Vacation in Manado, Indonesia!

Finally!!

I am going to start posting pictures of our trip to Manado!! Things have been crazy busy (Like creating a Haunted House in two weeks!) since we have been back. But have no fear, I am here for my fans! :)

Because there are soooo many pictures, I am going to have to post them in categories, and not in chronological order. That would be way to hard..... I have four cameras worth of pictures on my computer! .....And the post would be way to long! Of course, I will not be able to post them all, but I will give it my best shot to post the best ones! :)

So to start off, I am going to post pictures of the families that went.

Family #1 - The Zimmer's of course!

Family #2 - Michael, Lorraine, D, and K

Family #3 - Steve and Donna - Steve and Donna actually stayed at another resort, but came and spent the last two days with us.

Now it just so happens, that Chris knew both sets of families before we moved to Indonesia. It was great to catch up with "Old Miner Friends"! Our kids also get along well, so it was very nice for the kids to have friends to run around with.

Well the next post should happen tomorrow, but I am not making any promises... :)

So until then... God's Blessings on your day!

Robin

Happy 11th Birthday, Teddy!

So, this post is about a week late... Sorry Teddy!

We got back from Manado on Monday, October 18th (which is Teddy's actual birthday) and have been running ever since. I guess better late than never.... right? :)

Here is the Birthday Boy with his "cake"!

We had some very awesome crepes with ice cream in Manado, so we tried to recreate them at the house. We fell very short of the mark, but Teddy loved them anyway!

Some good friends of our joined us for a spaghetti dinner to help celebrate....

So sorry for the late post, Teddy. Hope you had a great day, even though we were exhausted from traveling. (We were up at 1 am to get to the airport!)

Looking forward to your combined party with Gavin!

Three down, one to go!

Robin

Sorry, but.....

... we are on vacation! :)

We are in Manado, Indonesia. The three oldest kids and Chris are learning to scuba dive. Gavin is done, because he is not old enough to get his PADI certification, but Mersades, Teddy, and Chris will be certified hopefully tomorrow.

I would post a few pictures, but I must have gotten too much sun at the pool yesterday, because I DELETED all the pictures on my camera! .... Of course it was an accident! So I will just have to recharge my battery on my camera and start over tomorrow. :)

So until next time when I can get pictures on my computer....

Selamat Malam!
aka (Good Night!)
Robin

... And The Earth Moved!

I finally felt my FIRST earthquake!!! It happened around 2:10 a.m., a 6.6 magnitude earthquake. It actually woke me up! That is not an easy thing to do! :) What woke me up was the sound of the windows rattling, and then I was feeling myself shaking. I didn't really know what was going on at first. Then it stopped..... for about 30 seconds!

Then another one hit. This time a 7.2! This time it occurred to me that the shaking and the rattling was from an earthquake!

Now before you all get worried, The center of the earthquake happened about 600 km (372 miles) from here. Look at the map below... The star is the center of the earthquake, and because I am getting so handy with a computer, I drew approximately where we live on the map.

About 20-30 minutes after I thought I was feeling another one. But when I woke up this morning Chris checked to see if there was a third one, and nothing was reported. That was weird! I guess I was dreaming......

I just wanted you to know, everything is fine here. You know, it's funny, most of the time when an earthquake hits in this part of the world, like 1,000's of miles away, I get many emails asking if everything is ok...... Well this earthquake, close to home, was even reported on FOX news, and guess what, no emails!!! :( Maybe my next post should be a geography lesson on where we live..... ;) Ha Ha, just kidding! I know you all love us!

Hope you have a wonderful "Earth Shaking" day!

Robin

Redpath Stampede

Every now and then, vendors to the mine will put on a shindig for the people who work at mine. There has not been one of these parties since we moved here, so the "Redpath Stampede" was our first to attend.

It was a western themed party.... I guess you could have probably figured that out by the title of this blog post :)...... so everyone dug around for their best western garb. It is really quite interesting what people can come up with for outfits in such a short amount of time here in the jungle. I definitely do NOT have western clothes hanging in my closet for a rainy day.... But it seemed like a lot of people did. Or else, they have been living in the jungle long enough, and have outfits of all kinds in their closets!

Here are some pictures of me with friends... My shirt, which looks pretty western, was found at our local "Wal-Mart", believe it or not!!!

Part of the entertainment for the night was a mechanical bull!! I kid you not!!! Now we sometimes have problems getting veggies and fresh milk, umbrellas (cuz it never rains here...), and important things up the hill....... But you need a mechanical bull, you get a mechanical bull!! So here is a guy enjoying the bull...

Cactus Jack... (I have no idea who this guy is, but Chris was talking to him, and he was having issues with a cactus.)

And finally, I got to meet the most famous person in all of Tembagapura!!!! Our very own Super Star!!! MICHAEL JACKSON!!!!

Those skin treatments really did work! HaHaHaHa! :)

It was another fun night in the Jungle! Who said we would have nothing to do over here?

Hee Haw Cowboy!

Robin

Happy 7th Birthday Gabrielle!

On to our next birthday....

This time up, Gabrielle! She originally wanted a "Fancy Nancy" themed party. But when she found out she had to wait a whole week for a party at the Lupe, and she couldn't have a cake from MOM, she chose to do a party, after school, at the school's playground. So 25 kids later, we had a party!!

Here is Gabby with her cake.... Her only request was she wanted "hearts". I think that was fulfilled!

Time for presents....

Blow out the candles... I guess there was only one.... :)

So after the party, we took Gabby and some of her friends out for dinner at the Lupe. We got all dressed up..... "Fancy Nancy" style!

Gabby with her friends.

If you celebrated a birthday at the Lupe, the waiters come out and sing "Happy Birthday" in English and Bahasa Indonesia.

A surprised little girl and her cake!!

Gabrielle had a great day, and a very Happy Birthday!!! She was a very happy girl!

Two down, Two to go....

Robin

Mersades 80's Party!

Well, it's birthday season time at the Zimmer's! We kick it off every year with Mersades birthday, which is September 14th.

With quite a few of Mersades friends going off to boarding school in January, this was the last year she could throw a big party with all her friends here. So what's a person to do in this jungle that we live in? We called the Lupa Lelah for help! (That's our local wining and dining restaurant.)

Mersades wanted an 80's themed party, so here's what she got.......

The birthday girl! Sweet hair!

Now when you have a party at the Lupe, they will do any decorations you want them to do. All you need to do is provide them with pictures. Here is what their very talented artist came up with. Just an FYI - The artist hand painted and/or carved the decorations out of styrofoam and then painted the other pictures on wood panels.

I love the boom box! It looks so real!

Here's a couple of more signs. The one that says "Happy Birthday Mersades" is one we took home with us.

My little 80's kids! Yes, that's the boys real hair..... and the girls too. ;) We had crazy hair day at school the next day. So killed two birds with one stone!

The whole family! Yes, that's mine and Chris' real hair also!!! Ha Ha :)

A close-up of the boys hair and the boom box.

Mersades with the decorations.

Mersades and the artist who created all the decorations.

Debbie Gibson showed up and partied with me!!!

Some of the girls who showed up.... I didn't get a picture with all of them, but the girls did a great job dressing for the occasion!

Mersades with the best dressed boys! Of course other than MY boys!

We even had our very own "Activities Director"! Pegged pants and all!

I gave the Lupe some pictures for ideas for the cake. Here's what they came up with... Of course, not as good as mom's....... But cute! And with the language barrier, pretty darn close to what I asked for!

The gang watching Mersades open her gifts.

Mersades with her cake...... Picture kind of got out of order.....

Now my little rebel....... Heaven help me!!!!!

It was a very fun night for Mersades and the kids, and even the adults that showed up! Next year...... A SLEEP OVER!!!

Kicking off another birthday season in high "STYLE",

Robin