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 :)

4th of July Indo Style

We got together w/ friends on the 4th & grilled out by the beach, yum! Obviously we're behind in our blogging;)

Quick clip of enjoying some apple pie...

Sitting around on a mat to eat is pretty normal here...got a quick snapshot of the crew here & especially our newlywed friends Hengki & Berta who are expecting in November!

Here's Yuli, Monik & baby Alden :)

Elijah trying drinking from a cup...

Celebrating Father's Day

So after Bali we stopped over in Jakarta to keep working through visa stuff. It fell over J's 1st Father's Day & since he loves ocean animals so much E planned a trip to Indo's SeaWorld. Was fun to watch Lij watch the fish, etc., exciting to think what'll be like when he can talk about his thoughts!

Maybe someday Lij can ride a live sea turtle, E's actually seen one in the ocean not far from our home. Unfortunately @ "our" beach the fishermen like to sell their eggs for eating.


Gotta love those tunnels where you're riding through a lifesized aquarium.

Now here's a whopper! Whatcha think of this one Pop?! :)

Took this pix & video especially for Lij's Aunt Crissy - he's so interested in looking @ this dugong!

Broken Record..!

Happy to be a broken record because there is good reason to say yet again, read our "In More Detail" link for well, more details :)

Bali

Wow are we overdue on posting! We also just posted a great story on our "In More Detail" link, email us if you want access to the site.

So here's a blip from our time in Bali. Most of our time in Bali was spent @ our yearly conference (no pix from the mtgs, would be too boring) however Jason was in charge of organizing the youth trip this year so they went white water rafting :)

The place was called Sobek Falls...

Here's the crew grabbing a bite to eat:

And of course we had fun moments as a fam too (gotta love that laugh!)

This clip was taken the same night - Lij trying fresh mango juice (as well as drinking from a straw) for the first time - yum!

A final clip on the day we left Bali...

Random Compilation

We're not sure exactly when these snapshots/videos were taken exactly, just as we saw Lij in a fun pose or when the mood hit us right!
Trying out finger foods...

Thanks J & B for this great chew toy!

Didn't stage this one, 2 of his favorites: "beary" & his blue blanket.

Just enjoying his walker...


Getting more handy w/ his bottle as weaning continues:


Fun shot w/ Dad!

Our sweet next door neighbor named Winda - she just loves Jah :)

Didn't realize how well Lij has gotten his roll technique down 'til the other day...


Here Elijah grabbed his playgym & it got stuck on his walker. He seemed happy enough to haul it around though ;)


Failed attempt @ trying to combine 2 shorter naps into one long one...asleep @ the dinner table.

Saved the best video for last...

Pit Stop

OK, back to our normal posting...once we got to Banda Aceh we made a quick ferry trip over to a nearby island called Sabang. The only other time we made that trip was for Valentine's last year when E was just pregnant & feeling nauseous. It was so much nicer to carry Lij on the outside this time!!

We wanted to check out retreat possibilities for fellow workers here in Aceh. Here's a couple pix from a yummy fish dinner that we had after meeting some fishermen on the beach & buying their catch...

Whatta Hubby!

Well J made a really sweet video that originally had audio problems but now is fixed so if you watched the soundless version, try again when you have a minute :)

Anniversary and B-day

Hey E,

So glad God made you and gave you to me! This is a little video to celebrate you.

Heading Out of Town

Our internet's been down for awhile but we're up & running again so we'll pickup where we left off... So in order to get to our yearly conference we took a 7 hr. drive to the capital of Aceh (Banda Aceh), flew from our island (Sumatra) to the island of Java & after 2 days of traveling we got there (a little late!) Here's the 1st leg of our trip, the beautiful drive up the coast of Aceh.
In this video J's referring to our favorite "warung" which means cafe :)

And we get to cross bridges like this free of charge! (Notice the box to the right before crossing for donations to fix it...)

Settling In...

Well, this'll be a hodge-podge of things but basically sums up the few weeks we had home before we headed out again for our yearly conference in Bali...

First thing we did once getting back home was to head over to see Jos & Yuli's new baby named Alden. We're so happy w/ Jos & Yuli! He was born while we were having to deal w/ visa stuff in Jakarta.




When we got back home folks also stopped over to see Lij (not really to see us!) ;)

Here we enjoyed dinner on the seawall outside our home/office with a few friends. Elijah got all bundled up in his Indo cloth carrier to ward off mosquitoes.


We also enjoyed a beach trip to our favorite "secret cove" with our friend & intern Joel as well as some of our national buds.






A couple times a month we like to get together w/ likeminded folks across different organizations. Here's one of those meetings in our livingroom. Look @ our prego friends Lily on the left & Berta on the right, so cute!




Here's Elijah enjoying his "Johnny Jump-up" on our front porch (our office in the background) as well as taking parts off of his walker to eat them...


Every morning behind our home as we eat breakfast we see fishermen (like our friend Bal here) pass by from the ocean back home - sometimes they're carrying fun things like hammerhead sharks or stingrays too!

Another fun random pix, J trying a temporary fix on the hole that our neighborhood cat made in our screen door (Lij looking on w/ great interest ;)

Lij trying his new sippy cup!


Which evidently wore him out...;)

We're enjoying reading books with Jah these days - every once & awhile kids in the neighborhood like to listen in too (the translated version of course)


And us just hanging out :)