The view from nine stories up

OK, I lied. Some of these pictures are actually from the 20th story of our building where there is a common area with a gym, gardens and a yoga terrace. 

 These two pictures are from our balcony.

 Twenty floors high. Yikes!

 Olivia flashing Singapore. 

In the gym.

Moving into our Singapore House

For those who have been asking, here are a few pictures of our apartment here. We're on the 9th floor of a high-rise in the city and have an incredible view of the business district here. These pictures are of our house before and during the process of receiving our shipment from the states. Was such an exciting day to get our things from back home!

Watching the movers carry our stuff up. Olivia loves the fact she gets to push a button in the "alligator" (aka elevator) to get us up to our house.

 View from our apartment. See the little cargo crate/truck circled in the picture? That box actually made it here from our home in Sandy. Amazing to see it after two months.

 Mom got stuck counting boxes as they were moved up to our apartment while Dad and Livvy went swimming.

 The truck coming into our underground parking garage with our things. Troy and Livvy are also pictured in the swimming pool. We have some pretty amazing facilities here with a playground and enormous pool.

 Olivia was in heaven after seeing all her toys come out of boxes. This is her room before it got fixed up.

 One of Olivia's favorite games is to ride her little car down our hallway.

 Relaxing after a long day of unpacking.

Halloween, Singapore Style

These pictures don't really do it justice, but Halloween here in Singapore can be a crazy event, depending where you go. We headed up to the Woodlands, where several Americans have made their home next to the American school. We were amazed how many people were packed into this small neighborhood, begging for treats. Our little princess/fairy loved it! So did her daddy, if you can't tell by the pictures. 

Getting ready to go trick-or-treating.

 Arriving at the party.

Assessing the loot. Think we did pretty good.

Birthday Girl

I know, I should probably be posting about Christmas, but need to play a lot of catch up. Here are some pictures from back in October when we celebrated Livvy's second birthday. It was a bit of a makeshift celebration. We had just moved into our permanent house and had yet to receive our shipment from the states, but we made-do. What do you think of the birthday "crown?"

Making a cake with Mom. 

A few tears when we had to eat dinner before the cake, but then, pure joy. Ask Olivia how old she is, and she'll tell you "three," and hold up five fingers. 

Not so pretty, but Livvy had fun helping frost and decorate it. 

Excited over her princess movie and book.

New babies to take care of. 

Trying on a brand new dress. The place is pretty bare in these pictures. All the furniture was rented for about two weeks. 

More presents the next morning from her grandparents. They got to participate over Skype.

Couldn't forget to show-off the awesome house Troy built for Olivia with our shipping boxes. Plus, our awesome Halloween decorations. 

Oh yes, can't forget the fish. We decided Olivia needed a pet for her birthday. Think we wanted one, too.

When Uncle Tom "Comed"

My uncle had a brief stopover in Singapore a few weeks ago during a work trip to India and the Philippines and asked us to take him around. It was great fun, not only because we got to hang out with him, but we saw parts of Singapore we had yet to see.

Olivia loved the visit and actually still comments about the time when Uncle Tome "comed"

Our first stop was in Little India, where celebrations for Deepavali were still in full-swing. We visited the Veeramakaliamman Temple and saw the colorful banners and lights on display in the streets.

The candles, placed by visitors to the Hindu temple, are meant to "brighten the world."

Next stop was to Orchard via the subway to show Uncle Tom the huge shopping malls and also for lunch. Poor Olivia got grumpy until she was surprised with a treat. Candy really does solve all the world's woes.

After Orchard, we did a brief stopover at our new condo. I'm saving pictures of our place for later. After that, we went to Marina Bay Sands and also visited the Merlion, near Marina Bay. Uncle Tom made a lot of friends while we were at the Merlion Park. 

 Near Merlion Park and the famous Fullerton Hotel.

 Famous Singapore Merlion with business district in the background.

 Marina Bay Sands.

New friends!

View from the top of Marina Bay Sands.

Our beautiful little buddy with her "Ikea Pig"

 Panorama of downtown Singapore business district.

 Visitors at the top of Marina Bay overlooking the harbor with all the cargo ships. Singapore is one of the world's busiest ports.

 Beautiful girl!

Singapore Flyer.

After Marina Bay, we had a quick dinner, and then drove to the zoo. We didn't think it would be quite the adventure, but turns out, our GPS was actually leading us to the Malaysian zoo. We got stopped at the border and went through quite the "ordeal" in order to turn back to Singapore. First, we were led to an office, they took our ID's, a and then laughed at us when they heard why we were there.

After that, we had to drive through three secure gates in order to get back to Singapore. We did, however, make it in time for the zoo. The Singapore zoo.

Pictures we took on our iPhone when we shouldn't have. First one is of millions of motorcycles headed back into Malaysia. Second is of the approaching border checkpoint when we realized we couldn't turn around. Third is of the immigration checkpoint. Don't we look scared? 

Finally, the zoo! Our Olivia is such a trooper, isn't she. We sure drag her around everywhere! But I think she had fun with Uncle Tom and when he "comed" to visit.