Drew Turns 6

We planned our Bali trip perfectly between the conclusion of tennis season and Drew’s birthday.  I’ve missed more of Drew’s birthdays than not due to travel and I wanted to avoid missing another if I could, especially now that he’s old enough to know when it should be.

Justin and I got home late on May 21, the night before Drew’s birthday.  I hung up the birthday banner, gave my sleeping little boy a good-night kiss and went to bed.  I knew his birthday would be a busy day and there was no time for jet lag.  His teacher invited me to visit his kindergarten class during snack time to deliver a special birthday treat and to read a book to the class. 

The birthday boy got to be at the front of the line coming in from recess

I wasn’t about to bake anything for Drew’s class treat so I sent Abigail to Costco while I was out of town to pick up some rice krispie treats.  Easy peesy. He sure looked cute passing them out from my little travel backpack.

There was a birthday cake to create and his favorite birthday dinner to prepare.  Also a continuous streaming of laundry, piles of mail and an inbox to tackle…  Drew decided on a chocolate monkey cake for dessert with chicken, carrots and rice for dinner.

When I was in the Seattle airport about to board our flight to Bali I sent Carly a Marco Polo (video message) that told her I would pay her $50 if she would plan Drew’s birthday party and get the invitations sent out while I was gone.  She had a rough draft of the invites by the end of the next day.  What a relief it was to hand that over to her.   She did a great job putting on a fun party for Drew and his friends.  We mimicked Jason’s 6th birthday party by doing an outdoor movie night. 

The kids played games to earn ticket to exchange for movie treats.  

Limbo

“hot potato?”

Other games included having the kids through tennis balls “popcorn” into a popcorn bucket, a ring toss, and keeping balloons “popcorn” from touching the ground.

Once again our outdoor movie viewing area was quite ghetto since it doesn’t get dark enough to watch a movie until 10pm and we wanted to be done by 9pm.  The kids didn’t seem to mind, but Justin wasn’t at all a fan of the contraption we put together.  It did the job; however, we’ve been banned from ever doing it again.

We had another snafu the day before the party when we realized the movie we had on the invites wasn’t released for viewing yet.  Oops!  We quickly found a substitute movie – Lego Movie and proceeded ahead.  The kids all seemed to have a great time and most importantly Drew did.

Since his party ended so late he opened his presents the next day.  Birthday gifts are a real treat around here and he was spoiled by his friends.

I love this kid so, so much and I’m so grateful he’s mine!

Bali, Indonesia {Day 10} – Time to Head Home

We decided to give dining in the resort restaurants for breakfast another try but found it just okay.  At the Melia you just can’t beat having breakfast delivered to your room and eaten in your private garden.  We spent the morning packing up our things and then had arranged a ride to the airport with the driver from the spa last night.

We had time to eat and relax in the airport lounge.  They had quite a selection of food (made to order stir-fry), donuts and lots of various beverages.  There was even a massage room.  We got lots of use out of my free airport lounge access on this trip!

Once again we were flying on a Hello Kitty aircraft – bonus was this time I also got a Hello Kitty boarding pass.  Sometimes it's the little things in life.

Justin was again able to secure himself exit rows on both flights home.  I was also able to join him which was nice and spacious.

Bye, Bye Bali

Not as much luck in the lounges in the Taiwan airport this time – it was crowded and the food was pretty poor.  Oh well, we had less than two hours in Taiwan so it wasn’t a big deal.  Any lounge is better than sitting at the gate.

Abigail picked us up from the airport and confidently declared that had we died they would be fine without us.  Guess that’s nice to know.  I truly am so grateful that my kids are so responsible and independent.  It really was quite easy to leave them home alone and we didn’t have any concerns with the choices that would be made without us there.  

Bali was an unexpected trip for us and something that we will cherish always!

Bali, Indonesia {Day 9} – Melia & Parasailing

A few pictures from Justin’s morning run…

Breakfast was again delivered to the villa today.  Today was our day to stay at the Melia resort and enjoy all the amenities.  

Each night we had a folder (and trinket) delivered to our room for us to indicate our requests for the following day.  Since we had 3 days at the resort we were able to request a different floral arrangement each day of our stay.  My favorite scent was the frangipani flowers (used in our lei and floating in the bowl).  The other two arrangements are the white (and not very pleasant smelling) sedap malam in the middle and a purple orchid arrangement.  Wish we could have taken these beauties home with us.

We got a lot of use out of our floatie.  Best idea ever!

Justin took a bunch of pictures of our villa…

We walked down to the beach… I love that they put flowers along the walkways…

I think it’s funny that they bury the seaweed in the sand when the tide is out

We had to take a picture with the Melia Bali swing and hammock.  We did this at two different times of the day so thus the variation in the tide.

While hanging out on the beach we bartered for a paragliding experience.  We’d never been before and were excited to give it a try.

I was sitting way too far forward in the harness so it was quite an ab workout for me, but fun nonetheless.

The massive Level pool was never busy and always the perfect temperature for me.

We had to fit in one more massage before leaving Bali.  I also wanted to try a facial since I’d never had one before and they were only a few dollars.  Many spas offer free transportation to/from your hotel so we went that route.  I got a 90 minute massage with a 30 minute facial and Justin got a 120 minute massage. Then afterward we both got pedicures. All that, and tip, for less than $50. 

This was Justin’s first pedicure and he wasn’t impressed.  I didn’t think it compared to pedicures in the states so it was a bit disappointing for me as well.  I also wasn’t impressed with my facial.  I think they basically just washed my face.  Oh well, no harm in giving it a try.  The massages felt fantastic.

Finding dinner was frustrating tonight as two of the hotel restaurants were still closed.  There was a Spanish restaurant we really wanted to try, but it was closed during our entire stay.  I think we ended up just snacking on food we had in the room. Bummer way to end our last night in Bali.

Bali, Indonesia {Day 8} – Day of Rest

We had breakfast delivered to our villa this morning which was amazing. While we finished getting ready the staff set up everything outside in our pavilion. It was fantastic and we pretty much felt like royalty. 😉

We try to attend church while traveling and got lucky that the one and only branch in Bali was just 30 minutes from where we were staying. Our driver from yesterday was more than happy to take us to/from church.

We arrived early. The church was part of some office/retail buildings. It appeared really small but had four floors with classrooms and such. There were two missionaries in the foyer which we learned was not the norm. This was the first Sunday missionaries had been in Bali and they were only there this week to see how/if missionary work could be possible in Bali. There were probably 20-30 people in attendance and the entire meeting was spoken in both Balinese and English. It's always interesting to attend church services away from home, especially internationally. Glad we made it happen.

It’s interesting that throughout the week we’d mentioned our beliefs to several people as we were discussing the Hindu religion and its similarities and differences from our own.  I’d asked them if they’d seen missionaries with white shirts and black badges and no one knew what I was referring to.  Makes sense now knowing that there aren’t any missionaries in Bali.  Even more interesting to me was that people didn’t even know what the bible was.  We come from a very Christian country so that was shocking to me.

Before heading back to the hotel I really wanted to find a floatie to lay on in our pool. Our driver spoke good English but "floatie" isn't an often used term nor is it something commonly used by the locals so it took some explanation and pictures to communicate what we were looking for. He took us to a huge shopping center and we thankfully found precisely what we were looking for. Bring on the relaxation and sunshine!

Our little outdoor lounging gazebo was a perfect place to cool down in the shade and/or reapply all the necessary sunscreens and bug sprays

The frangipani flowers from the lei they gave us when we arrived quickly became my favorite scent of Bali.  How lucky that we had a tree in our yard with them.   

I bought a kindle before the trip so I would have some easy reading material.  Enjoyed a little reading on the beach while the tide was out.

We attended cocktail hour in the Level Lounge on the nights we were able. Drinks were complementary and they always had a wide range of appetizers and finger foods for us to enjoy.  We ate dinner tonight at the resort beachside.

The resort had dancers and musicians in the lobby as people arrived and a gong.