When we were planning our trip I knew I wanted to take the kids to the Philippines where I had served my mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The area I lived in was not the place to take them back to. They just don’t get a lot of tourists there.  I still wanted them to experience the people and culture. I knew one of our stops would be Cebu. I had always wanted to visit there and my first mission companion and her family live there. It would give us a chance to see each other again.

Cebu was our first stop. We only spent a couple days here. We saw the city and visited with Catherine and her family. It was wonderful to see her again and to meet her family. They all spoke English well enough that we were able to communicate without any problems. In fact, her youngest son who is five sounded just like any American five year old. He loved talking to us in English, which he has learned from YouTube. We had an enjoyable visit with them and the kids learned a lot from talking with one another. It was hard to say goodbye when the evening ended.

Before leaving the area we made a trip over to the Island of Bohol.  Here you will find the Chocolate Hills and a curious-looking animal called Tarsier. The Chocolate Hill were more of mint green hills during our visit, but we did see a couple brown ones. The tarsiers were a lot smaller than we expected, but their uniqueness made it worth the effort to see them.