Our Fabulously, Fun Forest Adventure!

Cara's husband Ali had a birthday last Saturday, the big 3-2, and she wanted to plan something fun for him. When she stumbled across the Forest Adventure, she knew it would be right up Ali's alley! (Ha! I crack myself up!) Unfortunately, Cara wasn't able to participate in the adventure b/c she's pregnant and apparently climbing trees, walking tight ropes, flying down zip wires and swinging off platforms isn't recommended during pregnancy. Who would have thought?! ;) So she called in a crew of friends to accompany Ali on his day of fun and that's where we came in. Matt and I joined Ali and his friends Rob, Sam and Merilyn for a spectacularly awesome afternoon of tree top fun!
The adventure started with a quick safety briefing and then we were off! The Forest Adventure has 4 sites, each getting progressively harder or longer. We climbed a million ladders, crossed over shaky platforms, crawled through tunnels, walked tight ropes, made our way across swinging logs (ok, maybe I didn't do that...) and made a Tarzan leap off a platform way high up in the trees. We had an absolute blast! Thanks to Cara and Ali for including us in the birthday fun!  

All 6 of us ready for some tree top fun!

Matt, Ali and Rob

Sam, me and Merilyn

Cara was so sweet to plan the afternoon and observe while the rest of us had all the fun :)

Let the fun begin!

Matt warming up on an easy obstacle!

Ali coming down the zip wire

Matt about to squeeze through a suspended tunnel

Matt and Rob

Rob crossing swinging logs

Matt crossing the logs. This was not easy! Watch the video below!

Ali walking the ropes

Cara enjoying the fun from the ground

Ali and Matt looooved the Forest Adventure!

This is my jump, Tarzan style! This was the final obstacle of the day and it was SO much fun!!

Matt crossing the logs - not an easy feat!

My crash landing at the end of the zip wire. I never once landed on my feet!

Matt coming down the zip wire

Are we the only couple that still owns rollerblades?

I'm going to start this post by bragging on Matt for a second! He's been gearing up for an Urbanathalon  and has been working pretty hard to get ready. I know with all of the running and obstacle training he's been doing he is going to do a GREAT job. I can't wait for him to do it! (It's next week by the way, on Sunday the 31st...keep him in your prayers if you remember). So anyway, his friend Jason (you are probably familiar with him by now, he's been mentioned in a couple of previous posts) is doing the race with him so they've been training together. One particular Sunday morning Jason wasn't available to do the usual 10 mile run and darn it I could have kicked myself for something I said to Matt just the day before! See I had said in conversation "I'm glad Jason does those long runs with you. Otherwise I'd have to follow you on rollerblades to be your support!" Imagine my surprise when Matt later came up to me and said "guess who is rollerblading tomorrow morning??" So....I did it. I put those stinkin' rollerblades on and accompanied him on his long run. It wasn't without some difficulty...I mean, for one thing, I don't know how to stop so the tiny ramps we came to at underpasses caused problems for me...as in "if that person doesn't move out of the way in 2 seconds, we'll both be on the ground!"  Then there were the loose bricks on the ground that caused me to nearly fall more than once. Fortunately, I made it through and Matt adored me for the rest of the afternoon :)

That story leads us to this past weekend. Saturday was hot and sunny (no surprise of course) and when Matt came home from work the first thing he said is "this would be the perfect afternoon for us to go rollerblading together!" to which I said "ummm...that was a one time thing for me" to which he said "...but you were so good at it!" to which I said "ehhh, just don't really feel like it" to which he said "we can go to lunch first...anywhere you want!"....and I was sold. I can always be bribed with good food. So after lunch we made our way toward East Coast Park, a place that we've been meaning to go to for quite some time now. I must admit...the afternoon was lots of fun! We shared lots of laughs over funny signs throughout the park and over the poses we were doing for pictures. I even made a few videos for your viewing entertainment (at the bottom of the post). I'm sure we'll be back at East Coast Park again...and this time we won't wait 7 months to do it :)

East Coast Park

Matt getting ready to do some pro rollerblading ;)

Gotta stretch first...the sign says so...and I like to follow rules!

...but oh no! Matt didn't bring the suggested safety gear :(

...and we're off!

We passed this awesome, cable water skiing park. Perhaps next time we go, we'll give it a whirl.

Next was a stop at the Extreme Skate Park...where obviously, we did some extreme skating.

Ahhh, nothing like a refreshing drink!

Matt felt this was a fitting pose for the day...

...so he did it too!

Hippo Tour, Solo Style!

We are over the moon excited right now b/c we're less than a month away from the arrival of our very close friends, Keith and Sophie...we can't wait until their visit!! We want to make the very best of their time in Singapore and give them as many options as possible for things they might want to do. So, that being said, the open top bus tour in Hong Kong got me thinking that I should check out the same type of tour here in Singapore to see if it's worth bringing K & S on. Unfortunately (for me anyway) I had to go at this tour alone. I grabbed my backpack (always good to have in Singapore for unforeseen purchases) and threw my camera around my neck...I totally blended in with the rest of the tourists on the bus :) The tour was pretty good. I will admit that I didn't see anything that I hadn't already seen before, but that was to be expected...Singapore is small. Overall, I enjoyed it and think it will be a great way for K & S to get a feel for the city before we set out to do the "real" exploring. Here are a few pictures from the tour, though most have been seen on the blog in previous posts...

Oh, but first...I got a kick out of this. As I was standing in line to buy my tour ticket, I realized I was starving and had to eat before getting on the bus. I wandered the mall checking out my options and randomly settled on eating a bowl of Pho...Vietnamese noodle soup. I think most everyone that reads this knows that I'm half Vietnamese. I've grown up eating Pho, in fact, I probably had my first taste of it long before I can even remember. Anyway, I don't know if it was the fact that I was dining alone, had a camera with me, or my obvious American accent, but the owner of the shop obviously thought the concept of eating pho was totally new to me! First thing he served me was eggrolls, but not before he explained what they were. I had to keep the laughter in because I can make them myself and have done so recently. Then, he brought out a plate of bean sprouts, onions and mint leaves and explained to me that that was strictly garnish for the soup. I knew that of course! Personally, I don't like mint leaves so I didn't add them to my soup...I think that upset him a little bit, ha! I just never had the heart to tell him that I knew all about pho....and I certainly didn't have the heart to tell him that his pho wasn't all that good :)

My semi-good lunch

On the bus ready to sitesee by myself!

This building is owned by bunch of wealthy folks in Singapore. That's all I know.

Entering Little India

HDB flats...a large percentage of locals live in these type of flats. I think they get something like a 90 year lease on them.

I M Pei building mentioned in previous blog posts.

8 sided building, built off the concept of Feng Shui, the Chinese believe the 8 sides will bring good fortune.

Lot of construction going on for the Marina Bay Sands Casino

The awesome bus I was on :)

Fake it 'til you make it!

OK, so I haven't "made it" yet nor am I really trying to...but this is a funny story nonetheless. Back in September I got a new camera for my birthday. Taking pictures has become sort of a new hobby for me, though I will readily admit that I don't feel like I have a natural or good eye for photography. Most of the pictures I've taken over the past few months have been city shots from the different places we've traveled to...so I literally have next to no experience photographing people. That being said, one morning as we were leaving church, the pastor's wife approached me and asked if I would consider taking pictures for the mom's group during one of their morning meet ups at the Botanic Gardens. My initial thought was "do you think she'll be able to tell if I lie and say I have plans that day?" but before I could come up with a good white lie Matt piped in and said "Oh you should do it! You'd be really good!" I should have known Matt wouldn't support a white lie...he never does ;)  As it turns out, another friend of mine who has seen some of my pictures told the pastor's wife that she should ask me to do it. My friend was sweet to think of me, but seriously, I went straight into panic mode after I agreed to do it. I decided to stay calm and not allow myself to stress out over it. After all, I'm not a photographer nor have I ever claimed to be good at taking pictures. I simply agreed to do something I was asked to do :)

Well, as it turns out, I truly had no reason to panic. The women were all fantasticly sweet and wonderful and no one put any pressure on me at all! I will say that photographing 9 children under the age of 3 was no small task! It was completely impossible for me to get all of them to look at the camera at the same time. Perhaps that's a skill left to actual photographers :) My only complaint for the day was that it was ridicuously hot and humid, but we made the best of it! I took a lot of pictures, but here are some of my favorites from the day. Enjoy!

My best attempt at getting everyone to look at the camera :)

I loved these sweet little shoes and tiny feet!

Totally loved his mohawk!

Only a few weeks old and already out to play...sort of ;)

This is one of my favorites from the entire morning. She kept giving me this look!

I don't think these babies knew what to make of me with a camera in their face...

New Year's Eve

I guess since we're halfway through January I better post about New Year's Eve before it's too late! New Year's Eve was all about a low key night for us. After our trip to Hong Kong, the last thing we wanted was to be out among a crowd of people. We actually considered staying in, just the two of us...but as the night approched, we realized we'd have more fun if we were with just a few friends. Fortunately, our friends Jason and Amanda opened up their home for friends and food for the night and we gladly accepted! Jason works with Matt and since moving over here, we've become good friends with them and their two sweet children, Seth and Maddie. We're glad they're from Houston so that we can continue hanging out when we all move back to the states...someday! Anyway, they also invited their friends Tom and Nicole and their two daughters and we invited our friends Elissa and Henning. We all rung in the new year together with snacks, champagne and fireworks. It was exactly the evening we wanted! 2009 was full of blessings for us, more than we can count, and we are so thankful for all of them. We're excited to see what 2010 has in store for us (hopefully a move back to the states by the end of the year...ha!).  Happy New Year!

With a lot of time on my hands these days, I've gotten really into decorating sugar cookies...so these are what I made for New Years Eve :)

This is the view from Jason and Amanda's balcony. They are on the 34th floor...and yes, I'm jealous ;)

Amanda and Nicole took the kids outside to light sparklers. Seth was a little nervous, but he loved them once he was safe inside his mom's arms :)

Maddie having fun with her sparkler

Seth challenged Matt to a game of air hockey. Matt showed no mercy even though Seth is only 3!

Matt trying to stay ahead in the game...

...but I'm pretty sure Seth still won :)

The big firework show was great! I heard there were thousands of people out by the marina watching them, so I'm really thrilled that all we had to do was walk to the building next door and enjoy them from the balcony!

A not so successful try for a picture with fireworks in the background ;)

Amanda, Nicole, Kim and Elissa

When the night was over we went back to our condo and Matt drifted off to sleep under the safety of his new University of Texas Snuggie, courtesy of our very close friends, Keith and Sophie - thanks guys!

Then I woke up in the morning and called my mom so we could ring in the American New Year together over Skype. Toby and Houston came out to celebrate too :) I took this picture just after midnight VA time.