Surf Safari To Okanda

Our surf school kids were so excited for a day off from school. It was Poya (full moon) in which school is out. We decided to take them on a surf safari to Okanda. Our adventure began at 6 am so we could enjoy all of the wildlife on our hour drive to the surf spot. We rented a jeep, loaded up (17 in all) and headed out. We saw a variety of animals, including monkeys, peacocks, a crocodile, deer, buffalo, birds and managed to run over a cobra that looked dead but slithered off. It was Cody's parents first safari and they had a blast along with all our kiddos singing songs all the way there and back. The surf was fun and it was an altogether great day on safari! 

Philippines Return After 11 Years

 Philippines Bound!!!

The gorgeous view of some of the islands from the plane!

Entertainment! Thank you Papa for world traveling kiddos!

We're here!!!!!! My friends that had little kiddos now have grand babies! How fun is that?!

These gorgeous girls (including their mom on the left) were so young when I was here 11 years ago- wow time flies! 

Barbecue and Rice on banana leaves- classic meal and never got old!!!!! Loved it! 

Doy boy was just the baby when I was here last- now he's hanging out with my babies! 

 Spending time with the team from Hawaii and our Filipino families.

 We got to be a part of many fun things with the team, including outreaches to villages, boating and cave exploring trips, surfing, team lessons and dinners. It was a great time! They charged us up spiritually and emotionally! 

Jing and Jasmine's Family- they blessed us with a place to stay, a motor bike to use, fed us often and had a great place for all the kids to play together. We loved our time with their family. 

We were blessed by the Agudo family and they let us stay in their nice room for our last few nights. They took us out on their boat many times to different surf spots. We had so much fun hanging out with all of them. Below is their family photo now. And the photo below that is 11 years ago, when some of them were just teenagers. It was so fun to laugh over these photos together. 

Its amazing to see these boys all grown up! Now they're charging the waves at Cloud 9

Cody with Balong and Badok, two of the young boys 11 years ago. The photo below that is of Cody and Balong. You can still see that same cute face :) (Now a little more hair added to it!)

This is Cody with our God-son Rafael 11 years ago as a baby, when I dedicated him to Papa. Below that is Rafael now at age 11 with my kids. Wow, time flies! 

We got to enjoy a lot of fun times with our Filipino families. We were also blessed that our good friend Annabelle Plaza came out to the island to visit us. She was the director of the YWAM Surigao base when we led our team there 11 years ago. She was our main contact and got us connected all over the islands. During the eight years that we were home in America, we were able to support her, Jing and Jasmine's family (including Rafael our God-son), and Pastor Mozo of the local church. 

 Jasmine, Me, Kenai, Annabelle

Cody teaching, Pastor Mozo translating

Playing at some rock pools that Jing and Jasmine took us too. We got to spend extra time with our friend Brendon from STN, as he stayed after the team left

New friends 

Fun times surfing 

The kids got to be a part of Jasmine's preschool and they loved learning new songs. We've already started teaching them to our kids here.

Friends Visiting

We got to have a week with Niklas, his dad and Niklas' friend from work. We were blessed that they stayed in our house to look over it while we were in the Philippines. 

And we also said bye to our baby puppy before heading off to the Philippines

Sunday School Crafts

Cody came up with some fun animals to create for the kids at Sunday School- snakes for Moses staff that turned into a snake and frogs for the plaques against Pharaoh. Fun times~

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Skype Date With Koda and Kenai's Best Friends

There's nothing that makes your day a little brighter than having some fun on skype with your lil besties. Koda and Kenai love their Addie and Colbie girls! 

Happy Birthday Mona!

Celebrating Mona's Birthday this month

Family Evening Out

Rumor had it that a huge herd of elephant were roaming in our area. We went to check it out one evening. We didn't manage to find them, but we had a fun time exploring.  

We stopped in town to buy some kotu rotti for dinner (basically all the leftover rotti and vegetables chopped up in small pieces). Its one of the well known meals in Sri Lanka. Fun times.