First day of School!

Another year begins...
Dallin started 4th grade...Holy Crow! He was a little bummed about beginning school again. He was excited to see his friends but he hates school work. His teacher is pretty darn young and she's "cool". She lets all of her students call her Brooke...oh ya, that's cool!


I took that picture of Dallin in his classroom, and he was like "Mom, get out of here, you're embarressing me!" He didn't actually say that but it's written in his face as you can see. "Mooooom!"

Eden, on the other hand, was thrilled about starting school again. She was literally counting down the days. She and Marion have been very excited about their new matching clothes too! They like letting people think they are twins :) Eden's teacher is Miss Laura Lamb...how sweet is that!


Marion doesn't actually start Kindergarden until Friday so I'll have to post about her actual first day later. We did meet with her teacher for an orientation on the first day, her name is Ms. Corly and seems very nice as well. Marion was acting very shy when we met her :) But she is anxious to begin because now she is one of the big kids and gets to see her siblings at lunch and ride the same bus as them on the way home...oooh!

Our Reverent Prayers

Usually, family prayer feels a lot like this:

"Kids, come on, it's time for prayer...get in here...guys get your tushes in here...it's time for prayer...now, I mean it! Alright, everyone on your knees, fold your arms, bow your heads, and close your eyes or so help me...we are going to feel the spirit darn it!!"

Lately things have gone a little differently:

Two night ago, one of the kids was saying the prayer, and Emmalyn tooted (hence the nickname she has had since birth, Tootie), we fell apart halfway through the prayer in complete hysterics!

Then just tonight, Marion was saying the prayer. She has a tendency to speak very quickly and sort of slur her words together when she's praying so it can often be difficult to understand her sometimes but there was one sentence that we all heard very clearly: "please help us all so we can learn spanish" Again, complete hysterics! We were completely out of control, even Marion was laughing though she had no idea what was so funny. Then when we explained that we're learning Indonesian not spanish it was a revelation!

Failed Miserably

So the kids have accused me on a number of occassions of eating vast amounts of junk food (sweets to be particular) in the evenings when Mike is out of town. There is some truth in this statement. Therefore, I decided that while Mike was away this time, I would refrain from such weakness and not eat anything deliciously sweet and dilectable after dinner. Mike left this morning. I didn't make it one evening. Loser!! I ate two pieces of Jello Toast on homemade bread. Delicious (thanks Ashley!) Jello toast: buttered bread with a thick layer of powdered jello on top of the butter, then baked in the oven just until jello is melted and a little crispy ...Yum! Great for those Family Home Evening's when you forgot to make a treat.

Bali Vacation

What an excellent, fun, yet relaxing vacation! Just what the doctor ordered. We stayed at the Club Med Resort which I thought was terrific! Unfortunately, since we always have to get 2 rooms, it was way too expensive for us to ever do again. We spent a lot of time swimming at the big pool which was one of the highlights for the kids (which included getting thrown off moms shoulders) along with our day down at the beach building sand castles. It rained for nearly 2 days straight while we were there, during that time we participated in some of the indoor hotel activities but mostly we stayed in our room, Mike and I sitting on the veranda reading, while the kids played in the room and watched Nick Jr. (yes, we traveled all that way and spent a fortune so that our kids could watch Nick Jr...grrr!)

The beaches in Bali were better than any beaches I've been to in the states (aside from Kawaii) but I hear they are nothing compared to Australian beaches.

Dallin spent 2 days at the kids club. He found a bunch of boys to play with and they had really fun counselors that kept them busy doing all kinds of activities and sports. It was like a summer camp. One day they built boats out of plastic bottles and balloons then raced them across the swimming pool.

Mike and I spent one morning playing tennis, golf, and a little pool. Then together as a family we did a little trapeze, kayaking, boche ball, and circus juggling. There were these really cool lizards in the pond that we kept watching, one of them was at least 4 feet long!

My only complaints were: Everytime I ordered beef it turned out quite grissly, and the fruity drinks were lame! The kids loved the food! They spent 5 days eating french fries, pizza, breads, and chicken fingers. Not to mention the 2 ice cream cones each every night for dessert! Heavenly!

We went for a walk the first day that we were there and found a bunch of animal statues along the way that we thought were really fun. When we saw the first one, a frog, we thought "hey, let's take pictures with as many different ones as we can" after taking the first picture, Dallin says, "guys, I think they're trash cans". So then we had to take pictures of them because it was so hilarious! There was a squirrel one that was very anatomically correct (picture not included for that reason).

Enjoy the pictures!

The Gong Factory in Bogor

This past Monday we took a family trip about 1 1/2 hours out of Jakarta to a city called Bogor. Hidden within the hundreds of tiny street of this city there is the Sukarna Gong Factory. A small Indonesian cultural treasure. Though the word 'factory' doesn't quite suite. American safety people would have a field day with this place! There were probably 8 workers in this small sooty room. It was completely dark except for the light coming in from the one doorway we entered through and the fire burning in the middle of the room. There are tools and bags and random things just lying everywhere in this room. There is no real floor that can be seen just dirt and layers upon layers of soot and ash. Most of the gong makers in this room wear flip flops or are barefoot. What happens is they take a piece of brass and throw it into the fire. A man with enourmous tongs sits by the fire and when the brass has reached a very high temperature and is burning red hot he takes it out with the tongs and the 4 other men gather in a circle with huge hammers and bang the metal into shape a little at a time while the metal is red hot. As soon as the redness fades to grayish-black, the tong man puts it back into the fire and the process continues. Not much visibly happens with the metal each time it comes out but after about 1 hour, you start to see the metal flatten and get wider forming th gong. The nice men let us all hold the heavy hammers, they even let Mike hit the brass a couple times when it was red hot. Be sure to watch the video at the end...you can hear the interesting sounds of the metal as each man hits it. And they're rhythm was an incredible sight!

This was a very small room in the back where they do the finishing work on the gamelan instruments. All various kinds of gongs. One man below is carefully chiseling the intricate design work into the wood and another man is polishing the gong on a very fast spinning wheel. Then of course there is Mike with the ginormous gong we bought, and a video of the men hammering the red hot brass into shape.

Inem and Fifi

Our lovely, dedicated house staff! They make our lives here very happy and enjoyable, not to mention bearable when we are still having trouble with the language. On the left in yellow is Fifi. She is our newest addition. She lives here with us in the staff quarters which is kind of like a mini apartment attached to the side of our house. She stays here with the kids when Mike and I go out for evenings and helps with the children at other random times when I must leave and the kids can't come along or they just don't want to. Often the kids don't want to come because traffic is so bad and they know they will just be sitting in a car forever! Fifi also does a lot of the daily household cleaning and laundry. In the blue shirt on the right is Inem. She is WONDERFUL! She does all our cooking, grocery shopping, washing of fruits and vegetables. She also does much of the house cleaning and is just the general housekeeper. She makes sure that everything is done and done on time. She is just terrific! She was the first person we hired here, I just had a really good feeling about her and now we know why.

Bubble Bath

Dinner at the Mission Home

We had 4th of July dinner at the mission home. It was a very interesting evening. Too much detail let's just say that I've never participated in such a bizarre white elephant gift exchange! In the first picture we have the Key's family, they are the big game night friends and sitting next to them is the branch president, President Donald from New Zealand. The family dressed all in red is the newest addition to our branch family, the Nielson's. She in many ways reminds Mike and I of our sister-in-law Danica. They are lots of fun! The highlight of the evening was when everyone took turns singing the national anthem from their own countries...Very Cool!