Jimbaran and Rice Fields

In March we also had the chance to attend a conference in Bali as well as take a four day vacation afterwards. Here are some pics of us at Jimbaran - a beautiful beach in South Bali where you can watch the sunset over the ocean as you eat fresh fish, crab and shrimp! I usually don't particularly care for crab and shrimp but it was YUMMY!

Maya is in heaven! Water, waves, sand and KIDS!!!

Have you ever seen a happier kid?!

Sisters!

Dave and his buddies

Some of our favorite people!

Maya and Jed. Love how visible the arm rolls are here!

 After the conference we jumped in a car and drove 4 hours to the north shore of Bali. We stopped off in MJ and I's favorite place on the planet...Ubud. Ubud is a little artsy town in Central Bali with lots of art museums, coffee shops and gorgeous rice fields. One of our favorite spots in Ubud is a little organic restaurant located in the middle of acres and acres of rice fields- far away from the noise of everything. You have to trek about a quarter of a mile on a tiny footpath before you find your way to it, which is half the fun! MJ discovered it three years ago when he went off by himself trying to take the back way to an art museum and ended up falling into a ravine and breaking his foot. But that's another story!

Making the trek

All I can think of is GREEN! As in the color.

A True Beach Babe

More fun at the beach with friends and family!

Maya and her best bud

More Fun Adventures in Malaysia

Shortly after we arrived we stopped by the market to pick up some groceries. Here is Ash posing for the camera :)

So colorful!

 Later we made a trip to one of the big malls that has a Chili's in it! Yum yum! Here is Ellianna is practicing her big sister skills by pushing Maya around the mall. Such a big girl!

What kid doesn't love Uncle Dave?!

Chowing down. One of Maya's favorite pastimes.

We even got to play on the beach one morning!

Baby on the Go

This girl likes to travel! Last month we had the chance to visit Malaysia with Ashley and David. Such a blast!

About to go the park. A real treat for us because there aren't very many parks in Indonesia!

little nervous

nah! this is fun!

There were tons of monkeys

goofy

The park even had a pool!

Maya shows off her strawberry bathing suit 

These girls love being together!

This little strawberry loves to play in the water!

Showering off after all the fun. Doesn't she look angelic?!

Growing Up

Maya's been very actively exploring her world and adding to her list of accomplishments everyday. She took her first steps two days ago, has added the words 'duck' and 'quack' to her vocabulary (her favorite animal by far), is capable of signing 'more' and 'all done' during meal times (when the mood so strikes her, that is), and even gives wet, sloppy, mouth-wide-open kisses when you ask for one (again, only if the mood strikes her, but it usually does). Her receptive vocabulary has grown quite a bit too. I've been encouraging her to take better care of her baby dolls by often telling her to "rock the baby" and "kiss the baby" - both of which she'll do now :) It's so fun to see her begin to understand some of the things we say to her.

She hopped inside her toy box

She's suspicious of toothbrushes that make noise

Going for a stroll with Daddy

Silly girl

The other morning I actually added "Maya not taking the bows out of her hair" to my prayer list. I told God that it would make me really happy if he could make Maya just leave the blasted bow in her hair and not take it out the second I put it in. And guess what happened?

She wore a bow!

All day!

She even wore one the next day, too :)

I'm still a little beside myself that God heard my prayer about the bows. Only he knew how happy it would make me :)