got enchanted!

6/18

father's day. rye & i planned to travel to enchanted kingdom. this is the first time we've traveled far enough with just the two of us. rayne was still at rye's house so we didn't have to worry about her while we're out. i came from the graveyard shift while ryan did not go to work so he's got more energy than i am...even if he had a few drinks with some friends that night. we left retiro before 12 noon and was at sta. rosa before 2pm. it was a very smooth and fast cruise.

i look soo fat in this picture

rye was so excited when we came whilst i became immediately bored and frustrated by the experience. i had been to the EK a bunch of times and time always wasn't enough for us to fully enjoy & explore the "kingdom". this time, it took us only 10 minutes to completely see the whole place. my dissatisfaction must've been due to my recent universal studios and disneyland adventures in the US. i went wishing all throughout the day that EK can level to either parks for at least a fourth...but ofcourse, EK isn't even worth comparing. shocking because there's nowhere else in PI where you can find a better park. *:(

we rode the mock hot air balloon ride. apparently, our first ride gave rye nausea so we had to avoid other rides that spin. we took the mini roller coaster then to the bump cars. we watched one stupid 3D movie at the rialto which featured hannah barbera's Flintstones. there was a 4D movie playing near the grand rapids and so far that was the best ride we had. it was a 4D horror flick with all the seat effects (water spray, gush of air at the bottom of the chairs, impromptu shaking and tumbling of the seats..etc). we went for the grand rapids after. we decided that's going to be the last ride since we're pretty sure we'll get drenched by then. fortunately, i got the lucky seat! i got wet the least. yes!

yeah..i was the photographer..

outside the grand rapids

after EK, we ate at the old spaghetti house in katipunan. we fetched rayne from rye's house then went home in the evening.

rayne's 7 months

we were initially planning to celebrate rayne's 7th month at ryan's place. his mom made the request. she already shopped for the fetuccini pasta ingredients early last week. rye changed plans 2 days ago and decided to celebrate at home. their 2nd level house flooring was being laced with anti-termite pesticide so the harmful stench prevented us from bringing rayne there. myself & rye came from the graveyard shift and we didn't have much sleep prior to going to work yesterday so we were dead tired and sleepy when we got home to rayne at around 9AM. baby already had her bath when we got home so that's a minus to my morning responsibilities. i fed her a few of the bottled cerelac prunes for breakfast, played with her for a few more minutes then when she fell asleep, i grabbed the opportunity to shut my eyes as well. woke up before 4PM and realized the need to start her 7th month celebration. it was pouring outside so i ended up calling jollibee to deliver a party spaghetti and a party palabok. we were supposed to get the cake right after the rain stopped but there was no transpo available, so we waited for ian to arrive from school so we can use our SUV. we filled our tummies with the noodles first. the palabok was fantastic but the spag was a bit dry. which was ironic since i love eating spag in jollibee and palabok was my least favorite. i went out with trish & nic while rye stayed home with rayne. mom bought chicken which she cooked so well it tasted just like fastfood chicken. trish chose the choco mocha crunch cake at red ribbon. we went back home near 7PM. as soon as we're home, I took pictures of my baby with her cake. *:)

the 'birthday' girl

mommy's day

6/12

my mom's bday. 50th i think (what kind of a daughter does not know her mom's age!!). it was the country's independence day as well. so it's a given that on every independence day, there's a party at home. my mom had kept herself busy since friday preparing for 'the' day. she shopped friday, went to the market on saturday, and prepared and pre-cooked some of the food on sunday. she was expecting ex-school mates from st. augustine, neighbors and ofcourse, all of her her-side relatives. we celebrated ate anna and nanay's birthday as well. ate anna's was last 8th and nanay's the 14th. our relatives brought in more food. the baked mac and buko pandan were fantastic!

the first to appear were her friends from st. augustine. my mom finished a care-giver cause from that school hoping to get to canada soon. being the perky, ageless mom she has been, she has befriended alot of her classmates who were just my age (or younger). it was fun watching them doing the beso-beso and listening to their tsikas. as if my mom was just one of 'em. dad, as usual, created the noise in the house. he played dvd concerts in the living room, played music cds at the porch and played games or played music at the computer...well...just one at a time. anyway, ate anna and i watched avril, evanescence anmd 311 concerts in the living room. my daughter was still asleep then. our relatives arrived in 2 hours. everybody ate around 3pm. my daughter was passed on to everyone who would happen to want to cuddle & play with her. dad went drinking with my titos back at the garage while my mom's friends drank white wine at the porch. i went tending to my daughter whenever my relatives grew tired of holding her or when she asked for milk and attention from me. oh, tylord came too! most of my relatives went home around 6pm. i was asked to drive my other relatives to cubao around 7pm. mom's friends already left round that time. before i went home i bought mom a cake, signed with a bday greeting for her and ate anna.

here's some pictures:

the bday mom; cousin abby & trisha on the side

setting up the food; mom w/ her school friends

w/ daddy; w/ tita baby

cousins; mom w/ nanay

baby booboo!!

my tito norbie left for australia again that same afternoon. he went home to only spend a week here but had to go back for work.

nanay gave us some of my tita thelma (in canada) daughter's recent pictures. my cousin, danika, is almost 2 years old and is half-canadian, half-french and half-filipina. she's such a darling in her pictures! i am so hoping to see her soon!

danika

zoobic safari!

6/3

headed to subic w/ some of my mother-side relatives right after myself & rye's GY shift last 6/3rd. my auntie baby had free accomodations at a suite in subic. she wanted to share the bounty, which she does frequently. she had complimentary accomodations in clark years ago which we fully enjoyed. that was the first time i drove something bigger than a bike, a golf cart. i must've been 17 at that time because i remember being barred from getting inside the casino within the subdvision (would you imagine having a casino inside your subdvision???! wow!). i was sent home...nyahaha...there's a game room as well w/ all the arcades you'd ever imagine...located just a few steps from our superb villa. 2 years ago we went somewhere in subic already and stayed at a huge rental home inside one of the villages there, care of my auntie baby again. we went swimming at a nearby beach resort called the 'blue rock' in the afternoon and headed home in the evening.

we stayed at the legenda suites last saturday. it was cozy but a bit smaller compared to the units we rented on the other few ocassions auntie baby invited us in. tito zaldy brought their new crosswind SUV which elated my 3-hour journery because the SUV's gear was automatic and i fancy driving automatics since my US experience. my tito gave me a chance to drive it when rye & myself went to the zoobic safari. we landed in subic before lunch which was earlier than expected. we were still booked to use the room at 2pm. anyhow, the suite still ushered us in since there were several vacancies. the suite, all in all, was ok..but not too deluxe as expected. auntie baby could not stop story-telling in the trip on how extravagant the suite/hotel is. she was a teeny bit mistaken. there was free buffet breakfast the next morning though but only 2 persons were allowed to ravish their goodies. *:) only my mom and my auntie juliet went.

at the suite's hallway w/ my mom & at the doorway inside the suite w/ rye

feasting at the legenda cafe and 4 of my cousins at the mini-pool

there was a pool within the area w/c was intricately placed near the hill full of plants and trees. it was just too kiddie so i didn't mind if i didn't swam there. we rested after eating lunch, recovering from the GY shift w/c rye & myself just came from. auntie baby woke us up in the middle of the afternoon inviting to stroll around the area and find wonderful sights. we asked to be dropped at the ocean adventure which i made sure to visit while we were there. it was a looong drive towards this venue, w/ me driving. i almost grew tired looking at the "towards" signs to the ocean adventure which appeared at the side of the streets for almot 30 times! we got overwhelmed by the pricing when we got there. the price was P450 per person for the entrance only. the main attraction's pricing, which is to actually touch & swim with the dolphins, ranges from P2500 to P4000. phew...that's alot. the pricing turned us off so we decided to change venue and go for the zoobic safari w/c was having a price off on the entrance. an amount of P395 will take you to 7 adventures within this huge zoo. the zoobic safari, as the pamphlet said, is the only zoo with a tiger safari in the country. i couldn't recount the complete 7 sights & attractions but here's what i recall:

1. zoobic park

2. savannah

3. serpentarium

4. close encounter

5. tiger safari

the entrance to the zoobic safari..

a show featuring live animals was going on when we got in. they show trained, uncaged animals to folks. we made it to the tiger portion of the show. a tiger cub sat at a bench and kids lined up to touch & take pictures. the next part of the show was hilarious. the demonstrators/trainors called for 6 adults to get up on stage for another exciting encounter w/ one of the animals. i frantically jumped up and raised my hand to join. i never do this, i was just too bored & was impatiently waiting for something thrilling to happen in the trip. and it's also because of my enduring love for animals. when we went up the stage, the demonstrator/trainor introduced the animal they'll be showing. in a few seconds, all 6 of us acted in disgust and scurriedly went down the stage. wanna know why? they took out a humungous yellow-colored snake. i often see this in carnivals and zoos and unfortunately...around people's necks. we were anticipating the scare but we did not want to receive boo-hoos from the audience so we went back up the stage for the good of entertainment.

tiger touching

the serpent around me. i actually felt it trying to crush my legs

next we went looking for our tour guide. the first tour was to the serpentatrium. the usual snakes & reptiles are displayed here.

this snake was shedding it's skin

next was to the safari where several animals, common & out of the ordinary, were displayed inside ranch like fences.

the ostrich behind me and the albino carabao

our next ride almost killed the troupe. only when the tour guide asked me to calm down explaining the whole scenario of the ride, did i know that we will be getting out of there alive. it was the tiger safari ride, the main attraction of the zoobic safari. here we rode a caged jeepney. our fellow tourists paid P200 for a live chicken to feed the hungry tigers. we passed through 2 adult tigers swimming in their mock lake. the male got our attention, especially the chicken which the tour guide dangled by a rope through a small opening in our jeep. the tour guide kept on taunting the male tiger dragging the chicken by a rope, outward and inward the jeep. it was so scary because i thought the chicken will just be thrown at the tigers. the tour guide explained that the way he is feeding them is the only chance these captured tigers will learn how to hunt..and that simply throwing food at them will make them lazy. i agree. the animal chased our jeep, grabbed the tires. he couldn't just let us go even when 3 more jeepneys were already in the area. it took about 10 minutes until our ride stopped before the tour guide gave him a taste of the chicken. the poor bird's tiny body halved as soon as the tiger bit it. there were more teasing after until we took a full stop again. i didn't realize that half of the chicken, by rope, was thrown by the tour guide at the roof of the jeep. so the tiger jumped to the roof to finish his meal. he stayed there for more than 5 minutes. that part almost made me pee in my pants. the jeepney was all crappy and the roofing would like it'll fall apart! the show finally ended when the tiger jumped down from the roof. ryan on the other hand, enjoyed every bit of it. men...

we waited for the makeshift train for our next ride to the close tiger encounter. picture taking was not allowed for the flash might agitate the gigantic tigers. they were in cages but we were instructed to view these beasts 2 feet away. they were beautiful!

the next train ride was to the savannah where a dozen ostriches greeted and ran along our sides.

that's about it and the money spent was worth it. when we return, we'll definitely go to ocean adventure.

we all went home the next day.

rayne's 6th month

06/23

my daughter's 6 months old! would you believe how fast she has grown! in a few days it'll be her 7th!...in a few months, it'll be her first year! oh i'm very thrilled to plan her 1st birthday! hope i can stretch my budget then! 11/23rd, her birthday, is by the way, one of my kumares (ayn) 1st year anniversary with her boyfriend jeff. so that's another ocassion worth celebrating!

we celebrated rayne's 6th month at home (finally!). it rained in the afternoon so my kumares and friends had to cancel their attendances...nevertheless, it was a blast...most of my relatives were present.

w/ titas badeth & anna

notice my daughter's body suit? i bought this from california. it has a "got milk" slogan infront. how cool! hehe

i recently created a discussion group in yahoo for my college organization in UE (University of the East). It was for the UE Triskelion. Yes I am part of this group. I am a proud member of the Tau Gamma Sigma sorority. I joined when i was as a sophomore but had become friends with the residents (enrolled members) since freshman year.

anyway, this yahoogroup is a chance for us, alumni & residents, to converge again. the link is http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ue-triskelion/. anyone who wants to join will go through my approval. no posers please.