Pictures

It took Alex all of two days to build his Christmas lego set!  At nearly 3,000 pieces, I expected it to take just a little longer but he plowed through it.  Thank goodness we have a big Lego Minecraft table here!

 The first few days back after Christmas were a little rough for me, but a wonderful night out with some friends sure turned my attitude around.  I am so thankful for the families we've come to know and love here!  Especially the ones that know the fun restaurants to visit on the weekends.

 

Our kitty has grown so much!  

He's still not too old to play with toys, though :)

 He has several places in the front yard to watch the world and keep an eye on his territory.

He has also grown quite fond of sleeping on the outdoor fridge.

 He made his first vet visit to get fixed and get vaccinated, but the following week he was obviously very sick.  We went back to the vet (a different one this time because Kitty got out of his carrier and ran like a maniac through the first office, even on the roof, then bit someone, so I'm too embarrassed to return) and found out he'd contracted distemper, which can be fatal and has no cure.  It was heartbreaking to watch him suffer and one night I told him goodbye because I wasn't sure he'd be around the next morning, but this tough little kitty pulled through and is doing much better.

 

In other exciting news, we experienced our first earthquake!  It was a 6.1, so it was strong enough to give us a good shake but not so bad in Jakarta that there was local damage.  The kids now know the earthquake procedure at school and I know that when the whole pool rocks, it's not someone playing a trick on me. Matt was happy that he happened to be at a first floor meeting at the time and not in his 10th floor office.

Our little Buddy is full-grown and starting to get some beautiful colors on his wings.  When he's done with his first molt, he'll have red shoulders and several colors underneath.

Ben had great science homework last week - watch the lunar eclipse.  We had perfect views of the super-blue-blood moon from the baseball park and our living room and were extra lucky that it was the first clear night in a week. February is peak rainy season and the rain is unpredictable, but afternoons and evenings are most likely.

It's so nice having kids who are old enough to get annoyed at loose teeth and pull them!  That's two in one week.

Baseball Season

Without real seasons, the kids can play sports any time of year here!  Baseball starts in January and runs through May.  We were pretty excited to get the kids back on the fields and see what it would be like in Jakarta.

 

Ben is playing on the Washington Nationals with 5th and 6th graders.  He was pretty bummed that you can't lead off to steal bases here but the pitching is still wild enough that kids get ample opportunity to steal.

 

 He got a beautiful hit into the outfield at his first game so I was thrilled to see him playing with confidence.  His league has 4 teams, one with mostly JIS kids and 3 local teams.

We are so fortunate to have just arrived this year because these huge stands apparently took two years to complete so parents have been sitting in the outfield.  The stands are so nice and even have ceiling fans.

Alex is a Diamondback this year but also plays for the A's occasionally.  There were 18 kids from JIS that wanted to play, so not quite enough for two teams but too many for just one.  The coaches decided to split into two teams but have kids rotate filling in for the other team to make 12.  It's been great because Alex is getting so much playing time.

He's had a great bat so far this season and loves playing kid pitch for the first time.  His team is 3rd and 4th graders and has several kids new to baseball.

It's been so much fun doing something as familiar as heading to the ballpark for games, but also different because most of the time the opposing team is speaking another language or the ump yells "ball" when he signals a strike. And it's always entertaining watching a cat wander through the outfield (click to zoom).

Overall, it's been a great experience so far.  The teams are more relaxed but the coaching is excellent and both kids are learning a lot.  We see many of our friends several times a week and we're making new friends on both teams.  Even though Alex misses having fields to run around and play in and Ben misses the concession stand, we're getting used to our new normal with new friends, wifi, and food delivery motorbikes.

Bogor Mountain Biking

I had a wonderful day out of Jakarta with several other adventurous women who were excited to try a morning of mountain biking.  We drove over an hour south to Bogor, on the slopes of Mt. Salak, and started our morning at Pura Saraswati temple, one of the biggest Hindu temples on Java.

 

It was a lovely place and our tour was very interesting despite some rain.

 

Our tour guide was a hoot and reminded us several times that guides can be tipped :)

We learned quite a bit, paid our respects (in more ways than one!), and were ready to hit the trail.

 

The bike company provided all the gear for us and 3 guides.  Since we were at quite an elevation, the first step was to check our brakes.  I did not get many pictures because it seems we were either flying down hills or chugging up them...no free hands for the camera!

This was the first time for any of us to mountain bike in Indonesia, so we weren't quite sure what to expect.  We were mostly on well-used trails and paths, many downhill, but a few very steep climbs.  Sometimes in thick jungle...

 

...and many times in local villages.  The views were pretty fascinating and we were quite entertaining to a lot of local people.

During the heat of the day, we stopped for some delicious freshly cut local pineapple.

 By this point, we were several hours into our ride and the pineapple was just what I needed to keep going!

 

 This stop was interesting.  I wasn't sure what was growing until we smelled it.

 

Lemongrass fields as far as we could see!

 We also went through many rice paddies and I enjoyed seeing the farmers raking the drying rice.

Overall, it was a great experience.  It's always nice to leave the city for a while, try something new, enjoy some fresh air, and still get home before the kids get off the bus.

Weekend in Sinapore

When we left Jakarta in December, our visas were expiring.  The timing was pretty great for us to get them renewed in Singapore.  Matt flew out first and got his processed and after his was done, ours began to process.  We got to spend four days in Singapore dealing with the jetlag while our visas were in the works.

Our flight arrived around 7am on Friday and we were already checked into the hotel and eating breakfast at 8:30am.  We all really wanted nothing more than a good shower and a soft bed, but I'm a mean mom and kept the kids busy all day.  There were no naps on this trip!  We hit the zoo right when it opened.

This is my favorite zoo in the world.  So cool to see the free-ranging orangutans.

 

 Alex made a little friend!

I let the kids pick one of the animal feedings and they both agreed on the giant tortoises.  I was surprised but totally on board with something new.  These guys were really cool.

We were able to pet them anywhere and they really loved having their necks scratched.

Nothing like a good cherry tomato off a stick.

Tortoise stampede!

 Back at the hotel, we looked forward to high tea every afternoon.  Not only was the food delicious, the tea was just what I needed to get through the afternoon.  Fresh mango and apple juice made the kids happy.

Alex is still obsessed with the Marina Bay Sands and was dying to go to the top.  The view was pretty incredible.

We got a peek of the awesome infinity pool but one day we'll stay at the hotel and go enjoy it for ourselves.

Another Singapore favorite - monkeying around on the MRT.

My happy place was always the botanic garden and we really enjoyed the orchid garden.

The kids agreed that it was pretty amazing and they took tons of pictures on their phones and mine.

I had forgotten how much Singapore makes you sweat.  It just saps your energy, especially when you're low on it to begin with.  The boys were really troopers.

 This is one of my very favorite spots.  I love telling Ben about how tourists would line up to take pictures with the cute little blonde boy every time we went through.

Wouldn't you want a picture with this precious little guy in 2008?

 I hadn't realized how expensive Singapore had become (or perhaps we just never did all the activities in one weekend) so it was tough finding fun things to do to get us out of the room, especially when we were tired and cranky.

This afternoon, we were all kind of grouchy and still managed to have some fun. Right after this, when I was close to losing my mind, we saw some people go by on electric scooters that they had rented.  I whipped out my phone (actually a free loaner from the hotel - awesome!!) and realized we were right by a rental kiosk.

The kids' day suddenly became 1,000% better!  These were totally fun and such an awesome way to buzz around Marina Bay.

They even fit nicely in the elevators to get on the helix bridge!

 We zipped all through the Gardens by the Bay in a fraction of the time it would take to walk it.

 

Even though the kids begged for more time, we returned the scooters and enjoyed the evening light show from the Sands.

 
Singapore is so beautiful at night.

The first thing the kids asked to do on Monday?  Scooters again.  It was so much fun we went for another round.

This time we headed all the way out on Marina Barrage for some cool looks back at the city.

More high tea!  I looked forward to this every afternoon.  It may explain why all my pants are so tight right now.

On our last evening, we went back to the Sands for the light show and this time enjoyed the sunset looking across Marina Bay.

The fountains and lights were choreographed to music and really fun to watch from the steps at the Sands.

The kids had to miss the first two days of school (no tears about that!) but it was so worth being back on this side of the globe to get our time zones straight before sending them back to class.  We got our passports back and made the last flight to Jakarta on Tuesday.  Now we are home sweet home!