Majestic Victoria Falls

Last Saturday we walked over to Victoria Falls, and it was beautiful. I can't think of enough adjectives to describe the massiveness of it and the beauty that our Heavenly Father created when He created this.

Now, remember we went there at the end of the dry season so there was not much water coming over the Falls, and that when we go back in January there will be more water.

Here is Spencer at the entrance to the Falls, and he quickly pointed out when we got there that the African flag was flying, we quickly reminded him that it is the Zimbabwe flag. :)

This is a picture of the Falls. We had nothing like that water coming over and you will see that with the rest of the pictures. Also look how BIG it is!!! We walked all the way from the left side of the picture to the middle gap on the green side. Another thing to remember is that Victoria Falls is one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World.

After seeing the signs that had all kinds of information and facts about the Falls on it we started on our trek to get to the Falls. This is what we saw. Dry, huh?

Then we saw our first bit of it!

Spencer and Tyler getting misted by the Falls in the background. It was incredible that even during the dry season we were getting some heavy misting rain on the path that we walked on.

A look down the Falls. They say when it is in full power after the rainy season you can't see anything, not even the actual waterfalls because the mist is too powerful.

Spencer taking a break while swinging on a vine that was hanging in the path.

RAINBOWS!!! There were lots of those while looking over at the Falls.

Our family getting misted again.

The main part of the Falls.

Family picture. Spencer was always worried when Tyler picked him up like this thinking that Daddy was going to pretend to throw him over, but Tyler never did.

Notice the difference of the walking path that was nearest to the Falls and it's mist.

A DOUBLE RAINBOW!!!!!!

So dry!

I love this picture to 1-show how pitiful the flow was of the falls, but also 2- to show how magical it all seemed.

There is a part of the waterfalls over on the Zambia part that has a small pool called Devil's Pool. It's called that because you can swim in it (only in the dry season) and it's actually right at the top of the falls, like you can lay on your stomach and look over the waterfall that is falling beneath you! It is guarded by some rocks, but we've heard that some people have slipped and fallen off and gone down the long way to the bottom.

We saw some people actually over on the Zambia side and saw that they were about to swim in Devil's Pool (this is something Tyler and I would have loved to do, but did not). Here is a man who is standing right on the brink of the falls.

Taking pictures of the others jumping into the pool.

Down the deep ravine of dryness.

There was a cliff on the edge of the falls that we were able to climb up and look straight over and get a little scared. Spencer is sitting at one of the high parts of the rocks.

AAHHH!! he's about to go over!!! :)

This is the bridge to go over to Zambia, and also the bridge that people go bungee jumping from.

Someone did bungee jump while we stood there looking at the bridge.

On our way back we came across a warthog who was having a snack. Walked right past him and he didn't even glance at us.

Next post I'll put some videos of Victoria Falls up so you can get an idea at how big it is, how loud it is, and how misty it is.

Not your average Hotel room

We've arrived at Victoria Falls and it was fun to see the small tourist town bustling with hotels, motels, lodges, and small shops. Oh, and also all the sellers on the street following the white people around. :) heehee. We had the excuse of saying we lived in Harare, and could find it cheaper there, the sellers then quickly gave up on us. They were even selling the Zim trillion dollar bills, which we have some, but I was hoping that any U.S. tourist wouldn't pay too much for them since they are worth NOTHING. Tip to those who travel to Zim, don't pay more than a dollar for any Zimbabwe money.

Our first Lodge we stayed in was the ilala Lodge. It was quite nice, and kinda looked like a nice Holiday Inn hotel room. Spencer on this trip has become quite the Vanna White, and wanted to show off all the signs we passed, so you will see more pictures of him doing this.

There were also baboons hanging out around the front of our Lodge. They didn't bother us, but I was a tad worried if they did want to bother us.

So we get situated in our room, which had a TV!!! We were so tired from driving that we just laid back and started watching the TV, then low and behold there were elephants right outside our doors!!!!! So we sat and watched them too.

The sign right outside our doors said: WARNING: All wild animals are potentially dangerous. Please do not approach. M-kay I'll make sure to not approach the huge elephant that is not tame and could trample me in less than 5 seconds. Thanks!

There were five elephants that hung out and ate for a little while right by our door.

Then the baboons came. We had heard from friends here in Harare, who took this trip this year to make sure to keep your doors and windows locked because of the baboons. One of their windows was not locked and when they came back to the hotel room there were baboons in their room eating their trail mix, when the husband tried to shoo them out one snuck back in by racing past him!! Another story was of some baboons that got into a man's (someone we don't know) room and started eating all of his medication pills. When they shooed that baboon out it picked up the toiletry bag and tried to take it back outside!

So needless to say, I made sure all doors and windows remained locked and shut!

I thought this was so cute how the little one was grooming the bigger one. I love having my hair played with and was wondering if I went out there and started grooming them, would they play with my hair too?? I didn't try.

I love that this big baboon has his eyes closed while being groomed. He was so relaxed. :)

Hit the Road Jack...

We just got back from our A-MAZ-ING trip to Victoria Falls, Chobe National Park in Botswana, and also Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe. It was really amazing, beautiful and gorgeous! So prepare yourselves for lots of posts and LOTS of pictures. I really loved being over there, and will miss this when we leave next summer.

First off, let's just start with the basics of driving 9 hours from Harare to the town of Victoria Falls. It's always fun to see what we see while driving. This time I took lots of pictures while we were driving so you guys could get a sense of what it really is like here, most likely you won't get the full affect, but close enough. :)

We had to drive through downtown to get out of the city in the right direction and while driving, I thought it would be nice for everyone to see our church's stake offices which are downtown in this building with other offices. But here is a picture of it, right above the bus is the sign that says The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

Here is downtown Harare! It does look nice, and in some areas it's like you are downtown of any major city.

We saw so many baboons on the road while we were driving, and even more donkeys, cows and goats.

What the dry season looks like.

Can you see the smoke? It's from the fields being burned before the rainy season starts (which did start last night with our first thunderstorm!).

Umm...yeah read that sign, and then look at the picture.

...and...here are the wild animals. :)

We also saw lots of people walking along the road.

Beware: Impala Crossing!

Beware: Elephant crossing!!

More baboons and people in the background. Yep, people were still walking around in these areas where baboons and elephants were suppose to be crossing.

Finally we reached Victoria Falls!!!

S P E N C E R

This blog post will be all about S P E N C E R!!!

He's been a ball of fun lately, and growing up too fast, as always. He is in first grade this year and we just had his parent/teacher conference at school this week. We found out that he is doing great academically! But can be a little immature, but the teacher realizes for his age (he's one of the youngest in the class, started 1st grade at age 5), it's normal. She said he will catch up soon, and she also has realized that Spencer likes attention. :) heehee, I could have totally told her that!! But overall, he is doing great. His teacher said that he was "clever and brilliant!"

His teacher asked us if he hung out with this one girl in class outside of school, and we said only at Embassy functions do they play outside of school together, and we asked why. She said because they seem to have a special bond, where they look out for each other. If one is having a bad day the other is sensitive to it and watches out for them. Now, isn't that just the sweetest thing?!!? I'm glad he looks out for his friends, and she is one of his favorites, mostly because she is kinda a tomboy, and not a girlie-girl. They get along great! It'll be sad to move away from all of the friends Spencer has made these past two years.

Anyway, here are some pictures of our cute boy!

Spencer was invited to a birthday party for a friend at the Embassy and they had face-painting at the party, so he decided to have something done! Here's BATMAN!!! The paint around his mouth got rubbed off from the eating of all the food there and cotton candy.

Spencer was outside looking for bugs or just playing and I started taking pictures of him. I love this one with the full on laugh he was doing. :D

Last week we were able to harvest our garden and made lots of salads for ourselves afterwards. Spencer decided he wanted one also, so he asked for a SALAD?!?! one night. Here was his dinner, looks yummy huh? All from the garden. :)

Tyler's Birthday!

Okay so yes I know Tyler's birthday was celebrated 3 weeks ago, and yes I know we don't update our blog that often anymore, but it's really because all we do now is work and school. And really, do you want to see pictures of Tyler walking out the door to go to work, or me sitting on the chair doing my homework, really?? I didn't think so, plus I don't have pictures of us doing either one of those things. :)

But here are some from Tyler opening his Birthday presents, excuse the pajamas he's wearing this was only 2 days after he hurt his back, which is getting better day by day. I'm sensing this is where Spencer picked up his facial cues from. Because I remember seeing these same faces when Spencer was opening all of his birthday gifts. :)

He was really excited by Spencer's present to him.

A gift card to Best Buy--which really means, more video games.

His next gift he had no idea what it was till it was opened, a map of Manhattan! We have looked at it many times since, so we kind of have an idea of where things are in New York.

This one was a Duke golf markers and divot thing, for when he goes golfing (which now he has to wait another month to go and play, o-well).

This one was another Bobby Flay cookbook. Tyler loved the one he got last Christmas for Grilling things, this one was Burgers, Fries and Shakes.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TYLER!

He doesn't like cake so we piled three chocolate chip cookies on top of each other. :)