Bromo Mountain

Ryan is in Indonesia this week and stayed last night on a volcano. He hiked this morning to watch the sun rise over the lava flow so I will try to post pictures soon of what that looks like! Here is what he has to say about Indonesia...

Well, I didn't know that Bromo mountain was so far from the airport. I am sitting very close to lava now in the Lava View hotel restaurant, listening to an Indonesian band singing country and oldies...

I can smell the lava outside. It is very cold for a tropical island, as we are at about 10,000 ft above sea level. I actually bought a wool cap from a guy, and I am only 100 miles south of the equator.

Wow! The culture here is very interesting.

In America, we wear seatbelts, have child seats, and wear helmets. We do all of this, even though we have strict safety laws for drivers.

Here, in Indonesia, it is common (very) to see a father, mother (with baby in sling), and a 3 year old child sandwiched between them, all driving on a motor scooter. They will dodge in and out of cars at 20-30 mph, cross over into the oncoming lanes, and play chicken (at least that is what it looks like to me) with oncoming trucks overloaded with bags of rice that are precariously perched and tied too high.

I have observed many women in very nice dresses driving on motorcycles, or riding on "bicycle taxis", etc.

You also see small children playing very close to the edge of the road with all of this commotion.

They also pay "tolls" to "premen". Effectively, these are men without work who act as traffic lights by directing traffic, filling potholes with small rocks, etc.

I asked how much to give them, and i was told that 500 rupiah is very common. Since 9,000 rupiah is $1 US, they only get paid about 6 cents from each driver who feels obligated to make a donation!
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The twins are staying with Ryan's mom and dad this week having fun with them. They went to a water park together the past few nights along with their cousin Braedon. Ethan and I have been staying with Lynwood and Jamie and have gotten quite a bit of shopping done. I handed over the last of my cash today to a cashier and said that I was officially out of money so I'd better head home for the day:) Neither Ethan nor Keegan (Jamie's youngest) like shopping too much and by this evening they would both scream when we went anywhere near a store. One lady commented that men never do learn to like to shop! I still have a few more items of clothing that we need and than we are set in that department. We head down to Forrest tomorrow for the next week and a half and I'll do my Wal-Mart run to stock up on food then.

While it's nice to be "home" we all are missing Ryan and can't wait to see him again in a few weeks.

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Ethan Update:

He has started calling both of the twins "Ka-Ka." (The a is the short sound.) He has also started stringing two words together..."Hi, Ka-Ka!"..."Ready, Go!"

He has spent much of the week terrorizing Keegan but they are finally learning to be buddies which is fun to watch. We'll see how he does next week with cousin Lauren as I hear she's quite a match for him:)

He doesn't walk anywhere...he runs!

When he falls asleep for naps and bedtime he will hum himself to sleep - it's pretty sweet to hear. He usually ends up in bed with his mommy most nights and likes to sleep plastered right up next to me. I don't mind since he wasn't much of a snuggler until lately.

Back In Familiar Territory

We arrived safely back in the US last week. We landed in LA on Thursday and than continued our trip to KC on Friday. As it turned out Ethan and I were in KC for about 8 hours before we were back on a plane headed to Illinois for a funeral. Melissa's brother-in-law, Johnny, passed away last Thursday so we went to Forrest for the weekend. The twins stayed in KC with Joe and Joan and Ethan and I returned on Monday morning. We are all well on our way to getting over jet lag:) and I'm having fun SHOPPING!

They are 6!!!

It's so hard to believe that the twins are 6 already! We opened gifts with them on Friday night late when Ryan got home from Bangkok and on Sunday we had cake with a few friends by the pool.

Meet Dexter. I told Kenton that Dexter is going to be the closest thing to a real snake that I ever willingly let in my house:) He was so excited and won't let us pet him because, "Dexter doesn't know you yet!"
I found a little tea set for Kaitlyn at a warehouse a few weeks ago.
I attempted to make a treasure chest cake for the twins! It tasted great but Ryan thought that it looked a little like Pac Man eating gold coins...
On Saturday evening we had Dan, Becca, and Annabelle Larson over for supper. They were here briefly during tax season and are leaving in a week or so to return home. Becca and I met through the Newcomer's group and I am going to miss her! I told Ryan that this is the first goodbye of many that we will say while we are here!
Yesterday morning a new friend, Karyn (pronounced Corin) brought her 18 month old daughter Leann to play with Ethan. They had fun and we had fun watching them play together! It was just a taste of what it's going to be like to watch Ethan and Lauren in a few weeks!!

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This will most likely be my last post before we leave on Thursday. Please pray for us that we have a safe trip back to the US and we look forward to seeing many of you this summer!