Bali, we have arrived!

Tuesday morning we woke up, took the train back to the airport and checked in. Dom (who had already had some issues before leaving with having to get an emergency passport) was told he had to go get a visa at the Indonesian consulate, so unfortunately we left him to do tons of paperwork while we set off for Bali! The flight from Hong Kong was 5 hours and the kids both fell asleep for half the flight...it was wonderful :) 

When we arrived, we went through immigration, etc and then went in search of our driver. The arrival hall is FULL of drivers with signs with people's names. It was somewhat awkward to stare at everyone looking for the one with your name on it, but alas I found him and we headed out to the van.

The drive to our first house was about 3 hours (and a slightly terrifying 3 hours). I have NEVER heard a horn honked so many times in my entire life combined as I did on that one trip to our house ;) The first part of the trip was through busy city with scooters and cars literally weaving in and out of each other. The lines on the road mean NOTHING there. They all seemed to somehow make it work though :) Finally, around 7:30pm we arrived at our home with dinner waiting for us!

 We checked out all the rooms (all of which were very similar) and picked this one. It has mosquito netting (although I think it was more decorative than functional, but we used it anyways). I felt the need to be extra protective since the reason Barb didn't come on vacation with us was because of Zika virus. Even the pack n play for Boden was equipped with a mosquito net instead of a mobile :)

There was a large living/dining/kitchen common area, and then 5 bedrooms and 5 bathrooms!

This house had 2 outdoor bathrooms, one which was off our room. It was so fun to shower with the stars above you! (and geckos running around :)

We slept pretty well that night and then the next morning woke up to this gorgeous sunrise...and started to really explore the property. It had been dark when we arrived at the house so we hadn't been able to see just how awesome it was yet.

The kids loved exploring...Rowan ran around trying to find all sorts of plants and bugs and lizards, etc. It was adorable to watch him run around and explore our new "Bali house"

Yay Bali! Our long awaited vacation was finally here :)

Rowan's little coconut baby :)

And then...we spent pretty much the rest of the day in the pool! We took this day to recover from travel and our busy day in Hong Kong and waiting for Dom and Joey and Holly!
 It was a perfect little family day in paradise.

As if the amazing home and yard wasn't enough, we had a staff including cooks! So, as we swam and played, they were amazing and made us fresh lumpia, salad and watermelon juice! Talk about feeling spoiled :)

After lunch Rowan spotted a toad and played with him for awhile. He's usually a little timid around new creatures but he actually touched this guy.

And then as I was laying Rowan down for his nap, Grant yells to us to hurry up and run into the kitchen. Out the kitchen window there was a huge monitor lizard running through the yard. He was a good 2 ft long. So cool to actually see him in his natural habitat. Rowan has always been a fan of the monitor at the zoo.

And then after the lizard chase was complete, the kids finally took a nap and a lady from a local spa came over and gave me a massage in the yard. It was seriously such an amazing massage and having it in the comfort of my "own home" was icing on the cake.

The staff loved playing with the kids, especially Boden, who finally warmed up to them by the end of our time there.

And as sunset neared, we headed out to the beach. There were a few too many clouds for an incredible sunset, but it was still beautiful and so fun to watch all the fishermen out there!

And then we headed back to our house, with a stop at the hammock on the way up...

And just like magic, our dinner was ready and waiting for us as we got back to the house. Amazing. We had tuna, fried shrimp, veggies and rice. Rowan said, "I don't want to eat the eyeballs. Will you cut the head off for me." He was really into eating the fish despite being a little weirded out by the eyeballs (I don't blame him :) It was a delicious dinner though! The sauces they made with each dish were so delicious!

The perfect first day in Bali. The only thing that made it better was the arrival of Holly, Dom and Joey that night!