MADURA, the people.

last weekend we had the opportunity to go on a trip with our language school to Madura, an island just north of Java (the island we live on).  Madura is very different than Java (especially our city on Java).  it's much more old school, many farmers and fishermen.  it was a great trip and we got to see a lot of cool things... including the annual cow races that the island is known for.  i loved seeing it.  not so much the cows racing, but the culture behind it.  it was really interesting to me... and i took a lot of photos of it.  :)

the families that own the cows are the group of people walking behind the cow (to the starting line).  usually a young boy from their family rides the cow and they start practicing as early as 5 years old!  which is crazy when you see how fast these some of the big cows ran.  there is the little rider below among his older male relatives.

this is a terrible photo, but i love the kid's face.  uhh, intense!

and here are a few of the spectators that i captured.  the kids were really sweet and told us a lot about the races. 

we also went to the beach and met these ladies selling some kind of fruit.  they were funny and pushy.  :)

one of our teacher's in-laws invited us to their village for lunch.  they did a big lunch welcoming us and then we tried to do a little coloring for the kids.  i think the kids were terrified of us, but they sure did like looking at us from a distance.  :)  here are two of the moms with their adorable little girls.  the people are so pretty. 

big boned

the amazing facial expressions of luke...

 also notable are his full cheeks, farmers tan and "big boned-ness", the polite way of saying he's a chunk. 

  

this is not the best photograph but it is my favorite view of luke.  is it weird that i have a favorite view of my kid?  maybe.  i just love his long, dark eye lashes and when his little mouth is open just enough to see his chiclet like teeth.  here he is in a little boy zone here... he often stops playing outside and will watch the wind move the trees.  i don't remember mary doing that.  he stops to notice little things.  it's sweet and a little unlike his normal, busy self.  :)

father and son.  

then i took a few photos of lily and sam.  

my two favorites of lily because it is just so her.  she has such a spunky and loving personality... these are her very typical faces.  i love her.  

boston beauty

i'm almost done with photos from america... promise.  this was possibly my favorite evening in boston.  i LOVE boston.  have i said that before?  :)  i love the city and this is one of her gems.  it's a little patch of grass, hedged in by bushes with water fountains in the middle of the crazy, busy city.  and, it's across the street from the north end.  my favorite restaurant isn't too kid friendly, so the dads went and ordered take out and we ate it on the grass while the kids ran wild.  it was perfect.  

two peas in a pod... 

in their batik dresses from indonesia.   

i love these two girls.  they have been friends since before birth (i mean, us parents were in each other's weddings... that counts, right?).  at the beginning of their friendship they would have to be separated after a few hours, now i think it's a few days.  right, meghan?  :)  they could not be more different in personality but i love them together and they love being together.  this time was really fun because they actually played together.  they loved making one another laugh and it's entertaining watching 3 year olds do that.  

"ring around the rosie, pocket by a crazy".  oh, those aren't the words?!?  mary thinks so.  she sings it out loud and proud, i laugh every time without correcting her.  pocket by a crazy, really mary?!?

  

then we moved onto the fountains at the park.  it was so fun for the kids!  luke loved being in the water and was pretty brave, considering he's never seen anything like this before.  

mary stuck with teddy for a lot of the fountain time... she would venture in, but not too close to the water and not too far from teddy.  she doesn't like getting her face wet...

and here is lily playing in the water... yeah, our girls are a little different.  :)  lily has been the 'brave, push the edge and have fun doing it' one since she came out of the womb.  i love that about her!  if you can't see what she's doing, she's standing over the fountain and it's blasting her bum.  

tickling mary... i love my girl. 

luke and sam bonding over boy stuff... like walking on dangerous ledges and looking for animals in the bushes.  i mean, i love those bellies and sweet faces.  

and poor teddy, putting up with mary's "love"... i'm pretty sure teddy didn't know mary was going to stick that tongue out.  sorry, teddy.

we are so blessed to have teddy in our lives.  mary and teddy have a sweet little bond... teddy (who was named by mary, it was her 1 year old version of karen) was around a lot and was constantly helping out with mary when we lived in boston.  mary loves teddy and i'm thankful for that time in boston with her to establish their relationship.  it's sweet.  

we are animals lovers.

okay, we're not animal lovers at all.  but, we did go to the aquarium in CT and that was fun!  our favorite part was when we could hold the birds because our kids could actually get close to the animals.  it was cool and i was proud of how brave they were... most of the time.  

 it was like a huge cage full of birds and you buy sticks with bird food glued on it so the birds come to you.  they would just land right on you.  here is mary being so brave holding the stick and bird all by herself!  her facial expression is only a little worried.  

luke holding the bird too...

and tim gets the award for "bird whisperer"... there were birds on his sticks the entire time.  it may have been because he recently shaved his beard (which was the size of his head) so the birds weren't scared. :)  

mary waiting for the penguins to swim by... those little guys were hard to photograph!  

her look of delight and pride after she pet whatever creature that is.  

luke also pet the creature.  

funny story about this picture (at least i thought it was funny)... i forgot about these pictures and i saw this one first.  i saw the little asian family behind me and thought, "i can't believe i wore such a scandalous tank top in indonesia!" (i would NEVER wear that tank out in public here)  then i remembered that i was in america and i was relieved.  i don't know why that was funny to me, but it was... so laugh.  :)