Hey there stranger!

I know, I know! It's been over 3 months in fact...long time no see! How ya been?

I apologize for the long absence. Between all the trips we have taken in the last several months and a general feeling on my part of not wanting to sit in front of the computer, I have not found the time nor the inclination to write. I will try to give a brief summary of our life since April, and then we can move on to the here and now.

The family dressed in traditional Indonesian batik for C's end-of-school-year concert

In April we took a fabulous trip to Western Australia. We spent a few days in Perth and a few days in Margaret River, an area south of Perth that is well known for their wine production and nice beaches. The weather was perfect - sunny and warm during the day and cold and crisp at night. We thoroughly enjoyed all the fresh air and good food that W. Australia had to offer. Our activities in Perth included walking around the city and parks, visits to playgrounds, walks on the beach, and petting koala bears and 'kookoorooroos' (that's kangaroos in LC-ese) at a wildlife park. Farther south we did much of the same - beach walks and playground visits, walking and shopping around Margaret River town, and a visit to a winery. I would have preferred more time at wineries, but unfortunately I was outvoted. All in all a very good trip!

A few observations about Western Australia:

- it's very pretty and wide open and lovely, in a barren and solitary-like way

- food in restaurants is ridiculously expensive, and we never figured out why

- they are brilliant when it comes to playgrounds - there was even a playground at the winery!

- they make excellent wine

- Perth is the most isolated city, and it is closer to Jakarta than it is to Sydney

- Perth feels more like a big country town then a metropolis

In May J and I took a long weekend to celebrate our 9th wedding anniversary. We went to Losari coffee plantation and resort in Central Java. We had an absolutely wonderful time enjoying the quiet and relaxation and cooler temperatures. The resort is in a beautiful setting and has a lovely spa, a beautiful lounge and reception area where they served afternoon tea, and a bar with a pool table where I am happy to say I beat J twice! I also enjoyed my first al fresco yoga session one morning overlooking the fog wisped (I realize wisp is not a verb but it should be!) mountain. It was another successful adventure!

Losari Coffee Plantation and Resort

Our latest voyage was our longest - 7 weeks back in the US. This trip was our home leave so J was able to join us for 3 weeks of the trip, and his work paid for our flights in business class. The trip over went much better than it had the previous year. The fact that LC is a whole year older made a huge difference, and we were able to get him to sleep more easily and he was entertained for quite some time by videos. The worst part of the trip back was in Dallas when we ended up with an 8 hour layover instead of the 4 hours we had planned. We had to carry both sleeping children onto the plane to Florida because they just couldn't stay awake any longer. While this delay really sucked at the time, in the end it might have been an excellent mishap. As a result of the delay we didn't get the kids to bed at J's parents' house in Florida until 11 p.m. And so, they slept through the night! And they slept through the night every night afterward, so jet lag was not nearly as challenging as it could have been.

The view of sunrise from the plane as we neared America

While in Florida we relaxed and ate a lot of ham and did some shopping. And then we went to Disney. Unfortunately for us J was sick for most of that adventure, although he isn't much of a Disney aficionado, so he was quite happy to get out of as many Disney activities as he could. The rest of us however had a marvelous time! My SIL and FIL did an excellent job of planning the trip, so we stayed in a nice hotel on the park grounds, ate meals in good restaurants, and even enjoyed a 'character breakfast' when Mickey, Goofy, Lilo and Stitch came around to our table to hug the kids.

We spent the most time at Magical Kingdom, where we enjoyed a couple parades, went on several rides and walked and walked! We also went to Hollywood Studios and Epcot, which is my favorite, although we didn't spend very much time there. Unfortunately the heat was horrible - incredibly hot and humid and far worse than it ever is in Jakarta! But aside from that we had a really great time, and it was so fun for me to enjoy Disney with my children and view the wonder through their eyes.

From Florida we headed to Washington, DC where we lived before moving to Indonesia and where most of our friends live. The weather in DC was absolutely perfect, and once again we walked all over! We revisited the Air & Space Museum and the Natural History Museum like we did last year. Although C is still interested in dinosaurs, he didn't seem to enjoy the Natural History Museum nearly as much as he did last year. However, he still really liked the planes and spaceships at Air & Space. We also enjoyed a morning at the zoo and it was wonderful as always. This year we also included a tour around the memorials and monuments. J and I really enjoy doing this, and the kids were quite tolerant. We ended up walking for miles, or at least it felt like it, and incredibly C walked for much of it.

In front of the capital building

At the Roosevelt Memorial

After spending most of the week in DC we enjoyed Independence Day weekend with our good friends in Silver Spring, MD. As always we had a fantastic time catching up and relaxing with our dearest friends. On July 4th our hosts cooked an amazing slow-cooked pork dish which still makes me salivate, and LC burned his finger on his first sparkler - a successful Independence Day if you ask me!

Unfortunately mom was too busy taking a photo to realize LC was just about to burn his finger

C, aka Spiderman, with a sparkler

Wisconsin was our next destination. J stayed for our first week and then flew to NC for work, and then finally back to Jakarta. The kids and I stayed in Wisconsin for a total of 1 month so that we could have more frequent and more relaxed visits with my family and friends. We were fortunate enough to be able to spend the month in our dear friend's unoccupied yet furnished house so that we weren't living on top of my mom the whole time. Of course this meant I had to do some cooking and cleaning for the first time in 2.5 years, but it was well worth it!

C's 5th bday party - party #1
As you can plainly see, LC loved C's cake!

J pretends to be an East Coast big city snob, but really he's a Cheesehead at heart

The weather in WI was mostly horrendous, considering that it was supposed to be the warmest time of the year. It only reached 60F a few days and rarely made it to 80F. This threw a wrench in my plan to spend a great deal of time at outdoor concerts and at our friend's lake house, but it was also a nice change to have cooler weather. We spent a great deal of time at playgrounds and eating ice cream, visiting with friends and family, going to children's museums, going to movies and doing some shopping. I also had the opportunity to catch up with a few long lost high school friends, make a weekend trip to Minneapolis, and enjoy a small town parade with my extended family. All in all it was a successful trip and my belly is nicely full from all the cheese, beer, ice cream and brats that I stuffed into it (have you noticed the pork consumption theme of the trip?...).

And then the dreaded day arrived, the day when I would have to fly back to Jakarta for 36 hours alone with a 2 year old and a 5 year old. The saving grace of the trip was that we were able to take the direct flight from Newark to Singapore (at 18 hours it is the longest flight in the world) on Singapore Airlines in business class. And this is a huge bonus I fully admit. It made it much more manageable, and in the end really benefited everyone. Because, if it hadn't been for those nice seats that allowed us all to get some decent sleep, my children might no longer be alive. The trip was quite tolerable until the last 4 hours of the 18 hour flight and the 4 hour layover in Singapore. By the end of that long plane ride LC was jumping all over the place, creating make-shift slides wherever he could, screaming at every diaper change, and just plain acting like an overtired 2 year old boy. And then the layover in Singapore, which was 240 long minutes of hell. I couldn't get us on the earlier flight back to Jakarta, so I was stuck with 2 kids who were exhausted and who had had enough of each other. They were at each other the entire time and I was minutes away from losing it. Fortunately, before I lost my last screw, it was time to get on our last flight and the boys slept the whole flight back.

So all in all it was a successful trip - I didn't strangle my kids, my belly is full of pig meat and cow milk of various forms, and my lungs are once again a pretty pink color from all the lovely fresh air!

And now we're back in Jakarta and the jet lag has mostly subsided. Five days after we returned we held another birthday party for C with all his friends, then LC started back at school, and C started kindergarten, and riding the bus!, at the Jakarta International School. We have dived back into our life here and we will continue to be busy with the many trips and family visits we have planned for this next year!