We had time off off for Chinese New Year this past week. We've heard that in Beijing it is just crazy with so many people visiting, fireworks everynight. It seems like it is an out-of-control party for the entire week, so we took a trip to Bali to clear our lungs and relax a little.
The flights were scary, very bumpy with a lot of turbulence, it was 6 hours to Singapore, then another 3 to Bali, so we were on there for a long time. We got there pretty late at night on Saturday, but got off the plane to warm weather, which was great. The resort was very nice, we stayed at the Westin in Nusa Dua, which is mostly a resort area. The hotel food and rooms were great and they had a nice pool with a waterslide. On Tuesday, we took a taxi into Kuta which is a beach area and walked around the surf shops and markets for a while, the prices were really cheap there. We saw this great pool and it was so hot, we were going to sneak into it, it turned out being the Hard Rock Hotel and we were able to pay to use it for the day. It was perfect, more waterslides, and they had alot of kids games set up. We liked it so much, we make a reservation for 2 days later on Thursday, to go back and rent a cabana at the pool.
We took a taxi one day to a village called Ubud, where they sell alot of wood carvings, fabrics, and have a monkey forest where the monkeys just roam around and come up to eat out of your hands.
Saturday, we went to the Pura Luhur Uluwatu temple,which is one of Bali's most sacred places to worship. Most of the people in Bali are Hindu. The temple is thought to have been built in the 11th century and rebuilt 500 years later. The cliffs were so beautiful, and we had to put on purple clothes to visit. There were monkeys all over, they would sometimes try to swipe at you, and would take peoples glasses, but mostly they just wanted food which people were selling to feed them.
The kids really enjoyed the hotel's kids club, and they were able to play games, use the computer, fly kites on the beach, and fish for the first time ever. Lauren caught a fish first which made Marshall cry, so I stepped in and tried desperately to help Marshall catch one. Luckily, we did, so all was well again, I think Marshall ended up with 4, Lauren with 3. They loved it, and I even touched the fish to get it off the hook, shocking, I know. Todd and I took advantage of the kids being at the kids club to get a couples massage on the beach, it was so nice!
Much of the vacation was spent in the pool, with Lauren and Marshall learning to stand on Todd's hands. I put one picture up where it looks like she is standing on the water. We spents hours doing it!
We had an overnight flight, leaving Singapore at 1:35am, and back in Beijing at 7:45, when we came home and slept.
The other pictures were from the Daddy-Daughter dance for Lauren's Brownie group. It was called the "Snowflake Ball" and was held at the US Embassy. They did all of the cheesy dances like YMCA, Cha Cha Slide, and Lauren now walks around doing the Macarena quite often
Well, I better go, I have to go pick up Marshall from school now, they moved the bus stop, so now it is a 10 minute walk instead of 5. Too many people were getting hit by cars and robbed outside of the housing unit, so they closed that gate. Doesn't make much sense to me, but they seem to think it will take care of it. Oh well, hope everyone is doing well. We miss all of you!
We are all waiting for warmer weather here. At least is in not freezing anymore, but we are definitely ready to be outside more. We've been taking the kids swimming in the indoor pool lately, which they really like. Todd and I went out for his birthday last Friday, we walked out of the 1st restaurant but ended up having a really good dinner at a place where we went on our househunting trip. Miss Geri babysat for us and made paper boats for the kids all evening. They had a great time. Lauren made her 1st Confession this past Sat. She was really nervous right before she went in, but it seemed to go fine. She will make her 1st Communion in April. She has alot of kids in her Communion class, around 20 and they will wear the white dresses, it should be nice. She goes to class every Monday for it in the evening. Marshall is doing just fine also. He still really likes school. Lauren's class is putting on a circus this Sat, it is pretty big. Marshall will get to watch it during the day when they perform it for the younger grades. They will have plate spinning, stilt walking, jump rope, and I am not sure what else. I had a clown costume made for her, I'll put pictures up after. I realized that I have been behind on putting pictures up (and blogging). These pictures are from the time around Chinese New Year. Some are from Marshall's class making "jiaozi", or Chinese dumplings (That is Miss Geri in the picture helping him!) and others are from a Temple Fair that their school put on. It was great, they hire people to do dragon dances, have little booths for the kids to buy things, and each class puts on a little performance. In Brownies, they put together a little show, I will try to upload a short video of it, I took it on my camera, so it is not long. Hopefully it will work. Not much else going on. We are all booked for summer, I have our tickets, rental car, etc. Looking forward to seeing everyone. Hope everyone is doing well, we miss you. PS For those of you who send packages to us, we have a new request- pepperoni! If anyone could just stick a few packages in everytime you mail something, it would be GREATLY appreciated! Frozen pizza is nonexistent here, so I have been making pizza bagels but they also don't sell pepperoni. Thanks!
