Bali, Indonesia

We packed up the kids and headed to Bali for a little vacay. It was all of our first time in the southern hemisphere and it didn't disappoint.

7 hours on this bad boy down to Bali. 

The girls did great! They played, colored and watched a few shows. 

They only did well because they were separated! 

One of the first things we did was hit the Safari park that was close to our villa. We purchased the elephant package which included a safari through the grounds while riding an elephant. 

We even got to keep those sweet hats! 

The place we stayed at had a nice pool and was very family friendly. There was 4 villas on the ground that was right next to a beach. We spent A LOT of time at the pool. It cooled us down and the girls loved swimming.  

This was the beach area right outside our place. The river was used as a bathing area so we saw a lot of people washing their clothes and bodies. 

We hit up a really cool water park. 

And afterwards we went and had dinner while watching the sun set.

My three little ladies. 

This was we awoke to on the first morning from the villa.

LC was self sufficient in the pool with her floaty and by the end of the first day, E was good to go by herself.  

Breakfast time.

The villas had 5 dogs who the girls fell in love with. Honestly, that is all they wanted to do -- hang out with the pups and go to the pool.  This is E with Tintin. 

E with Andrea. 

Here was the place we stayed in. We are every meal out on the patio. The weather was pretty darn hot. 90-95 every day with a 100+ heat index. The girls didn't really care for the heat. 

For the most part, we had the pool to ourselves all day. Andrea followed the girls everywhere and event went swimming with us. 

Our room had a jacuzzi on the back patio as well. 

Safari Park with the Garudas. 

Feeding the elephants, Valentine and Boppy, Carrots. 

This was after the elephant show. 

We went out on a day excursion where we hit the hindu temple...

A waterfall.

We cooled off with a fresh coconut drink....

And finally made it down to the waterfall. It was actually pretty miserable down there. There were rocks everywhere and it was very loud. E refused to get down so we waded out into the water for a bit before we gave up. They werent really into any excursions we went on... they just wanted to go to the pool and cool off. 

We went to a plantation as well where we saw cocoa trees (coffee). 

And probably the neatest things were these Luwaks. These civet have unique digestive tracks. They feed the ripe coffee cherry to these guys and when they poop them out, they collect the bean, wash it up, roast it and make coffee out of if. Google it -- its pretty cool and quite yummy. They are nocturnal, so they all were sleeping during the day. 

At the end of the plantation we got to sample the coffee, a bunch to teas and chocolate -- all from the plantation plants. the girls killed the tea too.... and the chocolate. 

More pool time. 

And lots of beach time. Andrea the pup followed us out everyday and played with the girls in the surf.

The meals they prepared for us was very Balinesean and delicious. We ordered a whole fish that LC destroyed. We bought her one on the final night and she ate the whole thing.

Overall, it was a great trip. Very relaxing and beautiful. And like all good vacations.... we felt like we needed to take a vacation after getting back from our vacation. So to do that... we went to Disney Sea and Disney Land in Tokyo the same weekend! 

Odawara Castle Field Trip

The girls had their annual school field trip to the Odawara Castle this past week. I wasn't deployed so I was able to go with them. I think most of the kids, especially the girls, thought we were going to a princess castle which meant they were a tad bit disappointed when they actually saw it. Overall it was a really fun trip.

Instead of meeting at the school, the kids and their parents met at our local train station. Shannon tagged along with E's class and I traveled with LC's class. 

It was very impressive, yet again, to see the Sensei's move their kids around. 

The school chartered a private train to travel on. Here it is arriving at the station. 

LC's class waiting to board the train. 

We got off the train at the Odwara station and had a 15 min walk through the busy streets to get to the castle. 

A few of the classes took different routes to not clog the streets and we all ended up meeting at the castle some how. 

We arrived. 

The kids all partnered up for the day with their battle buddy.

Of course the very first thing we did when we got there was to take class photos. The kids waited patiently by the monkey cage until their number was called. 

After all classes had their pictures taken, everyone grabbed a seat and ate lunch. 

After lunch we went into the castle and made our way to the top.

Samurai Leyton.

The top offered spectacular views but the girls really weren't impressed. 

They were impressed with the ride area near the castle that all the kids ended up gravitating to.

Ellis riding a horse.

After a few hours at the park it was back to the train station for the journey (45 min train ride) home. 

Some of the kids and a lot of the parents fell asleep on the train which meant it was a good day. Overall, it was a fun trip and I'm glad i finally got to go on a school field trip and see the Castle.