Samara is 3!

Samara wanted an elephant birthday so we had intended to go to an elephant park in Bintan (Indonesian Island 45 minutes via ferry) for her b-day. They changed their visas requirements and it ended up being too costly for a day trip. So, to the zoo for breakfast it was.

This is no ordinary breakfast. This zoo is very interactive and you get to hold boa snakes and the lemurs come out to dine with you.

The beautiful endangered Sumatran Orangatans also come down to enjoy their breakfast with you. They were so neat to watch. The moms would open the fruit and feed it to their babies.

The highlight of the day was having Papa join us! He's only been once with us, which was on her b-day last year. She asks nearly every time we go if he can join us but poor Papa is always stuck at work. It was fun to see his reaction to everything at the zoo because it's become so commonplace to Samara and me.

Samara loves the merry-go-round and had requested a ride on that but it was, unfortunately, closed. She was a good sport about it and we settled on a pony ride instead. They even let her go on two loops since it was her b-day. Ben and I both got a little teary eyed watching her. She seemed so grown up. We can't believe she is 3 already. She is quite the character and a delightful little girl. We are so thankful that she is part of our family!

We decided to have a casual BBQ and swim to celebrate Samara's birthday. We invited all her little friends and their families. This is Celeste and Verene. I intended to get photos of all her pals but that only happened with these two, who were the first to arrive.

Samara is really loving the pool lately and spent the whole time playing with the kids in the pool.

These are our dear friends and neighbors. They move back to Germany this summer and we will be so sad when they go. :( (Funny story: They watched Samara while we went out on Valentines Day. We brought her home a pink pen and she told me the next day that when she and Max went on a date she'd bring me home a green pen and Ben a blue one.)

More pool fun. We are so thankful for the wonderful friends we've made here that make it feel like home. It definitely makes it easier to not have grandparents and family close by.

Samara is all about birthday cake. As soon as she sees the cake at a party that's all she can think about. She won't play or do anything else but ask repeatedly when we are going to eat the cake. She wanted an elephant cake and even with a lot of help from a kind friend it took my domestically challenged self several hours to make.

We like her to keep her water wings on even outside the pool...just in case.

Samara loves cooking. I bought this in Canada at Christmas for $20 and brought is back in one of our food boxes. This 'made in America' beauty makes all the chinese-made stuff look very quality. She loves it though and there is no use investing in nice toys that we'll leave behind in a year or two when we move back. Samara has been in heaven playing with all her presents. I love watching kids giving each other presents--they are so adorable and excited when they give them. It is sweet to watch them light up as they anxiously give the gift and watch the recipient open it up. Thank you everyone for the wonderful gifts and making her day so special!

Happy Birthday sweet little Mara!

Click to see her 3-year old portraits!

And check back tomorrow for a VERY exciting announcement!

Utah Winter Fun, Friends, and Cousins

This is a big catch-up post about our trip back home. Then, I am on to blurbing the blog and making Samara's year 3 book since she turns 3 this weekend. I'll let you know if all this blogging is worth it. :)

Samara wasn't sure what to think of winter at first. She'd strip her coat and extra layers off as soon we got into the house. She did not like wearing boots and even told me when we went boot shopping, "These boots are disgusting! I don't want them."

Then comes Uncle Kenny, aka BFF, to the rescue who tells her the boots are cute and she decides she wants them. When her cousin, Sariah, happily announced that she was going to have a little brother after Esther's ultrasound, Samara curtly said, "I don't need a brother. I have an Uncle Kenny. He's a brother."

One Saturday we woke up to gorgeous freshly fallen snow (in my opinion there is nothing better than that) and we convinced Uncle Kenny to go snowshoeing (or snowboarding as Mara calls it) with us. I had the easy job and only had to haul the camera bag.

Thankfully, Samara quickly acclimatized and would ask to get bundled up so she could go outside and play in the snow. She loved it. Rachelle's youngest, Celeste, had her first b-day while we were there and we all went out to make a snowman after the party.

My Siblings, Rachelle (youngest), Kenny (oldest), Esther (2nd)

Sariah in the blue belongs to Esther and James and Kaylie belong to Rachelle.

And no--those rocks in front of the snowmen are not intended to look like poo.

Cute girls! While we were making the snowman someone asked Samara if we had snow in Singapore and she very matter of factually said, "No, we just have hot there." It's true! Right now we are experiencing a heat wave due to droughts in the area that is supposed to last until June. Is that even legal for one to last that long?

She also LOVED sledding! This is the little hill at my elementary school where we took her skiing last year and where my dad took us as kids.

When we got married 8 of Ben's 13 siblings lived in Utah but now only one brother does. We loved spending time with them. These are his gorgeous girls and he also has a son. They were wonderful with Samara and she loved their house. They have a dog, cat, rabbits, and a snake so what is not to love!

This is my Uncle Lester's family who came over to help celebrate my birthday. My last birthday stunk and the one before that (when I turned 30 of all years) was one of the worst days of my life but this year was fantastic. It was so neat to be surrounded by so many loved ones. I even got to celebrate with my sweet Ben and amazing friends when I got back to Singapore so this year definitely made up for the past two.

My Aunt Diane made me a delicious chocolate cake. Samara is really into birthday cakes (what two year old isn't, right?!) and in her prayers that night said, "thanks for food-the cake and the FROSTING".

Here is the cake she made me while I was skiing. Adorable and touching but not so much edible.

It was so nice to be back home and see family and friends. I was so fortunate to see many old friends and wish I'd had my camera out more (many of these I got from my sisters and that's my excuse for the long delay in posting :)). If any of you have a photo from our visit, please email it to me! These are two of my very best childhood friends, with whom I've reconnected on facebook the past year and who both happen to be living in Utah. Nicole (on the left) came up from Moab with her beautiful little girl. She and I were best pals in nursery. Tanya lived behind me growing up and her dad made a secret passage in the fence so we could go back and forth between each other's houses.

I also reconnected on facebook with one of my high school friends, Emily, who has also started a photography business this past year. We went out shooting Utah Valley at night together and had a great time. Unfortunately, my images got deleted from my card before I even got to upload them but check her beautiful images out here. If you are in Utah definitely check her site out.

My girls--Mikey, Kevann (who came up from CO), Suzi, Cousin Jeanne, Me, Cristy (visiting from Idaho), and Wendy. I dearly love these gals and we had a super time catching up at Los Hermanos. They have the best salsa in the world. See that green shirt I am wearing? I bought it 15 years ago and get a free specialty drink every time I go by wearing it. It was the best $9.99 I have ever spent.

Kevann, me, Amy, and Mikey on our ski day. They are all sisters but they are nice enough to let me be part of their family. New snow and gorgeous blue skies. Doesn't get any better than this!

Me and cousin Jeanne on our ski day. We skied delicious bumps all day. Because I couldn't let her out ski me, I paid for it and was terribly sore for the next week.

Gong Xi Fa Cai!!

It's now 'that time of year' in Singapore. We celebrated Chinese New Year (CNY) this past week. It is the most important of the traditional Chinese holidays. It is like Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's all bundled in one fabulous holiday. You get 2 days off work but celebrations last for a over month. They start well before the first day of the New Year. There are 15 days of New Year all representing different things. The holiday is commonly called the Lunar New Year because it is based on the lunisolar calendar. It is also called the Spring Festival. The CNY celebrations are marked by visiting family and friends and a special dinner. New clothes, shoes, and haircuts are donned to signify a new year. Red is liberally used in all decorations. Doors are decorated. Red packets with money are given to kids. Employers give bonuses in red envelopes to signify wealth and prosperity. Google more about what happens on each day and the mythology behind it all--you'll find it fascinating.

Everywhere is decorated in some way or another.


This was incredible. It was a dragon, lamp, and phoenix made from over 10,000 pieces of porcelain plates, bowls, cups, and spoons. Wish I had a good shot to do it justice.


Meet the God of Fortune. Many Chinese worship him during Chinese New Year. Pictures of him are hung in households, hoping that fortune and good luck will shower upon them. His lantern is composed of unceasing wealth, seaweed from the Lotus Sea, and gold ingots to bless the people of Singapore. In fact, while we were there, the lantern shot out some "gold ingots", which created a mad rush to catch some.
Good Fortune is a huge part of the culture. Right after I got back we went to a hypermart to stock up on food, paper products, etc and received a card for every $30 we spend. The cards were scratch and win. Each one had a different mahjong symbol on it. The first 888 people to collect each of the 13 different cards got a free mahjong set. We got 10 cards and you should have seen the crowd of elderly folks who gathered around me wanting me to scratch away so they could trade any duplicates with me. It was pretty funny.

Here is a Dragon sculpture sugar lamp, made of of several thousand kilograms of sugar. This is considered the epitome of the art of sugar lantern making.

This lady is making Zodiac symbols of sugar. You would spin a wheel (like wheel of fortune) and she would draw whichever Zodiac symbol you landed on.

(She's taking a picture of me as well--the only pose she'd do that day)

Wishing all of you a very auspicious year of the Tiger!!

Canadian Christmas

Ben hasn't been home to Canada for Christmas for nine years, which was the year before we got married. I still remember him calling me the day I got home from my mission from Stirling. We've always spent Bikman Christmases in UT or TX. Needless to say, he was excited to get home! He only had a day to recoup after flying all the way from Singapore before making the 12 hour drive north. Samara hadn't really been in a car seat much for a year so we were really worried about how she would do. Thankfully, she traveled like a champion and was less fussy than we were.
We visited Mr. Claus himself. All Samara would tell him or anyone (besides us) when they asked what she wanted was "toys". She kept asking if we wanted toys too.

The super handsome cousin Danai and Samara ready for a 4-wheel ride in the snow. Samara always refers to him as "cousin Danai" but he is the only cousin she refers to like that. We aren't sure why. Edmonton, Alberta (~7 hours north) was the coldest place on earth the week before and we definitely felt the bone-chilling cold!


Ben made a perfect target.

A little sleigh ride and back inside to warm up.

Christmas isn't complete without decorating gingerbread houses and gingerbread men. Though Samara was very adamant that hers were gingerbread girls. She and Danai had a great time together. He's just about 9 months older than her. Unfortunately, I don't have any photos of her other Canadian cousin, Clark. He just turned 7 and both she and Danai adore him. They both loved whenever he came over and immediately wanted to play with him. He was so patient and sweet with both of them. She also really enjoyed playing with Jody and Dano's kids and loved seeing them again.


Santa is pretty smart and even though Samara didn't expressly ask him for a pink suitcase she got just want she'd been asking for. All the traveling must be wearing off on her and now at least she can carry her own weight. :)
She was a little more interested in presents than pictures.


Again, the stocking were much more appealing than posing for a photo.


We had the best time chillaxin' (as they call it with Ben's family). When you are 1 of 13 having only 5/13 kids and especially only 3/29 grandkids there made it seem very small and quaint. We loved catching up with everyone, eating non-stop, and just watching movies and playing video games.

My beautiful and fabulous sisters-in-law. Bam, Molly, and Shanna. Katy was already gone. :(

And, of course, no Christmas is complete without Grandpa Bikman! Samara loved getting to spend time with him and Grandma (no pictures). She still asks to wrestle with him and wants to play all the games Aunt Katy played with her.

My Scrumptious Ski Bunny

I was able to get in two FANTASTIC ski days while I was home. I took Samara once too. I know that to 99% of the general population their child skiing is the last thing they could care about. I'm part of that one percent who cares.We headed up to the bunny hill at Deer Valley with my cousin Jeanne and her darling girls, Aspen and Sage. The girls had a blast together. They were so sweet to Samara and I think it was good for her to see them doing it. Samara has told me several times that "next time you can go on the big hill, mom. I will stay on the 'ittle hill with Jeanne's 'ittle girls because 2-year olds can ski by their own there." I thought she'd be at least 8 or 9 before she started ditching me to ski with friends.

The first run down didn't go so great and Samara fussed, "I want my papa to teach me!" She didn't like me controlling her speed, but I had to since she couldn't stop on her own yet. We took a potty and lunch break and once we got back out there, she loved the afternoon. She skied for 2.5 more hours and it was tough to get her to stop. I was beat by the end of the day and don't know how I used to do this day in and day out sometimes for 10 days in a row. I know I should be proud of things like being polite and sharing, but I am still beaming about her skiing so well and enjoying the day so much. She had great balance and coordination.


With the exception of terrain, there is NO resort that compares to Deer Valley's bathrooms, lifts, service, and food. These cookies are reason enough to ski. I LOVE Deer Valley!

Check her out--she is AMAZING!!! Vancouver toddler Olympics 2010 here we come!

First Real Haircut

I've trimmed Samara's hair a few times. I'm not very good with scissors and decided she needed a real trim while we were in UT. It still seems to us like she doesn't have much hair but we look at pictures from a year ago and she is finally getting some. Most people with girls tell me we're lucky and that doing hair is one the hardest thing about having a girl.

She was a little nervous at first because the girl in the chair next to us was hysterical. After reassuring her it would not hurt she did quite well and sat still.


Her cute-as-a-button cousin, Kaylie, joined us and got her hair cut as well. The hairdresser gave them pink lollipops afterwards. When I went to get a hair cut the next week Samara told me to be good so I could get a pink lollipop too.

Back in Sandals

Samara and I are back in Singapore. We've been here just over a week and are adjusting well. She's done better than ever adjusting to a new time so hopefully it lasts. It's actually really nice to be back. The first couple months we moved here last year were awful and something I hope to never do again (don't ever move oversees in suitcases and try to take care of housing yourselves!). It's so refreshing coming back to a settled home, routine, lovely friends, familiar places, and the beautiful grounds at our condo. They even asked us at both the zoo and turtle museum why we hadn't been there in so long, which made us feel very loved. Jan and Feb are a little less humid than the rest of the year so we are enjoying a couple pleasant hours in the mornings and evenings.

So many things have struck me as different coming over this time. I'm sure it's because when we first arrived last year we were so miserable that I didn't notice them. It was really weird coming from winter to summer though. We really live in the tropics--everything is so lush, green, clean, and beautiful here. A family friend from Utah who spent some time in Singapore asked if we'd notice how many more smells there are here. We hadn't really until we came back. There are so many more smells--both good and bad. Stuff just grows here, including smells!

Here is the summary of our trip back, mostly for our records. It will probably put the rest of you to sleep.

28: Total hours of travel time

23: Total hours in the air

6: Total hours Samara slept

423: Stickers placed

1: Items confiscated at security

9: Number of movies she and I watched

5: comments about our iMac box that was really only a box with food in it.

30: Minutes playing peak-a-boo with the masked girls behind us

53: Photos taken by said girls of Samara playing peak-a-boo with them

I can't say I was really looking forward to the flight back. The day before we left to come back I was getting my teeth cleaned and I overheard a woman was telling the receptionist about her flight back to Korea the next day. The receptionist asked how long her flight was and she said it was 12 hours from LA. Oh how I envied that woman! Only 12 hours from LA?! You can almost leave the portable DVD player home with that short of a flight! Samara really did well though. We successfully got our 3 boxes and suitcase checked in (thank you Mr. Skycap guy with the fabulous accent. I love you!). We bought a Krispy Kreme donut as our way of saying "goodbye" to good ol' America grub. Samara acted up a bit on the flight to LA (no complaints--I'll take the 1.5h flight for her to act up on!) We got to LA and rushed straight to our next plane. We only had a 50 minute layover and had to get to the other side of the airport. I was very relieved to make it on the leg to Japan because Ben had missed his flight and spent a night in LA.

When we got on we found out we had the middle two seats between two dudes in the middle row and I cried inside knowing what a pain it would be to get in and out of our seats. "Sparky 1" on right was a nice young kid. "Sparky 2" on the left was a mute (he could talk, just didn't) who was dressed to the nines, complete with hoodie, jacket, fedora, big dark sunglasses, prada bag, and his DSLR camera. He wore all that the entire flight. His camera was the same model I have and let me tell you that thing is heavy. My necks hurts after an hour of lugging it around. Why he wore it for 13 hours straight is beyond me. He slept the first 7 hours while we were awake so we had to wake him up every time we wanted to get out that side. He was awake the next 6 hours with the reading light shinning directly into Samara's sleeping face (once she fell asleep). I am still kicking myself that I didn't point out and politely ask him if he'd switch to the open seat across the aisle.

I was relieved to get to Japan. A 2-hour layover and only 8 more hours on the plane. It was about 1 AM our time at that point. Poor Samara politely asked if she was going to get another pink donut. I guess she equated airports with donuts. Anyway, she burst into tears when I tried to explain that they didn't have donuts in Japan (at least not in the airport). We took a potty break in the most luxurious family bathroom ever, complete with a bidet and dryer. My tooshie welcomed the pampering after sitting for so long. The one thing missing though was a way to dry our hands. Why this part of the world doesn't believe in hand dryers and paper towels is a mystery. We boarded the plane and once again found ourselves in the middle two seats in the middle row. Thank goodness one of the ladies moved. Having the extra room and being able to get in and out freely was almost like 1st class. The lady on the other side of us was perhaps the nicest woman in the world. The plane on this leg has TV monitors in all the seats so I let Samara have at it with the movies until she fell asleep again. I watched a couple movies, including "My Sister's Keeper" (I cried and cried). That show is a tear jerker.

We were so excited to be on the ground in Singapore. A quick trip through customs and we were at the baggage claim. We were very HAPPY to see Ben waiting on the other side of the glass. Samara ran as fast as she good with a smile bigger than Christmas morning. I passed her and the stroller with our carry-ons to Ben and went to get the rest of our stuff. The luggage carts don't cost anything in Singapore, which is awesome. I loaded two up and off we went with a very happy and surprised dad who didn't know it was possible for us to bring so much back home. Sadly, I consider making this flight on my top-ten list of accomplishments. I so would have failed as a pilgrim or pioneer. We got home about 2 am local time and slept a few hours. She and I fell back asleep at 11:30 am and I was out until 5 am the next day with the exception of getting up for a while to eat.

It really is much nicer being back than I expected. I'm so thankful for awesome friends! We doubt we are never going to live in such a diverse and interesting place again, so we really want to take advantage of our time in Singapore. Here's to 2010 and another year of adventures, Singapore style!