A Fifth Birthday

Sydney got three birthday "parties" this year: first with just her household, then with all her school friends at Papa's Pizza (next year, I'm taking a giant bag of earplugs for the adults), and finally this one with her extended family. Here she attacks her candle while Daddy holds the cake and Bug looks on.

Sydney was quite gracious about letting Isaac have some time with some of her new acquirements. This soft dog was a favorite. Terrie points out that the dog was actually Isaac's Valentine gift. (Thanks!)

I recently returned from a trip to the Philippines. The quick summary:

Outbound:

Portland to Tokyo: 11 hours on airplane
Tokyo to Manila: 5 hours on airplane
Manila: overnight at Shalom guest house
Manila to Bagui: 6 hours on bus
Baguio: overnight at St Elizabeth guest house
Baguio to Sagada: 7 hours on bus

The payoff:

Sagada, Besao, Bontoc: 3 nights

Return:

Besao to Baguio: 8 hours on bus
Baguio: overnight at St Elizabeth guest house
Baguio to Manila: 6 hours on bus
Manila: overnight at Shalom guest house
Manila to Tokyo: 4 hours on airplane
Tokyo to Portland: 9 hours on airplane
Portland to Hillsboro: 2 hours on light rail

Terrie and the kids decided to skip this one :-)

I'm hoping to write up something more interesting from this trip, but I
wanted to put something down to mark the occasion.

Hope everyone's doing well!