Mallory on the pony ride at the Family Fun Fair. What is it with girls and ponies?

Mallory has become quite the swimmer, enjoying this last little while with our pool. She really only likes to go because she likes to feel how long her hair is when it's wet. With her curly hair, she never really feels that it's pretty long. Her dream, to have LONG hair.

The school has a Family Fun Fair every year. It is one of the boys favorite events. There are all sorts of booths sponsored by each grade and also some sponsored by community groups. This is Luke on the gladiator thing trying to take down one of Grant's friends.

The Young Men in our branch sponsored a dart throwing booth. Nash worked all day and was also in charge of getting the prizes before the day. From what I hear, he was quite the negotiator when buying the prizes.

The view in front of our new house. The castle off in the distance.

The front of the house.

Side and back yard.

In front of the Dom in Cologne

We walked the streets every night. Creed in front of a fountain in Cologne

House!

April 28, 2008

Now things can get moving! I just returned from Germany. Creed is still there and will be for the rest of this week getting trained and oriented with his new job. He thinks he will enjoy it and I’m anxious to talk to him to find out all the little details of his new job. Loralee was so kind to come all the way here to watch the kids while we were gone for a week. I really couldn’t have done it without her. The kids were well taken care of and so happy when I returned. Thank you very much Loralee. We owe you the world!

After looking at several homes in the Bonn area, we finally settled on one in Villip, a small village and a 15 min. drive to the Bonn International School. It is a country house and Creed has joked that we now need to start listening to country music. We can still ride our bikes to Villip to the bakery (a must as far as I’m concerned…those of you that are familiar with European bakeries! YUM!) and it’s only around 5 minutes to the nearest shopping center area. So while we will feel as if we are in the middle of now where, we really won’t be. We laughed that I am going to the extreme because of our lack of privacy here in Jakarta, but I imagine that we will enjoy the peacefulness of it all out there with the birds chirping and the sounds of the church bells. The boys were thrilled on the space of the house and also the size of the yard along with the many forests and pathways to walk and ride bikes. The house is on the property of a castle. A couple live in the castle and rent out some homes and apartments around the large land area of the property. We met the man with his long, sleeked, silver, flowing hair, tall stature and very fashionable clothes. He looks like royalty. Those attributes got him the codename ‘The Count’ from Creed. The boys couldn’t stop laughing when I told them. Now if they just don’t slip and call him that to his face. The Count was a very kind, down to earth man and was very happy we loved the house and decided to rent it. I know we will be happy there.

We are making some sacrifices. It’s quite a long way for Creed to drive to work; 71 kilometers to be exact. Fortunately, we are just around the corner from the autobahn so it will at least be quick driving, not through the city, but still, it’s a long drive. It’s certainly farther than we go to school now seeing that we are right across the street now, but we will make it work.

Germany is beautiful and Creed and I felt somewhat at home there. We are very excited to be moving there. We were impressed with the school, although it is quite small, only 515 students from K-12 (JIS has over 2000) so that will be quite a change for the boys, but a good one I think. The school is very on top of things and we were impressed with it.

Now comes the hard part of trying to sort through everything (still) and selling things and getting things taken care of. We have lots of things going on with school this last month so it will be busy, but we are excited for this move and ready for a new chapter in our lives.

Letter & Photos: 13 April 2008

13 April 2008

Since we last wrote our medium-term plans have become more certain, though our short-term plans are a little more up in the air and life is definitely more stressful.

We found out that I was approved for a position in Germany, effective June 1st. We are glad to have some certainty about where we’ll be living for the next 3 years. However, now that we know, we feel like the clock is ticking to get everything prepared for us to move.

After quite a bit of negotiation and checking of schedules between the person who is replacing me here in Indonesia, the HR and relocation people in Germany, etc. we finally settled on a time for Heidi and me to go to Germany for a house hunting trip. And, much to our surprise my Mom has made herself available to come to Indonesia to watch our kids while we go. We are so relieved that she is going to be able to come and so thankful she will make the long trek here. So, as it stands now, Heidi and I will go to Germany a week from today to spend the week looking for housing, checking out schools, etc., then I’ll stay for an extra week to spend time with the person I am replacing so I can start learning about the job.

Our home will definitely be smaller in Germany, so we have started going through our stuff, sorting out what we really want to keep versus sell, give away, or throw away. Lots more to do, though.

Luke was in the 2nd grade class play this week. It was called the Dancing Pig – I think they said it is based on a folk tale from the island of Bali. He had some speaking parts, as well as singing with his class. He wasn’t nervous at all for his speaking part, and he hadn’t even really practiced it at home. We were impressed that he did so well with it.

Yesterday all 3 boys participated in a recital for the students at the music school where they have their violin & cello lessons. We didn’t know quite what to expect. It ended up being about 40 students, ages 4 – 12, playing one or two songs each on either piano or violin, and there was one guitar and one cello (Luke). For all 3 of them it was their first performance in this kind of a setting, and I think it was good for them. They haven’t really had too many opportunities to perform, and I think this gave them some motivation to practice a little bit more.

Mallory went on her first field trip with her pre-school last week. She was so excited to go on the bus with her class. They went to Taman Mini, saw some reptiles (snakes, alligators, etc.) and then saw a movie about the ocean at the Imax Theater.

There were several strong thunderstorms this week - one in particular with really strong winds.

Last week we went over to the home of our friends, the Ortons, for a turkey dinner to celebrate Easter. After dinner we played a game with the decorated Easter eggs, where 2 people take an egg then hit each others’ eggs to see which one cracks. We did it in a tournament style, and Heidi’s egg was the strongest.

Letter: New Zealand Trip March 2008

1 April 2008

We are back from the trip we have been dreaming about since we moved here. We were in New Zealand for 10 days and could have stayed much longer. We only were able to spend time on the North Island and still don’t feel like we spent enough time. New Zealand is an unbelievably gorgeous country. I’m convinced that it is the true Garden of Eden.

We rented a 6 person campervan for the trip and drove that around and stayed in powered camping sites for the entire trip. That is a pretty common thing to do there but we still felt like we stuck out like a sore thumb with our HUGE campervan. I giggled to myself several times as I looked over and saw Creed driving this massive ‘housecar’ as Mallory called it. The boys were in heaven. It has always been their dream to travel in an RV and they got their wish. Grant listened very carefully to all the instructions when we picked up the campervan and knew how everything worked. We often asked him for assistance.

We did several things that were a once in a lifetime experiences. We Zorbed (rolled down a huge hill in a big plastic ball…invented by a Kiwi), rode a luge ride down a mountain, went horseback riding, hiking, saw glow worms, went black water rafting (going down a river in a cave on a tube, yes it’s dark!..also invented by a Kiwi), went to a Hangi (a Maori cultural evening and a traditional Maori dinner), went kayaking, went to Hobbiton, where they filmed Lord of the Rings, and saw many, many waterfalls. It was a fun-filled trip and we didn’t want to come back to Jakarta. We would love to go explore the rest of the country some time, but unfortunately, we most likely will never be this close again (even though it was still an 11 hour flight for us from here). Maybe someday we will be able to go again.

Photos: NZ March 2008 - Hamilton

We were able to go the temple and visitors center in Hamilton.

The kids loved playing and sleeping in the camper van -- especially in the loft area above the cab.

Photos: NZ March 2008 - Blackwater Rafting (Waitomo)

In Waitomo Nash, Grant, Luke, and I (plus another couple and our guide) went blackwater rafting. We dressed up in wetsuits, boots, and helmets, then drove about 20 minutes to a farm. We got out and walked across a cow / sheep pasture, picked up inner tubes...

walked across another hill...

then walked down into the cave entrance.

At one part of the cave we got down on our hands and knees to crawl through a small opening that had about 10 inches of (very) cold water in it. At the other end of the opening was a small room, with a waterfall pouring into it.

Here's another area where we were wading through waist-deep water.



And then we got into the inner tubes, formed a chain, and floated for a while. At the top of the cave in several areas there were thousands of glowworms. We all turned out all of our lights and walked or floated along in the dark, looking at the glow worms on the ceiling.

And finally, coming out of the cave. It took us a while for our bodies to get warmed up again - we went back and had a hot shower and some soup.

Here's a photo of the glow worms. You cannot see them very well, but they are small worms (larvae of some insect), about 2 or 3 cm long, and they stay at the to of the ceiling of a cave in the dark, and dangle these threads down to catch passing insects. When an insect becomes caught in these threads, the glow worm pulls up the thread and eats the insect. The tail end of the glow worm lights up in green, so when its dark in the cave, you look up at the ceiling and see thousands of these tiny green lights. It is one of the most amazing things I have seen in my life.

Photos: NZ March 2008 - Waitomo

Angora rabbit -- Mallory loved it.
Photos of the boys in some small caves in the Ruakari preserve near Waitomo.

Heidi and Nash walked back from Ruakari to Waitomo -- it took them about an hour, over large hills and through farms.

Mallory, trying and liking fish & chips. We were shocked -- it is the first time she has had fish and she is a very picky eater.

Right by our campground in Waitomo they had a Sports Day which included a "lolly drop" -- which is basically a helicopter flying over the field and dumping out candy. I think Luke is the only one who got a piece.

Here's the whole family geared up and ready to tour the glow worm cave.

After the glow worm cave, we toured a second cave. This second cave had a lot of animal bones in it, including the bones of a cow that had fallen in the cave from a hole in the ground. Apparently it is a big problem in that area -- there is even a Waitomo Animal Rescue Squad -- because there are so many sink holes in the fields and animals frequently fall into them.

The three boys on our drive from Waitomo to Tongariro.

Photos: NZ March 2008 - Tongariro National Park & Taranaki Falls

We spent one afternoon in Tongariro National Park on a short hike to Taranki Falls.

The falls from above.

Grant, with Mount Tongariro (I think) in the background.

This is the river by the campground where we stayed in the national park. The boys could have stayed there for days.