Summer Recap 2011--take 2!

As I said this summer was very busy for us. Before Tyler joined us in the States Spencer and I were able to go and visit some family.

We got back into the States at the end of June and we went to my parents place for a week then headed up to Kentucky to see our nieces' baptism, she had just turned 8 earlier and waited for Spencer to be there with her. Spencer and her get along so great together, so it was wonderful for him to be there for her special day and to get ready for his own baptism next year. So we stayed there for a quick weekend trip, and went back to VA to celebrate the 4th of July!!

The 4th of July is a big deal in my family, and an even bigger deal if we do it out in Lewiston, Utah. We love this holiday! Unfortunately we were not able to go to Utah, but stayed in VA to do it up big with my parents, and my sister and her family. My brother earlier in the day had sent a picture of all of the food he was eating in Utah when he was celebrating out there, so I had to send a picture back of our spread that we had...pretty yummy, right??

I even painted my toenails for the 4th of July. This is pretty much unheard of, because I do not paint my nails very often. I do not see the need for painted nails. Anyway, I did it so I had to take a picture of it so others could see I actually did a bright red for the 4th of July!

After our celebration of the 4th, we hung out at my parents for another week, then went on down to Alabama to visit one of my friends from growing up in VA, Emily. Her family lives down there now, and I hadn't seen her in a long time, so I asked if I could come crash at her place for a little while. Being the bestest friend ever she said yes. :)

This is Spencer with Emily's kids. The best thing about this trip was that all the kids played nicely with each other!!!!!!!! I know everyone's mouth dropped opened, didn't they?? But, really, sometimes it's hard to find other kids that will just play nicely with each other. I could not believe there was almost no fighting at all, it was awesome. It gave Emily and I lots of time to talk, eat, and reminisce with each other.

Cute Emily and her boy!! He was so great and fun. He has the CUTEST dimples!!!!

The little princess of the bunch, and the snuggler. She would always just scooch up into me if I was sitting on the couch. I adored it!

And this is her oldest, and the one Spencer just loved playing with. She is just four months younger than Spencer, so they were perfect to play together, plus she was tough, and would play sporty games with him. :)

And THIS little girl, sigh, this little lady stole my heart by the time I left. Mollie dog was my best friend while I was there and did not leave my side whenever I sat down on the couch. She would just look up at me, then snuggle right into my leg. Emily said, that anybody who is not a dog lover, Mollie will find and make them one. Well, I am not a dog hater, but dogs are not usually my thing, nor Spencer's, but we did GREAT with Mollie dog. She made me want to take her home with me. :)

Thanks so much to Dannon and Jenelle, and Emily for letting us crash at your houses this summer and being great host/hostess and letting us have an awesome time with you guys!!!!

Hello Again!

You know there is a saying that "Absence makes the heart grow fonder" and I'm hoping that is the case for us. Sorry there has not been a posting on here for the past 3 months!!! YIKES!

We have been busy.

Wait, no that doesn't describe it well.

We have moved from Zimbabwe, been on a plane every week during the summer (no lie), gone to Kentucky, Alabama, DC, Utah and Virginia, found an apartment to live in in NYC, lived in a hotel for a week before moving into the apartment and finally moving into the apartment with no furniture. Yes, there, much better description of our summer. :)

Well, let's get the recap started!!

As you all know by now, there are a few places we like to hit up as soon as we have landed in America.

First off we go here:

Then we stop here (everyday):

Then we have these for breakfast:

Look at that happy faced boy!!! :)

The next thing we always do when we get back to the states is go watch Wyatt play some baseball!!!

We missed his regular season, but here he is on the All-Star team trying to win the Districts Championship.

How did they do?? Well, this is us on our way to the State Championships!!! YEP! His team won District!!!

Hello Little League State Championships!

We love going to support Wyatt playing baseball, but this trip was H-O-T-T! Everyday we were there it was around 110 degrees heat index. We were hot, but made do. Even Liza's best friend Alexis came to watch a game with us! She is the best and is like a sister (and one who could pull off being our sister) to our family.

This is Liza in game mode. She is usually the scorer and keeps tracks of pitches at all the games for the team. She gets stressed about how well they would do, and so we didn't talk to her much during the game. :)

Wyatt's feet. :) I loved watching all the different stances the boys had while getting ready to hit the ball.

Unfortunately, they lost all their games. It was hot, and for some reason some heads were not in the game. Wyatt took it alright, and even played a bit with Spencer. Oh and by the way, Spencer idolizes this guy right here. He loves him to death, and for good reason, Wyatt is an awesome young man!

Leaving...but not quite yet.

Turns out that the night before you leave on a trans-atlantic flight that you should not eat a big meal that could mess with your stomach. Which is what happened with us, well to Spencer. The poor little boy got sick in the middle of the night and just couldn't stop "being sick" all night. We were leaving the next day at noon, and were not sure yet if he would be over the stomach bug or not, so we waited. He had stopped throwing up, but still had not had much sleep, and looked very much like this picture. (so sad, right?)

He had gone for 3 hours without any type of being sick, so we headed to the airport to see if things would just be able to work out. I mean, we had a 17 hour flight during the night, so at least he could sleep through all of that right? Well we start getting all luggage and us out of the car, and Spencer starts saying his arms and legs hurt and he starts crying which in turn makes him throw up in the parking lot of the airport.

Yep to the right of this picture that is where we were. Luckily it was mostly water, so it wasn't gross. But he did that, Tyler and I looked at each other and said, yep we are not going today. So I repacked the car, Tyler went inside to change our tickets and we started our way back home. Before all of this I was so nervous about flying, and felt so bad for Spencer to have to travel for 29 hours while being sick. He just wanted to sleep and lay down. I was a mess also because I was so sad to be leaving everyone here.

We said good-bye to our flight and went back home and Spencer just headed straight to his bed and laid down to watch some Avatar the Last Airbender.

The blessing out of all of this is?? First, I'm really happy that we didn't try to travel while he was sick, it would have been miserable for me and him. Secondly, I feel that I'm more ready to leave when we do now. It gave us a little extra time with Tyler, and to just be ready to leave. I really didn't feel ready to leave when we were going to. So, now, we have had a night of 12 hours of sleep, and Spencer is slowing getting better. At least he is eating some bread!!! I hope he feels 100% for our next trip, so we can finally get our summer in the States underway. He can't wait either now.

It seems as though Zimbabwe had one more adventure for us to go through before we left...now I think we're done. :)

Farewell Zimbabwe

Spencer and I will be leaving Zimbabwe this week, and we are going to miss it!! Spencer has already informed me that he will be coming back to Zimbabwe when he is a grown-up and that it's okay with his wife to come. I don't think he realizes how much he will miss Zim, but I know he will tons, as will I. It's different leaving here than it was with Congo. In Congo we had made friends but the place we were living in was not fun at all. Here it's been beautiful weather, wonderful people, no wars going on, and many more wonderful friends to be had. Our highlights of Zim are as follows:

-Our beautiful home, that had it's many struggles, but still we feel like it was home.

-Spencer's first day of Kindergarten.

-Spencer's first day of 1st grade.

-Spencer calling himself an African boy because he would walk outside in his bare feet all the time.

-Tyler learning and enjoying golf, and also getting Spencer into it.

-The many thunderstorms during the rainy season, I won't miss the lightening, but the pitter patter of rain helps you get to sleep sometimes.

-Seeing amazing wild animals up close.

-Having once in a lifetime experiences.

-Seeing one of the seven wonders of the world-Victoria Falls.

-Riding elephants and bonding with them.

-Going on safaris.

-The A-MAZ-ING sunsets. I will forever miss the African sun.

-Having the opportunity to share where we live with family.

-Again another once in a lifetime experience- petting a cheetah.

-Holding lions at the Lion and Cheetah Park.

-The beautiful landscape of Zimbabwe (Leopard Rock).

-Visiting other parts of Africa- Cape Town, South Africa.

Here are some pictures of our house all packed and ready to go.

-We will definitely miss our wonderful staff!!

This is Bridget with her two daughters, Blessing and Mary.

And here is Cosmas with his wife Beauty and daughter Ashley.

We will also miss the many friends we have made here, in which I don't think I got enough pictures of them! So here are a few of our friends.

Erica cutting her yummy, delicious homemade carrot cake.

Kate showing off her belly....she's having a girl!!!

Some of our wonderful Young Women.

Tyler and Spencer with some of our great young men.

My canasta playing girls!!!! I will miss the Nield family and their own families so much, and also the Lane family (which I kinda include with the Nields).

We have had so many great experiences here, and have loved our two year stay in Zimbabwe. Hopefully we will be back to visit again, and be able to enjoy more time with our African roots. I think this time it is also a bit harder because we are not only saying good-bye to a great place to live but to the whole country of Africa which we have come to love so much. We will always have Zimbabwe in our hearts.

First Grade Graduation

Today was Spencer's graduation from first grade!!! He still has a week of school left, but they celebrated early so they could get everyone there.

All smiles at the beginning , he was so ready!

Congratulations Spencer!! That is his teacher Mrs. Ferguson.

Looking at his class picture that was in his little recognition paper.

Spencer and two other of his classmates are moving away, so they did a little good-bye thing for them. They had each of their best friends stand and say something about them and tell them good-bye. One of Spencer's best friends is Olle, and so he stood up and said that he hopes Spencer has fun in America and good-bye. This was them hugging it out. SO CUTE!

Then the first grade kids rocked it out with the guitars they made and songs about bones (their last unit was about the human body). They were all rocking out!

After everything the kids got to drink juice boxes, the parents got to visit, and so did the kids. Spencer with some of his friends.

This is Ms. Rust who was the classroom aide. She is leaving also because she is getting married.

Mrs. Ferguson, Spencer's GREAT first grade teacher. She always looked out for Spencer and knew when to be firm with him in the things he did. She is an awesome teacher.

YAY for Spencer finishing first grade! But wait....then that means...we have a second grader now!!! oh boy! :)