Laiya

It’s been pretty quiet on the blog so far this month. That’s because I’ve been quite busy. Aside from the blessing of new clients and new projects I’ve also been spending a lot of time with family. My cousin and her husband and kids came home from the US for a few weeks, and all of us cousins have been getting together for fun Togetherness Sessions.

Last weekend was the big outing for the year, a trip to Laiya Coco Grove. Usually my cousins and their families go to Boracay over the holidays and we get left behind because of work or school and prior commitments. This year, since a lot of us are working, and since the trip got moved to January instead of the Christmas season, we opted for just an overnight beach getaway that didn’t involve flying.

After weeks of planning, we ended up at Laiya Coco Grove simply because the tree houses looked so cute on the website. Mr C and I went there about 8 years ago, and I remember the place being nice and quiet and quaint. You can tell from our old photos that the trip happened before we became parents, at a time when I actually had some sort of waistline. LOL.

Read about our first ever trip to Laiya Coco Grove

We drove to Batangas bright and early on a Saturday morning and arrived at the resort before noon. Our rooms were available early, which was great. We all got to settle down and freshen up before lunch. Mr C, the little boy and I shared a tree house with my mom, my sister and her boyfriend. I noticed as we walked from the reception area to our tree house that there were a lot of ongoing renovations in the resort.

My second beach trip for the year is coming up in a week and a half, and I’m really excited. Our first was last January, right at the start of the year. We visited my dad’s Fishville in Cavite. Two weekends from now, I’ll be off to Laiya with my cousins, our moms and our families and significant others. It’s one of the trips I included in my list of places I’m excited to visit this year. My family spent a few days in Laiya for Chinese New Year last year (that’s a blog post I still have not got around to writing), and I’m excited to be back there this year with an even bigger group. We’re only staying for one night though, but that’s okay. It’s definitely going to be fun, and a welcome break from life.

I think this year we’re staying at Laiya Coco Grove, in a tree house along the beach. I’ve been there once before, in 2005 if I remember correctly. I’m looking forward to going back there to see how the resort has improved over the years. Their website definitely looks more put together than before, and I was told that there’s a pool now. Back then, only half of the place was operational. What I do remember is that they had really good food. Hope it’s still that way.

I actually unearthed some old photos from that ’05 Coco Grove trip when I cleared out my Multiply account late last year, and I thought it might be fun to post them here. And then I’ll share new vacation photos when we get back, along with more info about the place. So without further ado, I present to you ancient vacation photos from several years and many pounds ago. Haha!

This was our first time to go out of town together sans family members. — This was our first time to go out of town together.

How’s that for Throwback Thursday? Isn’t the place cute? What are your vacation plans for 2013? Have you gone anywhere since the year began? I’d love to hear from you!

Much love and happiness,

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Togetherness at Laiya Coco Grove

The Tree House That Laiya Coco Grove Built