Flip Flopaholic: Taking the Family to the Philippines (Part 1)

Some people (including me) wondered why would we haul ourselves almost 7,000 miles across the globe to stay less than two weeks when the youngest traveler just turned four a few months earlier . . . But my husband's thoughtfulness never ceases to amaze me - he reminded me that it would be a shame to miss out on the opportunity to visit while my parents were able to show us around and my brother's family was nearby. So in a nutshell, we visited so we could do this:

It must run in the Morgan family because I was also touched when cool Aunt Marcy kindly agreed to accompany us on a trek that she knew would be more than a little adventurous; (Stay tuned for more in Part 2

My dad, the youngest of sixteen (yes – same set of parents), was the only one that immigrated to the United States. Needless to say, he was thrilled to have the opportunity to invite a small sample of his many family members from the province where he grew up (Bulacan, Malolos) to visit while he had all of his direct descendants - two kids and four grandchildren - under his roof in Manila. Hearing him share his gratitude for that opportunity made it all worth it. We had a lot of special visitors, but my Nana Lucing (my dad’s only living sister) holds a special place in my dad's heart (so she does in mine too). She never appears in photographs without a smile. It was nice to see it in person, too!

PJ learned that they play Crazy 8 in the Philippines too and it really didn’t matter that he couldn’t speak Filipino because everyone understood his English. I was so proud of his ability to mingle with so many people that he never met, but did so because his Lolo and Lola told him that they were family.

Now that my nephews live in Hong Kong, we don’t get to see them that often and it was nice to have the opportunity to have time to hang out with them, too. Low and behold, they didn’t mind playing Wii and Bryce still knew enough about Pokemon to hang with the boys!