water.  She especially enjoyed her time in the ocean when the waves would come and crash up against her.  She didn't even seem to mind the saltwater in her face.  Dannette received a boogie board for Xmas and tried that out as well.
All in all, a very nice vacation that we all will remember.

The beach at sunset on our last night

Dinner along the water at our hotel

Dannette lounging by the pool

Proving once again that Halie makes friends wherever we go! She befriended this Cambodian family from Darwin. Turns out the father lived in the States for a few years! Luckily, unlike them we were not stuck in the airport for 5 hours!!