manila, philippines

we spent last weekend in the capitol city of the philippines visiting k&j and their cute little girls. we'd always wanted to check out manila, and k&j were kind enough to host us in their home. it turned out to be great timing with the terrible haze in singapore--we left on a plane right when the haze was the worst (and luckily, it's much better now).

we woke up saturday morning and went out to breakfast in "the fort." fort bonifacio was a dream come true for my pregnancy cravings...jamba juice! texas roadhouse! california pizza kitchen! lots of american choices that we don't have in singapore. i also picked out fabric while we were out and k's helper, who is also a talented seamstress, made sage a dress in just a few hours. amazing. 

the ultimate bargaining happened at green hills, where we picked out pearls and longchamp bags.

the girls were patient as we waited in the heat for the car.
manila's traffic is epic! i think it ties with bangkok.

sage was in heaven the whole weekend.
strollers, play mates, coloring, baby dolls...all of her favorite things at once.

on sunday, we went to church then drove to the manila temple to walk around. i'm not quite out of the "looking chubby" stage, but i definitely have a belly.

the grounds were completely empty. very peaceful.

we stopped at the american cemetary right by k&j's home too. it's a circle of calm overlooking the busy city.

on monday morning, we trekked out to tagaytay sans husbands. we saw a lot on the hour long drive...nice malls, sketchy areas, markets, shops. as we slowly rose up the mountains and out of manila, this was the view.

we had lunch on the patio overlooking the lake and volcano in the distance. smoothies are always a must in hot, humid asia.

the girls were pretty happy with their fancy drinks and plenty of space to run

we happened to get a glimpse of some traditional filipino dancing too.

sage didn't want to leave and kept insisting, "song! song!"

we made a pit stop for buko pie at collette's and for fruit at the street market. fresh mangos, pineapples, mangosteens, dragon fruit, bananas, papaya. i will really miss all the tropical fruit.

we had to fit in our traditional photo of sage on nate's shoulders, but unfortunately it was at the end of a sweaty, busy day when sage wasn't in the greatest mood. 

our favorite part of manila was hanging out with k&j.
 a fun, relaxing weekend in a new city was just what we needed.
thanks hill family!