Germany: Stefan + Andrea’s wedding

I’m BACK…

We arrived in Germany the morning of Friday April 26th.  Ezra’s uncle, Franz, decided to pit-stop on the way to the farm and took us to an old village called Klosterdorf.

Random sheep with 4 horns???

Sunday we went to the Sassens for some dinner.  They made an amazing spread with bread and tons of different toppings!!

The raisin bread

During the week, there were lots of mini parties for the soon-to-be-married couple.  One of the ones we went to involved cutting down a tree and re-planting it!  There’s Ezra, playing with Jimmy…

The whole town came 🙂

Our wagon of refreshments

All the moms decided Ezra needed some practice pushing a stroller/wagon full of toddlers…

P.S. the 3 moms closest to Ezra are the moms of the 4 children 🙂

The tree cutting

and replanting it!

Wednesday May 1st was Eric’s birthday, so we celebrated with presents and cake!

Another pre-wedding party

One of the traditions of Oldendorf is to take down the village flag and put it up the night before the wedding.

Doris with the bride: Andrea!

Apparently Ezra decided it was time to rake the lawn…

Friday morning: wedding day!

Stefan and Andrea heading to the church…

First there was a church ceremony

Then we were at the reception hall by 7 or so.

Some friends of the bride and groom did a fun dance with black and white leggings…

and of course TONS of dancing ensued 🙂

Honeymoon: Part 3

The next day we decided to attend a yoga class at another studio called Manik Organik.  We arrived early so we tried a few drinks from their raw food menu.

 

Dinner that evening was an amazing 5-star cooked meal!  Chicken with vegetables and potatoes!

a special dessert: crepes filled with cinnamon apples and ice cream!

For Valentine’s Day, Ezra booked us for a 5-hour massage in the area of Kuta.  It was supposed to be just a short 30 minute ride, but it ended up being almost 1.5 hours! I blame all these scooters…

I didn’t get pictures of the venue, but it was beautiful!  I especially loved the body scrub.

For dinner we went to a Japanese Restaurant 🙂  I love my sushi!

Enjoying some Bintang

Friday morning we made a trip back to Ubud, for that amazing suckling pig lunch!  This picture below is for my mom, who loves her pots.  Mom you would have loved that market!

Back at Ibu Oka

After lunch, we walked around the area and got some dessert 🙂

We found this amazing market full of beautiful vases, clothes and these platters

We also visited a nearby art museum to view some local Balinese work

More pot viewing on our way home 🙂

Followed by an amazing fish dinner!  The sauces that Nyoman made were so fresh and flavorful…

On Saturday I woke up to BIRTHDAY flowers!!!

Obviously I haven’t aged at all.  Mentally…

Hubby

We spent the day lounging around in the sun…the best way to spend my birthday 🙂  Then, before dinner we did an hour and a half long yoga class, which means I totally earned the amount of champagne that we drank…NOT.

Birthday dinner time!

Spinach and cheese stuffed chicken with potatoes! (and veggies)

For dessert, all the ladies brought out Nyoman’s specialty: carrot cake!!

Waaaayyyy excited.

Yeah that slice that’s missing was my piece 🙂

And for your viewing pleasure, a random picture that Ezra took of two lizards we saw on the ceiling that we biting eachother…

Random? Yes.

We had an early flight the next day to come back to China 😦

Currently trying to figure out a way to get back to Bali and possibly get certified in yoga…

Happy Sunday!

Honeymoon: Part 2

The following morning we were up at 2am to make the 2-hour drive to Mt. Batur.  When we arrived at the bottom of the volcano it was 4am, and we had a 1.5-2-hour trek to the top!  Our guide gave us flashlights to help us see where we were climbing.  He was quick climber, and we passed many many people on our way up!  Please note: this was not a leisurely climb, we were literally grabbing onto rocks at one point, and many people only went to the halfway point because of the rocky and challenging terrain.

We were the 2nd group to the top, so we snapped a quick photo!

Our guide took us to an area at the top where no other climbers were, and we were able to watch the sun rise in silence 🙂

Check out that amazing cloud cover!

Our guide Matr!

(drinking some black tea)

See all those people?  We would have been squished together! So glad our guide took us to the other side…

The hut where our guide made us some breakfast

The volcano is still active, so we put eggs and bananas into the rock so they cooked!  We enjoyed “boiled” eggs, as well as a banana sandwich!

The dreaded climb back down…(yeah, we did that in the dark!)

Half way stop

Once we reached the bottom, our driver Dharma drove us around the area so we could take some photos of Lake Bratan.

Then he drove us to the top of a neighboring mountain so we could snap photos of Mt. Batur!  All that black stuff is actually dried lava.  They use that soil for farming and the building of roads, sidewalks, etc.

Next stop: Gunung Kawi.  There were these beautiful and HUGE ancient cut shrines just a short drive from the volcano.  Little did we know that there were a ton of stairs to get there 😦

Check this out: I initially thought this guy was climbing up to trim away a few dead leaves which were not high up at all.

Then he did this:

Seriously? He was going for the coconuts!  Totally awesome.

In other news: Our guide book said there was a highly recommended place for suckling pig in Ubud.  Since Ubud was exactly halfway between the volcano we had just climbed and Sanur (where we were staying), we decided to stop by!

Talk about tender pork…

After we came back home (around 1:30pm!), we relaxed by the pool for a bit before going to an hour and a half long yoga class. Luckily in the area we were staying, there were many yoga studios to choose from.  We chose Power Of Now Oasis, because Stefan’s wife (the instructor from the scuba diving trip) is a teacher there!  Small world…

Since we had such a busy and active day, we had an early dinner before heading to bed!

(coolest butter container ever)

Honeymoon: Part 1

HELLO…Here come the photos!

Rewind to the beginning of February…We postponed our honeymoon until Chinese New Year, when we had more vacation time.  Honeymoon location? BALI.  Trust me when I say this place was absolutely amazing.

Let’s start with our accommodations.  We have some friends who happen to have a villa in Bali, so as a wedding gift they offered to let us stay there!

We arrived late in the evening (almost midnight), so we didn’t have a chance to take in the wonderful layout until the following morning.  We spent some time exploring the grounds

This massive bed is where we got our afternoon massages, for $6 an hour I might add 🙂

Another guest room and office on the second floor

And the open living room (where we had meals), as well as another guest bedroom on the second floor

Breakfast!!!

After breakfast we took some time to explore the beach area.  We were only a short 5-minute walk to the ocean, but actually we never really spent a ton of time there, mostly because the beach was quite rocky and the tide was always so far out!

We walked back past the villa and went to the main street for some potential souvenir shopping 🙂

This was my favorite spot to sit at when we were by the pool, especially because it would get so hot after being in the sun for just 15 minutes, so I would find relief in the shade on the sofa!

Here are our lunches/dinners for the first few days.  It was all so fresh and beautifully presented!

(chicken with Penne) 

(spring rolls!)

(fresh salad)

(my new favorite soup EVER. Seafood and cilantro!)

Chicken satay and fried rice!

One morning we decided to go for a scuba diving trip.  Obviously I was still asleep when we got to the diving center…

We got briefed on the event list for the day, then we piled into vans and headed our separate ways with our respective instructors.  Gorgeous scenery along the way!

I was only able to go one 1 of the 2 dives, because my ears were hurting pretty bad after the first attempt.  Even with all the cool tricks to pop your ears, I just wasn’t able to go very deep without getting some wicked pain in my right ear.  So, I stayed on the beach and snapped photos of Ezra and our instructor: Stefan!

Apparently, they saw a massive sea turtle, as well as some eels and other cool fish!  REALLY wish I could have gone down further, but I’m glad Ezra had a great time.  I think he’s officially addicted, and is now talking about going back to get his open water certification.  I think I join him and take a yoga course instead 🙂

Since it was a 2 hour drive each way, we all fell asleep for the return trip and promptly crashed for a good night’s sleep!

Trying new recipes

Monday and Tuesday I played around with some new recipes.  For lunch on Monday, I made ratatouille!  It was simple enough:

2 zucchini
1 eggplant
1 tomato
1 red pepper
2 onions
2 cloves of garlic

I chopped everything together and sauteed them in a large pot with olive oil, a little salt and lots of Italian herbs.  15 minutes later, I had a flavorful pot of goodness…

Dinner that night was another easy/new recipe.  Pan fried sole with lemon juice, garlic and olive oil.

We had the fish with sliced run-dried tomatoes, and the green beans I prepared

Lunch Tuesday was with Debora and Adriana!  We ordered way more Thai food than we could eat 🙂

Dinner Tuesday was supposed to be pizza.  We initially thought to make a cauliflower pizza crust, as seen on this blog…but we didn’t have mozzarella cheese, so we decided to use broccoli instead.  A swap that didn’t play out as well as we thought, but the flavors were great!

Topped with fresh spinach, tomatoes and feta cheese!

In other news, Friday I go for a new hair color!  Not completely new, just new highlights.  I had red done last month,

but now I think i’ll go for more blond 🙂

Weekend wrap-up

Friday night dinner with Debora and Diego!

We went to a new Korean restaurant that opened just a couple weeks ago.  Plus: it’s literally right across the street from our complex 🙂  We started with a bunch of small dishes: spicy radishes, spinach, kimchi, bean sprouts, seaweed, etc…

Chapchae!

Another favorite, Korean pancake.  This one was filled with kimchi…

This was bi bim bap, but we finished it before I could snap a photo.

Also, beer and soju!

Saturday I had grand plans to workout, run some errands, and generally be a productive member of society, but that didn’t happen.  Instead, I went to D&D’s place for lunch!  Ezra was finished coaching baseball for the morning, so he came directly home with Arthur.

Stroganoff!

Alex, who was insistent on flashing the fingers…

After lunch, Ezra and Arthur watched a movie on the couch, while Debora and I got started on making risolis!  I tried making these once before, but I wasn’t so great…this time around I was much better and the risolis were beautiful!  We started by heating the milk and butter, then added a big bag of flour.

Ta-da!

It had to sit and cool, so we wouldn’t scorch our hands kneading it.

Arthur got in on dough-rolling action…

BAM.

I was very excited to be making them 🙂

Since we had a late/big lunch, we didn’t eat Saturday night until about 7:30 or so.

We had risolis to start

and mojitos!  Ez found some great looking mint and limes at the market, and said he just couldn’t have passed up the opportunity…

Ez also found some fresh shrimp and squid!  First, he peeled and de-veined them, then mixed them with lots of garlic and butter.  We let them bake in the oven for a bit until they were just cooked, then enjoyed them with the grilled squid and some aiping that I boiled!

Sunday can be summed up with 2 pictures:

Done.

And done.

Hope you had a great weekend!

Going out with a bang

Happy 2013!  I’ll just share some photos from a dinner with friends this past weekend 🙂

Getting ready!

Ezra stealing my camera for photos…

We met up with Arthur, Peter and Echol for dinner at my favorite restaurant: Grissini!  It was nice to have a chance to catch up, since we haven’t seen them since our wedding!

We shared some pizza

and antipasto

Ezra had the beef tenderloin

and I had the angel hair pasta with garlic crab!

My cute husband.

ART.  Or Chris Noth, as he was called at our wedding 🙂

Peter and Echol!

Then we all got this brilliant idea to make chipmunk faces…

Right…

In other news: We’re watching Lucy for the week!  She’s been nothing but high-maintenance, as usual.  Just kidding, she’s been a lot better this time around.  I think she’s finally warming up to us.

For the last night of 2013, we were at Debora and Diego’s place, so we enjoyed some champagne before heading over.

We also brought Lucy with us to their house because they have a boy Schnauzer.  That didn’t play out as well as planned, since Lucy spent a lot of time barking at people that came in and out of the bathroom.  It’s close to the front door, so we think she thought the bathroom was actually the front door.  Needless to say, by the time we brought her back home, she was completely tuckered out!

We were totally full from all the amazing Debora and Diego prepared!

YUM.

Christmas in Dongguan

Santa was good to us!

We went to our friends’ house Christmas afternoon for some grub, and amazing desserts!

and watched some movies.

Including Home Alone 2!

OK, now onto 2013 events!!!

A Goldman/Moxon Christmas Eve

Merry belated Christmas!!!  This was the card we sent out to friends and family 🙂

(Kung Fu Photography)

On the 23rd, we went out with some friends to Houjie, where they have a variety show at the grand club.  As you can see, there was some serious sensory overload…

Christmas Eve, it was just Ezra and me at home celebrating our first Christmas in Dongguan!  We decorated the table with all the Christmas dinnerware we own, and listened to Christmas music while we prepped the food.

First up, Doris’ spring rolls, a Goldman tradition!

minced pork, cabbage, carrots, and spices.

Once the filler was ready, I pulled apart the frozen spring roll wraps and Ezra did all the filling and rolling.  Then it was time to fry!

Pay no attention to the amount of oil that was used 🙂

When all the food was prepped, we got everything ready for present opening!

Crispy and hot…

Finally, the champagne!  We got this bottle as a wedding gift from some friends, so we figured there was no better time than Christmas to open it.

PRESENT TIME!  This is why after the next few photos, the quality is significantly better.  Ezra got me a Canon Powershot G15!!

I was focusing way too much while trying to attach the neck strap to the camera 🙂

Then it was Ezra’s turn…

This thing has the best quality.  Almost better than our full sound system that we use to watch DVDs with!

Then I got the world’s largest phone.  Just kidding, it’s a mini iPad!  Because Christmas isn’t complete unless there are Apple products involved…

Since my husband is now an elite runner, he had to get all the cool gear 🙂

This is Canon quality…

and finally, the grand finale!

Ezra talked about this all the time, so I figured I would get it for him..

a suitcase!

German made.

Obviously…

Then it was dinner time!!  I made my mom’s amazing clam chowder, a Moxon tradition…

which was enjoyed with more food than we could possibly eat.

Ezra’s plate (I ate mine too fast for a photo!)

The set up

Check out that bubbling goodness…

Stuffed to the brim.

Merry Christmas from our crazy household to yours 🙂

Xx,

Anne + Ez

Macau half photo dump

If I could sum up the Macau Half that Ezra and I raced in one word, that would be: disaster.  I think we were a little over ambitious in thinking that we could pull off a sub 2-hour race in pouring rain, wind and cold temps!  PLUS, the race was mis-marked, meaning we ran a full mile extra 😦

Here’s my photo dump from the weekend in Macau…

Sorry if some of the photos were blurry or dark in the corners; thanks to my Christmas present, I don’t have that problem anymore!!