Who needs Bali anyway?

 There are a lot of Indonesian holidays in May, and this year the kids ended up with 6 days in a row off from school, so we figured with Macy's new surf board, we'd head to Bali! But the Government of Indonesia threw off that plan of ours and made restrictions for traveling extremely tight and that kept us home from Bali. Boooooo. 

What's a girl to do but find some new and local family fun! I reached out to our friends- Richardson's, Kirkham's, Nguyen's and Edelbrock's to see who was up for some fun- and thankfully they all said YES!

On Wednesday Brian had the pleasure of bringing Tate and 5 friends to an escape room experience for a very belated birthday experience. His thought was that he just had to get them there, then he could sit back and relax, while they did this themselves... not so much. No one spoke English. So he had to go along with them and translate the clues. But the boys never needed any clues. Hahahhaha. Sucker. (That would have been like torture for me)

On Thursday we decided to all go Go Kart Racing- on the 8th floor of a parking garage, so what could go wrong?

The boys-

The girls-

Tate was ready to win... but would he?

Racers ready?

The dads- especially Brian and Matt- were the most competitive.... just saying. 

But Tate was the first to crash into the pillar- 

Here I come. Am I ahead of the pack or behind it??

Check out the winner!

Friday we left the heat and humidity of Jakarta and sought out the snowy cold- at an indoor snow.ski.sledding place, again at the top of a mall. Who would have thought?!

And the give you boots and socks that you must wear to enter-

And viola- you feel the cold air of the Austrian Alps!

Who wants to roll down the hill in a giant Zorb ball? Everyone!

Two person ball, so strap in!

Brian got to lend a hand and give it a shove down the hill-

Next up? Macy and Georgia-

Do we really need a magic carpet to get to the top?

Sledding SO very fast that we were blurry-

So glad Laura captured us- 

Legit ski gear-

Macy & Georgia-

Tate's posture makes him look fast-

And a short stint at cross country skiing-

Check out Macy up on the chair lift-

Snow was falling, snow balls were throwing and these kids- who have vacationed together in Bali mostly- had a blast together in the snowy cold!

From these Fun Moms- you're welcome kids....

And on our way out, we discovered that the mall had a pet show happening and it was so so amazing. We instantly all fell in love with these "Vietnamese Micro Pigs" so much so that Brian said yes! And I- who has wanted a pig, any type of pig, since i was a teenager had to talk him out of it... on the way home I googled the Vietnamese micro pig- and it was a scam. Those suckers are full size baby pigs. NO THANK YOU! Not with our lifestyle. But aren't they cute-

And the family came up with the best name of the piglet that we thank God did not buy- Meatball. So so funny.

Saturday the kids each took a friend indoor rock climbing... the place was empty and the kids started in the "kiddie section" and had a BLAST.

Race to the top boys- 

Do you see Macy hanging from the ceiling? She had to jump off a platform and grab hold of that long bag- 

They all loved hanging/flying like Spiderman-

It was so fun to just see them having FUN like little kids again. Were they too advanced for this area? Yes. Did they love it? Yes. 

And now we move on to the rock climbing and bouldering-

I love this picture-

Macy's friend Aubree suffers from anxiety and the last time she went rock climbing, she had a panic attack. But she still said yes to coming along with Macy today. Macy did such a great job giving her pep talks along the way...

Off they go- 

I love ho Brian looked on from below, always the worried Dad. 

And then he join in, and tried to race Tate to the top-

Not so much.

These boys loved the bouldering-

The perfect girly bouldering picture- 

And we lost one.

Okay, two down. 

Yes! Mission accomplished-

Meanwhile, Brian was unstoppable- 

Sunday we decided to go out biking.... in Jakarta. Which is no joke. They say if you can bike in Jakarta, biking in NYC is easy. Pre-Covid, Sundays were "car free" so several major streets were closed to travel to allow for biking, running, walking. Well, in order to prevent "gathering" they have stopped the Car Free Sundays, but Sunday tends to be less traffic than the other days, so many people still get out to go biking. And we decided to give it a try! 

We brought our bikes, but haven't yet used them here... even during the thick of the pandemic of summer 2020, Brian didn't get out to ride. So this was really all of us trying out out for the very first time.

Here we go, leaving our neighborhood- 

Thankful for the bike lane and no car moment-

We can see the city ahead of us, but first- crossing an intersection with 8 lanes- 

Here we come city-

Hello city-

So thankful for the dedicated bike lane with barriers in some parts- 

Not only were the intersections tricky, but there were two huge traffic circles for us to navigate. This one is a very iconic landmark in the city, and it is shocking to have captured this picture without any traffic- 

Brian found us the perfect halfway spot- a french bakery with the most adorable cappuccino ever- 

And suddenly it was Monday and we were HAPPY to go to work, and the kids were fine entertaining themselves at home all day long. With friends, and all the club amenities in our backyard! All in all, I'd day we had an amazing little stay-cation here at home for this long school break and found lots to do locally with some friends. And boy am I thankful that this friends trusted us enough to follow us on all these little adventures because here in Indonesia- stuff is not always safe, stuff is not always open, stuff is often a complete bust. So boy was I thankful for all these small successes and new memories...