We were in such a hurry to get to the Cebu airport to make our flight to Taiwan that we didn’t have time to change our clothes. We arrived at the airport with bags in hand and only swimsuits and flipflops on. We got quite a few stares and laughs as we ran our butts through the airport to catch our flight, then proceeded to freeze our butts off on the plane. To top that off, I forgot to check the weather beforehand and just assumed Taiwan was going to be as warm as the Philippines since it’s only a 2-hour flight away. When we landed in Taipei, we looked out the window and it was pouring rain and only 50 degrees. Oh, just wonderful. Everyone else had pants with warm jackets on and the stares and laughs increased 10-fold when we got off the plane and stood in the long customs line. We looked ridiculous and definitely learned our lesson to have warm clothes at the ready in our bags. But who cares, I’m just glad we made our flight!
​
We quickly changed into some warm clothes at the airport and grabbed a taxi to Roaders Hotel in the bustling Ximen district. Immediately after walking in, the boys were in heaven - the lobby was a full on arcade with basketball, fighting arcade game, air hockey, and a huge screen where they were playing Kungfu Panda movies. The best part, they had snacks and drinks that were all FREE! We let them play for a while and then all took hot showers and put on WARM CLOTHES. 

Our Philippines island hopping adventure has been unreal and we’re excited to check out the next one on our list, Cebu! We woke up at the butt crack of dawn to take a 6am ferry from Bohol to Cebu. It took about an hour and a half, but it was a scenic ride and we spotted a whale jumping out in the distance! Once we arrived at the port, we noticed there wasn't a dock the boat was pulling up to. We got about 30 feet from shore then the crew just threw out their anchor and told us to take our shoes off and start walking. I had SUPER tight jeans on, so I did my best to roll them up. After tiptoeing our way to shore we put our shoes back on and got our bags. All but me, of course. I couldn’t roll my pants back down to save my life and it was cutting off my circulation. I was literally about to ask someone for a pocket knife to cut them off. After slowly shimmying my jeans for a half hour, I finally to them rolled back down. Phew! It took about that long to get our bags off the boat so all good.
 
We hopped in the smallest trike we'd ever seen - that magically was able to fit all our luggage strapped to the roof. I’m pretty sure we tripled the weight capacity of this little trike because we could only go like 10mph max up the hills. Gradually, we slowly made our way over to another port where we took a short ferry ride to the private island we were staying the night at.
 
Once arriving at the island, we changed into our swimsuits and headed over to the gorgeous sandbar that is the main draw of this island. We swam around in the crashing waves and the soaked in the beautiful turquoise water as we waited for our room to be ready. 
 
Once we were done swimming, we stopped by the front desk to find out our room was ready and it had been upgraded to a private villa. We’ll take it! We opened the front gate of our villa and the first thing we saw was our very own plunge pool. Awww yeah! Then we noticed the gorgeous sweeping ocean views from our villa. Score! We were pretty tired at that point, so we decided to relax in the room for a bit staring out at crashing waves through the open doors. It didn't take long for the boys to get bored, so we spent about an hour playing hide and seek, finding every nook and cranny to squeeze ourselves into. 

Later that afternoon we took a gander around the island and went back to the sandbar for sunset pictures. The tide was super low so we could walk all the way out to it. We skipped about 100 rocks and snapped a few pics before heading over to the playground. Marshall and Tyson played chess on their giant outdoor chess board while Wesley and I played on the teeter totter. By that point it was dinner time so we grabbed a table at the hotel’s restaurant and had a buffet dinner that included lots of yummy desserts. 

We woke up the next morning excited for our whale shark tour! After scarfing down a delicious breakfast, we left the island on a ferry to the mainland. Our tour guide met us at the terminal and drove us over to a beach a few minutes away. There is a ticketing system to get a place in line to get on the little rowboats that take you to see the whale sharks. We were informed when we got there that they were closing the tours for the day because of the windy conditions. Our tour lady went and talked to a few people standing next to the ticketing desk and she came back with a huge smile on her face. She got them to give us the very last tickets of the day before they closed! Phew, that was close!
 
While we waited for our turn, we walked over to a nearby coffee shop to grab some drinks. Our tour guide said it could be up to a 2 hour wait, but it only took about 15 minutes. Yay! Since we were the last ticket called, we ended up getting a boat with a crew of 4 rowers all to ourselves. They rowed out about 100 feet and then told us to jump in the water. The locals were throwing chum in the water to attract the whale sharks. We didn't see anything at first and then all of a sudden a mountain of a shark came swimming right towards us. Turned out there were several swimming within a couple feet from us. Their mouths are massive! The boys couldn't believe how big they were. Such a cool experience!

The next stop on our tour was Tumalog Falls. This waterfall looked straight out of Jurassic Park! There was guy hanging out by the waterfall that calls himself the “human drone”. He basically takes videos for you and moves around really fast, making it look like a drone did it. Pretty cool, thanks dude! Next to the waterfall was a pond that had the little fish that bite the dead skin off your feet. We've seen these at 'massage parlors' before in SE Asia, so we were curious what it would be like in nature. We all sat on the edge of the pond and stuck our feet in. Tons of fish swam over and started nibbling on our toes. Such a weird feeling and the boys were surprising digging it.
 
After leaving the waterfall we had a 4-hour drive ahead of us to Cebu City. Yaaay...NOT! We were already hungry, so to hold us over, we stopped at a good ol’ 7Eleven to grab a few snacks for the road. We made the most of the ride and just sat back and enjoyed the scenery as we drove through several small towns along the way. 

Around 5pm, we arrived at JPark Resort which is a huge resort with several restaurants and a waterpark. Unfortunately, we got there about an hour before the water slides closed. To top it off, the reservation I'd made months ago didn't get into their system, so the front desk had to completely rebook us. Luckily, there was a room for us and the boys happened to already have their swimsuits on so we quickly walked over to the slides to get a few runs in before they closed. The boys only got about 30 minutes on the slides, but all good, we had the majority of the day the next day to hang by the pool and beach before our flight out of Cebu.
 
Once we got cleaned up for dinner, we headed over to the Chinese restaurant next to the pool. We noticed outside the window that there was a cultural performance happening, so we ran out to enjoy the show while we were waiting for our food. There were singers, dancers and fire throwers performing next to the pool. So cool! 

​The following morning, we started our day with the biggest buffet breakfast we’ve ever seen with all kinds of international foods. Once we were stuffed, we set out to explore the rest of the hotel. We found the arcade which had a couple bowling lanes, air hockey and dart boards. So, of course, we had to play all those until the pool opened.
 
Right before the pool opened, we ran up to the room to change into our swimsuits. I figured that would be a good time to check into our flight that was leaving at 3pm. As I’m doing our online check in, it says our flight is leaving at 10:50am! What??? That can't be! I checked again, and sure enough they'd changed our flight on us without any notification to me (or at least that I saw). I looked at the current time and it was 9:20am. Our flight leaves in an hour and a half and the airport is nearly 30 mins away!! We scrambled to get our suitcases packed up and ran out the door. We asked our taxi driver to put the pedal to the metal! 
 
As we got closer to the airport, our driver turned off to a side road and asked us if we had 100 pesos. We weren’t sure why, but we handed it to him and then he handed it to an airport security officer at a side gate. Apparently, you can bribe the security officer to let you take the shortcut road through the back of the airport. Sweet! We got to the airport with one hour until our flight left and luckily were able to make it to our flight on time and even had time to grab a coffee. Phew, that was a close call! Well, the boys didn't end up getting to go on the slides much, but hey, at least we didn't miss our flight!
 
Cebu, Philippines has a lot to offer and wished we could have explored more but it’s time for us to head to our last stop on our trip.
 
Next stop: Taipei, Taiwan

After seeing a ton of beautiful islands and beaches, we continued our Philippines adventure over to another gorgeous island, called Bohol, known for its unusual geological formations. After a quick one-hour flight from El Nido, Palawan, we arrived to the island and made our way to our hotel, Amorita Resort, that is located on Alona Beach. We were welcomed with a great support staff who grabbed our bags, gave us a wet hand towel to freshen up, and handed us some tasty lemongrass juice. We sipped our juice while soaking in the ocean views and worked up an appetite for lunch. Our room wasn’t quite ready yet so we enjoyed a tasty lunch at their oceanside restaurant.
 
It was so warm out, we were all eager to get in the water! Their shallow infinity pool was the perfect place to cool off and soak in the gorgeous views. Oh and this pool was also perfect for a game of pool tag! We played tag and Marco Polo until we felt we sufficiently annoyed the people trying to relax by the pool and all agreed everyone was officially 'It'.

Later that evening we walked along Alona beach, which is lined with upscale hotels and local seafood restaurants. We passed a local guy sitting on a rock with a huge bucket full of sea urchins. He started knocking the side of the sea urchins with a spoon to split them in half then pulled out all the muck and poured the 'meat' of the urchin in a little plastic dixie cup. It took him a few minutes, but after he put around 10 urchins in the cup, a guy standing there waiting picked up the cup and gave him some cash, then proceeded to DRINK THE THING RAW RIGHT THERE!! He tried to offer some to his wife, but she refused to try it ( I don’t blame her!). We asked how it tasted and he said 'uh, pretty unique'. Yeah dude, you're eating the oceans boogers, good luck with that!
 
We had something a little more delicious in mind. Didn't take long for the boys to spot an ice cream shop. Except this one had some super unique flavors we'd never seen before and we all decided to try one we'd never had before. The flavors we landed on were durian (a fruit with such a potent smell that it’s banned in a lot of hotels), mango, ube and charcoal. Unusual, yet all were super tasty!
 
We dropped the boys off at the room to take showers and ordered them room service for dinner. Once they were settled and ready to relax with a movie, Marshall and I went back to the beach to people watch and grab a bite before hitting the hay. It was a bit more hoppin this time and we decided to follow the flow of people down a random side alley. We heard music and saw a big crowd so we knew something cool was happening. As we got closer, we saw about a half dozen performers throwing fire sticks around. So cool that we got to unexpectedly catch a free fire show!
 
We continued zigzagging around the town and came to a cocktail bar called Bamboo Place. We stopped in for a quick cocktail, but we were pretty tired so we decided to start heading back. Along the beach were a few more street performers that used their fire skills to throw fireballs around people’s heads for a cool video. I mean, I personally wouldn’t risk my hair going ablaze for a video but there were lots of other people perfectly fine taking that risk apparently.

The following morning we had booked an archery lesson at our resort. They had legit bows that we had never used before. It took a few shots for us all the get the hang of it but after a while the boys were shooting bullseyes. Nice job boys!
 
I was, of course, craving a blended coffee drink and we found a short walk away a little place called Bo’s Coffee, basically their version of Starbucks. I must say, their fraps are much better than Starbucks!
 
We spent some time at the beach and pool before packing up our suitcases and picking up our rental car. We kind of left in a hurry, so unfortunately, I left my favorite shorts and a tank top there. I guess that just means I get to go shopping for new clothes. Not so bad!

There was a local bee farm nearby that has an open-air restaurant serving all fresh organic ingredients. Perfect place to stop for lunch! We had spicy mango pizza and an organic salad with edible flowers while enjoying a nice cliffside beach view. The pizza was amazing and we slipped in a little more ice cream before we jumped back in the car to get to our next destination!

We drove nearly an hour through the countryside to our next hotel, Loboc River Resort. It’s an eco-friendly resort along the river with incredible jungle vibes. They offer all kinds of activities like paddle boarding, kayaking, monkey feeding and firefly watching boat tours. Fireflies, whaaaat!? We have to do that! Before we decided what adventurous things we'd do while we were there, we dropped our bags in our room and headed for the pool (of course). The boys had just enough time to cool off before the monkey feeding started. We walked over to "Monkey Island" and watched the guide feed the monkeys bread and various fruits. It was fun watching the monkeys swing from a tree on one side of the river to a tree on the other which looked totally impossible. After the monkey feeding, the guide walked us around the property to feed the ducks and rabbits as well. Last, they brought over a massive water buffalo that they let the kids sit on for a fun picture. So cool!
 
Later that evening we enjoyed a lovely dinner at our hotel’s restaurant overlooking the river. It was fun having all the wildlife sounds serenade us during dinner. Turns out they also have the best Carbonara pasta in the WORLD. Marshall and Wesley proceeded to choose that for every meal for the next few days. Oh well, 'When in Rome', amiright?

We all had a good night’s sleep before what we knew would be a full day of adventure ahead of us. About an hour drive from our hotel is the Chocolate Hills that is famous for its rolling hills landscape. We pulled into Chocolate Hills Adventure Park excited to try some of the thrilling activities we saw on their website. When we got to the front desk we were informed by a not so friendly staff member that only 3 of the 10+ activities on their website were available. Seriously, why are they even open? Luckily, the main attraction we wanted to do biking along a zip line was available. However, their website showed two tandem bikes going at the same time where all four of us could be in a picture together. But nope, they only offered one person bikes and you could only go one at I time. I gave them a little rant letting them know it’s not cool to false advertise on their website. On top of that nonsense, they also had a sign that you couldn’t have asthma, back issues or be menstruating, specifically because they didn’t want any red stains on their harnesses, lol. I mean who’s actually going to admit such thing and then just turn around and go home?
 
To get to the bike zipline, we walked up 260 stairs to get to a platform with sweeping views of the Chocolate Hills. It's basically a tight rope suspended 250 feet off the ground that you pedal across. I know, we do some crazy stuff! We geared up with safety harnesses and the guide said Wesley had to go first because the smallest bike just happened to be closest to the zipline at the time. Wesley didn’t hesitate and hopped right on! As he was about halfway across, a big gust of wind blew through the hills. I was a little nervous for him, but he champed it up. It was Tyson’s turn next. He was a little nervous but Wesley game him advice to "not look down and just look straight ahead and smile the whole time", lol. Marshall went next and rode there and back like it was nothing - he said he was a little scared too though. I went last and was absolutely terrified!! I gripped the bike handlebars for dear life and felt like I was going to fall off the whole time. I just pedaled as fast as I could to get to the other side as quickly as possible. Although it was scary, we all agreed it was a really unique and cool experience. We were so proud of the boys for doing something so adventurous and out of their comfort zone. Super cool dudes!

The adventure park also had zip line surfing which I had never seen before. The boys couldn’t do it because you had to be 100lbs. But somebody had to try it! Marshall said it was all me, so I hiked up a long trail to get over to the platform. Right before I got there, I saw a giant spider that was as big as my fist. I cringed as I had to walk under its huge web to get to the platform. The guide clipped me in, slipped my feet into the slots on the surfboard and away I went. So awesome surfing the sky while gazing out at the chocolate hills in the background!

Down the street was an ATV tour company. Since the day was still young, we figured we’d go see if we could get on a tour right away. We only had to wait about 15 minutes and then off we went with a private tour guide. Sweet! We rode in the two person buggies, Tyson with Marshall and Wesley with me. The guide led us along the bumpy dirt trail through the hills and splashing through mud puddles while taking videos of us as we went. Somehow mud got on the butt crack of my shorts but nowhere else….not sure how that’s even possible. Great, now everyone’s going to think I pooped myself.
 
We arrived at a viewing platform which required us to walk up a couple hundred stairs. Man, we’re really getting our steps in today! Once at the top, each group’s tour guide was taking their photos. We had to wait quite a while as the group of six in front of us took pictures of every possible group and individual pose like they were having their own private photo shoot. When it was finally our turn our guide had us do various poses, one of which was jumping up on a broomstick to look like you’re flying in the sky. Haha!
 
Tyson ended up driving the ATV all the way back. He drove like he'd been driving for years. Guess some value comes from those racing video games!

Once the tour ended, we were all ready to go back to the hotel and relax by the pool. As soon as we got back, the boys ordered some chocolate banana shakes to sip poolside. Yum! As Tyson was sipping his drink, he glances around the pool and casually says “why is the pool infested with old people?” Then he makes up his own military chant ‘I don’t know but I’ve been told....people in the pool are super old.’ I nearly died laughing! 
 
Next to the pool is a volleyball court so we took a break from swimming to play some volleyball. The boys kept hitting the ball over by the pool nearly hitting some old folks trying to relax on their lounge chairs. We figured we should probably stop playing before we knock someone over and break a hip.
 
Later that evening we were excited for our boat tour to go firefly watching! Marshall grew up seeing them in the forests in Texas, but the boys and I had never seen a firefly before so were super excited. We cruised up to a tree along the river that was filled with hundred of fireflies and they were all flashing in sync. We didn't expect to see so many in such a small area. It truly was magical! A few would fly down to the boat and the boys actually caught a couple that had flown down and landed on them. So cool!

The next morning, we woke up and decided to start our morning with a paddle boarding tour down the Loboc River. Our guide was a local and had grown up fishing that same river. We enjoyed his stories giving us insight on the local Philippine culture and was asking us about life in the US as we paddled along. 

By the time we got back it was nearly time to check out of our hotel and continue our journey to the next place. We really enjoyed that area so we were bummed to leave but looked forward to see what was next. Along the long drive we stopped at a Tarsier Sanctuary. Tarsiers are little gremlin looking creatures about the size of an avocado. It was really cool to see them in person and in the 'wild' hanging out in the trees.
 
The next stop was Hinagdanan Cave. We climbed down a steep set of stairs trying not to hit our head on the low cave ceiling above. Once inside the cave, there is a huge natural pool you can swim in. The boys weren’t feeling like swimming so we just explored inside the cave. There were several souvenir shops out in throng of the cave that we strolled through afterwards. The boys all got a T-shirt and some sliced mangoes.

We continued driving toward our next hotel, passing through residential down random dirt roads making our way to the beach that our hotel was on. We parked the car and walked around trying to find it. We walked by what we thought was our hotel. It was so dingy with rust all around the outside and the pool water was poopy brown. It reminded me of me of somewhere the Grizwold’s would have stayed on the movie National Lampoon’s Vacation. There were some local fishermen all giving us the stink eye, not helping at all, so we decided to cut our loss and find a different hotel to stay the night at. This time with clear pool water at a minimum. I quickly researched hotels nearby as we drove around and booked a room at BE Grand Resort.
 
As soon as we checked in, they informed us that the water would be shut off between 5-8pm. Oh just lovely! But they said there would be an apology snack waiting in our room. No snack was there and just a foul smell instead. We quickly left the room to explore the rest of the hotel which ended up being really cool. There was a fun bungee trampoline by the beach that the boys enjoyed flipping around on. We then checked out their game room to play pool and table tennis before making our way to their beach front restaurant called Monkey Bar. We sat at a table facing the ocean that seat cushions on the ground instead of chairs. We had smoked chicken and brisket which was amazing! 
 
Shortly after we got back to our room, the water was turned back on, but we ran it for nearly an hour and it was brown the whole time. Ewwww!  Looks like we’ll be skipping showers and brushing our teeth with bottled water. Although this hotel was not the best experience, it was definitely better than the run down one that we ditched, lol.

​Bohol was quite the adventure, and we'd highly recommend it. As for our next stop, we were excited to check out yet another island in the Philippines!
 
Next stop: Cebu, Philippines

After an overnight layover in Manila, we hopped on a quick one-hour flight to El Nido on the island of Palawan in the Philippines. As we stepped out of the airport, we saw a line of trikes waiting to transport people to their hotels.  These trikes are basically motorcycles with big sidecar attachments and is the main source of transportation here. They were probably built to hold 1-2 people, but we’d come to find out they can hold MANY more (not so comfortably). We hired two trikes to take us and all our luggage on a bumpy ride to Cadlao Resort, a boutique beachfront property that faces the beautiful Cadlao Island.
 
The resort was stunning! This place has 37 Filipino style beach bungalow rooms and the most amazing ocean views.  As we waited for our room to be ready, we enjoyed a fresh fruit welcome drink and some tasty lunch at their oceanside restaurant. By the time we were done eating, our room was ready. We followed the receptionist down a zigzagged stone pathway to our very own bungalow. It had two separate bedrooms that faced the pool and a connecting bathroom in the middle. Perfect setup for families!

We all changed into our swimsuits and headed straight to the pool. The hotel has three of them, including an infinity pool with an amazing backdrop of the nearby islands. Absolutely breathtaking! After relaxing at the pool for a bit, we were eager to explore the town and grab dinner. We had a trike from the hotel drop us off at the edge of town then we strolled along the beach in search of a fun dinner spot. A restaurant we walked past had a live DJ playing some bumpin’ beats and had a great ocean view. Sold! We ordered a variety of small plates to share, all of which were delicious. The boys had a coconut water, straight out of a freshly cut coconut. They were really excited to try this, surprisingly for the first time. They didn’t like it to say the least, lol. Oh well, worth a try.

After finishing dinner and seat dancing to the jams, we walked back along a winding half-paved road  through some sketchy areas back to our hotel, stopping by a few little shops along the way to grab snacks for our boat tour the next day. They didn’t have any good options for food and we knew we were going to be on the boat ALL DAY. We ended up settling on their version of Ritz crackers, some pringles, and little sweet bananas we bought from a sweet old lady on the side of the road. We got to our hotel just in time for me to get a heavenly massage. Although they got a little too close to my butt crack for comfort, I still enjoyed every minute of it! Massages are dirt cheap here - only $20 for 75 minutes!

The following morning we had a full day boat tour planned which is the number one thing to do in El Nido. We realized we had to pay in cash and didn’t have Philippine pesos. We tried to explain this to our tour guide who spoke broken English, and he proceeded to walk us about a mile to the other part of town where the only open bank was located so we could convert some US dollars to pesos. Apparently, most places here don’t accept credit cards which is unfortunate because (of course) this is the moment we realized it’s the one and only time we’d forgotten our debit card at home and didn’t bring nearly enough cash with us for the rest of the trip. Ooops! We’re gonna need to get creative to figure out how to get more cash. We mentioned to the boys maybe they could put on a song and dance performance and put out their hat for tips….only to be met with rolled eyes and a grunt.
 
Once we converted our final little bit of USD into pesos and settling our bill, we were ready to board our boat along with our 3-man crew and head out on our private tour of some nearby islands. So excited! Let’s do this thang!! Our first stop was the big lagoon which is an absolute must-see! A local guy brought over two kayaks to our boat for us to hop on. Marshall and I shared one and our tour guide paddled the boys on the other. We paddled through the bright turquoise waters surrounded by massive and super sharp limestone cliffs on either side. The guide also led us through narrow cave tunnels and gorgeous lagoons while also being our personal photographer. What a guy!

​The next morning we took a trike to Corong Corong beach to enjoy some coffee at the Lazy Hammock Cafe. They have hammocks hanging from the ceiling everywhere. Such a cool spot to swing around while sipping coffee!
 
We walked along the beach and checked out a few clothing and souvenir shops before the boys spotted a small arcade that they had to check out. We exchanged a couple dollars worth of pesos for a bunch of tokens and then realized half the games weren’t working. Maybe the maintenance guy went on strike? All good, they still had fun for about half an hour. For a couple bucks, not bad!

Once we got back to our hotel, we ordered lunch poolside and spent a few hours playing in the pool. There was nobody else at the pool so the boys could do as many canon bombs as they wanted without annoying anyone. Perfect!

The boys were craving some ice cream to cool down from the heat so we strolled into town and stopped at the first ice cream shop we stumbled upon. It was so warm out, it was hard for them to finish their ice cream before it melted all over them. Luckily I was right beside them with a spoon to help them out!

Later that evening Marshall and I enjoyed a date night in the town right near our hotel while the boys enjoyed free time in the room. We got them settled with dinner and made sure they could call us from their iPads before hitting the town. As we were roaming the streets looking for a place to grab dinner, we stumbled upon a huge street food market. They were grilling all kinds of fresh meat including various local fish, squid, and even live lobsters. We weren’t super hungry so we just grabbed some fried rice and pancit noodles to share from a small restaurant. I realized after we left the restaurant that my phone was nowhere to be found. You’ve got to be kidding me! I panicked about the idea of not having a phone for the rest of the trip. We retraced our steps and eventually found it at a restaurant we had walked into earlier. Thank God!
 
Earlier in the day a local had recommended we check out Pangolin Cocktail Bar which had a live DJ that evening. We walked up a steep staircase to enter the bar and grabbed a corner window spot that overlooks the town. Looking down at the street reminded me of Bourbon Street, minus the beads and the weirdos, lol. This place was hoppin’ and had the best cocktails we’ve found so far on our trip! And low and behold, the DJ they had was the SAME DJ from the restaurant the other night. Guess he was the only DJ on the island or something? We didn’t mind, he played great music and kept the place bumpin’. We wished we could have stayed longer but needed to get back to the boys at a reasonable time.

The following morning we were on a mission to figure out how to get cash for the rest of the trip. We had tried everything and was about to ask a random person at our hotel if we could pay for their room and they give us the cash (which would have been EXTREMELY awkward). Then Marshall happened to find a Cash App card in his wallet that said ‘Visa Debit Card’ on the back. We got creative and reached out to one of Marshall’s friends and my brother to send us some funds on CashApp. After a few hours of trying to figure that out and convincing them we weren’t scammers, we were finally able to get the funds transferred and head to an ATM to try to withdraw cash. Thank God their ATMs accept Cash App cards and we were able to get some cash! Tip for anyone traveling to the Philippines – bring plenty of cash along with a debit card in case you need more!

We’ve been talking about taking the boys to Asia for a while and decided this was the year to go! I lived in Tokyo for a couple years when I was around the boys age and couldn’t wait to experience it with them. February is a great month to get out of the rainy Pacific Northwest, so we took full advantage of the boys’ mid-winter break from school (plus a week for good measure). We started this epic journey with a 10-hour direct flight to our first stop in Tokyo, Japan.
 
Tokyo is 17 hours ahead of us so we arrived at 10pm Seattle time but it was 3pm the next day in Tokyo. Pretty fun explaining to kids how you can travel into the future. We headed over to Nikko Narita Hotel near the airport and checked into our room thinking we’d just want to crash. The room had four separate beds so we each get our own to spread out and get a good night sleep. Of course, the boys jumped on the beds and Wesley was the first to call the bed closest to the TV, lol. There were also two bathrooms which had bidets. Pretty nice for a layover hotel!
 
Even after the ~14 hour process of getting to Tokyo, we still had a little bit of juice left in us and were itching to go check out downtown Narita. The hotel had a free shuttle to downtown, so we hopped on to go peek in a few local shops. It was fun looking at all the various Japanese trinkets for sale. It wasn’t too long before we decided to stop in a small restaurant called Ramen Bayashi for some authentic ramen. It was definitely a popular stop for international travelers and had a lot of pictures of people from around the world on the walls. The spicy ramen was amazing and Marshall said the gyozas were the best he’d ever had! We were so exhausted by that point, we took a shuttle back to our hotel and zonked out around 7pm.

Of course, getting to bed so early meant the next morning we all woke up by 4am. Acclimating to the 17-hour time difference was definitely going to take a few days. Luckily the hotel opened its breakfast buffet at 5:30am for us jet leggers. They had a huge buffet with traditional Japanese foods like rice porridge, seaweed, soba noodles, etc. We found a table next to the windows and they had a massive light display we got to watch twinkle while we ate and talked about the day ahead of us. Mid conversation, I cracked what I thought was a hard-boiled egg and squeezed it open…. Only to learn it was a runny soft-boiled egg and it exploded all over me. The boys had a good laugh and I ran to the bathroom to clean myself up before we took off to explore Tokyo.
 
We had stayed at a hotel close to the airport that night and needed to get closer to downtown where all the action was, so we grabbed an Uber and headed to our next hotel in the city called Tokyo Bay Shiomi Prince Hotel.  We were about 7 hours too early to check in, so we dropped our bags at the front and walked down the street to the train station. The train system is amazing and can get you pretty much anywhere in Tokyo.
 
Even though I’d ridden on these a thousand times, It took us a minute to figure out how to get train tickets and put it through the machine. Wesley went through the ticket machine first and didn’t know he had to grab his ticket after the machine sucked it through and spit it at on the other side of the gate. The ticket quickly went back into the machine so we had to find an attendant to get our ticket out for us. Ooops, won’t make that mistake again!
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I remember taking 3 different trains with my sister to and from school every day when we lived there. The trains get so packed at peak times, there are attendants standing at the doors helping to cram people in like sardines. Luckily this train ride was pretty empty so the boys had enough space to do pull ups on the handles hanging from the ceiling, lol.
 
We took several trains to get the historic district of Asakusa. A short walk from the train station is Nakamise shopping street which is famous for it’s authentic Japanese street food and souvenir shops. We gave both kids 5000 Yen (about $35 USD) in spending money and spent the next few hours walking around the shops looking for the perfect souvenir to bring home. Tyson found a “Tokyo” sweatshirt and Wesley found a Son Goku blue toy, a character he likes in Fortnite. He also bought a new stuffy to add to his giant collection at home.

While strolling around, the boys noticed a pet café with dogs and cats inside, so they ran in to get a closer look. It took them about two minutes to come out with names of two puppies they HAD to bring home with them, Slider and George. But of course, we couldn’t take them home with us…we don’t speak Doganese!

Nakamise street leads to the ancient Buddhist temple, of Senso-ji. In front of the temple is a water well where you can pour the holy water over your hands. There is also a fortune station where you donate 100 Yen and pull out a stick from a container that has a number on it. You then look for a box with that number and open the drawer to pull out your fortune. Tyson opened his box first and pulled out a “bad fortune lack”. Say WHAT, how do those even exist?!! We had a good laugh reading it, then putting it on a special rack they had for ‘bad’ fortunes to refresh your fortune (I guess)…We let him pull another stick to get a better one which ended up being called the “best fortune”. Can’t get better than that! For Wesley’s turn, he pulled out “excellent fortune” and enjoyed reading all about the good fortune coming his way.

We checked out the temple for a bit before popping into a ramen restaurant down a little side street to grab lunch. I swear there’s a ramen street on every corner here just like there are Starbuck’s in Seattle. They all have different tasting broths but the ones we’ve tried so far have all been very tasty. We tried a little Sake too, but it wasn’t really my thang.

After a good lunch, we were on the search for a delicious treat. There were endless amounts of yummy choices around here. The boys scoped out all the options and both landed on a chocolate marshmallow waffle on a stick while Marshall and I tried little pastry puffs dipped in custard. Heavenly!

I’d reserved us a Ninja training class for a bit later in the day and we still had a couple more hours to kill, so we decided to check out the Samurai museum for a guided tour of the history of samurai’s. That ended up being a fun surprise. We got to see lots of swords and some fancy armor from over the centuries. We even got to put on some (pretend) samurai armor for a photo shoot!

A short walk away was the Ninja Cafe. The instructor handed us our black ninja outfits to put on over our clothes and we each got to select a special Ninja drink to have before our training began. The boys chose Ginger Ale and Marshall and I tried the Ninja cocktail, but they all came out pitch BLACK. I guess they added some black dye to them to make them extra…Ninja-y. Not my fav, but the boys enjoyed them as we started our training.
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The first thing we learned was the proper techniques for using samurai swords. She taught us how to properly hold the sword in our belt, pull it out safely, then do a few swipes to take down our opponent, wipe off the blood and get the sword back in the sheaf.
 
We then moved on to ninja star throwing at targets they set up on a wall about 15 feet away. The boys did great and were able to get several stars to stick on the target board. The last skill we learned was blow darts. That was the most fun of all! We started up close to the target board and eventually moved all the way back into their bathroom to blow darts from their golden toilet, lol.

By the time we were all Master Ninja Assassins, it was time to head to our dinner reservation at R Restaurant which is located at the top of a hotel with a great view of the Tokyo Sky Tower. It seems to be a rarity for restaurants to serve cocktails in Tokyo. Most places we encountered only served beer or sake, so it was nice to find a place that had tasty drinks to enjoy with my meal. The food was great and we enjoyed the cocktails as the sun went down over downtown Tokyo. 

The following morning we hopped on a train heading to Harijuku. We looked around us and realized Tyson, Wesley and Marshall were the only boys on the train. We felt like everyone was staring at us for the first few stops, then we noticed a sign (lots of them actually) saying that the cabin we were in was for women only. Oops, sorry ladies!
 
Near our stop, Harijuku station, is a long trail that leads to the Meiji Jingu temple. We decided to go on a stroll to see it before we went to a surprise that I had in store for the boys that opened in an hour or so. When we got to the temple, we noticed some people going up to an area and praying then clapping and bowing. We walked over there when nobody was there and noticed a sign that said to throw in a token into a box, bow, clap twice, then bow again. What the heck, we can use all the good fortune we can get! To the side of the temple, we saw a wishing tree where you write down a wish and put it in an envelope with an offering and then place inside a box. Tyson wished to have a fun day and Wesley just wrote down his name and put that in, lol.

About a mile walk from the temple is Harijuku street that is known for its vintage shops. Sandwiched between a couple shops was my cool surprise, Cafe Reissue that that does elaborate 2D and 3D coffee art! They mold the foam into the characters and then paint on the custom pictures onto the foam. We grabbed a table and ordered our custom drinks. Tyson ordered an iced chocolate milk and asked for it to have a dog he’d seen in one of the pet cafes. Wesley ordered hot chocolate with that Goku character he got as a figurine, Marshall ordered an iced mocha with Kirby (they couldn’t do King Kong in 3D) and I ordered an ice caramel latte with a panda bear. So cute and tasty!

We checked out dozens of vintage stores and I found myself a sheer jacket with pictures of various 90s models all over it. Super unique! Down the road is another shopping street called Takeshita that has trendy street fashion stores and sweets galore. Tyson got a giant rainbow cotton candy that was like 3 times the size of his head. He offered us each a small bite and then proceeded to eat the rest of it while we walked around. Meanwhile, Wesley found a crepe in a cone filled with bananas, strawberries, and a small slice of chocolate cake. They seriously have the best treats here! Don’t come to Japan to count calories!

Along Takeshita street there are also several pet cafes, some with the standard dogs or cats that you’d expect to see and some with more interesting creatures such as micro pigs or hedgehogs. The boys thought the hedgehogs would be the most fun to play with, so we stopped in to check it out. The hedgehogs were tiny and so cute. The boys got to hold them and feed them snacks. They also had hamsters and yellow lizards that the boys hold. Lots of fun!

We continued our stroll and eventually made our way to Shibuya and crossed the famous all-way intersection. I swear there were over a thousand people crossing the road at once at each light. We walked for a bit and got lost looking for Tsukada Nojo Shibuya Miyamasuzaka, the restaurant we had dinner reservations at. We eventually found this tiny place down a side alley. It had a great vibe with lots of lively young locals. I ordered the grilled chicken dish (surprise, surprise). When it came out, it looked suspiciously gray on the outside. Marshall offered to taste test it to make sure it was edible. After swallowing his bite, he looked in the middle of the chicken to see that it was completely raw inside and just barely seared on the outside. So GROSS! I’m pretty sure I just became a vegetarian (considering the only meat I eat is chicken)! 

After our “interesting” meal, we rode the train to Shinjuku. The people were packed in like sardines. This was exactly how I remembered the trains when I lived here as a kid. We went on a mission to go find the giant Godzilla head popping out of the top of a hotel. After zigzagging down several different streets, we finally found it. The boys were in awe of how huge it was…although you can barely spot it in the picture we took, lol. We stumbled upon an arcade and the boys played a dance game and a few claw games before we headed home to get some shut eye.

The following morning was our last day in Tokyo. Unfortunately, it was chilly and rainy so we modified our plans a bit. We heard the Tsukiji fish market was a must-do and headed straight there. They had all kinds of interesting fresh seafood including squid, eel and sea urchins. Wesley ordered a flat squid cracker that they cooked right in front of us. He said he liked the first few bites and then said it started to taste weird, lol. That’s ok, we also stumbled upon a sweets stand selling various flavors of mochi filled with strawberries and custard. So bomb!

It was time for fun and games at Joypolis, an indoor theme park. Tyson, Wesley and I went straight to the upside-down roller coaster that was also a game. Wesley whooped us! The boys went on a few more rides together while Marshall and I found a table in the café to chill at. Tyson really wanted to do an attraction called Murder Lodge before we headed out. Marshall decided to go with the boys in case it was super scary. They walked into a pitch-black room and heard creepy noises, Japanese people screaming at each other (saying who knows what!), and even gun shot sounds with air sprayed at them. They said it was terrifying but kinda cool at the same time! 

​We had so much fun in Tokyo but we’re excited for the next leg of our trip.

Next stop: El Nido, Philippines

Every November we visit Marshall’s parents in Florida to celebrate "Thanksmas" (Thanksgiving and Christmas) and soak up some sun while it’s gloomy in Seattle. There are so many amazing places within just a 2-3 hour flight from Florida, so we always try to visit a new country while we're out there. This year we decided to tack on a trip to Honduras! After a quick 2-hour direct flight from Miami, we landed on the beautiful island of Roatán, Honduras. We picked up our tiny little rental car, shoved all our suitcases in and headed to the north side of the island to our eco-friendly hotel, called Tranquilseas.
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The hotel has 9 themed bungalows and we were in the biggest one overlooking the pool and beach, called the Octopus room. There were two separate bedrooms for us and the boys and an even bigger luxury, two bathrooms!! Plenty of space for us to spread out! We dropped our bags in the room and then the manager gave us a little tour of the hotel and reminded us not to drink the water and to wear bug spray. The first thing the boys noticed were the many cats roaming around. Cats aren’t spayed quick enough in Roatan so they keep multiplying in the jungle and just freely roam around the island. There were three cats that always hung around our hotel and the boys named them Jeremy, George and George Junior.

After getting their fill of cats, the boys quickly found the pool and wanted to go for a swim. They dipped their toes in and said it was like 50 degrees and 'freezing', lol. Marshall pushed the boys in the pool and jumped in himself. I guess that’s one way to quickly get used to the water! The boys found some pool noodles and started playing noodle battles, quickly forgetting about how 'freezing' the water was.
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Once the boys got out and dried off, we walked down the hotel’s giant dock and found 3 big wooden swings overlooking the ocean. We swung for a while soaking in the gorgeous view. It was nearly sunset and we thought it would be fun to take paddle boards out and watch the sunset. Tyson and I paddled together on one and Marshall and Wesley paddled together on another. The water was so calm and crystal clear. Never experienced a sunset over the ocean on paddleboards, but definitely want to experience that again!

​Later that evening we enjoyed dinner at our hotel’s restaurant that overlooks the ocean. We all had various pasta dishes that were all very flavorful. Wesley made Marshall order the seafood pasta that came with all the seafood from the island and proceeded to eat all of it. Marshall got to enjoy the plain cheeseburger from the kids menu that Wesley ordered. Oh boy!

The following morning we ordered fresh fruit smoothies and a royal breakfast that big enough for us all to share. It came with pancakes, waffles, banana Nutella crepes and fresh fruit. The boys were in heaven!

When we went back to the room, I took a hot shower and then realized there was no blow drier. For real? Not again! I looked in every crevice of the room and it was nowhere to be found. Marshall even walked to the front desk to see if they had one, but it was closed. I had an important board meeting that I had to be on camera for and couldn’t show up with a wet bun. Looks like we’re going on a mission to find a blow drier! Of course, we had to stop at Bad Ass Coffee first to grab a frappe to sip on our mission, lol. We then drove to the main town and everyone looked at me like I was crazy asking if they had a blow dryer. It seemed like they had no idea what I was talking about...does nobody dry their hair on this island?! While I was in one of the stores, an expat said the only place I might find one is a grocery store like 15 mins away. We had about 45 minutes before I had to be on a call. Plenty of time! Oh, except a CRUISE SHIP had just docked and there was a massive deadlock of traffic on the only road to/from the town. We sat patiently for 30 mins in stopped traffic, then when the road opened up, we sped over to the store and found the last (and probably only) blow drier on the entire island. Phew, thank God I won’t look like a disaster on my call!

​We made it back in time and while I was on the phone, Marshall ordered lunch for us. He tried to order Tyson a plain hamburger, but there was a bit of a language barrier and the server kept giving him a weird look when he was trying to order it. When he read the order back to him, he said 'plain burger with ham'. It took a few times trying to explain it before he finally pulled out his phone and showed him what a hamburger is...not HAM. Tyson had a good laugh about that.
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After lunch we drove over to West Bay where all the upscale resorts are and peeked in a few shops. As we continued driving, we came across a building that looked like a little lighthouse. The top level was a shop who welcomed us in then tried his hardest to charge us a $2 per person fee to go up the stairs to take a picture. We smiled and said no thanks. Instead, we walked down to the lower level which was a cafe and grabbed a drink while enjoying the free view. Wesley enjoyed some coffee flavored ice cream while Tyson held off for a different dessert option later - 'saving his sugar for the day'. Our waiter asked if he could take a picture of us to use for their social media. The boys were excited that we were going to be famous!

We continued our journey and headed to West End which is the main town on the island. As we were strolling around the town, Tyson found a gelato shop and ordered a scoop of chocolate gelato. Yum! Dont mind if I try a bite or three

After a short while at West End, we were ready to head back to the hotel and go swimming in the ocean. The boys were surprised that the ocean water was actually warmer than the pool. And the water was so clear you could see all the way to the bottom. There was a lot of seagrass at the bottom and one of the scuba diving instructors said to be careful not to step on a sea urchin, so the boys didn't want to go near it. There was plenty of sandy beach area though and they enjoyed swimming around and asking Marshall to throw them up in the air and splash in.
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Before heading to bed that evening we enjoyed dinner once again at our hotel’s restaurant….along with the three cats that hung around us.

After another royal breakfast (kids wouldn't order anything else for breakfast) we went for a morning stroll along the beach to burn off that super sweet feast. It was very quiet along the beach. This time of year is their slow season because it’s considered their rainy season. We took a gamble with the weather and thankfully we lucked out with lots of sun.
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When we got back to our hotel, we grabbed a couple of kayaks and cruised around the pristine waters. Tyson and I raced against Wesley and Marshall. They claim that they won but they were like 20 yards in front of us before the race started so let’s just call it a tie. 

After we put up our kayaks, we ran into the masseuse who does massages out on the 2nd story of the hotel’s dock over the ocean. Sold! Tyson also wanted to get a massage so I let him have my last 15 minutes. Lucky guy! We asked him how his massage was and he said it hurt and she pulled his hair hard. Marshall’s response was “did you get her number?”

​Later that afternoon we headed to West End to stroll around and check out the local shops. There were handmade arts and craft stores and souvenir shops….that all had cats randomly roaming around. We found the chocolate factory and tried some samples of their various flavors such as spicy chili. Yum!

​Once we were shopped out, we returned to our hotel just in time for another gorgeous sunset. This time there was a blue steak in the sky unlike anything we’ve ever seen. Amazing!!

Once the sun had set, we headed to dinner at Ankor Seafood Grill just down the street. I’d say it’s definitely the most upscale restaurant on the island and the food was delish!

The next morning, we were excited to check out Daniel Johnson’s Monkey and Sloth Hangout. Tyson, Wesley and I held a sloth while Marshall was the paparazzi. They are so cute and pose perfectly at the camera. The three of us then went into the monkey cage with about ten monkeys swinging around. They warned us the monkeys would jump all around us, but I didn’t expect them to actually jump on my head and destroy my hair. Naughty monkeys!  We also go to hold a couple macaw parrots that apparently can say several words, although they were pretty quiet for us. The guide showed us a few other animals that are native to the island before wrapping up the tour. This tour is definitely a must while in Roatan! It’s such a great experience to interact with these animals.

Next on the agenda was Arch’s Iguana & Marine Park that was just down the street. There were over 100 iguanas at the park just roaming around. It was hard to walk around without stepping on their tails. The guide handed the boys leaves to feed the iguanas and they each had like 20 iguanas coming up to them trying to get a bite. They have some sharp teeth but surprisingly they were friendly enough that you could pet them without losing a finger. The park also had tons of fish out by their dock. The tour guide gave the boys tiny fish to throw into the water. All the fish went nuts each time the boys threw them food. Pretty entertaining!

Later that afternoon Marshall rented some snorkel gear from the hotel and took the boys out for a swim in the ocean. Marshall dove down to the bottom and found a conch shell with a little crab claiming it as its home. We showed the bartender the shell and she said it was illegal to have it out of the water. Oops! We’ll put the little guy back to where the boys could keep an eye on it the rest of the trip.

That evening we drove to the West End and had dinner at Ipanema. The restaurant was over the water and had panoramic ocean views. We got there just in time to catch another gorgeous sunset. The water was so clear, we saw several colorful fish swimming around the restaurant.
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Once the sky was dark, we headed back to the hotel and stargazed out on the dock. The sky was so clear we could see a sky full of stars. Marshall told the boys stories about his childhood and then we all took turns sharing stories about pooping our pants at some point in our lives. The boys love hearing all the “juicy” details!

The following morning, we drove to West end and grabbed coffee at Bean Crazy. I finally found a place that had amazing frappes! Wesley found a sloth stuffy in the store next door that he had to bring home to add to his stuffy collection. We gave the boys $20 of spending money for the trip to spend on anything they wanted. They profited another $10 or so from their uncle and grandpa while we were in Florida selling them the 'gems' they got during a pirate cruise we took while we were there. Wesley spent all of it on the sloth and Tyson bought some candy. I think we still owe him some change, lol. After that, we strolled along the other side of town that we hadn’t yet seen before heading to Anthony Key’s resort for our main event of the trip. 

It was time to go swimming with dolphins! The trainer introduced us to the two dolphins we’d be interacting with. We first got to rub the dolphin’s back and see them do a few tricks. Then we got in the water for the interactive swim portion. Each person took turns having two dolphins swim up next to them and grabbing on to their fins for a ride. We then got to ride on a boogie board and have the dolphins push our feet super fast to shore. So cool! Of course, we also took pictures with the dolphins kissing our cheeks and posing next to us. Everyone agreed this was the highlight of the whole trip!

By the time we got back to the hotel we only had about 15 minutes for us all to take quick showers and check out of our room. What a scramble! It was time to head to the airport but we knew there wasn’t much to eat at the tiny airport, so we stopped at a local Oceanside restaurant called Bayside Restaurant for a quick bite to eat on the way.
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Honduras was quite the adventure and we made some great memories that will last a lifetime! 

After an adventurous three days in Moab, it was time to head to Park City for part two of our Utah trip. The 4-hour drive ended up being a bit more eventful than we’d expected. About halfway into our leisurely drive, we see lights flashing behind us. Coppers!! We pulled over and the officer came to my window letting us know he clocked us at 90mph (!!!) in a 65mph. Oops, sorry about that Mr. officer! He was nice and wrote a ticket for just 15mph over, but no amount was shown on the ticket. I guess we have to call to find out how much we owe?
 
We eventually arrived at our hotel called Newpark Resort. As soon as the boys saw the hot tub out on our patio, they changed and jumped right in! They splashed around for a bit and then wanted to explore the rest of the hotel. Surprisingly they were more interested in the gym than the indoor/outdoor pool and spent nearly 45 minutes lifting weights and running on the treadmill. Wesley wanted to run long distances ~10 minutes at a time, starting at 6 mph and maxing out at 9 mph. Tyson wanted to sprint as fast as he could and found out he could run the max treadmill speed (12 mph) for “10 calories at a time”…takes about a minute at that speed. I was a little nervous they’d fly off the back and have another unwanted trip to Urgent Care, but thankfully they were respectful with the equipment and turns out they have insane endurance!
 
We came out of that gym with Wesley wanting to ask Santa for a treadmill (Tyson said he’d take one too)…and Tyson had a great idea for a treadmill with a big wall to wall screen in front of it that projected any trail/experience you want to run – ‘Like what if you could run on the Great Wall of China!?’ Great idea Tyson! He walked around talking about which of his friends is the best programmer he’d get to write the software, and which were best runners to test the experience. I’d absolutely buy that! Make it happen Tyson!
 

Once they were dripping in sweat and we were able to drag them out of the gym, we drove over to the historic downtown Park City. We peeked in a few shops before heading to dinner at Grappa, an Italian restaurant overlooking the rustic town. The ambiance, pasta dishes and especially the limoncello spritz were top notch! The boys made Marshall’s sparkling water EXTRA lemony and limy, and even added a tic tac for extra bubbles. Yummy! The boys were eyeing an ice cream shop in town that we had to stop by after dinner. They were definitely finding all the best ice cream shops on this trip!
 
Later that evening Marshall and I walked to the lounge next door for some live music while the boys had some relax time in the room. The singer must have been about 18 years old and was playing popular acoustic songs on her guitar, while her boyfriend sat by the stage on his laptop bobbing along to the music and eyeing anyone who didn’t clap after each song, lol. It was nice to sit and relax to some chill music before heading to bed so we could be nice and rested before a big day tomorrow.

​The next morning we met up with my sister, Nicole and her husband, Noel, who had just flown in from Seattle to hang out with us for a few days in Park City before they went on an epic adventure to Yellowstone and beyond. We got some coffee and immediately drove to Utah Olympic Park. This is a training facility for Winter Olympians to practice in the off season…and they turned it into a cool spot for people to try out a lot of extreme outdoor activities. Totally our jam! We wanted to go on the Alpine slide first, a massive metal slide that goes down the side of a mountain, but was informed that a tree had fallen on the slide the night before and they were scrambling to find a welder to come fix it….on the 4th of July! All good, there were plenty of other fun activities to conquer.
 
We started with a ride up a ski lift to the top of the hill. The views from the top were stunning! We snapped a few pics and then were ready to start our adventures. Nicole and I went straight to the extreme zip-line that sends you flying down the mountain at 55 mph! Marshall and Noel took the boys over to the airbag jump to see what it’s like to be a real-life stunt man. They started at the lowest 5ft platform to get the hang of how to land.  They then moved up to the higher 10ft platform which gives you a much bigger rush. After a few jumps they were ready to head over to the high ropes course. Marshall went up with them and maneuvered their way around all the challenging obstacles. The boys are always impressing us with their perseverance and willingness to try new things!
 
By the time Nicole and I zip-lined down, the boys were done with the ropes course and ready to go check out another activity. Suddenly, out of nowhere, the clouds rolled in and started to rain along with some thunder and lightning. Oh, come on now! Their protocol is to close all the activities for 20 minutes after any lightning strike within a mile. Since we had time to kill, we walked over to the cafe and grabbed some lunch. While we were eating and counting down the minutes, lightning struck again … add 20 more minutes to the clock. Grrr! We didn’t know how much longer this would last so we asked the front desk if we could get a raincheck to come back the next morning. Luckily, they agreed and said we could get new bands for tomorrow morning, since we only got to go on two activities. Sweet, maybe the Alpine coaster will be fixed by then!

We continued our exploration of Park City while Nicole and Noel went on a drive to sightsee and hike to some cool waterfalls. As we were driving around, we landed at Park City Mountain Resort that also has many adventurous activities like alpine slides, mountain coaster, ropes course, etc. Before any activities, the boys wanted to cool with off with a sno-cone. There was a syrup station of about 10 flavors that you pour yourself onto your sno-cone. Probably not the best business decision! The boys poured way too many flavors on their sno-cones turning it into a soup of indistinguishable flavors. They thought it was awesome though!

We were excited to try the mountain coaster to see how it compared to the Leavenworth, WA coaster. Marshall and Wesley rode together while Tyson and I rode by ourselves. There is a long steep track that takes you to the top of the mountain before winding down the hillside twisting and turning at 30mph.  Definitely more thrilling than the Leavenworth coaster!
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Instead of doing any more activities, the boys were ready to head back to the hotel and hit the gym. They wanted to “work on their stamina”, lol. Once they exhausted themselves, Wesley jumped in the pool for a nice swim while Tyson sunbathed with us on a lounge chair.

Later that afternoon we headed into the historic downtown to grab dinner. We found a lively Mexican restaurant with a patio that was right across the street from a little park that had live music. Jackpot! After dinner we walked over to the park to continue listening to the music. The band was taking requests, so we asked them to sing I’m Yours by Jason Mraz. They said they had never performed that song before but would give it a shot. They nailed it!

It was time to head to Canyons Village for all the July 4th festivities. The village was on a hilltop with sweeping views of the surrounding hills. They had a live band playing rock music on one stage and a DJ on another playing hoppin’ jams that I was vibing with. They also had a bunch of activities scattered around like corn hole, giant Jenga, connect 4, etc. The boys found a candy shop that had all kinds of random goodies that we had never seen before. We told them they could each pick out one thing. They spent like 30 minutes in there picking out their special treat. After we said no to literally everything in the store that had like 100 grams of sugar, Wesley ended up with a tiny bubble gum machine (that was stale) and Tyson got a 6 pack of mini soda pop cans of fizzy candy.
 
Nicole and Noel met up with us just in time to find a spot on the grassy hillside to watch the drone show and fireworks. The music started to play, and several hundred drones zoomed up to the dark sky and lit up over the mountain side a few hundred feet away. The drones made the coolest formations like the American flag, world globe, and blue angels flying. We were all in awe of the show and then immediately following the drones was a classic firework show. We all agreed this was our most memorable 4th of July show to date!

The following morning Nicole and I took the boys back to Utah Olympic Park to go on the rest of the activities we didn’t get to do the day before. When we picked up our tickets at the front, they told us the Alpine slide was fixed. Wooohooo! We immediately speed walked over to the ski lift that took us to the top of the hill where the slide starts. Wesley and I went down the slide first. Unfortunately, there was a lady in front of us who got stuck and was having trouble getting her sled to roll down the track. Dang, I guess we won’t be smashing it down this track like I planned. Tyson went next and got stuck on the track too. Luckily Nicole was riding behind him so she could give him a nice little jolt to get him going again.
 
Extreme tubing was next on the agenda! Tyson was ecstatic to try the tubing. Since Wesley wasn’t old enough to go on it, Nicole and Tyson went down first. The tube track is insanely high and steep which allows you to get up to speeds of 50mph. I thought for sure Tyson would scream all the way down, but he champed it up. In fact, he wanted to go again so next time around I went down with him. I screamed the whole way down (as expected), lol. Thank God I went to the bathroom five minutes before the ride because I would have left the track extra slick for the next person!
 
Once Nicole walked with Wesley down the trail to meet Tyson and I at the bottom, we took another ski lift to the zip-lines. Wesley and I raced down first. I was beating him until he passed me right at the very end. Then Nicole and Tyson raced and Tyson passed her at the very end too. I think they rig these zip-lines so that the kids always win, lol.

We went on the alpine slide one more time before heading back to the hotel to meet up with Marshall and Noel for lunch. We found a restaurant called Star Cafe that overlooked a golf course and the surrounding hills. Nobody was all that hungry, but we all had a nice light meal. Except Wesley, he ate all his steak and was still hungry, so he had a few slices of Noel’s meat lovers’ pizza. Once he was satiated, he then proceeded to ‘experiment’ and put the extra leftover slices of pizza and French fries in his cup of water. We bet him $5 he wouldn’t drink it and he actually did. Who’s kid is this? He wanted to leave the rest for the server and said it was worth like $20, which is a nice tip. Good lord! Not sure the waitress would agree, but good thought!

Later that afternoon we drove along the beautiful scenic winding Pine Crest road to the town of Midway to meet Nicole and Noel at Adventure Haus for a two hour unguided off-roading UTV tour. After receiving a trail map and vehicle instructions, we headed up into the hills to the start of the dirt trail. We took off and were flying over the insanely rocky terrain while bumpin’ around in our seats and enjoying the epic views climbing up the side of a mountain. We were keeping our eyes peeled for wildlife and spotted a goat and a few deer along our journey.

We came to Cascade Falls trailhead and hopped out of the UTV for a quick trek to see the waterfall. We would have continued the hike, but had barely enough time left to return our UTVs. We hopped back in and coasted down a paved winding road through the hilltop back to Adventure Haus. We were all covered in dust and in desperate need of a good hose down. My white shirt was clearly a poor decision, lol.

Nicole and Noel were headed up to Montana that evening to see Noel’s family for a couple days before heading to Yellowstone. We said our goodbyes and headed back to our hotel for our last evening before flying back home in the early morning.

When we got back to the hotel, we all jumped straight into the hot tub. Sorry hot tub cleaner for the dirt we left in there! The boys didn’t feel like going anywhere for dinner so we picked up a couple pizza slices for them. Marshall and I walked around the corner to an Italian restaurant and shared chicken parmesan. After we got home and everyone was showered and cozy in bed, I realized I left my phone at the restaurant. Just wonderful! Marshall smiled and jumped out of bed to go get it before they closed (Once again - my hero).

The next morning, we got up at 4:30am to head to the airport. For the life of us we could not find one of Tyson’s shoes! After about a 15-minute search party, we decided it was a lost cause, so I gave him the sneakers that I was wearing and put on my sandals. Normally I only pack sandals and boots so he’s lucky I actually brought sneakers on this trip, lol. Luckily, when we got home Marshall found his shoe in his suitcase in the middle of a bunch of dirty clothes. The adventure never ends!
 
We had an absolute blast in Park City and would highly recommend it for families with older/adventurous kids. It was awesome to experience in the summer, but I bet it’s a completely different and amazing experience in the winter when everything is covered in snow!

​We arrived at Moab Springs Ranch, a nice quaint resort of townhouses and rustic stand-alone cabins. Once we checked into our cabin, of course the boys got straight into their swimsuits and headed to the pool. They were having fun doing cannon balls and front flips off the side of the pool. I’m sure the adults trying to relax were just loving that! Some of the adults actually found a corner of the pool and had a floating plastic container they were using to play a dice game, drink beer and eat chips and salsa, lol. 

After a few hours at the pool, it was time to head into town to have dinner at Il Posto Rosso. We weren’t sure we’d get in since it was a Friday night and didn’t have a reservation, but we ended up having the place to ourselves. Sweet! We got to sit at the cozy corner couch table that had fluffy sheepskin pillows. I had a tasty smoked chicken dish that I shared with Tyson, Marshall had a fancy risotto and Wesley had ramen with a soft-boiled egg on top. All our dishes were amazing and the drinks were great too! Highly recommend!

Once we wrapped up dinner, we drove over to Arches National Park for an evening adventure of seeing all the natural arch formations in the petrified sand dunes. We stopped at a few scenic spots on our way to the Windows area which is known for the most beautiful arches in the park. We explored various arches including Turret Arch and Southern Arch. Wesley was enjoying venturing off the trail and climbing up the rocks. Tyson seemed to be more tired and lagging behind, but still champed it up and smiled for pictures and did all the hikes with us. It was getting pretty late and we were all exhausted from waking up so early so we headed back to our hotel to crash.

The following morning, we started our day with coffee and pastries at Moab Coffee Roasters. They have some bomb mocha frappes! We had a half day canyoneering tour planned that started at 8am, so we headed over to Lions park to meet our tour guide. Once he pulled up, we hopped in his off-roading SUV and headed several miles down a dirt road to the starting point of our tour.
 
Without any instruction, just a waiver signing away our lives, we got strapped into some climbing gear and a helmet and began by hiking up steep rocks (without climbing ropes) to get to the point that we needed to use ropes to get to the peak of Cable arch. I went first to show the boys (and Marshall) how it’s done. I got about half way up the 80 ft rockface and couldn’t for the life of me find any place to grip my hands or feet on. I yelled to the guide at the top if he could pull me up the rest of the way. He just laughed and said, “not really”. Darn! Although I was a little scared of slipping, I eventually made my way up to the peak. Wesley went after me and flew up the rock in seconds like it was nothing. Tyson briefly got stuck in the same spot I did but figured out how to maneuver his way up. And of course, Marshall climbed up with no issue (My hero).
 
Once we were at the top of the peak it was time to repel down. We couldn’t see our path down as it was a sheer cliff. Yikes! The boys were a little afraid to repel down, but we kept reaffirming them that they are perfectly safe as the guide had a second rope that he could control. Gotta say though, it was HIGH and we were all a bit nervous never having done this before and with literally a 30 second lesson on how to not let go of a rope while you’re self-repelling down the side of an 80 FOOT CLIFFSIDE. Marshall went first so he could test out the line and made it down pretty quickly. Then Tyson repelled down super fast l
champ. So far, so good!
 
Until….it was Wesley’s turn. Since he is super lightweight, it was more difficult for him to repel down because your weight helps the rope more easily slide through the belay. At one point when he was about to go over the largest ledge that leads to a sheer drop off and overhang, we were all telling him to lean back. If you don’t lean back far enough, you can slip and your face hits the wall. Not fun! He started to lean back but leaned too far back and ended up upside down. Uh oh! Wesley was terrified as he was still high up and staring headfirst at the ground ~ 60 ft below. I couldn’t see him but could hear how scared he was. Marshall was talking to him from the ground and he calmed down pretty quickly and put his trust in our guide. Our guide had never seen that happen before but knew exactly how to help. He loosened the slack of one of the lines so that Wesley could get his feet gripped against the cliff. Then he could repel down the rest of the way. Wow, what a feat! I was so impressed with the boys for having the courage to challenge themselves on this mission and conquered it!
 
The hard part was over and it was time to head back toward the car. We took a slightly different route down than the way we came. Along the way we saw some pictographs dating back a couple thousand years. So cool! We drove back down the long dirt road to Lions Park to pick up our car and then headed to our next hotel Hoodoo Hilton.

​We all changed into our swimsuits and headed straight to the pool. They only had a couple lounge chairs with umbrellas and luckily there was a spot available as it was over 90 degrees out. We ordered a delicious lunch pool side and enjoyed some relaxation.

​Later that afternoon we headed into town to check out downtown Moab. We came across Moab Food Truck Park that had all kinds of things like pizza, tacos, ice cream and shaved ice. Tyson noticed that the shaved ice truck had 50 flavors and the boys just had to try some. The smallest kid size was ginormous!  Tyson’s flavors were tigers blood (coconut, strawberry, watermelon), Hawaiian Punch, and cherry cola. Wesley had tigers blood, blue raspberry and cream soda. They were in heaven!
 
We continued walking along the main drag to check out all the little shops. The boys found a bookstore and picked out a couple new books to read. I found a cute skirt to wear to dinner that night. Once the boys were shopped out, we stopped back by the food truck park to pick up dinner for the boys to take back to the room. Marshall and I figured it would be a good night for us to have a date night while the boys enjoyed a movie in the room.
 
Every trip we let the rope out a little further with the boys. They are super good together and have respected every inch we’ve given them. We walked down the street to a restaurant called Desert Bistro that had a native American vibe. We weren’t super hungry so just shared a salad and chicken dish with a flavorful fruit and vegetable medley. Its always nice to squeeze in a little bit of alone time and the boys love having some free time. They literally didn’t move from their beds/iPads since we’d left and couldn’t believe how fast a half hour can pass, lol.

The next morning we were excited to explore Canyonlands National Park! We grabbed coffee and a quick breakfast and headed 40 minutes over to the park. I realized halfway there that I forgot to wear my sneakers and only had the sandals I was wearing. Dang it! Our plan was to explore the section of the park called Island in the Sky which is said to be the most scenic portion of the park. We stopped at nearly every scenic overlook on the way to Mesa Arch.
 
We got the last parking spot at Mesa Arch and hiked the short distance down to see the arch. It’s the most popular viewpoint at the park so everyone was waiting their turn to take pictures under the arch. There was a short wall next to the arch that has a sheer cliff on the other side that’s gotta be at least 1000+ drop. There were some crazy people including a family with a young kid standing up on the arch for a picture. I was nearly hyperventilating watching them pose and hoping they didn’t misstep. Seriously people?!?
 
We checked out a few more scenic overlooks, and then the boys were ready to head back. Tyson had been having a lot of ear pain since we’d been in Moab so wasn’t really feeling himself the last couple days. When we got back to Moab, I dropped Marshall and Wesley off at the hotel and drove Tyson over to Urgent care which was conveniently located right behind our hotel. After waiting an hour, we finally saw the doctor who informed us Tyson had swimmer’s ear. She put an ear wick in his ear and sent us on our way. Unfortunately it made Tyson’s ear hurt even more so he wanted to spend the rest of the afternoon/evening in the hotel room. 

​To cheer Tyson up a bit that evening, Wesley and I went out to get ice cream at La Michoacana Artisan. They had some unique flavors we’d never seen. Tyson requested blueberry marshmallow brownie and cookie monster. Wesley stuck with the basics and had strawberry and chocolate. I held Tyson’s cone by the AC vent as I was driving back to the hotel in 100 degree heat hoping it wouldn’t just be a melted blob by the time he got it. Luckily it only required a few licks to make it there still frozen.
 
Since the boys wanted to rest in the room again, Marshall and I decided to sneak in another quick date night. We enjoyed Il Posto Rosso so much on the first night, we decided to go back for round two. Instead of the smoked chicken, I ordered the ramen that Wesley had. So tasty! Marshall had brisket tacos that were on point. When we got back to the room, the boys again, literally hadn’t moved and all we heard when the door handle turned was ‘AWWW MAN, already?!’ Sorry kiddos, maybe in a few years we’ll let you have a full evening…we’d welcome it too, trust us! 

Our last morning in Moab, we started with a yummy pancake breakfast at Jailhouse Cafe. The boys had Swedish pancakes with lingonberry sauce, I had ginger pancakes with apple butter, and Marshall had a Spanish chorizo dish. Yum! Afterward we made a quick pit stop at Lions Park for one last pic before starting our four hour journey to Park City for part two of our Utah trip.

We had the most amazing time on our Amalfi coast adventure, but it was time to head back home to our boys. After an hour taxi ride from Ravello to Naples, we hopped on a 3-hour flight to London. Our layover was 24-hours which was nice to break up the flights. Plus it was an excuse to enjoy London for a day!
 
We grabbed one of those classic London taxis at the airport and headed to our hotel in the city. Along the way, our driver wasn’t paying attention and rammed into a car in front of him. For reals dude? He got out of the car to check if there was any damage to his car or the one he hit….while the meter was still running. Luckily there wasn’t and we continued on our merry way (with no car crash discount).
 
We arrived at our hotel called Ruby Lucy that is located in the bustling South Bank entertainment district and only a short walk to the main sites. The check-in desk was in their bar and they had a dispenser to get the room keys. That’s definitely a first!
 
We dropped our bags off and headed out to grab a light snack. We were both craving a Cornish pasty that is super popular in London. There happened to be a place in the Waterloo train station right next to our hotel to grab some pasties. (The ‘a’ in pasty is a short ‘a’ like in apple… as opposed to the pasties that strippers wear on their ta-tas. Trust me, they’ll correct you if you say it wrong, lol.) Anyway, they look similar to a calzone and are stuffed with various meats or veggies. I got a veggie one and Marshall got the chicken one. Awww yeah, that hit the spot!

​We continued walking toward Westminster Bridge. The bridge was packed with hundreds of tourists taking pictures with Big Ben and the London Eye in the background. There were also a dozen street performers doing acts ranging from the typical metal floating statue man to a game of ‘find the ball’ where you pay the guy $50 and if you pick the right cup that the ball is under, you double your money. It was a total scam and most of the guys standing around were clearly friends that were in on it. When a friend pretended to play, they would win to show tourists it’s possible to win. But when a tourist chose the right one, he would switch it up before he turned over the cup so that they would lose their money. I couldn’t believe how many people fell for their scheme!

We continued strolling around the area and stopped in a few shops as we went. We came across a huge courtyard that had a massive crowd around a street performer. The guy was unicycling around in his underwear and a cape while juggling, lol. The next performer was even better! He grabbed random people from the audience to go up and copy him doing silly things in front of everyone. There was a little boy trying to copy him doing various dance moves. The boy was getting them all wrong, but it was so cute and hilarious at the same time!

​By this point, we were getting hungry for dinner and were searching for somewhere lively to eat. We peeked into a little bar/ restaurant called Mrs. Riot and it was vibrant with lots of bright colors and had a hoppin’ vibe. As we were checking out the menu, the hostess told us there would be live music starting shortly. Sold! We sat at a table right in front of the little stage so we’d have the best view point. There was a big group of friends sitting at the table next to us. One of the guys had a major plumbers crack so I was getting a good laugh taking pictures of Marshall pretending to put a flower from his drink down the guy’s crack, lol.
 
There was a bachelorette party that sat down next to us and we’re having the time of their lives. The singer then started her performance and she was phenomenal! She sounded exactly like Adele, no joke. This bar was definitely the place to be! We were having such a great time and didn’t want to leave but knew we had to get up super early in the morning to head to the airport. Now we know the best places to go next time we have another layover in London!

After spending two adventurous days in the town of Amalfi, it was time to head to the hillside town of Ravello, our final stop along the Amalfi coast. Our hotel was located just outside Ravello in the town of Scala, the oldest town in the Amalfi region. We grabbed a taxi to take us to our next hotel called Palazzo Pascal. Along the way, our driver informed us the name Scala translated to ‘stairs’ in English. Oh yay, more stairs. Good thing we got lots of practice in Positano!

When we pulled up to our hotel, we could see the sweeping views of Ravello and the surrounding hilltop towns. Unreal! To top it off there were three donkeys getting strapped with luggage at the top of the staircase that leads down to our hotel. I guess that’s how the tourists get their bags to their hotel rooms instead of trying to drag them down the steep stairs and busting off wheels. I asked if we could ride the donkeys into town, but they just laughed at me.

When we opened the door to the lobby, the first thing we noticed were all the photos on the wall of celebrities that had stayed at the hotel. Apparently, this is the place to be! We dropped off our bags at the front desk and asked the receptionist the best way to get to Ravello. She told us we can either walk about 30 minutes along a narrow hilly road or she could call a local moped company to see if they’d deliver one to our hotel. Moped it is!

As we waited for it to be delivered, we figured we’d explore Scala. We zigzagged down an insanely steep hill toward the ruins of an old church called Basilica Sant’Eustachio that was constructed in the 12the century. We explored the church grounds for a bit but knew we didn’t have much time before our moped arrived so headed back up the steep hill.

Once our moped was delivered, we cruised over to Ravello and parked near the main square. With no agenda we just started walking down a random alley and came across a restaurant tucked away with sweeping views of Amalfi and Scala. We grabbed a table and both ordered a little fried pizza that was on point!

Once we were stuffed, we made our way over to Villa Cimbrone per the recommendation of our taxi driver. It’s a historic villa dating back to the 11th century and is known for its gorgeous gardens and dramatic views. It’s also a luxury hotel with an upscale bar and restaurant. There are so many impressive elements from all over the world to see including fountains, statues, temples and pavilions.  We enjoyed exploring and of course taking silly pictures as we went.
 
After checking out all the sights, our feet were ready for a break. We made our way to the boujee bar inside the gardens for a drink. Our server recommended their cocktail of the day which was a refreshing summer concoction that included green tea, local limoncello and foam on top. So good! While we were sitting there, a big white cloud blew through and dropped the temp down about 10 degrees. but it was awesome to feel like we were up in the clouds.

Once the cloud passed, we were ready to check out more of Ravello. We strolled back through the town and stumbled upon a gelato shop. I couldn’t possibly leave Italy without having gelato! There were so many flavors to choose but I landed on a small scoop of the coffee flavored gelato. Just heavenly!

Once we had seen the whole town, we jumped on our moped and headed back through the narrow winding streets to our hotel. It was our last day in Italy and we were both ready for some relax time. We got our swim suits on and spent the rest of the afternoon lounging by the pool that overlooked the nearby cliffside towns. Now that’s what I’m talking about! 

​As soon as the sun went behind our building, we headed up to our room to get ready for dinner. The restaurant called Gli Ulivi was conveniently located at our hotel and overlooked the stunning Ravello hillside. We enjoyed our last authentic Italian meal on our trip. Every meal we’ve had in Italy has been top notch!

The Amalfi coast has been an absolute blast and we highly recommend visiting this gorgeous place! Our time here has come to an end and tomorrow we’ll be heading to London for a day layover on our way back to Seattle. 
 
Next stop: London