I have officially become the Mother I used to judge...

Let me paint you a picture...

Your friends decide its about time for a girls day out lunch. How fun! Of course, I am in! What a great idea! I will bring Samantha with a peanut butter sandwich and it will be awesome. Isn't being a stay at home Mom the best?!
 I get to the restaurant starving and ready to relax with my girlfriends...And then reality sits in. Samantha realizes she doesn't fancy the high chair that has been provided for us. And you know what, she doesn't want her sandwich, either. You know what Samantha wants? To run away from her Mother and spill water all over the table. Her plan for my girls lunch was very different than mine. In fact, I spent little time interacting with the girls and more time controlling tantrums and threatening (with love)! for her to behave at the exit. Finally my amazing friend grabbed Sam from me and took her outside for a bit so I could eat a dumping and sulk in pity. We eventually left early. I now have a toddler and my life is over.

No, just kidding (Kind of). But, seriously, toddlers are not for the weak, dude. I remember sitting there with my newborn and looking at toddlers thinking, that looks so fun! I can't wait for Samantha to play with me and talk to me and giggle. Now, don't get me wrong. We giggle a whole lot in the Buhler household. But, no one tells you this whole Mom thing may be the hardest thing you have ever done in your whole life.
In between Goodnight Moon (124th time) and food spills (almost daily) I have to remind myself that I am doing an awesome job and some days all you have to excel at is keeping them alive.

I also remember a time when I was newly married, getting a full & refreshing 8 hours of sleep and the only bum I had to wipe was my own. I would sit there and gander at Moms. "Oh, my kid will never have a paci longer than 6 months." "My child will never talk back to me." "I plan on making different Pinterest FHE packets for every week of the year." "My toddler will never behave like that in public." Yes, sadly Catherine does remember those days.

...and I am here to admit it, apologize and eat some humble pie. Because as I sat there trying to talk sense into a 19 month old while prying her off the dirty Shanghai sidewalk from her meltdown, I closed my eyes, and said to myself, "You are THAT mother, and it is OKAY."

I think we (Cat included) have placed too much pressure on ourselves and eachother to be the BEST mother out there. "Look at my child, potty trained at 6 months. It only took 3 hours!" "What do you mean, you didn't breastfeed for 12 months?" "I never let my children eat anything unless its organic, glutten-free, pesticide free, and is deliciously inedible." Why do we do this to ourselves? Its exhausting. Okay, Catherine is exhausted. But thats besides the point. It is okay to give your child peanut butter and jelly for lunch every once in awhile. It is okay to let Elmo offer them a dose of education so you can take a quick shower. You don't need to feel guilty. Because in the end, your child isn't going to remember how many times you gave him broccoli or goldfish. He will remember the way you showed him love, the way you excelled at kisses and the encouragement you always provided.

I love being a Mom, I know I will look back on these days with fond memories. But, I also know I shouldn't waste time with my Children worrying if I am doing everything the "right way." What is the right way, anyways? I am almost positive (about 95.67%)  that there is not one right way to raise them. Thank goodness!

A small update to that girls day lunch- Catherine rewarded herself with a Diet Coke when she got home. Samantha doesn't even remember throwing herself on the ground screaming and hopefully all of Shanghai has forgotten it, as well.

A weekend getaway to Guilin

Everyone has always raved how beautiful Guilin is. Peyton went back when he lived in Hong Kong and it was always his top favorite place in China. I needed to check it out! You have probably heard of it, or seen it in pictures. It has the rolling hills nestled around a river. It's so picturesque it looks fake. But, I assure you, it is real. And amazing.


We decided this would be a good opportunity to take a long weekend vacation right after the October holiday. It would be less packed with Chinese tourists than it was the week before. Our plane was still packed with Chinese people (go figure) so we decided to take them up on some free babysitting. Sometimes everyone loving Samantha can have its advantages. I hate flying with a toddler, Let's just pass this kid around! This is when having an overly trusting and friendly child is a good thing.

We ended up staying at a resort in Yangshuo called The Yangshuo Mountain Retreat. You can find more info on it here. It was placed right next to the river so you could hear the relaxing water your whole stay. The view from our room was amazingly beautiful. We got in late at night and headed straight to bed. You couldn't really tell where we were cause it was dark when we arrived but in the morning I got a big surprise! Hello, gorgeous!

I am pretty obsessed with this place. We decided to rent bicycles to go everywhere. Our hotel had a baby seat attached to these awesome beach cruisers. We were in heaven. We have rented bikes on a few of our vacations and it is always the best way to see the location. You see so much more than sitting in a car.

That night after our long but beautiful bike ride we tag teamed watching Samantha and got foot massages in front of the river during sunset. Our hotel offers them, cheap cheap cheap. It could not have been more perfect. That night we put Sam to bed and sat outside our patio reading and listening to the river.

The next morning we woke up early and decided to ride our bikes to a mountain called Moon Hill that we would hike. It was pretty much 98% stairs.  87 flights of them, in fact. Thanks to my Fitbit. It was a strenuous hike but the view was beautiful. Peyton is a trooper for carrying Samantha in the carrier during our hike. This girl loves that thing. We realize she's now big enough for a backpack one. We definitely wanna get one for our next trip. There was a sherpa climbing it that we stopped to talk to. She was 89 years old and she climbs it everyday with cold drinks in her pouch. She will fan you and offer you a drink, for a tip! She is brilliant.

We then rode our bikes back to our resort, took a nap and then decided to go ride into this small village in the outskirts of the city. We stuck out like sore thumbs. It was definitely eye opening to see how some people live. It was very sad to see the kids running around in the dirt without shoes on and houses without roofs.

The next day we woke up and wanted to do a sunrise float down the river on a bamboo raft. This is THE activity to do when you visit. I was so excited for it. Of course I bought a flower crown to celebrate our boat ride. Because, why not!? The river ride on our raft was very relaxing. I could have taken the 6 hour ride (yes that exists) but Samantha kept trying to dive in for a swim, so... maybe next time. Our little gondola man loved splashing water on her. Of course she loved it just as much.

That afternoon we rode our bikes to this small village to eat a pizza lunch. It was actually quite delicious. We toured a natural cave that is in the city. The Chinese people had it all pimped out like a club with so many multicolored lights. It was like a rave in there! We joked that it reminded us a little of Pirates of the Caribbean.

We had a very late flight at about midnight and then arrived back in Shanghai. It was a very short and fun trip. I am glad we saw one of the most beautiful places in China. I would definitely go back.

How to Travel on a Budget

Traveling is stressful, 

but it doesn't have to be expensive... 

I have been thinking about this post for awhile. Everyone always asks me how we are able to travel so much. In the last 3 years I have been to Japan, Hong Kong, Fiji, Australia, Philippines, Maldives, Sri Lanka, Singapore, North Korea, Cambodia, New Zealand, Indonesia, Tahiti, India, & Thailand. It definitely helps that we are temporarily living in Asia which puts us close to so many great destinations.

Wherever you live, planning a trip can be expensive and stressful. There are a few tricks on how to save money when you are planning your next adventure. Here are just a few of them for you-


Number one rule of saving money while traveling is: PREPARE AND PLAN! Spending time online, googling hotels, airfares, and reading books about cultures will help in the long run. It may not sound fun, but saving money and finding deals can be thrilling. Peyton could spend hours and hours looking at different destinations and itineraries that would work. It is a hobby for him. 


Where do you go to help plan your vacation? 

First of all- we have NEVER used a travel agency. Peyton enjoys planning everything and getting the deals himself. Also, we don't have to pay the agency for their assistance. They usually have limitations and restrictions on what they offer you. Who wants that? But, we do spend a lot of time online and here are the resources we use so that we can find the deals. 

•   Wikitravel.com is a great free resource and travel guide online. It is best for seeing top activities in destinations, where to eat, where to stay, what to do. It also, gives you additional info on sightseeing around the area and lots of information and what to expect so you can plan accordingly. When we went to India we looked up information through this website and found out not to take the fake taxis when we exited the airport as they would take us a bad route and charge us double the money to get to our hotel. With this knowledge we took the correct city taxi. If we were not prepared we would have trusted them and paid a price.  (Now, A lot of scams and rip-offs rely on you to be unprepared. So if you do your research and know what to expect you can save hundreds of dollars and have a peace of mind and knowledge of where you are traveling. Wikitravel is a great resource for warnings and cautions while traveling.) 

• Tripadvisor.com  is a travel site where you can compare hotels and activities through user ratings. For instance, I can go into this site, search Los Angeles and see where to stay for the cheapest and ratings from people who have stayed there. It is incredibly helpful when you want "real" reviews and suggestions.
• ITA software matrix  is a website where you search by airport of where you want to go and it shows you all airlines and when the cheapest itinerary is. This layout helps you compare airlines and when the cheapest ticket is available. For example, we are planning an Africa trip for next year and found that if we go in a different month than we originally had in mind we can save hundreds of dollars on airfare for the reason of it being low tourist season. We use this site instead of kayak, Priceline, etc.  

• Travel is Free - is a great resource for anyone trying to find deals and tricks on booking travel.  It includes guides for stopovers (discussed later) and how to collect frequent flier miles.

How do you have so many miles to go to these places? 

• A few different ways. Peyton used to travel a lot for work so he has collected some miles over time for his business trips. In addition, we collect miles by signing up for credit cards that will give us frequent flyer miles. We have done a few, but our top favorites have been the United miles cards. Travel is free website does a great job explaining all this information to use United miles here.  We have used different cards for different award deals, but it all depends on how much you are wanting to acquire and what cards are offering.

(FYI- I strongly discourage opening credit cards if you are not able to pay them off. If you acquire miles it will do you no good if you are in debt because of it.)

How can you go to more than one destination each trip? 

• This is something called stopovers. When you use a stopover it allows you to stay in your connection city for greater than 24 hours and LESS than the duration of your trip. They call this "a stopover" (similar to a second destination) when you use international award flights. We were able to do this when we went to the Maldives, Singapore, Sri Lanka and India because we used stopovers and the 3 destinations were shorter periods of time. The Flight Deal website does a great job of explaining this in further if you go here.

How do you find out where to stay?

• As always, a lot of research is done. But we have also had some great credit cards that have awarded us with Hyatt and IHG points which helps bring our hotel costs down considerably.
  When we do not stay in a hotel and use any miles or points we always turn to TripAdvisor and WikiTravel first. Both sites will show you the best options for your budget.  
• Always remember, the best location is not always right in the middle of time square. For instance, staying outside the city is great if you can find a proper way to get into the city and how. Plus, it will save you money to stay a little further away from your main destination or tourist spot.
• Stay in a prime location to public transportation. For example; close to a bus, subway or train stop. Not too far from the airport, unless you know what to expect for transportation.  (Always check how much parking is at hotel. Not always free.) 
• Wikitravel is good for learning how your destination gets around, eats, and functions so you are more educated and prepared. Some countries rely on public transportation like subways and taxis. Or if you are not comfortable driving on the other side of the street, you may need to take a bus. These things should be researched beforehand so there are no surprises when you get there. 

• One of the biggest suggestions I can give you in relation to hotels is truly ask yourself how often you will be staying at your hotel. If this trip will be a busy one, you may be able to find somewhere that is cheap but provides a shower and a bed. All you need!
  --- In the Maldives we knew it was going to be very expensive so we decided to stay somewhere on the main island in a small and some-what ghetto hotel. We decided to do a day trip to swanky resorts and paid a small fee every day to go to different ones. This allowed us access to their pool, beaches, sauna, restaurant, etc. 

Got any more little travel tricks? 

•   After you make you reservations through your hotel, you can ask them additional questions about your location like how much transportation is and if there are things nearby like a general store.  Also, asking them about personal needs like a crib, a fridge, water, etc. 
• Bring powdered laundry detergent. I know it may sound a little ghetto, but doing this will allow you to not have to pack so many clothes, and thus save you luggage fees. We started doing this when Samantha was born and we saved so much room and money when we washed stuff in the sink and hung it up to dry. Also, disposable utensils are a good idea, too. I know you can get disposable placemats and bibs in the states. 
• Toiletries- don’t forget things that you will have a hard time finding in your destination. Example- diapers, formula and medicine. Also, sanitary items (Do I need to say more?) 
•    Food- snacks for children, protein bars, trail mix, beef jerky- things that will keep you full if you can’t find somewhere to eat. We have had this problem more than once. 

So there you have it! Travel lots, make good memories and don't spend a fortune.