My 40th Birthday Celebration!

And quite the month long celebration it was!!

After Mersades was pampered by her mom for a couple weeks after surgery, I flew to Bali to meet Chris for a previous planed weekend getaway. I got there a day before Chris did and met some good friends for a dinner to celebrate my birthday and a husband's birthday of one of the friends... (He is not in the picture. ). We ate at a restaurant that looked like the inside of a castle. I hope to take the kids there one day. 

Then Chris arrived on Thursday for a five night stay in our own private villa. Why I have no pictures of the villa, I do not know... Here is one of the two of us at Chris' new favorite restaurant. :)

Saturday night was Valentine's Day and we decided to go join a group of friends that were in Bali for a gold weekend. 

After Chris' five days were up (because someone in this family has to work ;)) the party continued with three friends who came to shop and shop and shop!

And we shopped and shopped and shopped!

Jenggala

Batik Stamps

More Jenggala

Stone Fountains

Glass Blob Vases on Wood

And MORE Jenggala!

And of course... Shoes!!! :)

Good thing "someone" has a job! ;D

The ladies surprised me with a BBQ dinner. I answered the door to the villa when the staff came to start cooking and told them they have the wrong villa!!  The ladies were all laughing at me!

My good friend Stormy could not join us in Bali, due to just having neck surgery. So she joined us on Skype!  I LOVE technology!

After five days of of bankrupting the family, I decided I better get home!  After all, I had been gone almost a month!  So home I went... 

The partying continues in the next post!  Stay tuned... :)

Christmas: Part IV

Our next stop on our extended Christmas vacation was Club Med, Bintan Island, Indonesia. We actually flew from Lombok via Jakarta to Singapore.  Bintan is about a 40 minute boat ride from Singapore. The kids had never been on a ferry like that before, so I thought I would give them a new experience!  And that it was!!

This was everyone before the very, very bumpy boat ride!

Needless to say, we didn't look like that after getting off the boat!  Gavin's comment was, "I will NEVER eat a whole bag of Doritos again before getting on a boat!" :)

Pretty much the only reason we go to a Club Med. The kids love the trapeze!

The kids and Chris got in a game of beach volleyball while I was sitting on the sidelines do to a back injury from trying to kill the ball in a game of squash. Of course it was against Chris! ;)

Finally got Marz to golf!!  It helped that there was a cute golf GO for Marz to impress!! ;)

Like always, dad enjoying the show!

Gav and Marz were in the show...

Mom, Dad, Chris and I golfed on one of the most beautiful golf course I have ever seen! Unfortunately our team did not win the tournament. :(

So that was Club Med Bintan in a small nut shell. It's always a great time at Club Med because there are so many activities for the kids to do!

Now, on to the last stop... Singapore!

Christmas: Part III

Lombok, Indonesia 

After a busy and fun Christmas week in Tembagapura, we took the family to Lombok Island for some fun and relaxation in the sun. We spent 7 days of doing a whole lot of nothing... Well I say a whole lot of nothing, but the next 16 pictures suggest otherwise. ;)

We stayed at a beach resort on the west central shores of Lonbok. The location of the pool to the beach was about 15 feet! Truly, the best of both worlds! :)

Of course in between our pool and nap time was our card game time!

Chris did take the three oldest out diving the Gili Islands, which are located in north west Lombok. 

Grandpa and Gabby stayed in the pool. :)

The only reason I wanted to go to Lombok was to visit a place that made Lombok pottery. So Chris, the girls, mom and I set out on a tour. Unfortunately for me, it was not the tour I wanted. I didn't want to go where all the tourists go, I wanted to go where the "real" artisans were working and see all the steps in making the pottery. But I guess when you don't explain yourself well enough, then you get what you get! 

Gabby did get to make her own little pot. 

Artist using an egg shell motif to decorate some of the pottery. 

The finished product. 

After our "tour" to the pottery, the driver talked us into visiting a small village where the ladies were weaving traditional Lombok textiles.  They welcomed the girls to give it a try. 

The ladies sit in these looms for 10+ hours a day unless they have to help get the rice harvest in from the fields. 

They dressed Marz in traditional Lombok dress. 

This lady here was spinning cotton in to yarn. 

New Year's Eve!

We all put our party hats on and went to the fabulous New Year's Eve party at the hotel. 

And if course, a true Indonesian vacation is not complete unless you get one of their $6, hour long, feet and leg massage. Needless to say, we got a few of these during the week!

Time now to pack up and fly off to the next destination... :)

Christmas: Part II

Since my mom and dad came for Christmas, and we haven't been home for a Christmas in five years, I wanted to try and recreate out traditional "Schlomer Family" Christmas. Yes, oyster stew and all!

To accommodate all our guest, we had FM set a tent, or two, up in our back yard. Since it rains in Tembag every now and again... Ha ha ha!! Understatement of the century! It rains ALL THE TIME!  This is why the need for tents...  It just so happened that the night the tent was first set up, there was a torrential down pour and at 12:30 in the morning, CRASH! Needless to say the "crash" woke all the adults up, "What the heck was that?"  Dad thought someone had fallen down the stairs!

So we call FM first thing in the morning and they were great getting everything set back up in time for the party!

Before the party could begin, a friend of ours, took the kids and dad down to Banti, a local Papuan village. They too were getting ready to celebrate Christmas, in their own way, with a traditional pig roast. It just so happened that they needed some extra muscle to help move the hot stones on to the pigs and Teddy just happened to be there to help! :)

(These photos are all courtesy of our friend Merv.)

Not many people can say they have visited an indigenous Papuan village, but our kids can say that and say that they participated in traditional Papuan pig roast!  What an experience!

Now in to the party!!

Christmas Eve was so much fun!!  We had so many people over to the house and sooooo much food!!  My mom did make oyster stew, with canned oysters a friend brought in from Australia. I made the traditional Sloppy Joe's. It was as close to a Schlomer Christmas Eve that you could get:

Great Food!  Great Friends!  Great Family!

I was too busy running around to take pictures, so thank you to my friend Danella for snapping some photos for me!  The boys were off running in the jungle with their friends, so no pictures of them and unfortunately, mom, like many others arriving at site, got hit with a bug and celebrated for a little while, but then called it an early night, so no picture of her. :(

As you can see, it was truly a night that memories are made from!  Whether in the United States or in Papua Indonesia, Christmas is celebrated to the fullest!  

Jesus Christ our Savior is Born! Hallelujah!