Time To Wrap The Holiday Up

Ding ding ding! It's the last day of school break! Time to get ready for school again. While most schools already started since the 4th, Evan's school extended it for another week so he'll start schooling again on the 11th.

Now to wrap up this holiday, let's see what he's been doing during this three weeks school break. Before Christmas, malls were the main destination for us to entertain him so we could do some Christmas shopping as well. After Christmas we had a trip to Puncak and stayed at a resort there until NY eve. We chose a resort with complete facilities for kids to play so we didn't have to go anywhere and got stuck in the traffic just to entertain the boys. Evan, naturally, spent most of the time at the swimming pool and children playground.

 

In the morning he enjoyed breakfast with cool breeze from the mountain around.

As for Eldrick, that was the first time for him to stay in a hotel and he adjusted very well. Every morning we would spend a couple of hours strolling around the resort area.

Last week, we had rain almost everyday that forced Evan to play inside the house with his toys and Eldrick during his last days of the school break.

That's it. Holiday's over, he's back to school tomorrow!

We're Still On Holiday Mood...

How is your holiday everyone? Christmas was rather quite here probably because we had rain since morning, so most people (including us) prefer to stay inside rather than go out visiting each other. However we still could enjoy our family time on Christmas.

Started with an early Christmas lunch. I guess the cool weather has made us hungry and wanted to eat soon...

As usual we didn't exchange gifts on Christmas day, we will do that on New Year (while budget last, lol). Besides Evan still enjoyed the gifts he got on Christmas events at school and Sunday school, so he didn't really care about another gifts. So we just kissed and hugged each other.

When the rain stopped later in the late afternoon, some of our friends and cousins stopped by at the house to greet us. Some of them brought cakes and cookies. They were nice actually but I was too late to take picture when they were still intact.

Somebody just couldn't keep

his little hands off the cake :)

The next day, on Saturday morning we went to the cemetery visiting my father's grave. We let Evan helped my mom put some flowers on the grave. My father died two years ago when Evan was still 1.5 years old and we want him to keep his memories about his grandpa though it was not that much.

That's how we spent our Christmas this year. There was fun part but there was always missing dad part.

Anyway, today we're going to start our New Year's vacation. We're heading to Puncak, Cisarua today and plan to stay there until New Year. We decided to start our New Year's holiday a few days early to avoid the heavy traffic in the coming days. We heard on the news that people got stuck for hours on their way to Puncak during Christmas, so we wanted to make sure that won't happen to us.

Thanks for stopping by everyone. Have a good Sunday.

Trip to Taman Safari Indonesia

Two weeks ago at my WW: Hello Bambi! post I posted pictures of Evan feeding a deer. Those pictures were taken on our trip to Taman Safari (Safari Park) Indonesia at Cisarua, West Java, last month. Here are some other pictures taken during the trip.

That was the second time we brought Evan to Taman Safari (TSI). During our first trip two years ago he was a little bit afraid looking at the animals. Now he's beginning to enjoy the trip and brave enough to feed some of the animals, especially the little ones.

Some other animals there.

Somehow he didn't like posing near orangutan and elephant.

Some of the animals like elephant, camel and pony are available for rides. He chose riding a camel with his nanny.

There was a hippo trying to swallow us.

Thanks for stopping by. Have a good day!

Trip to A Tea Plantation

The busy month of March is finally over, what a relieve. The whole last week was the worse until I didn't have time (and energy) left to update my blog. Anyway, after having such a hectic week, we decided to take a break on the weekend. Our destination was an old tea plantation in a remote area near Wonosari. I thought spending time in a fresh green area would help our mind and body to relax.

Evan was certainly happy when he heard we're going on a vacation. He loves traveling. He'll do anything as long as he can be on a trip. This time he promised us that he would behave and sit still during the flight. Well, he did sat still for a few minutes.

He could take care his own Dalmatian bag now

There's nothing much to tell about this trip since our purpose was just to relax. So we spent most of our time walking around the plantation area and sightseeing its surroundings. On Sunday afternoon we packed our things and went back home.

Our little porter waiting for the baggage

Have a nice day everybody.

Mount Tangkuban Parahu

"Hurry up dad, it's freezing...!"

Another place we visited during our New Year holiday was Tangkuban Parahu, a still active volcano at the north of Bandung. We did not stay there for long because the wind was too cold for Evan. Even after I put on an extra hat and scarf on him he was still shivering. Besides, the sulfur smell was unbearable, it got stronger once you came near the craters. At the picture above you can see one of the craters behind Evan. I forget how many craters there but I remember there were more than one. 

Soon after we took some pictures, we hurried back to our car. Then the boy spotted some horses near the car-park and started begging to ride them. No horse riding on that day though, because I saw his nose became red and did not want him to get cold. We only took a few shots near the horses then moved on.

Our New Year Holiday in Bandung

Bandung has become our favorite weekend destination for so long. The city is not too far from home, only takes about three hours drive. However, it's been awhile since the last time we went there and never brought Evan too. This year we thought it is time for him to know about his mom and dad's favorite place. 

Since we were very familiar with the place, we didn't make any hotel reservation. After randomly checked several hotels once we got there, we decided to stay at Hotel Cemerlang. Their rate was surprisingly low considering it was a peak season.

He loved the Christmas tree at the lobby

Two giant puppets

One of the "must do things" in Bandung is SHOPPING! Now you know why it became our favorite city :). There were so many Factory Outlets to be checked on, as if each one of them was calling your name to come in, and the most important thing is they're cheap! So we stopped by at not as many as I wanted to several FOs and started an early year shop. While mommy was busy shopping, the boy got bored. Lucky for him we found a big chair so he could sit down while waiting.

Trying to amuse himself while mommy was shopping

There is a small city nearby Bandung named Garut, which is famous for its natural hot springs. We took time to go there too and let Evan played at Sabda Alam resort. The resort used hot springs for their pools' water so they were quite warm. Evan loves swimming, he can stay in the pool for hours.

He wasn't too happy had to leave the pool

We also went to other places and will post the pictures later.

Second Trip to Cipanas

About two weeks ago on Eid ul-Adha holiday we went to Cipanas area. This was the second time we took Evan to Cipanas. Unlike the first trip, this time we decided to spent one night there, so we checked in at Yasmin Hotel.

Here are some photos from our trip, all taken on the second day. Early morning we walked around a botanical garden nearby the hotel. Evan was still sleepy at the time, until he saw a goat that excited him.


Back to the hotel we let him played at the pool for a while.

Before we checked out, we took some pictures around the hotel.

Next we headed to Kota Bunga (Flower City) Cipanas. Like last time, we did not pay too much attention to the flowers. We were there to play around and have fun.

Oops, you missed it dad, mommy was speeding... :)

He was rather reluctant when asked to stand next to the statue. Maybe the lion looked too intimidating to him.

Saturday Fun at Taman Bunga Cipanas

Last Saturday we had a day trip to Taman Bunga (Flower Park) at Cipanas, West Java. It was located in a mountainous area about 90 minutes drive from home. Although we went to a flower park, seeing flowers was not the main purpose. We just wanted to let Evan played around in an open cool and fresh area. Here are some pictures we took during the trip.

First we offered him to ride a horse. He did not want to; apparently, the horses looked not too friendly for him.

Instead he chose to ride this red spidy’s back.

Even a bunch of these colorful little horses and giant running horses at the side of a bus were far more appealing for him.



Then we had a traditional Sundanese food for lunch at Ponyo Restaurant.


Next, he played in the children playground with his nanny.


After that, daddy introduced him to basketball.

“Now pay attention Evan, daddy is about to show you how to play basketball!”

After a few coaching tips, here is the result.

Can you see a next MJ is being born?

"Daddy I need a smaller ball! This one is blocking my head."

Before we went home, we looked for some plants to be brought home while Evan amused himself with kitiran (what is it called in English? little windmill?) Update: It's a pinwheel-Thanks cindiaugustine :)