Precious Moments

When you live the life that we do, moments with family become incredibly precious. We are blessed to have my sister and her family as well as my brother and his wife living here in SE Asia so our paths sometimes intersect. On our way to our meetings in Bali, we ended up with a layover in their city so we extended for a few days.

This shot was taken as we boarded the plane in our little provincial town. I love the 2 volcanoes in the background.

One of the best things about this trip was FINALLY getting to meet our new niece/cousin. This is little miss Zoe, and she is absolutely adorable - and such a happy baby.
Ben and Gabby are actually only 3 wks apart in age, but we have always gotten a kick out of the difference in their sizes.

Zach is great with babies, and he had a blast getting to know Zoe. Mikayla got lots of baby practice too and loved every minute of it.

Precious

Was so good to watch the cousins together again.

Love this smile

Mikayla and Eli enjoying the playground.

The kids worked together to put on a little show for all the adults. This shot is of Ben peeping around the corner to the "stage" (driveway).

Taking a bow after the elaborate show, complete with costumes. We decided Mikayla was going for a 20's era theme.

Precious Memories

Bali

We just got back from a couple weeks on the road. While I probably should be working on all the catch-up paperwork, I decided to take some time tonight and put together some pics for the grandparents out there (and others who may care too :) ).

After our trip to visit my sister in her country (that post coming soon), we traveled to Bali for some meetings with our company. It felt like we were going to land right ON the beach as we approached the runway. After the 7 days of meetings (no pics of that), we enjoyed 3 days of vacation.

Here are some sights from around town:

These little food or flower offerings to their gods were scattered all over the sidewalks and beaches.

The architecture was incredibly intricate

We spent some time by the pool - the boys enjoyed the giant chess set (tnx to Aunt Megan who taught them how to play last year).

On our first day of vacay, we went white water rafting. We had a blast (and don't worry, the rapids were pretty mild!).

However, we have to admit there was one injury that day......but it didn't happen until we were "safely" in the car on the way back to the hotel!!! Having safely navigated the roaring rapids, the boys were playing with the reclining seat in the van, and it popped up and nailed Ben in the head. The bleeding head wound sent the driver into a tizzy, and he wanted to take us right to the hospital. But we convinced him to just take us back to the hotel (did NOT want to brave an Indonesian hospital if we could help it!). Thankfully, we had brought out medical kit which included one of the official "glue sticks" our ER doctor friend in the States sent us a couple yrs ago. We were thrilled when it worked great, and we were able to avoid the cultural experience of getting stitches in an Indonesian ER. Thanks, Steve and Laura, once again for the glue stick thingys - they have saved us from stitches in random Asian hospitals FOUR times now!!!

All patched up! We put a butterfly over the glue to give it a little extra support since we were planning to surf the next day. :) And then covered it all with a Batman waterproof bandaid. We called Ben "Batman" for the remainder of the trip. Here is sporting his best monkey face.

The next day we headed to the beach to learn to surf. Some friends of my sister who live in Bali actually came with us that day, but we forgot the camera so these pics are from the following day when we went back for seconds. Thanks, D&K & little C for a fun day on the beach and the surfing lessons. :)

Check out those waves! Was so beautiful.

we sure got our $ out of the rented boogie boards

the boys also had fun "body boarding" - just riding the waves without a board of any sort. Thankfully, the bottom was sandy and smooth so no coral rash to report.

Batman tackling the waves

Go, Mikayla! She and Zach both got up on the very first try. I guess their wakeboarding experience helps. :)

Even Ben-jay got up on the surf board. There are no pics to prove it, but I (Jen) actually got up a little too. :) And Steve surfed it up too.

Zach was such a natural out there. And I love the scenery behind him too.

On our last day in Bali, Mikayla got her hair braided on the beach.

Love it

Our little girl is growing up...

We had a wonderful time in Bali and were so thankful for the couple days to relax as a family.

Friends!

As MKs, our kids have very quickly learned the pain of saying goodbye since our friends and family are spread all around the world. Once upon a time (ok, a few yrs ago), this family lived only an hour or so away from us - now they live 2 flights away on a different island. So there were LOTS of smiles all around when they made plans to come for a visit last week.

Mikayla and Carly getting ready to head out on the kneeboard together.

Carly getting a kneeboarding safety lesson from Uncle Steve before heading out on her own.
Carly started the celebration for her 13th bday while at our house. We went out to a restaurant and surprised her with decorations and cake. Here are all 5 kids celebrating. (if Mikayla's eyes look a little teary, it's because she just had a run-in with the elastic strap on her party hat. The hat won.)

While they were here, we spent a lot of time in the water. Here is Zach doing a flip off his dad's shoulders. I really do think we are creating adrenaline junkies, but they sure have a lot of fun!

It was great to be with these dear friends again and look forward to when our paths cross again. They said it's our turn to come to them now. :)

This week we leave for 2 countries here in SE Asia - first a 3 day layover to see my sister and her family (and finally get to meet baby Zoe, our newest neice/cousin!!!). Then onto another country for a wk of meetings followed by a few days of vacation. Thanks for praying for safety and good health as we travel!

Kids Wakeboarding Tricks

I put a little high-light video together from the kids' riding these last couple months. They have been a lot of fun to watch lately. Know it's not the same as in person, but I hope you enjoy it all the same.

(By the way, for those of you who aren't used to You Tube - after our video, other suggestions for videos you might like will pop up. We don't have anything to do with those other videos and cannot recommend them.)

Champs!

This weekend, Mikayla and Zach both competed in the Philippine National Wakeboarding Championships. Mikayla is 10, and Zach turned 8 on the final day of the competition, but they both had to compete in the 10-13 yr old division since there were no younger riders. All the riders they competed against were either 12 or 13, but the kids did great! (Can you tell we are a little proud of them? :) )

Here is a shot of Zach right after his run at the semi-finals in the offiical riding jersey.

Zach got a sweet grab and some big air off the kicker.
Look how hard he is carving (can you tell I have started to learn the wakeboarding lingo? It's like a whole new language....)

Ben didn't ride in the competition, but he did a great job cheering, playing in the sand, and looking cute.

Mikayla got a great grab off the kicker too! It is amazing that she was even able to compete because she got strep throat the week of the competition and wasn't able to practice much at all. Since we were on a 10 day trip just before she got strep, she was coming off a 2 1/2 wk break from riding. We were just thankful she was able to ride at all - we were praying hard! To HIM goes the glory!

Steve and my dad were in the country, but were supposed to be in meetings 24 hrs north of us so they weren't going to be able to make it to the competition. However, they were able to wrap up their meetings early and SURPRISE the kids by taking the overnight bus down to watch the competition. They arrived just a few hours before it all started, and the kids were THRILLED to have both Daddy and Papa there to watch.

Here Zach is showing Papa the gift bag the riders got.

The day of the finals was also Zach's 8th birthday. Here is the bday boy chilling and watching the other riders.

In all the craziness of the week, we didn't end up doing a cake for his bday, but he said it was the best birthday ever cuz he was with his family. We went to his favorite ice cream place to celebrate, and he got to get whatever he wanted - 2 scoops of Rocky Road.

We sang to him and "blew out" his spoon. Which ended up being a trick candle that kept re-lighting...imaginations are wonderful.

Zach got a ripstick, a bunch of books he has been wanting (he has recently turned into quite the little reader!), some legos, a PS2 game, and his own "big kid" Bible and case from his grandparents. The case was even embroidered with his name and a wake-boarder!

Another shot of the birthday boy!

That night at the awards ceremony, we didn't know how the kids would come out. All their competitors stepped it up significantly for the finals, so the competition was fierce. We were so excited when Zach got 3rd in his division even though he was 5-6 yrs younger than the other boys.

And Mikayla got 1st!!!

Here are some pics of their riding to end with...

Zach might look like he is falling off here, but it is actually called a "nose press".

Go, Kayla!

Zach catching big air.

We are so blessed to live near an amazing place like this where the kids have the opportunity to wakeboard and even compete. We are so thankful.