Pictures Galore

So I couldn't, in good conscience, leave for our next adventure before blogging about our last. Life has been busy lately but our upcoming trip has prompted me to make blogging a priority.


So you may have recalled that the last time I posted on our blog, we were getting ready to leave for a long weekend in Lombok, another one of many Indonesian islands and it is close to Bali. So we spent 4 nights at the Novotel in Lombok with our friends and neighbors the McElligotts. The kids and I flew there with them and Justin met us there the next evening. Here are some of the highlights of our trip:


1) Rain, Rain, Go Away - It is hard to really enjoy all that a tropical beach vacation has to offer when it is raining! Four of the five days we were there began with light but constant showers. Thankfully it usually cleared up by the afternoon but it was still cloudy. However, we were not going to let the rain ruin the trip. The fun must go on...


2) Tide Pools - The kids have really come to appreciate the sea life that can be observed in tide pools from our time in Carmel with Mamaw and Grandpa at Point Lobos. We were surprised to discover that, at low tide, the beach at our hotel became a large area of tide pools for us to go explore. And we had a blast checking out all different varieties of coral, sea urchins, sea biscuits, sand dollars, crabs and, everyone's favorite, starfish. The group of us ventured out on "sea walks" almost everyday to see what the tide left behind.


3) Snorkeling - We went for a day snorkeling trip to a small island off the coast of Lombok called Gili Nanggu. Right off the beach was a coral reef teaming with 100s of different species of fish. I don't know that I have seen that many different kinds of fish in one place before. It was incredible. So many bright colors. I had fun trying to capture the different species of fish with my underwater camera. I could have spent an entire day doing this but the water was a little cold from the rain and clouds. Bummer. Because of this, the kids spent most of their time on the beach building 2 sand forts inspired by Justin's recent trip to Spain. They then had fun demolishing each others forts in a sand ball fight. Of all my kids, surprisingly, Jack spent the most time in the water observing the fish.


4) Teeny Tiny Hermit Crabs - We went for a walk down the beach one day and the boys discovered the tiniest hermit crabs I have ever seen. They enjoyed collecting them on our walk and wanted to take them home but I was able to convince them that we should just take a picture of them to remember them by.


Speaking of pictures, here is a link to our photos from the trip.


I also have finally uploaded all our pictures from our summer vacation as well. So check this link out if you want to see those.

So where are we off to next...JAPAN! We have been planning this trip for awhile as it is the last leg of our international Disney tour. We are sooooo excited. Besides Disneyland, we have a few other side trips planned to explore more of Japan and Japanese culture. We leave tomorrow and will return the following Sunday. So we will check in with you later!