Heading back to Manila

It's Monday morning and Ethan it's Ethan's 2nd Birthday. He is sporting his balloon from the hotel crew from the day before. They were so sweet and surprised him with balloons and a cake.

This pout is Ethan's new look when he doesn't get his way. I thought Evie was our drama queen but I might be wrong...

A quick picture of the view from our hotel before we have breakfast

The menu for breakfast was a set menu. Each day of the week is inspired by a different country. American breakfast was Thursday and it was pancakes, bacon, and eggs. Today is from the Philippines which was super salty, dry meat that you dip in vinegar, rice, eggs and fruit. I'd love to say it was good but the meat was difficult to eat, especially at 7:00am.

And we're off. We have a short trip but a bit of a run-around to get back to Manila. Our journey starts with a shuttle to the pier.

Evie is such a good traveler.

We took a boat to Caticlan Island. Boracay doesn't have an airport.

We then took a bus from the pier to the airport

Ethan gets weighed in at the airport. He certainly feels like over sized baggage

We arrived to the airport an hour early. No lines, no fuss but now we're in a room the size of your living room for an hour with two kids that want to run and play...yieks. The kids had eaten all their snacks, colored and read books and were over watching a movie... and then they told us we would have an hour delay...brutal.

Happy Birthday little man. After our long delay we boarded the plane and then sat on the runway for another 20 minutes because it was too windy to take off.

Evie and Joel took the seat behind Ethan and I. I wish we had half the energy the kids do.

Bye bye Boracay

After a short taxi ride, we arrived to our hotel and are on the 37th floor. It was a clear day in Manila so the view was quite fantastic from our room. The huge white roof you see close is a parking structure and small shops for the mall next door. It was the reason we stayed in the hotel we did. The mall has lots of little shops selling name brand stuff for cheap. Any kind of handbag, clothing item, DVD's etc. We went shopping for a bit when we were in Manila before we went to Boracay and had so much fun we wanted to come back. We took turns shopping while the kids played at the pool or the room, etc.

It didn't take the kids long to want to play dress up.

The rooftop pool at our hotel. It was a bit scary looking down.

A peak down from the roof

And a close up...

The kids have had so much fun swimming the past week. The water was freezing so Evie is taking her time getting in.

Ethan does great swimming especially if he has his floaters on.

A view from the room looking the same direction as from our room

Joel took a picture of the sunset while I was shopping. I had so much fun shopping especially since it was cheap and with out the kids - what a treat.