August 08 - White water, balmy Bali & dressing up

August 08.

Avon Descent.

Sean paddled in this years Avon Descent, a white water (and some flat parts) race of 160km over 2 days. He did it as a relay team with 3 other dads of little ones (no one has time to train for the full event themselves this time). And with all the rain in July the river was at the highest level (read: flowing really fast and heaps of white water) since 1985.

On the first day, Sat Aug 2nd, we lugged the kids along to Toodyay to catch Sean as he finished his leg. There was a great Samba band and miniature rail way for Jasper.

Finished his leg and still has his kayak!. Jasper and Grandma on the mini train

However the testing conditions put the kibash on the 2nd day of paddling as the first paddler fell in and lost his kayak, so the team had to drive back to pick him up and they couldn't finish the race. But we celebrated back at Sonia and Dan's anyway.

My gran at 96 and Zachary and Grandma

Bali Aug 10-20
We enjoyed 10 days in Bali for Sean's 40th birthday. While we had arranged for Chris to join us there after her 2 night stop over in Singapore, we had no idea that a surprise visit from Sean's brother, Kevin was in store. Kevin was waiting at the airport for us in Bali and had arrived the previous day from SFO, via Tokyo and Jakarta to holiday with us!

Poolside with Beth and Zach. Beth and Jasper. Daddy and Jasper.

Holiday toes. Zach and his Bintang belly. Now he needs to sleep it off.

We spent the 1st 5 nights in Sanur at the Peneeda View Beach Hotel, which was a great choice for families. Melissa and Beth were also with us and we rooms right near the kiddie pool. We enjoyed pedicures, massages, a bit of shopping and plenty of great meals. Jasper loved flying his new kite on the beach and there was plenty of wind!

The boys played some golf with my brother Matt, who was also in Bali, and on Sean's birthday, the Runkle brothers and myself went on a 2 tank scuba dive to Nusa Penida and saw the Moli Moli (sun fish). At 3.5 mts long he was a beauty and was right in front of us. The next drift dive was something else - more like diving on cocaine as we were racing along at lightning speed due to the current - no time to look at the great coral or the fish, they were almost a blur! But and experience none-the-less.

We went to dinner at Poppies Restaurant (good atmosphere, bad service) in Kuta for Sean's birthday after drinks at Ku de ta (good everything!)

With our dive master, Agus. Birthday boy and drinks.

Then we headed to Ubud for 3 nights where we did a great cycle tour from Mt Batur down to Ubud, took the kids to the monkey forest and had some fantastic meals at Nomad restaurant and shopped it up at the markets.

Monkey family. Jasper in the Monkey Forest. At the white heron village where there were no where near as many birds as we were told!

Rice terraces on cycle tour. Start of cycle tour - Mt Batur. Village kids.

Our last 2 nights were at Masa Inn, in Poppies 1, Kuta and we hooked back up with Matt who had been a regular face there for a while now. We had a night out with some other crew at the Sky Bar.

Happy Zach on our last night out in Kuta.

So while the holiday was not relaxing with little kids and everyone trying to sleep in the one room, it was still enjoyable and Bali is now a favourite with Uncle Kevin and grandma. Sean and I came home exhausted, but happy to see Maddy and even now, we're still tired, so I doubt that's going to change.

Glammed up.

The last event for August was attending the Telstra Business Awards with the Pit Crew Management Consulting team, where I work casually. While Pit Crew didn't take out the big award we all had a great night and are thrilled to be finalists from over 4,000 entries!

Pit Crew team