Canggu, Bali

The second Friday of school was National Day in Indonesia, so we took advantage of the long weekend to jet off to Bali again.  This time we headed north to Canggu and stayed at a terrific little hotel right on the beach.  Breakfast was no small affair for us!

PNB was like a hidden gem.  It was by no means fancy but I haven't been many places where I could watch the ocean from my bed...especially when it cost less than a Comfort Inn in Texas!

What we were not counting on was cool and rainy weather!  It was probably still 78F or so, but it felt chilly and was a pretty nice change from endless summer.  Love the black sands of the beach here.

This hotel was far from the crowded tourist areas and the local flair was terrific.  Loved this bike decorated for the holiday!

We wandered into Seminyak to do some shopping and had to get a picture with the temple rooster.

Lunch at Ku De Ta is always great but it wasn't the best day to enjoy the pool.

A little rain never spoiled the beach for these guys! 

The local bar :)  It arrived every afternoon.

 Nothing beats a banana avocado smoothie by the beach!

We had the cutest little friend in the restaurant who was always happy to get a handout.

Ahh, the clouds cleared out Saturday evening for a beautiful sunset.

 This dog clearly doesn't obey signs.

Our last breakfast by the beach before we had to head back to the airport.  What a terrific weekend out of the city!

Pet Sitting

Alex's class has a pet hamster named Jelly (apparently Peanut and Butter met sad ends last year) and Alex volunteered to bring him home first thing.  Kitty was pretty interested in our new friend.

Snack time!

Part of the deal is that the student has to wash and change the cage and play with Jelly.  Alex took his responsibility very seriously and made sure we took lots of pictures for Jelly's diary as well.

He was a big fan of spinach!  He was a great little guest for the weekend but I've already said NO to a pet of our own about a dozen times.  We have enough creatures here as it is.

The pool has been warm(er) lately and lots of fun on the weekends.

 Derby duck came back out but is having some issues so his days are numbered.  He's had a good ride but I won't miss the beast in our pool!

Back to School!

It was an easy transition back into school this year because there were no big changes and both kids already knew some of their teachers.  We were impressed to see that the new elementary library was finished before school started and Alex was loving the new reading nooks.

The fish pond reopened as well now that the construction is done and Alex can't wait to walk this way every day.

Alex was super excited to get Mr. Murnane for grade 5 because he was one of the baseball coaches last year and he's going to be awesome.  It was nice to catch up at meet the teacher day before classes started.  The middle school doesn't have a meet the teacher but Ben's social studies teacher from grade 6 moved up to 7 and Ben was excited to have Mr. Allberry for homeroom and English this year.

Our bird Buddy proved to be a little (or a lot) louder than this house can handle, so we went back to his breeder and we spend some time looking for a new feathered friend on Saturday before school started. 

Jalan Barito is lined with little pet stalls and I think it's fun just wandering around and gawking at all the animals.

We agreed the bird should be smaller, quieter, interactive, and had to eat seed.  Turns out two cute cockatiels checked all our boxes, so we brought home Joey and Nick.

Nick is not the most social guy, but he can sing some pretty songs when he's in the mood.  Joey has been handled since birth and will call to us to come out of the cage and hang out.  She especially loves keyboards. 

Our new friends is a real sweetheart!

The boys loved on their new friends Sunday and then had to get up bright and early Monday to kick off a new year.  Buses come at 7am and they love to get outside a little early to play with Kitty.  The first day went off without a hitch and the kids were happy to reconnect to the friends they'd missed over the summer.  Here's to a great year!

While the kids were gone, Kitty took it upon himself to keep an eye on things out front.  He's such a cool guy.