Visitors

Here's a couple pix of folks that have stopped by our place recently...first, Elissa's closest friend here Liana :)

And then another family that we met when their father came over to talk with J one day. Their boys really took to Lij!
In the video the one little guy keeps saying "A-deck" meaning "little brother" - very cute.

Isn't it Ironic...

This is the office of animal husbandry, etc. so obviously it makes sense to house water buffalo as well...?!

J tries to explain in the video (when he says "cur-bow" he means water buffalo)

Since we're on an animals being in weird places theme, here's a video of a crab J caught under his motorbike...

And lest we have a post w/o Lij, here's a random funny pix (taken thru his mosquito netting) of him half out of his diaper...not sure if the velcro's going on our cloth diapers or he was messin' around before falling asleep!

Oh the Places We'll Go...

Once Elijah could finally sit up (enough!) on his own, we wanted to try him out in the Aceh version of a baby bike seat. He got his new to him Craig's List helmet all warmed up in his walker first ;)

We're not sure how he managed a gang sign pose in this one but it sure made us laugh!

Strap fascination first...

Here's a clip of Lij tooling around the house in his new helmet, trying to grab the camera.

We'd brought a water noodle over from the U.S. & J ended up using it as a buffer on Jah's new rod iron seat. He doesn't seem to bothered by the funky style ;)

Preparing to ride...

We're off!

And the video of E & e riding - we saw a babi hutan (wild boar) but couldn't catch it on the video clip...

Here J's trying to pump up this old bike's tires. We borrowed this from our friends w/ FHI here in Calang & Elissa rode this all while she was pregnant. Ended up that the tire went flat & so we rode VERY slowly together to try & get it fixed (never found a place).

Now E's upgraded to a bike that can hold Lij too on her jaunts into town. Since these pix/videos were taken, J had a mountain bike given to him from MAF friends when they left Aceh so we'll have to do a post from our 1st "real" ride together later!

Anniversary & Bday Celebration

So mid-August was our 6th anniversary & E's bday so we decided to trek (& yes it ended up being more "trekkish" this time!) our way up to Banda Aceh (BA) for a change of scenery & a place to celebrate. We took a wrong turn @ some point (road signs are unclear or nonexistent @ this point!) & ended up taking the mountain route after a hard rain...wow.
Here we are sliding our way to BA...

Shortly thereafter a truck in front of us got stuck & a bunch of guys were out rocking it back 'n forth 'til it finally came lose.

With the rain, the river rose enough to cross the road @ one point.

Right after crossing the river we saw that a huge truck had gone off the road the night before in the hard rain. The folks gathered @ the spot said that the driver survived thankfully.

The next couple pix/videos weren't on this particular trip but also going to/from BA. Here's a big monitor lizard on the way to BA that J decided needed a little company.... unfortunately (or fortunately?) the lizard didn't share the same sentiments.


We saw these white water buffalo on one of our trips to BA. Can't decide if really their skin is pink or they just get sunburned like us, j/k :)

Once we arrived after our 7ish hr trip we enjoyed taking a little time for some R & R!

This was one of the few hotels that had a pool in Banda, so great for celebrations! At the pool there were these turtle statues all around - we thought it would be funny to have a family pix w/ them but E's covering "her" mama turtle in the 1st pix ;)


Tried to capture the fact that Elijah finally had enough hair to "mohawk" it but it's not super clear in the pix...

But a little more obvious in the mohawk video! We didn't realize how much Lij would like splashing around 'cuz we don't use baths in Aceh so it was a new experience for him...




Enjoyed going out to our fav restaurant in town (they serve Italian, pretty shocking!)
And Lij lookin' all coy 'n stuff :)

Lij @ E's bday dinner enjoying playing with his diaper cloth. Had just found out our good friends the Littletons had their 2nd son on E's bday, very fun! Forgot that we were filming sideways, oops.

Here's a random pix of Acehnese boats in BA, gotta love all the colors!

Here's Elijah enjoying a bit of mango juice @ the hotel restaurant.

As we headed back home right outside of BA we took a little stretch break before we hit the road that's too narrow to stop on...

Here we are about to get on a ferry on our way back from BA:

Jah enjoying himself making "bumpy rd sounds"

And last but not least, nursing break with a view :)