Hong Kong & Indonesia Trip - 4

 In Indonesia, we stayed with his great-grandparents again in order to spend more time with them.  It was good to see them spending time with each others and the smile on their faces.

There is a garden at their house and Ethan loved to pick out the lime from the tree every day. Yup. He was only allowed to pick one a day.

It was his great grandmother's birthday.  All the grandkids wrote a card for her.

See how happy she was when she received the card.  We had lots of laughter when all the relatives are together. We can be silly at times.

Besides birthday cake, we had big birthday buns and birthday noodles.

The most exciting things for Ethan was to meet many many aunts, uncles, and cousins.  Here is one of the two cousins, Mathew.  Too bad they are still babies and can't play with him. 

But the young uncles and aunts loved to play with him.  See how Ethan mimic his uncle Daniel. Ethan had so much fun with this toy, he broke it on the same day.

Thank you Uncle for carrying me around. =)

Hong Kong & Indonesia Trip - 3

After staying in Hong Kong about two weeks, Ethan has started the journey to Indonesia again.  It's his third times to Indonesia, but he didn't remember his past two trips. 

On the flight, he enjoyed the entertainment on flight.  The flight attendant gave him a child size headset, which fits perfectly on him.  After spending hours on flights and airports, we finally arrived Semarang, the home town of his great-grandparents.  Thank you aunt Tiffany, Lesley, and uncle Andrew for keeping Ethan entertained at the airports.

One weekend, we went up to the hillside where great-grandparents had a vacation home.  We first visited a relative's vacation home.  It has an indoor tennis court, swimming pool, many many bedrooms, and  a very nice garden. 

Ethan, uncle Andrew, aunt Tiffany and Lesley went into the pool to enjoy the fresh spring water from the hill.  The water was cool but with the bright sun, it was nice.  They tried to teach Ethan swim.  Ethan enjoyed the fun and full attention from three adults.

Then, we went to visit great-grandparents' vacation home.  It wasn't as big but it was nicely maintained.  Ethan's mother still had lots of childhood memory at this place.  She had spent many days and nights there when she was young.  Too bad we didn't stay overnight there this time.

This swing has been around for more than twenty five years.  Amazingly, it is still in good shape.

The highlight of the day is horseback riding.  These are horses for hire to walk up and down the hillside.  Ethan and his mommy rode on one smaller horse and his dad rode on a big one.  That horse was so unforturnate for carrying a 200 pound man.  From Ethan's smile, you can tell how happy and excited he was riding a horse.  There was no seat belt or any safety measures on the horse.  His mommy was a bit nervous and afraid he might fall, but Ethan enjoyed the ride and wasn't scared at all!  Ethan was so excited that he keeps turning around or leaning to the side of the horse. He noticed the spider web on houses, the chickens running around, and the horses pooping along the way.   So proud of you.

During the ride, suddenly he asked if the horses are tired of carrying people on the ride.  When his mother told him that they could be tired, he asked if we could stop the ride and let them rest.  How caring was he.

Hong Kong & Indonesia Trip - 2

After the indoor playground was closed, Ethan could only enjoyed the outdoor park when it was not too hot outside.  But he still enjoyed himself with slides and various park equipments at his grandparent's apartment.

One that he like was this octopus.  It has many small balls inside the board and you need to manually move them up and direct them to different paths. 

Ethan tried to take this steps to get to the slide but could only get to half way because of his fear.  His mother eventually had to demonstrate climbing up the stairs for him.  Finally, he was able to go all the way and excited about his achievement.

He met a kid blowing bubbles at the park and he went crazy catching them.

His grandparents bought a new Thomas Bike for him.  He was testing it out at the platform.

And rode it around the park.

The bike is so light that he could lift it up by himself.

Hong Kong & Indonesia Trip -1

  Ethan went to Hong Kong and Indonesia again in June.  This was his third times in Indonesia and fourth times in Hong Kong. 

This is the kids indoor playground in his grandparents' place.  Kids run, jump, climb crazily in the playground every day and Ethan enjoyed being surrounded so so many crazy kids.  Unforturnately, swine flu has made the management decided to "temporarily" close the facilities.  Therefore, Ethan could only enjoyed it for three days. 

When his uncle samuel was playing with him, Ethan suddenly noticed they both had a scratch on their elbows.  He pointed it to his uncle and this picture is the evidence.  He was so pleased to have the same scratch on the same arm as his uncle.  The game he was playing was building a track for the marbles to run through.  He was most excited to play with his uncle with this game as Uncle Samuel is good at building stuff.

Ethan's grandmother always wanted to take Ethan to fastfood restaurants, such as KFC and McDonald's.  Especially, she wanted Ethan to try the ice cream.  Initially, he didn't like it because of the coldness.  She kept persuading him and finally, he can't stop.  At the same time, there was another grandfather holding his grandkid,who looked like 2 year old, and persuading him to try the ice cream.  What's up with grandparents and icecream?

One big achievement for Ethan was making his own jelly.  He made one with his grandmother and now he is hooked.  He wanted to make and eat Jelly almost every day!!

Motion sickness on flight?

Ethan and his mother spent the whole month of June in Indonesia and Hong Kong.  It wasn't an unusual trip for Ethan as it would be his third times in Indonesia and fourth times in Hong Kong.  He has never had a problem with flying on a plane.  

When his mother packed for the trip, she always put an extra set of clothes for Ethan but not for herself in carryon baggage.  Although she read it many times in magazines that it is a good idea to pack an extra set for the adults in case the young kids drop any liquid on adult during the flight, she never did for herself.  However, this time when Ethan's mother was packing for the trip, she had a urge to pack an extra set of clothes for herself. 

During the flight to Hong Kong, Ethan didn't sleep well.  He complained having stomachache and even losing interest in watching Little Einstein.  Suddenly, he vomitted for the first time in his life.  He was smart enough to face his mommy when he vomitted.  It was all over his mother's pants and nothing on his clothes.  Thank God she packed an extra set of clothes for herself this time.  Or else, she would have to stay smelly for the rest of the flight. 

We suspected he had motion sickness because he was completely fine after the plane landed.  But he didn't have the same problem again for the flights to Indonesia and back home.  What a nice reminder from God for this unexpected incident.

And the lesson of the day, pack an extra set of clothes for yourself and kids when you fly.