My mom arrived today after 24+ hours of flying and she'll be staying with us for 5 weeks.
Two weeks of her visit will be here in Manila and the rest will be on our R&R trip.
Because the jetlag is horrendous on this trip, we kept her (and everyone else) up for the entire day. She landed before 5:30 a.m. and we were ready and waiting. Gone were the jokes we'd tossed around about having her catch a taxi, or better yet a jeepney or trike. It was so nice to see her again.
We went home for some breakfast, unpacking and relaxing. She was impressed with how well Nicholas and Jonathon are communicating and the girls showed her a bunch of stuff in their room. Yesterday the outside bands of a far offshore typhoon hit, so I didn't make it to do any shopping. Today, it was done at PriceSmart, before heading to Powerplant to get some lunch and purchase tickets for a Sunday showing of Shrek 2.
Off to the Embassy to pick up cash before hitting the pool at Seafront for an ARC pool party. After being up from before sunrise, Jonathon had fallen soundly asleep in the car so we moved him to a pool lounge chair where he continued to sleep for another hour and completely missed the opportunity to swim. I woke him to go inside for the "festivities" (aka raffles, giveaways and of course, games). ARC had hired some radio personalities to host the "Nothing but Water" fashion show and handle the rest of the fun. The show was interesting, if not my style, and thankfully short. I ended up buying a couple of wraps since I feel I've outgrown the "just out of the shower" look a wrapped towel gives, but they are basic Bali tie-dye. Loads of people won items and we participated in all the games. Really. One for moms and kids, one for dads and kids, and one for moms and dads. The mom/dad one was the most fun. In a minute, we had to make the longest chain we could using nothing but what we had on our persons. Our team won and it was basically a challenge of how naked we'd dare get (with swimsuits on, this was a family event). I lent my shorts to one of the other ladies who was wearing a wrap but no swimsuit under. Her wrap gave us a good extra 5 feet. Ian took out the laces from his shoes. We had shirts, socks, shoes and best of all, we all laid our bodies down flat as the time ticked to zero. We won by a mile.
The big prize of the day was accommodations at Plantation Bay. Sweet place to stay and we'd expected it to be a raffle. Instead someone began talking about the resort then asked what the website address was. Ryan jumped up and said www.plantationbay.com Guess who won the gift certificate? Lucky guy.
It was OK though. We're not bitter! We left with loads of coppertone products, a heavy duty flashlight (definitely useful), a giant umbrella (even more useful), and some water toys including water guns (definitely not useful). And it was fun. Most importantly though, it was 5 p.m. and my mom was still awake.
Keeping her and the kids that way until we got home and had some dinner was a bit of a challenge. Nicholas was trying to doze off in the car. Mom layed down for "just a minute" once we got home. No no no. Up we go, have some dinner and then you can conk out. And that's what everyone did. It was just past 6:30 p.m. and the house was quiet.
Tomorrow is another busy day. I wonder if mom will be up at 3 a.m. when jetlag tells her to wake.
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