Tennis & Art

Emiko and Mina started taking tennis lessons. The tennis club is just a couple streets away so every Saturday morning we walk to tennis class. Unfortunately, Emiko was sick the morning I brought my camera. I will have to bring it again and post pics of her later. But can I just say that it's too cute watching little kids attempt to hit a ball with a tennis racket?!


Every year the school does an art exhibition showcasing selected pieces of art the kids have done over the year. This year Kaiya's artwork made the exhibition flier (that's sent out in the mail). I think that's a pretty cool honor...considering I have trouble drawing stick figures. Her picture is on the very left of the flier.

Girls Weekend

I used to go on a girls trip to San Marcos every Spring with friends to shop at the outlets. Well, it's been 3 years since my last trip and I've been wanting another weekend away with friends for a long time. It finally happened! And even though this was the 6th trip to the Margaret River region for me...I got to see/do a lot of things I've never done b/c I was kid-free! It was a great weekend of window shopping and eating lots of yummy food at the wineries (a lot of wineries have restaurants). Of course there was no wine for me but I did get to try some delicious sparkling grape juice!

More Bali Pics

Sorry this is more for my records than anything. Our safari package came with free photos with all these animals and I just scanned them into our computer. Notice the picture with the baby lion. It was all chained up and looked completely drugged out (as evidenced by the photo)- I was still a bit nervous sitting so close though!

Bali Vacation

We took a whirlwind trip to Bali last week. I think I already mentioned that Brian's work schedule is supposed to be crazy and uncertain over the next month or two. We already knew we couldn't go at the end of the month as originally scheduled...and decided to go last week since Brian had a guaranteed window of time. So yes it was a shorter trip than originally planned but we didn't want to risk putting the trip off until May/June- traveling to a 3rd world country is probably not the smartest idea during your 3rd trimester of pregnancy.

Our first day was spent mostly relaxing and recovering from our late flight. We swam- the girls loved the mini water slide. We then took the girls to get their hair braided. Mina didn't want her hair done and opted to have her fingernails painted instead. Brian and I did the fish spa...Kaiya and Emi were also brave enough to try it and loved it! After lunch the kids went to Camp Nusa (the resort kid's club) and Brian and I went to the spa for a massage (Brian) and facial (me).


Kaiya and Emi at the fish spa after hair braiding.

The next day we journeyed to the Bali Safari and Marine Park. This place is amazing- lots to do!

Camel rides...


Kaiya held the orangutan for our family picture.

This orangutan liked Emiko.

Feeding elephants.

Riding elephants.

They gave us these hats as gifts after our elephant ride. We had a fun time wearing them around the park. Too bad they didn't make it past customs (they found bugs in the straw)- not a big surprise but I had to try!




We got to try coconut juice. Emiko was NOT impressed.

The next day we ventured on a 15 minute boat ride to Turtle Island. They have sea turtles of all different sizes...sea turtles are caught and brought here for a microchip before being released again. It also has a turtle hatchery but there weren't any eggs (wrong season). The kids loved holding all of the turtles.





They also had a few other creatures besides turtles...I do not know what Mina is doing in this pic...

I think Mina is hysterical in this pic w/a flying fox.

I left a day earlier to get back in time for my girls weekend down south. Brian spent another day swimming at the resort and getting another massage (good thing the kids loved going to Camp Nusa). Of course Brian would get lucky on the plane ride home with Mina sleeping almost the entire way. I'm grateful for a husband willing to fly home with 3 kids by himself so I could have a much needed girls weekend!

No Rhyme or Reason

This is the totally random post. There's no rhyme or reason to it. It's just what we've been up to so far this month.

A couple of weeks ago our bunny, Will, (that we've had for 2 years) disappeared. We thought our backyard was fully secure but upon closer inspection we discovered a small crack in between the fence and the shed in the backyard. So we think he escaped. The girls were pretty sad...both Kaiya and Emi shed tears. So within 2 days of his disappearance Brian took them to pick out a new baby bunny. He's a white mini-lop with blue eyes- so cute. His name is Louie.

It's been hot, hot! I thought Mina looked pretty hip in her sunglasses. (Do you like how Emi thought it would be funny to squeeze into an infant-size life jacket??? Silly girl...)

I greatly dislike having my picture taken when pregnant but I keep getting requests for baby bump pictures. So here it is...I'm about 22 weeks now:

My baby bump is frequently used as a pillow nowadays...

Next up will be a post about our family trip to Bali! Originally we weren't supposed to go until later this month but Brian's work schedule is crazy and he is pretty certain he'll be traveling during that time...meaning our trip would have to be cancelled. So tonight he said "How about we change our trip and leave tomorrow?" So with less than 24 hrs notice, we're headed to Bali tomorrow!