Our trip to Caliraya Resort

The following pics are an account of what the boys did while at Caliraya Resort during a homeschooling/family conference. This was our first time to ever go to something like this, and so we had no idea what to expect. I even had one child who was dead-set against going beforehand. We ended up having a wonderful week of encouragemnt and made alot of new friends!!! And the one child who didn't want to go now wants to go again.

Our only complaint was that it was cold. We felt like it was in the 60's, but that may have been because of the wind and rain. Yes, it rained most of the week. In Cebu, it is always hot and humid so we came dressed for that kind of weather. Oh well.... that didn't stop anyone from having fun.

To begin our adventure, we took an hour flight to Manila and met up with everyone that was going to the conference at the Mall of Asia. The Mall of Asia is the largest mall in the Philippines, and the 3rd largest in the world. Once we arrived, we ate at Jamin's favorite restaurant.....Burger King:)

After lunch, we got together and boarded two charter buses for a 3 hour trip to Caliraya. Of what I saw through the drapes in the bus, it was a beautiful drive, especially as we got closer to Caliraya. When we arrived at the resort, we boarded a little ferry boat to take to the other side.

Below is our adventure....hope you enjoy!

Looking at resort from the ferry boat as we cross

The main building held conference rooms, our lodging, prayer chapel and the dining hall.

It had just rained alittle before this pic was shot. If you look real good, you can see the rainbow.

Our family didn't take advantage of the canoe or jet skis. It was too stinking cold for us;), but it was available for anyone there.

This resort was set up on a hill, so we ran up and down these steps alot during the day. Ok, the boys ran, Mom slowly walked, while hugging the rail!

Even though it rained off and on while we were here, it didn't stop kids from swimming. Along with two pools, there was tennis, volleyball, basketball, homemade water/mudslide and rock climbing.

Ok, so we get on to our kids for playing with their food, but Robert and I just couldn't pass up doing this with our egg yolks and pancake.

We found this scary looking beetle with pinchers while at Caliraya.

Just hanging around....

Here are a couple of pics of Jamin participating in a basketball camp that was held in the afternoon.

We had just turned in dirty laundry to have washed, and then we came across this lady washing laundry in the lake. We wondered if those were our clothes.....but thankfully, the resort has their own washing machines. This lady was working hard, beating these clothes to death.

This is Steve Demme....he was one of the main speakers for the parents, and also had time with all the dads in the afternoons. He is also the creator of the Math U See program that some of the homeschoolers were using. We really enjoyed getting to spend time with him throughout the week. Even when he kept making fun of Mom wearing her cap all week! This was a pic of him about to go canoeing, however they didn't have a life jacket that fit him well.

Here is a link to his website: http://www.thefamilythatstaystogether.com/

Jamin is our animal guy. He loves to be around them. He would do wonderfully on a ranch or farm. Anyways, he chose to ride horses one afternoon. While he did this, Jess stuck to sliding in the mud, as you will see in pics further on down.

Jamin and Carly before the horse ride

I was not terribly thrilled with our boys doing the waterslide through the mud. All I could think of was typhoid, germs and just everything yucky that could be in the mud here. However, I just prayed hard, and let go.....and let the boys have their fun. Jesse and Hunter had a blast. Jamin tried it a couple of times, but he had on regular shorts instead of swimshorts, and it caused him to stop halfway down the slide.

On Valentine's evening, the Green Valley Baptist Church of Birmingham, Alabama surprised us with a special banquet. The kids had their own special V-day party in a different room while we enjoyed romantice music, set in a romantic setting (candles, etc). We even had Mexican food for dinner that night. Robert and I ended up getting involved (unvoluntarily) in a Newlywed Game with 3 other couples. It was extremely embarassing, but all in good fun.

Wade and Joanna Allen, and us:)

This pic was alittle blurry, but I just thought it was cute. I love that our boys don't mind taking pics.

Jesse, Caleb Allen and Jamin pleasant pose.....

And with every pleasant pose comes a goofy one!!!

Jesse made several new friends, this is a pic of him with Andrew.

In the evenings, the boys had several opportunities to be involved in Speaker's Theater and Learner's Showcase. Those that were involved in music camp all week also performed in front of the crowd on the last night. Below is a pic of Jesse doing a verse during that last night's show.

Congo line during performance

Jamin gets a certificate for his participation in Speaker's Theater. He recited the "American Creed", and did a really good job.

Jesse participated in both the Speaker's Theater (with reciting the poem "Our Flag") and then also in Learner's Showcase (with playing "Mary Had a Little Lamb" on his flutophone). He did a great job as well.

Several of the adults took all of the 3rd grade and up to a deaf college while all the moms and dads chilled out at the resort. Our kids were suppose to paint while there, but because it had rained all week, it wasn't dry enough. When they showed up, they were all really muddy, but from reports of the adults, none of them complained. They were greeted by smiling faces. All of the kids from the conference that we attended had prepared a couple of signing songs for the students at the deaf college. And then were surprised when the students prepared songs for our kids as well. It was quite an adventure, one that our boys will never forget. Thank you to Aunt Phala for being courageous enough to take our boys on this adventure. I have not mentioned beforehand, but Aunt Phala was the one who was in charge of the whole week.

They put 4 kids to a team for this day's work project. Here is Jamin's team...

And Jesse's team...

Praying for the kids before they leave on their trip....

Jesse and Bryan trucking through the muddy mountains on the way to the deaf school.

This is the reason the kids had to walk through the mud....seeing that their tractor and trailer got stuck.

Jamin was clean compared to some kids that went that day.

Jamin at the deaf school with some of the other kids that went.

They tried to clean up as much as they could before doing their songs for the kids at the deaf school.

On the last night at Caliraya, we had a bonfire with hotdogs and smores. We also had some yummy pork barbeque. Ok, so that's not really campfire food, but it was delicious! Normally a campfire is way too hot here in the Philippines, but it was still cool outside. Here are a couple pics of friends that Jamin made. He is also the one who took the pictures.

Joe is one of the guys from Green Valley. He helped with Jamin's grade for the IOWA standardized tests that the boys had to do (Tues-Thursday) each morning. He is also one of the guys that helped Coach Ron with the basketball camp. He and Jamin ended walking a long way up the muddy mountain when their trailer got stuck in the mud during the trip on Friday. Thanks for being a great friend to Jamin!

It's hard to take cool camp fire pictures. The flash kind of took the whole effect away. But here is Jamin and Robert chilling in front of the heat from the fire.

I couldn't pass up taking a pic of this little lily pond on the campus, and then the pic below is me just messing with an editing program.

Members of Green Valley Baptist who came to minister to us!

Saturday morning was a sad morning for most. Our boys were not ready to say goodbye to their new friends. And for others, this was to be the last year that the homeschooling conference was to be held at Caliraya. Below is a pic of the little boat that took us across the lake to the buses.

The boys and I didn't make the first run on the boat, so we waited on the floating dock. It is really early in the morning for us.

Jamin is my picky eater. He didn't care for the food much this week. So he survived on granola bars and many cans of Pringles (thanks to the snack shack that we visited often during our stay).

I thought it was kind of fitting how the sun started to come out on our way across the lake to the buses. It had rained all week, but God knew that we needed it. The sun shining through the clouds on that last morning reminded me that He is always in control.

We were suppose to head back to Manila on the same bus that we came on, but we decided to squeeze in a couple of vehicles of our friends (The Hagen family and the Allen's). We were all going to the same place.....Mall of Asia. The boys and I had a late flight out that evening, so we spent the afternoon at the mall. Below are a few pics of what we did.

We visited a Science Discovery place in Mall of Asia. This was our boys' favorite section of the musuem...the Grossology section!

Of course, it took a Murphy boy to win the Grossology test. Go Jamin!!!

This was a silly game at the museum, but I just couldn't pass up taking a pic of the game title.

We always have plenty of pics with Carly and Caleb, but now the boys have made 3 new friends while at Caliraya. I thought the next two shots were cute of all 7 of them.