Soccer and End of School

Michenna enjoyed another season of soccer starting in April. This year she was on the Flaming Tigers team. Her favorite position is still goalie, but she has gotten better at defense, and at actually kicking the ball.

This posed picture reminded me of a button I had seen of Spencer as a young soccer player.

Michenna had a lot of work to do at the end of the school year. She had make a diorama of a science fiction book. She chose "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea".

Michenna also reached her Reading Counts goal and ended the year with 628 points. She earned a trophy and a reading lamp.

We are excited that the school year is over, though it feels strange to have a soon-to-be 3rd-grader. Our summer plans are not too exciting. Michenna has a weather workbook and I am going to try to learn how to garden. We may try to go to Tokyo near the end of August.

This is the best part of summer: hanging out with family at home.

Sydney continued

Wow, time has gone by so fast! It's already May and I haven't finished posting the pictures from Sydney. So we'll flash back and finish the week - giving the Reader's Digest version. :)

Tuesday was St. Patrick's Day. If Spencer had had a shirt that read "Kiss Me, I'm Irish" I think several people (not just girls, mind you) would have taken him up on the offer. We started at the Sydney Tower. Then we wandered down to Circular Quay, spent some time at the Rocks Discovery Museum, climbed up the 200 steps to Pylon Lookout, walked halfway across the Sydney Harbour Bridge, discovered that my fear of bridges over water is still there, trekked over to the Opera House, and then strolled through the Royal Botanic Gardens on our way back to our hotel. We also spent about an hour at a bookstore that we discovered; it occupied the entire 3rd floor of a shopping center!

Wednesday we took the ferry to Taronga Zoo. We spent the entire day there. We found out that Australian hamburgers taste more like meatloaf and they always put a beet slice on there. Not my favorite thing in the world, but edible. We had a family picture taken with a family of koalas.

Thursday we set out to find the Sydney Australia temple. We had to take the train to the end of the Carlingford line and then walk about 15-20 minutes. A very nice gentlemen directed us to the quickest way, and then walked and talked with us almost the entire time. I believe that God places people in our path (this time literally) to direct us. Every time we have tried to find one of the temples on our trips (Hong Kong, Manila, and Sydney) someone has been there to help us find it. After we walked around the temple, we ate lunch at a large mall. They had a Target! We were able to attend a show at the Opera House on Thursday evening: The Best of the West End. Absolutely incredible!


Friday morning we went to a park that Spencer had found online. Michenna found a little friend, a 2-year-old girl who followed Michenna everywhere. We spent some time at the Sydney Observatory - but no pictures were allowed inside. One of the young boys at the observatory just loved Michenna's accent. He would giggle (I kid you not) every time she spoke. We made our way down to Darling Harbour and played in one of the water "sculptures".

Saturday we went to the Australian Museum. I think we all really enjoyed it. Then we walked to St. Mary's cathedral and the Hyde Park Barracks Museum. We spent the afternoon back at Darling Harbour watching Under the Sea in 3D. Saturday night we ate at a fantastic French restaurant called La Guillotine.

Our first day in Sydney was crazy. We went to the Sydney Aquarium where we saw . . .

. . . Perry - Perry the Platypus. Agent P. (I thought Mom and Dad would like that.)

We also saw dugongs, which ancient mariners thought were mermaids. The dugong is on the left. The mermaid is on the right. You make the call.

Our heights compared to a dugong baby, called a pig.

Next we went to Wildlife World.

Spencer hates spiders, but he agreed to be in the picture.

Spencer and the kangaroo are looking at something . . .

I found my froggie.

The butterfly room was so beautiful. The butterflies never landed on us (though they landed on others).

After we finished at Wildlife World, we walked along Cockle Bay Wharf in Darling Harbour.

We ate a snack at the Lindt Chocolate Cafe. Mmmmmm. Then we headed to the Powerhouse Museum. I was disappointed. There were many interactive displays, but most were broken. Still, we enjoyed it.

We found a park and let Michenna run around with people her own age.

Then we walked back to our hotel. We ate dinner at Dim Tai Fung. They have the "Best Dumplings in the World" according to some food magazine that was in our room. The dumplings were outstanding.

12 Hours in the Philippines

Vibrant.

That was not the adjective I thought I would use to describe the Philippines. I’m not sure I could have put a word to it before our visit; it was mostly feelings of discomfort – because of the unknown – and fear – because of the reports of kidnapping.

We loved it! Philippine Airlines provided us a voucher for a hotel room (they called it a wash up visit) and transfers to and from the hotel.

We walked the blocks around the hotel looking for an ATM. It was bright, colorful, and noisy. Spencer said it reminded him of Bolivia. We attracted lots of attention, especially from tour guides and cab drivers.

We found a cab driver named Robert who we were very thankful for. We told him we wanted to see the temple and showed him the picture and address we had printed out. Originally we just wanted him to drop us off at the temple. He explained that the temple is in a wealthier part of town, and that it would be hard to find an unoccupied taxi. (He was correct.)

Robert took us to the temple, waited for us, and then took us the Mall of Asia. Michenna received lots of stares; one little boy actually walked into a sign because he was looking at her.

We wandered around the mall for 2 hours, covering perhaps one-fourth of it. Robert picked us up and took us back to the hotel so we could catch our transfer back to the airport.

Tomorrow: Sydney, day 1