New Zealand Day One and Two

January 14th & 15th, 2012

Christchurch--Timaru--Lake Tekapo

Our New Zealand adventure started out with a nine and a half hour night flight from Singapore to Christchurch.  The flight was a taste to what is to come when going back to the USA, neither Dirk nor I got a whole lot of sleep on the flight.  We sat in the baby row next to four other babies, one would be up crying while the other three were trying to sleep then take turns crying... Dylan actually slept pretty well in the bassinet, it was mom who had a hard time sleeping.

Getting into Christchurch was really easy and retrieving our moving house, a Maui campervan, was even easier.  We packed up and headed to the nearest grocery store and stocked up for the twelve day adventure ahead.  

Instead of staying in Christchurch like we should have and getting more rest, we headed for the open road.  First stop was Timaru, 3 hours down south.

I can't say we did too much there but take showers and go to bed early to catch up on sleep.  The next morning we woke up and headed for Caroline Bay with a picnic.

After packing up the moving house we headed towards Oamaru taking a small detour to Lake Tekapo. 

Caroline Bay

Cute little town of Timaru

Enjoying the beautiful blue water

Headed to Lake Tekapo

Stopping every two and a half hours to feed and change the baby.

The campervan came in handy for this little guys needs.

Wild Flowers & Mountains

Lake Tekapo

The Church of The Good Shepard  

Dylan enjoying the sights

Amazingly blue water for a lake.

Pretty much all the lakes and rivers were this color.

The Fullerton Hotel Singapore

January 7th, 2012: Celebrating our four year anniversary

Our anniversary is actually January 5th and naturally we both forgot on the day.  Jessica had to tell me the date for me to even know it was our anniversary, so I texted Dirk, and naturally he had forgotten too.  Dirk had John, Jessica's husband, take him to the mall after work to buy me a present.  I had been eyeing a fabulous ring at Swarovski, more costume jewelry than anything...  

Anyhow, Dirk had planned a great night at The Fullerton Hotel in Singapore with dinner at Otto Restaurant.  He booked the Straits Club level at the Fullerton which is their suite floor.  It had free flow cocktails and champagne for two hours before dinner plus a great breakfast in the morning.  The turn down service was a nice touch with ice and bottled water on each night stand.  Trust me, we both needed to rehydrate after cocktail hour and a bottle of wine at dinner plus the bottle of prosecco in the room.  It was a night of celebrating for sure!

We left Dylan at home with Jessa, our live in helper.  She loves that little boy like her own and I am finally trusting her more and more.  He was in great hands.

The Fullerton Hotel

All decorated for Chinese New Year

Gong Xi Fa Cai "Happy New Year"

The pre-dinner picture

Awesome bottle of Italian Prosecco I picked up at the Wine Fiesta

Otto Italian Restaurant 

The chef is supposedly famous and came out to all the tables.  We had a five course dinner with another great bottle of wine.  Wagyu Beef, Seafood Bisque, Pasta Bolognese, Pounded Beef Tenderloin... great dinner.

Had to get a picture in front of the orange tree, another Chinese New Year tradition

2012 and the Year of the Dragon are going to be the BEST yet!!

Happy New Year 2012

We headed back to Capella Sentosa for a quiet one with Justina & Chris.  For some reason going out on the town, staying up to see the sunrise, and chasing down taxis didn't really appeal to us this year.  

Capella had Macy Gray performing for $1000 a seat.... can you say 1990s?? We opted out on that too.  Instead we hung out, ate WAY to much, and saw three firework shows in the comfort of Holmes' new apartment. 

The firework shows weren't right infront of us but we got to see MGM studios, Siloso beach party Sentosa, and Marina Bay Sands.  Two things about Singapore... they like fireworks and it is so small that you can see three shows from one place.  So that fulfilled our excitement of NYE. 

The rest of the night we watched UHF... its a movie, have you seen it??  Me neither.  I have come to the enlightenment that you can still learn something new about someone you have lived with, and known for over ten years...  yes, that is right.  Dirk LOVES this movie, I MEAN, LOVES! He recited the whole movie for us, and that was entertainment in itself... I am still a little floored by it.

The Dunlap's sans Dylan

The appetizers

UHF 


"You are one lucky little boy because you just found the marble in the oatmeal.  Do you know what that means?  You get to drink from the fire hose" -- had to have some help with this from Dirk, obviously

Today kids, we are teaching poodles how to fly!!

Christmas on Sentosa Island

Christmas Brunch at Capella on Sentosa.  I love brunches and in Singapore they really know how to do them right... sushi, prawn, mussels, pasta, grilled chicken, pork, lamb... all so good!

And don't forget, the free flow alcohol :)

Merry Christmas!

Mr. Peacock made his presence

Justina & Chris

Daddy & Dylan

Koh Samui, Thailand

December 18th-22nd, 2011: Koh Samui, Thailand

We needed this holiday and Koh Samui was just perfect.  The hotel was Nora Buri Resort on the north side of the island right near the airport.  It was isolated, quiet, and relaxing... just what this little family needed.  We opted for the hillside pool villa since Dylan is now on a very regular napping schedule.  The only time we left the resort was to go on an elephant ride.

The Dunlap's

Hillside Pool Villa 

The Barge, excellent Thai food

Dirk using his photography skills

Happy Birthday to me!

The Breakfast was amazing!

Elephant Ride

On an elephant

The Dunlap's elephant back

Christmas Card 2011

Family Christmas Card

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

from the Dunlap's!

Nose Neighbor...

says GOODBYE!

Dirk and a couple of his colleagues who participated in Movember decided to get a straight blade shave in Little India to commemorate their mustache efforts on November 30th.  

Here is Dirk's farewell to the nose neighbor.  You have to have some humor after the age of 30 and a baby... and if a mustache makes him happy, why not??

They had fun with it, I even had fun wearing a fake one for Thanksgiving...

Dead Sexy!

Communication problem the first go round!

As you can see in the picture, the Indians like their mustaches.  So when Dirk asked for a shave they started shaving until everything but the mustache was shaved.  There was some confusion with what he wanted... the Indian guy couldn't understand why Dirk wanted the mustache shaved.  He told him it looked so good.  Don't worry, it was still sniped, even got it dry shaved.  Ouch?