Caleb's first swim meet

Caleb had his first competitive swim meet a few months back, but I am finally getting to look at the pictures.  Caleb did really well for how young he was and because he has just started to swim well just this year.  It was a fun event to participate and it brought back memories when I (Tyler) was in Africa and competed in school swim meets.

 "Are we done yet?!?" ...and we have only just sat down

Caleb getting ready for his first heat, the backstroke

He did really well on his first heat and place 3rd, good enough to compete the next day

Starting the semi finals. Get ready...

 ...and they are off!

 We are so proud of you Caleb!

Parents filling the stands at the pool we regularly frequent 

Caleb did a great job, although he didn't place he gave it his all

  Who doesn't like donuts?!?

All smiles

Kampoeng Kopi Banaran

Kampoeng Kopi Banaran is a local coffee and cocoa plantation just outside of Salatiga.  It is almost like a small amusement park (not really anything like in the USA) with small rides, playground equipment, flying fox zipline, swim pool and coffee restaurant.  We had a few days off from language school so we decided to go with some friends and spend the morning there.  It was a fun time just to go to another place even though we were a little of the "attraction" because we are foreigners.

 Sharing a iced coffee with our friend Mariette

 Had the Wolff family join us too

Fun under the sun...no wait, shade!

Aaron having fun on the "flying fox"

Indonesian school field trip and they tried not to stare at us :)

Kids playing on the merry-go-round

Photo op moment

Sibling love

 Coffee berries just starting to grow along the stem, they should be turning red

around August and then harvested

One of the lookout points for "Lake Pening" a shallow lake just on the outskirts of Salatiga

 Kids are ready to take a tour of the coffee fields

 Still smiling after a bumpy ride of the mountain

 Then it started to pour like it usually does in rainy season here

Taking a little ride in the jeep

 We saw some coco trees too with cocoa pods already starting to show.  I didn't know they grew their own chocolate here

 Loosely translated means: "Drink coffee before playing sports can help women 'burn weakness or fat?' 31 percent more."  We saw some other really funny signs along these lines but I couldn't get a good clear picture of them.  Some of them said that coffee helps reduce cancer and have other  amazing health qualities.  So I should be living a long, 31-percent-fat-burning life, right? 

Walk through of our Tarakan House

While I was in Tarakan to unload our container and our crates into our house, I was able to do a late night walk through to help show you what it looks like.

Packing out!

We still may have around 2 months (give or take) to live in Salatiga, but we chose this week to officially pack and send all our furniture, appliances, and other belongings in a large shipping container to Tarakan.  In sending the container early, we are hoping it will get there in a couple of weeks so that I can make a quick 5 day trip to Tarakan to set up our house as much as I can before our family actually moves there.  This will be a big help as we transition with little kids and a brand new baby!  We are thankful we got all the packing done now and we can "breathe" a little before the next big thing...our baby girl arriving in May! Here is a quick look at the two days of packing, transporting, and packing again looks like.

Packing Day

Our front room with dissembled furniture

 Most of our furniture is wrapped in cardboard to help protect it from the long journey

 Having dinner while our couch takes a rest after being wrapped in plastic

 A bunch of teammates and friends came to help load items in a "truck" and transport them to the loading area.

 Almost all our earthly possessions are here

 View of our front yard with all our stuff

 View from our garage looking to the street

 Have curious and helpful neighbors come to see what this "orang asing" (me) is doing 

 Almost the last load for the day

Container Day

 We started at 6am with donuts and coffee

At least this guy came with a smile...

 We sat around yelling over the passing traffic and enjoying hot coffee and donuts while we waited for the container to arrive

At least it is nice and cool at this hour

 Here is one more helper!

And here is our container

 All nice and empty...and mostly clean

 Ok, no more donuts. Time to work them off

 First item is our chest of drawers

 It was heavy, I think that is why I was taking pictures of it instead of lifting ;)

 Things are coming along rather nicely, everything fitting in

 Almost half way done...

 But still a lot of stuff to fit in the container

 ...and more stuff.  Goodness who thought this was going to be easy?!?

 This is the part where I was getting a little nervous about items not being able to fit

 BUT it all fit!  We were even able to close the doors without having to take a running start

 See you in Tarakan!