world travelers

After 3.5 years of keeping our feet on American soil, we decided to finally get some use out of Gordy's passport - 10 days in Bali with a day stop-over on each end in Taipei.  We rode (5) subways, (4) airplanes, (4) shuttles, (3) taxis, (2) boats, (2) open back trucks, (2) motorbikes, and (1) high speed train.  Not sure which one was the highlight for Gordy, however, he did fall asleep on each airplane, both boat rides, one motorbike ride and one subway ride.

The trip started off with a 10 hour flight to Taipei where we had a 12 hour layover.  We decided ahead of time that it would be worth while to get a hotel room for our layover and boy were we right!  We had just enough time for us all to ride the subway, catch some zzz's, and then to hit the sauna room in our hotel where we enjoyed a swimsuit-free spa with hot and cold baths.

One more 5 hour flight and an hour taxi ride later and we arrived at our first Bali hotel in Seminyak.  We spent two days there riding around on a scooter checking out our old haunts - our roti canai and tea place (we went there twice), our old Bintang supermarket, our old sprint 8 beach (yes, we did our sprints), our old apartments, etc.

Then, it was time to head off to a new place - Nusa Lembongan.  

All in all Nusa Lembongan was a cool place to visit, but it wasn't our favorite.  Everything was more challenging there and we found ourselves wishing we'd stayed on mainland Bali.  So, we cut our stay on the island short and headed up to Ubud.  Ubud was 3 days of great food, super good massages, and of course, the monkey forest.  Gordy absolutely loved the monkeys!!  We ended up spending almost 2 hours in the forest just walking around searching for the monsters.  And, he couldn't get enough of the Bali coffee or the watermelon!

Before we went home, we decided to spend our last 24 hours in Uluwatu enjoying some 3-4 star surfing.  Sadly, the surf was only a 1-star in Todd's book, but Gogo had a ton of fun swimming and playing at the beach.  And, on our way to the airport, we were able to stop for one last massage and one last roti canai and tea tarek - yay!

Our stopover in Taipei was not too exciting, however, we did make it to the top of the 101, which is the 9th tallest building in the world.

We are calling the trip a success!!

Halloween 2018

Gordy still has no idea what Halloween is.  So, we celebrated the holiday with some pumpkin carving, pumpkin seed baking and eating, and some beach time!  Happy Halloween!!!

Our pumpkin picking adventure:

growing gogo

Gordy has a new friend, Vinny.  He takes Vinny places with him, feeds him food, and reads to him.

He has a new mini table that lives outside on the deck where he eats many of his meals.

Gordy loves it when Todd gets him... so much so that even when his face is all red from the whisker rub and he can barely breathe from laughing, he'll ask for more.

He still loves to jump into the pool as long as "no head under".

He helps me cook anything that I'll let him.

He's pretty sure that the mail lady comes just for him each day.

And, he's done 2 weeks worth of sprints with us!

Yay Gogo, yay Gogo!

Kaiea Place beach fun

It has been hot and sticky for the last few weeks.  And while that sadly means that most of the day we all sit and marinate, it also means light winds and excellent ocean conditions at our Kaiea Place beach.  We've been swimming, Todd has been foiling, and we've been doing family paddles where we've seen a huge monk seal, turtles, and even a small shark!

kealia

Gordy has gotten too big for me to pack on my back up Kealia (hiking trail).  His 23lbs weighs me down and my hips beg me to quit.  So, I decided to try letting Gordy do his own hiking.  From the moment we arrived, he was super excited.  He never asked me to pick him up once and he waved at everyone who passed him.  During our second water break about 1/3 of the way up the mountain, his red, sweaty little face was happily guzzling water, and then... saucer eyes.  To both of our surprise, a steady stream of pee pee started pouring down his leg and into his sneaker.  He was embarrassed and a bit uncomfortable, so we turned around and made our way back down the trail.  Although we didn't make it to the top, the hike was a huge success - we are already planning our second trudge up the mountain!
Yay Gogo!

ride subway / trolley please

We are back from a week long trip to SFO/Piedmont and are almost recovered.  One more load of laundry and a swim in the ocean outta do it.  We spent half of the trip in Piedmont enjoying time with family (Tutu, Pop Pop, Adi, Baby Fred, Uncle Greg and Auntie Amanda) and the other half eating our way around San Francisco and riding all forms of public transport (BART, trolleys, cable cars, city buses, taxis).  

We all had a blast, but are happy to be home.  

We think Gordy might be the most excited of all of us to be back home though because he's been running around all day re-finding his toys and going crazy once he finds them as if they've been lost for ages.

Till next time SF...