Grumpy

Been very uptight and grumpy lately. This, despite me trying for exercise daily (or near daily). Maybe it's lack of sleep. Maybe it's hormones.

I don't know, but I don't like being uptight and grumpy.

#breathe

Flowers for Mommy

From my sweet firstborn

.. my cheeky second born...

And my first love, the husband.
Thank you for the bouquet of Mommy's Day flowers.

#love

Day 18: Bye bye USA - again

So, after our failed attempt to go home yesterday, we awoke again in the hotel and prepared to go home.

Getting ready to go

After breakfast, we proceeded to make our way to the airport - just like how we did it yesterday. 

Silly babies

And just like yesterday, we made our way to the aeroplane.

Gangway style

Settling into our seats

Transit at Narita

We had noodles, to warm our tummies, and because there was timezone differences, someone was extremely tired. By the end of eating, and whilst picking up some snacks…

Someone fell asleep!

Boarding, the last plane that took us home.

Just like that, the holiday was over. Truth is, when the kids fell sick on the first leg of the holiday, they did not enjoy the car rides or "mountain - I hate the mountain!" very much at all. K was constantly complaining that the water tasted weird "so smelly!"; besides Disneyland that really occupied them that first day; they had different feelings about each stage. The car rides bored them I think, but thinking back, we coped pretty well. Other than K having motion sickness on the drive up the dreadful mountains, the kids were pretty well-behaved; and we talked a lot, sang a bit, played silly games and ate our way through the states with our trusty mobile pantry. It was such a small space that housed us for hours and hours; and I wouldn't change a single thing (well, ok maybe that one time that I needed to pee so bad that the husband and I had a squabble about my lousy attitude). 

The shopping experience was fine, we bought more than we needed but I think if we had more money; we'd have wanted to get more too. The truth is, the currency was not entirely in our favour so that pinched a little.

Food wise, my best meals were definitely in Vegas and San Francisco. At Vegas, it was the chance to indulge in the best buffet and eating such good meat; at SF it was the homeliness of home-made breakfast (ah, that lingering smell of toast, scrambled eggs and bacon) and sating the craving for proper chinese food. The bad, fried, fast-food really overwhelmed me at times; and it wasn't the best. I can imagine how unhealthy the locals are because of the easy access to all the bad food - though for my palette now, I cannot stomach too much of the oily grease. I actually just don't want to eat another french fry or burger or anything salty because it was just, ugh.

The weather - such lovely weather - played a big part on the trip and while I think we overpacked for most of it because only the mountains were super-duper cold, I guess we needed what we needed when we needed them!

The sight-seeing, the experiences - it was very special being introduced to Yosemite and reminiscing the past with the husband, and introducing it all to the children. While honestly, I wasn't the one who opted to bring the kids along; there are no regrets having done that because this truly builds a big part of our memories as we expose them to so much the entire 18 days that we spent together 24/7.

For the husband and I, it reinforced that while we each had our moments; we work pretty well as a team and truly, that's what you need in life. To have a decent partner to walk alongside with, laugh with and share things with so that we build upon this life that we share.

We love to travel and I'm so glad that we did this holiday. It took me (only) three months to finish capturing each day of our travel and I know that we will have more to share and as we start to plan our next get-away.

Thank you for the great time, USA. Until we meet again.

Love, the Seahs.

Mother's Day Celebration @ School

Simple celebration at school

The children sang a song, we played a game, and we all danced a "chicken dance" together. Simple stuff, but so joyous. Unlike last year, I was prepared this time round. And to observe the children's face light up when they see me at school, it was all worth it.

Happy Mother's Day to all Mommies out there, hope you have a happy, joyous day.

Our love for tau sar piah

A whole box has 32, and mere 24 hours after we
touched down with these local products from Penang….

Day 17: Bye Bye USA

The next morning, the husband and I awoke and proceeded to check and double-check our belongings. When we left Singapore, we had 2 big luggages and plenty of hand-carry luggages. When we are leaving USA, we have 4 big luggages and also, plenty of hand-carry luggages.

The husband loaded the load, and I offloaded the kids from him, getting some simple breakfast from the remains of our mobile pantry, plus buying some knick-knacks from the hotel lobby.

Hello little monsters - all dressed to fly home

Loving moments to end the holiday

It took us some steps to get to the airport - all of us. So, the husband dropped us off at the airport along with all the luggages (except for 1 big one that he can handle on his own). That left me and two kids and a ton of luggages to look after - what was 30-45minutes, felt too long when both kids were antsy, somewhat co-operative and an anxious mother who was certain that someone was going to kidnap her children. The airport is, indeed, a very busy place full of people from all over! While this was going on, the husband was driving himself and minimal luggage to return the car, then take a shuttle bus from the rental to the airport terminal.

We had a bite at the food court, and headed to the gates.

Boarding

Last pic for the road!

… or so we thought.

So what happened for the next 2 hours was pretty surreal. The flight was scheduled for 1420. After settling in the plane, and 30minutes after, we had not moved an inch on the tarmac. Announcements were made to alert passengers that there was an engine fault and they were running checks. Another 30 minutes later, still nothing. At the 2-hour mark, they made the announcement that there would be more delays until the problem was sorted because they kept finding a glitch after another. The crew had started to serve drinks, and there were some confusion as we were bounced about being able to get off the plane, or not, and the message was not consistent with what was being announced and what the crew were telling us. It was frustrating and it was truly a pain with two kids who wanted nothing more than "watch tv! I'm hungry! Why are we not flying?" - it was an awful situation to be in. We were literally in between tarmac and confined flight.

After some queries, there was an option of off-loading - what that meant was that we'd be given vouchers to stay another night in an airport hotel and come back again the next day. With two whiney kids in tow, we opted for that.

Getting off again after being cooped up in the plane for 2+ hours

By then, the boy was getting really cranky as he wanted his milk and needed to sleep. After we disembarked the plane, boarded a shuttle bus that drove us to the terminal building. Where we waited, and finally managed to feed him his milk.

Sleepy-milk-monster

Asleep within minutes

The poor boy was so tired, he knocked out within minutes. We waited for the ground staff to collect us and lead us out of the terminal; bringing us to the ticket counter. It felt really surreal, like my whole afternoon was just rewinding itself.

We took a shuttle bus back to the hotel with us and had a pretty below-average dinner. The highlight for the night was that the husband and I opted to go to the hotel lobby for a drink. We left the kids alone to sleep and headed down to unwind.

It was Emmy's night. With odd-tasting beer with yummy chips

That night, it felt strange to sleep yet again on a hotel bed when I was all ready to be on the plane heading home. 

What an odd day.

Read about the previous day here

Eating our way through Penang

So, the family - that's all of us (excluding the husband) made a trip by plane, to Penang over the long weekend.

It was a trip we talked about for years, booked tickets months ago, and we spent 4 days together with one another.

I'll update in more detail, but here is a pretty awesome shot that shows how happy we were, how silly we are, and how love (and food) makes us round,

#familylove @ Armenian Street