Mikayla had a 'summer reading program' this summer, and she successfully completed 130 books! While they were mostly primers, this was a pretty big accomplishment for a kindergartner. We told her we would take a trip to celebrate if she was able to finish it (we also warned her that the reward would not always be this big!). So this past weekend we drove about 5 hours north (although it took 8 hours to get there because of traffic!) to the old US naval base, Subic. They have a several fun family activities in the area, and we were able to do 2 of them. The first was Zoobic (a zoo in Subic). There was a small animal conservatory and tons of these amazing trees. Oh - Kimberly, Mikayla's MK friend from our town, joined us for the adventure. And the 2 of them had their hair put in tiny braids for the weekend.
Zach was just too cute squatting next to the miniature horses. The cages for these animals were not very secure, and the horses got out at one point while we were touring the area. They promptly headed down to the goat cage and opened it with their noses so as to get the goats' food. At which point the goats began to roam about. We had one instance where we were in the way for where the horses wanted to go, and we were unable to get all the kids out of the way before they came trudging through. While they were not dangerous, they still gave Ben quite a fright. We also had one very large Billy goat making friends with Steve by gently butting him with his large horns.
Don't worry - there is actually glass between Zach and this python!
The highlight of the Zoobic adventure was the tiger safari. We all loaded up in these converted jeepneys for the trek into the tiger hunting grounds. While there were bars covering all the openings, the workmanship was less than confidence-inspiring.
Once in the compound with the tigers, they began feeding them raw chickens. The tigers proceeded to track and hunt and pounce the chickens - which were attached to the jeepney! Made for quite the exciting adventure.
Aren't they awe-inspiring animals?
After the safari, we were given the chance to actually hold and feed a baby tiger! This 'baby' was only 7 months old, but he was huge! Very cool.
Zach was understandably a little nervous about the whole thing, but he bravely tackled his fear - and loved it in the end.
Kimberly was pretty nervous about this - her family is not quite as adventurous as ours tends to be - but she was ok as long as Uncle Steve stayed close (notice his arm next to her).
Mikayla, on the other hand, ate this experience up. She actually wanted so badly to get to hold the tiger all by herself that she very sweetly asked her daddy for one more turn. I think we need to check her finger to see how tightly wrapped around it her daddy is.
We also got to take a train around the property to tour the ostrich cage and a few other things. The boys looked too cute.
The next day, we headed to Ocean Adventure where the kids enjoyed the aquariums, a sea lion show, and a dolphin show before we headed for home.
This great pic of the four of them was taken in front of the Philippine Eagle at Ocean Adventure. 
We also got to see some cool wildlife actually in the wild while we were up there. While we were not that impressed with the many 'wild' cockroaches in our hotel room, these bats were pretty amazing. They were huge!
Do you see those large hanging black things in the trees? Those are bats! There were thousands of them.
There were tons of wild monkeys in that area; there were 'monkey crossing' signs everywhere. And we did see several monkeys crossing the road. This one just sat at the side of the road and watched us, even as we stopped and watched him. I think he was hoping for some food.
We had an absolute blast at Subic as a family. It was a perfect celebration - for Mikayla's completed reading program as well as our recent language evaluation (read the next post for details). We are so thankful to our Father for making it possible.
Ben still has a long way to go before he can do it, but he tries with the best of them.
Famous last words - look, Mom, no hands!
This one was just for the pic - they are not normally allowed to climb overtop each other in case they fall. If you're gonna let your kids climb the walls, you have to have some safety rules, right?
Mikayla rode with the Nelsons, and Janice rode with Steve and I.
The "boatmen" had to work VERY hard to pull our boats up the river as it narrowed into a stream. There were 18 sets of rapids that they had to pull the canoes up. Steve and I got some great language practice in talking with our boatmen along the way (when they weren't huffing and puffing too hard from the effort of pulling us up the rapids).
The gorge we were in felt like something out of a movie with small waterfalls splashing down the sides and lots of wildlife along the shore (some unique ones we saw were monkeys, snakes, and iguanas).
This one below is a picture of Pagsanjan (pag-san-HAN) Falls at the top of the river. Here we were able to climb onto bamboo rafts and go up behind the falls to a small cave. We even got to try to swim into the base of the falls. It was unreal how strong the current and spray was though.
We all got very wet - whether or not you got off and swam at the base of the falls - from the spray and waves from the falls.
Here is a pic of our group in front of the falls. Sorry it is a little blury - the Filipino guy taking the pic must have moved a little bit.
Going back down the river was also an adventure. It was unreal how well they navigated those tiny little boats around all those rocks at top speed. It was like one big water slide.
We found some amazing starfish in the ocean while we were there. They were huge! The kids had fun learning about these cool creatures.
Zach got himself a "girl friend" while we were there. Beth Ann is a sweet girl, and the 2 of them did everything together. This morning when he woke up, Zach said, "I miss my girl friend". I think he calls her his girlfriend because he can't remember her name. :)
Grandma and Papa also included some special surprises for the kids.
Here is the massive pile of stuff! God is so good - what an encouragement and blessing. We don't even know how to begin to say thank you to all of you! Taco and Spaghetti seasonings, hair stuff for me, treats for the kids and us, Ziplock bags, the list goes on and on... Thank you!!!
