Holiday Recap

Is it just me, or do the holidays already seem like forever ago? Maybe it's because we traversed the earth twice, or because suffering from jet lag makes everything seem like a dream, or most likely because we are back to living in a tropical jungle so the cold and snow seem like seasons past. 

At any rate, I wanted to document and share the amazing, memorable, heart warming (and stomach filling) time we spent with our family and friends back in the USA. It's never easy to leave, but we treasure and enjoy the time we do get to spend back in Kansas and Nebraska. We are pretty darn fortunate to be able to make so many trips back home (have you looked at a map lately just how far away Singapore is?!) and to have such awesome, genuine, supportive people in our lives. Whenever we travel back to the states (which is tracking to be about every 6 mo), we have these kind of 'check-in' moments in which we always come away reassured and excited that we are both doing the right thing and embracing this big adventure, but are also looking forward to one day making the Midwest our forever home.   

Lots of photos to share - until next time America... 

We landed at MCI after about 30 hours of straight traveling on Friday 19 Dec at 5:00pm. By 7:00pm we had a house full of our closest friends celebrating Michael's and my birthdays. The Duvall's were so kind and generous to throw us a 'fiesta' birthday celebration and it did not disappoint. Ponak's margaritas, Mexican food and 0ur most fun friends. I can't think of a better homecoming! (the party was epic - I blame my euphoria for not taking more photos).

How cute is this mama-to-be and model child? 

Hi Mary! 

All great gatherings at the Duvall's end (at 3am) on the screened in porch. 

After a full day of recovery, we were on the right time zone and ready to tackle the mean streets of KC. We made a list of restaurants/food we missed and wanted to eat. Winstead's, check!  

How can I get some of that right now?! 

Daily outings with Jack. (If I was an A-list celebrity, this would be my paparazzi photo).

As I was taking 58, 467 photos of Michael and Jack, this teeny old lady walked by and said to us, 'you guys are so cute. Merry Christmas.' Aw, I love Midwestern hospitality. Now Michael, get me a dog stat!

Lunch with Michael's Grandpa Lee :)

It's not a trip to KC without The Peanut - check! (best bar in KC, btw). 

Christmas Eve cocktails with these fun people. Cheers.

Nana makes the most stylish hats and scarves for her favorite gals.  

Christmas morning we were up early and hit I-29 N to make the trek to my parents house up in Omaha. Michael is a pretty good driver for someone who hasn't owed a car in almost 5 years and lives in a country where they drive on the left side of the road. Side note: we got absolutely hooked on Serial during our long drives.  

After a quick drive we were ready for a fun filled Christmas through the eyes and ears of a 4 year old. These two... 

Nothing but sweet, precious, trouble ;)

Christmas morning with little kids is such an amazing, hilarious, ball of sugary, santa-filled insanity. Poor Uncle Michel, he didn't stand a chance. He certainly earned his nap that afternoon.   

Is there anything better than sweet little 4 year old kisses? 

Selfie stick! We purchased one for both our families and they were big laughs. The selfie stick epidemic here in Asia is out of control. 

Ladies day out. 

A few days after Christmas we traveled back to the Durham (look familiar? :)) The little boys were so excited to see the biiiiigest Christmas tree in all of the land! How cute are we?!

Awww...

Love my family.

Diner breakfast, check! 

When you meet your best friend's baby.... 

Heart is bursting. 

Omaha nights. 

Michael joined my dad and played cowboy for a day.

Every true expat needs a hometown Walmart run. So. Much. Stuff!!

And Chipotle, check! 

Sunday evening my parents, Michael and I all went to Yesterday and Today: The Interactive Beatles Experience . It was SO much fun. These 3 brothers know every single Beatles song and take requests written requests throughout the night. Needless to say, Michael was in heaven. We are already looking forward to going back next year. 

Last night in Omaha with these munchkins. 

Selfie stick! (Luke's face) 

Back on I-29 headed South. KC part deux. 

Once back in KC we gathered the crew and headed straight to Lawrence. I can't even remember the last time I was in Lawrence. Needless to say, I was extremely pumped. 

#TWINNING 

Rock Chalk! 

KC BBQ, check! 

And just like that, we were nearing the end of our trip and ready to ring in the new year. 

NYE. 

Love these folks. 

Cheers, 2014, for quite the year! I have a feeling 2015 will be pretty special as well...

This holiday season just wouldn't quit! Barnds/Duvall family Christmas. Grill master Whoosh. 

Selfies! 

Duvey Bros concert. 

And finally, on our last night in town I did two of favorite things: Ponak's with the family, and catching up with my sisters. HBD Whitters! 

That's all folks! What a whirlwind of a trip. We are safely back in Singapore, getting back into the groove and working off all that delicious American red meat. We had such a wonderful time and were able to see so many of our friends and family. We do not have our next trip back planned yet, but are looking forward to a whole slew of visitors in Singapore this coming year. 

Cheers to a happy, healthy, and prosperous 2015 everyone! 

XO,

CD 

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The Weekender

Hey guys! First and foremost - THANK YOU all for the very sweet and thoughtful birthday wishes, texts, posts and messages. Like I mentioned last year, it's fun having your bday while living in Asia because you really do get to be celebrated for two full days! (How do parents who've had a baby in Asia but moved to the US celebrate? It's like 'son, your birthday is today but really it was yesterday.' Trippy man). It's so wonderful how technology brings us closer and makes us feel not so far away. Thanks again everyone, you're the best :)

In summary, I had an absolutely awesome birthday weekend full of gifts, sweets, holiday cheer and a whole lot of running. Michael and I are both feeling the year end squeeze, both at work and with holiday gatherings, but even though we are crazy busy and it's 90 degrees out, it really is the most wonderful time of the year... 

Big shout out to the best FIL (family-in-law) for the gorgeous flowers. Everyone at work asked if they were from my husband. No! They are from his family tho. A-hem, where's my bouquet from you, Michael? ;) JK, JK.

Birthday-day lunch at one of our favorite hot spots - Din Tai Fung. 

My birthday night actually coincided with our annual office holiday party. The location and night was so much fun. The party was held at the historic Singapore National Museum - the food, drink and entertainment (my trivia team won!) was excellent. They were also so sweet about celebrating my bday as well :)

I rushed home to my sweet husband  just before midnight (I unfortunately couldn't attend the after party because of the impending half marathon a mere 36 hours later). He greeted me with a sweet gift, cake and candles. Hashtag blessed. 

Now. On to the main event! Michael and I participated ran in the Standard Chartered half marathon for the second year in a row(!) I'm far from a 'real runner' but like the idea of doing a big event once a year. 

Starting line selfie! Ugh - notice how much lighter it is than last year?

We arrived a little bit later than we wanted to and ended up flagging off in the third wave - about 35min later than the first start. Meaning an extra 35min in the direct sun and heat! Not making excuses here... But in hindsight this was a mistake on our part. Most cloudy? Lies. 

Anyway, we did it! I was pretty dissapointed in my time, but happy that I finished (I blame the heat, new route and Kanye West radio not being that sweet this month). Michael did great and beat his time from last year by 10 min(!)  

After we limped home, we showered up and headed to the Westin for a well earned, free flow champagne birthday  brunch. Yes - it's a 3 day affair. 

The Westin pulls out all the stops with the 3 V's: view, variety and Veuve ;)

SO much new construction.

Hmmm, meat. 

About midway through brunch we enjoyed a classic Singapore storm roll on in.

Even though we are so far from many of our friends and family it was a wonderful birthday celebration. Cheers to a great year to come! 

Tomorrow we are headed to Bintan, Indonesia for a relaxing beach vacay. We booked the trip equal parts post marathon, birthday and Michael's guilt for traveling so much lately. #Diva. It'll be a well deserved break to rest our legs and catch up on some sleep. Poor Michael just got back from India after 3 days, 7 meetings, 2 red eye flights and 1 bout of Delhi belly. Yikes. 

We leave for the USA next Friday and we absolutely cannot wait to see everyone over the holidays! Lots of love!!

XO,

CD

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Michael Down Under: Sydney, Australia + Auckland, New Zealand

G'day all you loyal LGE followers! It's been quite some time since my first and only foray into the world of blogging, and I'm glad to be back in action with a recap of my recent trip down under. 

It's been a hectic six months to say the least, beginning in June when Cassidy and I made the long trip back to the States to get hitched. Since then, between personal and business travel, I've been to Phuket, Bangkok, Bali, Hong Kong (thrice!), New York, Georgia, Kansas City, Connecticut, Mumbai and, most recently, Sydney and Aukland (off to India again next week...). The miles definitely take a toll, but the toughest part about the grueling schedule is being away from Cassidy for sometimes weeks at a time! Despite these negatives, however, I must admit that I've been incredibly lucky to get to see so much of this part of the world.

My most recent business trip to Australia (Sydney) and New Zealand (Auckland) was one of my most eagerly anticipated jaunts to date. It's also a trip that I can't wait to repeat in a more leisurely fashion with my wife by my side! Business travel is great in that it has little impact on my bottom line, and most often I get to travel in relative style (Singapore Airlines biz class is as ballin' as it gets), but I'm usually so busy that I barely have time to look around. Lucky for me, my colleague, Javad, who I was traveling with is pretty much in love with Sydney (he's been many times) and had never been to Auckland. He was really cool about encouraging me to get out and about - and even played tourist with me on Saturday in Auckland before we headed back to SNG. 

The above photo was obviously compulsory. I was lucky enough to stay right up the street from the Sydney Opera House -- literally a 2 minute walk downhill to the harbor from the Intercontinental. It sounds a bit funny, but I was actually rather unimpressed with the building from up close and in broad daylight...picture a white car that never gets put in the garage...

...what a different story at night! This photo was taken from the other side of Sydney Harbor (also known as Port Jackson). 

I feel like you can see the difference in weather (from Singapore) by the color of the sky in these photos. It was much cooler and less humid than what I've now become accustomed to - I think you can see the crispness in the air here.

    Sydney Harbor Bridge

On my second night in Sydney I finished meetings in time to enjoy the last couple hours of sunlight. I took advantage of the free time and caught a ferry out to Manly Beach. The above were taken from the top deck of the ferry, which departed from Circular Quay and arrived at Manly Wharf about 30 minutes later. 

If you ask me, it was way too cold for surfing (~65 degrees F), but there were tons of bros out in the water, even at dusk. 

On the other hand, I needed to find a hole in the wall somewhere to warm my bones...and this was just the place. It was a great place to enjoy a local brew (or two...and maybe also a specialty gin drink...) after the sun went down and the weather turned cold...middle of the day in the summer might require a slightly different setting, though.

Manly Beach faces pretty much due east, so the sun was setting behind me over the rest of the Australian continent.

I'm not much of a photographer, but I tried my best to capture this moment on the ferry ride home. 

......

Mid-week I was off to Auckland! I had a couple days of meetings, and managed to push my Singapore return flight off until late Saturday night (1:00am to be precise!) in order to have a day to explore the city and surrounding area. 

The most striking thing about New Zealand, to me, is how lush and green everything is. I took the above photo on my iPhone as we approached Auckland from the west. We've descended quite a ways by the time I snap this picture. 

So this was kinda funny. I'm walking along after my first work meeting on Friday morning...desperately seeking a flat white (which is the only coffee drink to order down under)...and all of a sudden I hear someone in the street shouting my name: Duvall!!!! 

I turned around just in time to brace myself for a bear hug from one of my closest college friends, Chris (DB)! WHAT!?!? Chris and Kate just so happened to be on the second leg of their honeymoon (which, by the way is a year long trip around the world --> you can follow the O'Dennys travels here). I was was a groomsman in their wedding no less than 6 weeks earlier! How crazy. I scurried off to my next meeting and we met later that night for drinks and made plans for the next day. 

Here we are on the ferry to Waiheke Island on Saturday morning (shouts to my dude - er, boss - Javad for taking this pic). 

Scenes from the top deck ^

Three people I never expected to be in the same place at the same time (Kate, DB and Javad) -- it's such a great thing when worlds collide unexpectedly. I believe that if one chooses to associate oneself with genuine, honest and interesting people, mixing circles can be one of the must enriching experiences around! 

A 20 minute hike through a neighborhood of vineyards...

...and we arrived at this little gem.

And what a gem it was. Here's DB looking smug, as usual, with one hell of a horizon behind him. A person could soak up this view for hours (ahem, out of the way DB...) and that's just what we did. 

To the right, a chopper that was shuttling folks back and forth from the city to the vineyard and landing about 50 yards away from where we lounged. Now that is LUXE.

Spent the second half of the day with good friends, a bottle of local Sauvignon Blanc and a nice beach view. That sounds kinda queer but it felt so natural at the time.  

(not pictured: me getting horrifically suburned.  Apparently there is an ozone problem down under)

Did I mention the Rolling Stones were playing in Auckland that night? Apparently Auckland was the last stop on the Stones' "14 on Fire" tour. We couldn't pass up the opportunity, and somehow managed to snag some great tickets at the last minute.

Here's one of the newlyweds jamming to "You Can't Always Get What You Want." Just below that, some Kiwi friends that we met outside stadium before the concert. Apparently these ladies were told they were "too drunk" at the gate and that they needed to wait 10 minutes to sober up before they were allowed in (haha). Provided some unexpected but good humored conversation to get the night warmed up. 

Below: Keef working his magic on the six string.

What a whirlwind of a trip - full of surprises around every corner! Nothing to do but roll with the crazy twists and turns that life throws at you. 

I boarded an 11 hour flight back to Singapore roughly 2 hours after this last photo was taken, by then ready to be home to my wife, but at the same time incredibly thankful for adventure I'd just been taken on. 

Until next time,

MRD 

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