Bali!

We finally took a trip! Part of coming to Asia is seeing Asia - but with 2 small kids, high expenses, etc. - it took awhile to get in some travel. We spent 9 days in Bali. Thanks to a nice hook-up from my Uncle Howard, we stayed in a fabulous villa at the Karma Kandara, located in Ungasan on the Bukit Peninsula - on the southern tip of Bali.

The resort and villa were great - nice pool, beach, restaurants, kids club. We had a 3 bedroom villa, so we had a room, Leah had a room and Will shared with Nilda. It was really great to have Nilda with us - meant for a much more relaxing trip than we otherwise could have had with an 11 month old and 3 year old. The kids club at the resort was also incredibly useful as the kids spent most mornings there with Nilda playing with toys, doing arts and crafts, getting nails painted, etc.

We took Leah along to the Ulu Watu Temple one evening for the Kecak Dance. We ate at a few good restaurants. We went to Waterbom, a very nice little water park. Other than that we lounged, relaxed, swam, and just enjoyed being on vacation!

Bali is beautiful. The people are friendly. The fruits are delicious (our villa included a fruit plate that was restocked daily). We would definitely love to go back some day and see other parts of the island - we did not make it further north than Seminyak.

We had some good milestones on the trip too. On April 15, actually in the car on the way from the airport to the resort, Will started clapping. He is now an excellent clapper and will do it on request when he is in the mood to play along. And on April 20 at Waterbom, Will took his first steps. He took just a couple steps from me to Nilda while standing in just a couple inches of water. Then later that day I was able to coax him to take a few steps by forcibly letting go of his hand and encouraging him to walk to me. Since then he's done similar little bits a few times - but he does not seem to be all that confident in his abilities on his feet. He has been letting go and standing solo more and more but still only for a few seconds at a time.

He also seems to be adding some words. He seems to say "hi" appropriately. And since there were monkeys on the grounds of the resort (wild monkeys that inhabit the area - long tailed macaques) we worked on what a monkey says, "ahh ahh ahh ahh."

Leah had a great time on the trip too. She practiced her swimming and she can now swim solo - scooping and kicking - for about 10 feet. Both kids have gotten increasingly comfortable in the water - a good thing - but may make for a very tiring summer at the pool for me.