September 29, 2025
Now that our big excursion day was done, we have two relaxed days at the hotel. That seems like the perfect number before we would get stir crazy. Without an excursion to rush to we got to take our time and enjoy the amazing hotel breakfast. It was so good with all different types of pastries, fruit, and eggs as the staples but it also had some Asian breakfast foods with chicken or beef that I enjoyed, as well as sushi for Ollie. All that and the coffee was actually good too! Towards the end of the meal the boys discovered the waffle station to get some Nutella waffles.
We headed back to the room to do home school with the boys. The room is more like a two-bedroom apartment so plenty of space to do home school in separate quarters. Lenny was not thrilled with our reading of Froggy's Best Christmas. Ollie however was very into drawing our day yesterday and writing the captions. He did a really good job and was excited to show Lenny and me. Lenny was impressed and asked if he could try to do that for part of school tomorrow.
Once school was done, just before noon, we headed down to the kid’s club/pool/gym which are all conveniently located on the same floor. We dropped the boys and they were quick to start playing on the slide. Ollie was excited to climb the rock wall and play on the little foosball table while Lenny was happy to play with any toy he could find since he has been deprived for most of the trip.
Kayleen headed to one of the daybeds by the pool to read and work on blog posts while I went to the gym. Once I finished, I swam in peace for a little while before going to get the boys. Another boy who was eight and his older sister were there with their mom. They did not speak English but the mom did and she was sitting on the floor playing foosball with Ollie and chatting. She said how nice it had been to talk with him and we all left for lunch.
Kayleen and I had already eaten by the pool so we just ordered food for the boys but they were overdue and Lenny’s whining of “Hungry” began. After they devoured their pesto pasta we swam in the pool for a bit. It is a massive pool and is partially shaded from the sun by the next floor of the hotel which was very nice. The boys did their normal swimming challenges but once we got Lenny’s goggles on him comfortably, he transformed into an underwater swimming machine. I would throw my goggles out into the pool and once they sank, he would swim out and then dive down, about 4.5 feet, and retrieve them. Watching his little body twist all around to get to the bottom was so impressive.
We headed up to the room for showers and some free time before dinner. The room service was good and we have a full kitchen table so I don’t imagine we will see the restaurant again. It’s so much easier to eat in our room in our lounge wear!
After dinner Kayleen, Ollie, and I watched the fifth Harry Potter movie, The Order of the Phoenix, since we finished the audiobook. After listening to the audiobook, the movie didn’t seem very good to Kayleen or I but Ollie liked it. He defended it by saying kids prefer to watch things with their eyes. Lenny had requested to be left to his own movie which seemed fair given his disinterest in the audiobook.
After the movie it was time for bed and was Kayleen’s turn to be on bedtime duty. When putting the kids to bed, Lenny asked her, “Will I remember cappy when I’m a grown up?” Referring to his stuffed capybara from the blind box in Beijing. Then asked her if she remembered any of her stuffed animals from when she was a kid. She told him about a white bear with a blue ribbon that she believes was unnamed.
