Ostrow Family Visit

 

Our good friends from Houston made the long trip to visit for about a week. With kids the same age as ours, no small feat, but we appreciated the effort and had a blast showing them all around Singapore.
Despite having jet-lagged and sick kids (made a visit to the walk-in clinic for an ear infection for Olivia), they were eager to be out and about as much as possible, and we saw almost everything there is to see in just a week! And of course, the kids had a blast just playing at home and swimming in our pool.

Gardens by the Bay is always a hit, and we also all went in the Cloud Forest, which was much more impressive than I thought it would be.

  

 

We also visited the ArtScience Museum, Chinatown, the Botanic Gardens, and saw the bay. All of Singapore's must-dos.

  

 

The aquarium, zoo, and bird park were also huge hits with the kids, and the rainy day weather those days meant it was much cooler and enjoyable to walk around. Everett and Emmeline got to feed the elephants at the zoo and the lorries at the bird park, both of which were huge hits!

 

Sally and I escaped to Indonesia for a day spa trip. Mike and Nick held down the fort with all four kids, entertaining them with the park, swimming, and a walk along the river. Their day was much less relaxing than ours. Meanwhile, Sally and I took a quick ferry to Batam, where we relaxed by the pool, sipped wine, and enjoyed a delicious lunch before being treated to 3 hours of spa treatments: facial, massage, and hair treatment were what we chose, and how wonderful they were! Definitely something I'd love to do again before we leave--it's so cheap!

 

 

 

Of course, we ate lots of yummy Asian food too. Everett wasn't a big fan of anything new, so we didn't eat as much as we could have, but we still gave them a good taste. From Din Tai Fung, to the hawker, and adults only dinners, it was all yum! I had my first chilli crab, and it was every bit as delicious as people say. Of course, hot pot is always fun and delicious, and we had some rooftop drinks a few times. Once at Spago on the top of MBS and the other at Southbridge along the river. Pricey drinks but fun for the rare occasion.

 
 

Another first we did was a stay-cation at the Shangri-La on Sentosa. It was fun to play in their huge pool, use their slides, and play on the beach. Sally and Mike stayed 2 nights, but we only stayed 1. Now we know that we can probably just act confidently and use the facilities any time without having the spend the money to stay the night. :)

 

 

 

Everyone was thoroughly exhausted by the end of the week; we lived the expat life like many expats (especially those with helpers) live often in Singapore, and it was exhausting! But we had so much fun, and all the kids are looking forward to when they are all reunited in Texas again!