Vacation at my in-law's-house

It is too tiring to be in a minister's family.  We are involved with different activities and plannings. We are collaborating with so many people not only with our church members.  I have seen that our network of people gets bigger as years comes.  There will be days that we needed to receive guests and fellowship with them.  I love having them at our house, yet on the other side - it is really tiring.  I don't regret welcoming visitors in spite of that.  Would still welcome more guests these coming days.

In a minister's life, too often we really needed a break to refresh our mind and body.

We have a tight budget this month and just decided to have a break at my in-law's-house.  It was perfect because my mother-in-law is also celebrating her 75th birthday, April 15, 2013.  The whole family prepared for the long trip.  SJ, our youngest is not used to have long travels.  We needed to make a stop at Rosario to buy a cake and at the same time put SJ to sleep outside the car because he's getting cranky, then we continue on our journey.  (I didn't have enough time to personally bake and decorate a cake for my mom-in-law - that was sad.) We were able to arrive at the house in the afternoon of April 15.  It's also good to see some of pakner4lyf's siblings.  His elder brother together with his family decided to stay there for a night.  So the children were happy to meet and play with their cousins. 

We originally planned to buy a tent and mini pool that we can set up at the backyard, that we are unable to do so for financial reasons.  But the children still had the chance to swim in a little pool that I have found in the storage room.  

I love this spot because it is where I can hear the sounds of the leaves blown by the wind, bending bamboo, birds singing and the flowing water from the river.  So relaxing and very close to nature.  There are a lot of butterflies and dragonflies flying around.  I have seen different birds species in this spot too. While the children are having fun with water, I had a chance taking some photos of the trees around.  And found a frog near the mango tree.

Red chili - labuyo

Black pepper

Jack fruit

Aside from that we were able to indulge ourselves with Halo-Halo in San Juan's market.  Click here to read a separate post about it.  We cooked pork BBQ for our dinner before leaving.  

Why is it that vacation days seems always short?