Boracay

When I told James about my plan today to blog pictures of our recent beach trip, he reminded me that I never posted pictures from our visit to the beautiful island Boracay last August. Oops! Mom and dad Hill came to visit us in August for three wonderful weeks. We did so many fun things during those weeks, and I took over two thousand pictures! I guess that's part of why I never did a blog post is because I still haven't finished going through all the pictures I took! Also, most of these pictures were already shared on Facebook. Anyway, here are a few favorite photos from our fun little beach getaway. :) 

Snow!

This Christmas season I was missing the cold and wishing the girls could have some snow to play with on Christmas. I ended up finding a jar of fake snow on Amazon for just over ten dollars.

This stuff is pretty awesome! When this powder is combined with water turns into some fluffy and slightly wet mixture that really does resemble snow. I hoped it would be a fun sensory activity for the girls Christmas morning, and was happy they loved it so much and spent half the day playing with it! The snow lasted for a couple more days and then started to shrink and lose its consistency. I decided to bring the remaining snow along to an orphanage I was visiting to deliver some stockings filled with goodies and artwork from my aunt Kathy and her second grade class. I thought the kids would enjoy feeling the snow, and imagined them playing with it in a similar manner as Addy and Torah. I was surprised, but delighted with the kid's reaction. You can see what I'm talking about in the short video clip below.

USS George Washington

In October James and I toured the USS George Washington. The American supercarrier was anchored in Manila Bay for a 5 day goodwill visit. Not too many Embassy employees received tickets to tour the aircraft carrier, and we were very grateful for the awesome opportunity!

USS George Washington (CVN-73) is an American nuclear-powered supercarrier, the sixth ship in the Nimitz class, and the fourth United States Navy ship to be named after George Washington. It was built by Newport News Shipbuilding and was commissioned on July 4, 1992.

The super carrier can accommodate approximately 80 aircraft and 6,250 crewmen.

The flight deck is 4 1/2 acres in size, using four elevators that are 3,880 square feet each to move the planes between the flight deck and hangar bay.

The George Washington is the 14th busiest airport in the world.

With its two nuclear reactors, the George Washington only has to be refueled every 20-25 years.

At full operational capacity, all the aircraft can be launched in under 30 minutes.

On the morning of September 11, 2001, the George Washington was operating off the coast of Virginia when the World Trade center was attacked. The carrier was diverted north and arrived in New York City within a few hours. General Washington had long been a proponent of a strong Navy. On 15 November 1781 he wrote, "Without a decisive Naval force, we can do nothing decisive. And with it, everything honourable and decisive." These words are engraved on a plaque on the ship's quarterdeck. (Info from Wikipedia)

Disney Breakfast