Thursday, September 24, 2009

Whew

I have been a complete slacker on the blog lately...we not even lately, for the past two months! Life seems to have become a snowball effect and time gets away from me trying to keep up with these two busy boys in my life. We have been busy living and loving and traveling, the three things we do best.

Holden turned 6. SIX years old. Where on earth does that time go. Sometimes I call Finnley Holden not because I am mistaken on the name but because I literally still think of Holden as this bubbly bouncy baby with the toothy grin. He has become such a little man and I can already see the teenager in him. It's bittersweet to watch him grow. I pine for the days past when it was just me and him making our way through the days together in Utah but am also so excited for each new phase we grow through with him. Half of his life has been spent here in the Philippines and I am so proud of the little international child he has become. He doesn't miss a beat. He is such a good traveler and so relaxed when it comes to trying new things. He told us the other day he isn't sure if he wants to be a rock star or a genius. Serious lofty goals kiddo! We celebrated his birthday a day early with 25 friends and yes that was narrowing the list down! We filled them full of star wars themed food and sugar like wookie hair (cotton candy) yoda soda (sprite with green food coloring) pizza the hutt and bounty hunter bites(mini corndogs) and of course a star wars r2d2 cake and sent them across to timezone, a kids game arcade, with an hour of free play time.
The following day we scooped him up from school early and told him we had errands to run. We let him open his gift from us (an ipod shuffle already filled with songs) which he instantly started singing along to. Once we pulled up to the airport we told him that this errand was going to take a little long he kept asking what we were doing, and was a little worried we were leaving Manila. We had to help him to figure it out and said "Holden where do you think we would take you on your birthday as a surprise?" First guess Hong Kong Disney. BINGO! We landed in Hong Kong to Holden singing out loud with his ipod "sweet caroline (bum bum bum!) all through customs and immigration.

The trip was magical for Holden. Finnley got an ear infection and the trip was miserable for him. After a couple of days at the Disneyland Hotel we moved into the city for a little more mature vacation and rounded out the long weekend with some good food and some shopping. As it wasn't our first time in Hong Kong, we felt less pressure to see and do everything and that proved convenient considering our lack of Finnley induced sleeping and sickness.









2 comments:

The Homer House said...

Oh boy, what a birthday! I need you to come here and throw some parties for my kids, you guys rock!
Happy Bday Holden! I hope you got our message and know how much we love and miss you!
Love ya!

Team AC said...

Hey Melissa,
I still love reading your blog... it's great! Especially the part about Holden singing Sweet Caroline in the airport... you could seriously write a book about that kid it seems!
Blogger is blocked in China unfortunately (for the past year almost), but I've definitely gone back to read your blog now that we're on holiday in Australia for a few weeks. If you check my blog you'll see a serious gap missing from August until now... but hopefully I can start up again after we leave China in 4 months...woo hoo! (I'm also in the loooong process of writing a website right now too... www.advice-for-newlyweds.com ) Thankfully that's not blocked there!
Will you be staying in the Philippines much longer?
Keep writing... love your style!
~Corinna