Happy Halloween!

We have met some wonderful families here in Jakarta and I've been so happy to find that many of them live in our suburb.  We were really excited to join the Pondok Indah families for a progressive Halloween party.  Even better, the kids have never worn costumes here so they got to reuse their favorites!

The Peashooter and Very Serious Cowboy at our first stop - the Thompsons' house for snacks and candy.

So many cute kids!  And a bunch of really nice and fun kids.  Lots of girls, but they all got along so well it didn't really matter.

We parked our cars all up and down the street so the kids could trunk or treat.  They were done in about 20 seconds so I didn't even get a good picture.  Two of the families had just made trips back to the US so we had some real York peppermint patties and snickers!  Score for Mom!!

Next stop - the Oswalts' house for dinner and a pinata.

Alex used his peashooter head to catch the candy as it fell.

Our last stop - the Modlins' amazing house for dessert and live band!  They were terrific and played the best music all night.  We chased all the kids upstairs where they played tag and hide and seek but still had their own porch to enjoy the music.

 At the very end, they presented the best costume award and Alex was beyond excited to have won it.  (I was beyond excited because the prize was a big bag of American candy!)  They handed him the mic for his acceptance speech and Alex would have stayed there all night talking about the details of his peashooter head.  Unfortunately, the video is too long to post on here but I was in tears from laughing so hard.  We almost had to ask the band to start playing again so he'd get off the stage!

It was a wonderful evening with our new friends here and so great to be welcomed into the expat community.  People really need one another here and I have loved how much everyone has reached out to us.

Cub Scout Raingutter Regata

The cub scouts have an annual Raingutter Regata competition between all the boys and this year's event was appropriately held at the Jakarta Aquarium.  It is new, so we were a little late after spending half an hour trying to find it, but we were impressed with the place.  We ran past the fish eating their Halloween treat to find all the Cub Scouts.

 

 Once we arrived, Alex immediately got busy on his boat. (and notice Matt's headphones - this is how we were able to keep up with the Astros in the World Series!  Win for multitasking!!)

The boys and their finished boats, all ready to compete.

Each kid competed in four races and the highest total points won.

Alex quickly figured out that his boat was a little heavy and required him to "breathe so much he almost passed out".  So it wasn't his best outing, but it was a great experience.

When the races were done, we all watched the last inning of an amazing Astros victory, which made the day even better!

Then we got to enjoy the sights of the aquarium.  The huge tanks with rays and sharks was awesome.

I love taking pictures of my son who is taking pictures of me!

I gotta admit...I was a little nervous on the walk over the shark tank!

Last thing, the kids got to hold the snake.  Now Ben wants a pet snake.  This is the kid who spent an entire birthday party in a treehouse one time because there were pet snakes in the backyard.

The snake was ready to make a break for it!  And so were we.  It was a fun day but we needed to rest up for a big evening.

Moving Day

It took 3 1/2 months, but we've finally been reunited with our furniture!  Our shipment arrived in September but took a while to clear customs and then was unfortunately released just before we left on vacation.  We had to wait another 10 days to see it but it was totally worth the wait.  We got home on Sunday afternoon and first thing Monday morning all of the rental furniture was removed.  As soon as those guys finished, the Crown Relocation men started unloading 11 crates of our belongings.  It was like Christmas! 

These guys used no ramps or dollies, just good ole hard work.

We also got a welcome bouquet, which I thought was so sweet.

Poor Ben developed a pretty bad ear infection on our way home from Bali, so before any of the moving started in the morning, we had to run to the International SOS clinic and get him some medicine.  Lucky for him, one of the first items off the truck with a comfy chair for him to rest in and watch TV out of the way of the commotion. It took most of the week and a second day at home for him to feel better but he got over it finally.

 

Ahh, the joys of moving!  My excitement for seeing our stuff was tempered with my dread for having to organize everything.  Luckily, all the work I did sorting stuff before it was packed really helped.  But still, not knowing where we would be moving, lots of things ended up in different rooms and I averaged 40+ trips up the stairs each day all week.

 

The entire job took two days so it we didn't have everything we wanted on the first day but they did assemble all the beds to make sure we had a place to sleep.  And we slept like babies in our own beds for the first time in months.

I didn't get any pictures of the chaos when everything was unboxed but not in its place yet, but that's because it felt totally overwhelming and I don't like remembering that part.  Much better to just see the before and after :)  (After will be coming soon when things look pretty)

Buddy could have cared less about all the action.  He just wanted to make sure his food bowl stayed filled.

Kitty was interested in the action but only if it included a backrub for him.

We are mostly sorted out now and enjoying the feeling of FINALLY being done with this move.  It feels like the longest move ever!  Maybe because we have so much stuff now or because the suitcases were out for months.  Now we can really settle in and live.

Bali

I don't consider myself a resort person.  We enjoy finding vacations rentals or B&Bs off the beaten path to enjoy places a little more locally, but we've been to Bali several times (never knowing we'd live in Indonesia one day) so this time we were looking to relax and unwind.  A friend spoke so highly of this resort that we booked it and spent a little extra for the club privileges...we were not disappointed!  After the bungalow in Nusa Lembongan (which wasn't Ben's favorite) and the terrifying boat ride (which nearly killed Alex, although we know he tends to be a bit dramatic) these boys were sold in the first 5 minutes with fresh fruit juice and leis at check-in.  Once they learned the could order free fruit juice anywhere in the resort, they were in heaven.  (On a funny note - we came directly from the boat to this lovely resort.  The kids were in swimsuits and I still had on my feet!  At least I had a dress over my swimsuit.)

 

We went looking around the resort and the kids tested out 5 of the 6 pools.  The last one was adults only - brilliant!

 

The oceanfront pool was amazing.

Jimbaron Bay was pretty perfect.  At low tide, the beach was huge and at high tide the waves were great for beginning surfers.

Low tide was also pretty fun for body surfing.

This pool was by far the kids' favorite.  We spent many hours here enjoying the ambiance and fountains.

The free fresh-squeezed juice didn't hurt the experience, either!  Ben wasted no time learning how to order a mango juice or banana smoothie in Bahasa.

 

Ahh, just what we needed...fresh air, salt water, and sunsets.

We also spotted the resident monitor lizard several times (click the picture to zoom).

Unfortunately, Matt's flight was delayed so he missed all of our first day but was happy to start enjoying the experience with us the next morning.

The boys were huge fans of the breakfast buffet.  Maybe because of the bacon?  Or the endless chocolate sauce?

We rented some boards and got an instructor for the kids, then hit the waves for a pretty amazing family surf session.

The waves were perfect!  The kids did awesome for their first time surfing in the ocean...

...but there were still a few wipeouts!

Mama can surf, too!

I'm not great, but it's so much fun to catch a nice wave.

Both kids caught the same wave!

 

All those hours on ripsticks has definitely helped them with their balance on a surfboard.

So much fun!  

The next day Matt went surfing farther up the coast, so we met him afterward and checked out Tanah Lot, the temple on the water, on the way back.

At high tide it's an island.

We had a nice Balinese lunch in the rice paddies before heading back to our resort.

Absolute perfection.

See what I mean about this kid enjoying his fresh juice?  Run in from the pool, drain your mango juice, run back out to play.

We rented boards again and caught some fun waves, but it didn't match the magic of our first surf outing together.

Our last evening we were planning to walk down the beach and get some famous Jimbaron seafood, but it was so lovely that we only made it as far as the Sunset Grill.

A deck of cards and we were set for hours.

 Couldn't ask for a better way to end our week!

It did take some work to tame a week's worth of beach hair, though!

Goodbye, Bali!  We finally did see some volcanic peaks through the clouds and said a quick thanks to it for waiting to erupt.

It was an interesting flight back to Jakarta and we saw many more volcanoes on Java.  It's pretty amazing living in Indonesia.