2010 Family Retreat...The Story

this is the 3rd retreat i've been able to join since joining K. we didnt make it to last year's retreat as akmal was only 3 weeks old, if he was over a month we would have gone to cherating with the rest of the K clan.

this year's retreat was at penang. i think people were just waiting for it to be held there, after retreats in east coast and lumut in previous years. we managed to spend more time outside this time around, packed less and came home with less laundry to do. the boys are big enough to socialise (with the occasional screams of 'stop it' from hubby and me), they're also fully diaper-less and formula-less (except akmal) and we've learned that doing laundry on trips longer than 2 days is crucial.

leading up to the retreat was hectic. with hubby being away earlier in the week, akmal and his wheezing and me doing lists for 807 employees of K and their family members.

the first couple of days there were packed with meetings, goodie bags preparation, registration and running after the boys. good thing the hotel had a play area and babysitting services and mummy had loads of friends to watch over the boys.

the first full day of the retreat started with telematch (for adults and children), sandcastle building competition, animal shows, sand art, face painting and for those who dont like the hot weather can venture into the adventure zone, which is a covered play area. we left ariff and akmal there with a baby sitter and took amir and asyraf to see the activities on the beach front. the boys loved the animals and spent some time at the sandcastle building area.

after lunch we took them to the pool. the sun was directly above but hubby wanted to tire them out. that he did. we spent over 2 hours in the pool. once we got back to the room, the boys slept for ages. we then took them to the beach. i wanted to try some of the water sports but the boys were well below the allowed age. the only thing they could do was take a horse ride.

that night we had a themed dinner, for this year it was 'night at the safari'. i suggested to hubby that we go as rangers and the boys as animal (which is the story of our lives) but i couldnt find any safari animal outfit and had to settle with any (seriously any) animal outfit. so that night amir transformed into a frog, asyraf a sheep, ariff a monkey (complete with tail) and akmal the (kung fu) panda. surprise, surprise amir got call on the stage as one of the best dressed boy.

overall, we had a good working holiday. the hotel was great, the food yummy, the weather just nice, the road to and from penang was clear and the boys were wonderful. a bit sad that we had to leave ariff with the babysitter and akmal. he would have loved to run around on the sand with amir and asyraf. maybe next year, ariff.

hopefully, next year K will be in L...