2008 in Review

For those of you who haven't had time to read all our blog entries, I provide you now with the clif notes of what has happened to our family over the last year. Overall 2008 was a great year for the Tyler and Becca Nicholes family. Despite the fact that we live in war-torn, poverty and disease ridden country, our family has been strengthened and we have grown in many areas.

Spencer is now 4, and is quickly leaving the toddler stage and becoming a little boy. He has exuberants amount of energy. Since there isn't alot to do here in Kinshasa, Spencer has really learned how to use his imagination. He is always finding out new ways to play with his toys. He enjoys being home with his mother and loves her very much. To my great enjoyment, in early 2008 Spencer told Becca, after asking if she wanted to play basketball, that he had to practice everyday if he wanted to be a basketball player when he grows up.

Becca has been on a real reading kick this last year. Read the Twilight series (probably 20 times or so), Pride and Predujice, and has even started writing her own novel. Becca was also able to spend the whole summer back in the states, partly to help her mother who was recovering from foot surgery and partly to stay away from the Congo longer. Becca's decision to stay the summer actually ended up as a blessing, as she was able to attend her Grandpa's funeral in August. Since another english speaking Mormon family moved to Kinshasa, Becca was called to co-teach the english speaking primary class.

I have been busy working. I missed Beca and Spencer while they were gone during the summer, but was happy that they were able to spend more time with the extended family. I was excited that my dad was able to come visit in February. We found out our next destination, Zimbabwe, and are looking forward to the adventures we will have there. I also recieved a calling as the Young Men's consultant. Basically I am there to help and translate when needed. I also gave a talk in Church in French, I was really nervous, but I think it turned out okay.

Some other highlights:

Visited Deric and Stephanie in Germany

Week with the Prices at the Outer Banks

Going to the Reptile Farm

Swimming in the Congo River

Making it a year in the Congo!!!!! (less then 8 months to go)

Courtside seats to the Jazz-76ers game (probably the number one highlight)

Trip to Hawaii

Spending alot of time with extended family during the summer and for Christmas.

2008 was definetly an adventure for us and we look forward to the adventures that 2009 holds.

Update and Hawaii

Okay so I have a lot of blogging to catch up on. We have been back in the Congo for 4 days now, and we are really fighting the jet lag this time. It definitely seems worse this time than it has in the past, it might be because normally we are leaving from Virginia only has a 6 hour difference, but this time we left from Utah which is 8 hours, and if if you count our time in Hawaii it would be 11 hours. So this blog is mainly going to be about our trip to Hawaii, and I need to thank my parents, Becca's parents, Seth and Jess, and Dannon and Jenelle for watching Spencer, so Becca and I could enjoy Hawaii by ourselves. But just as a little teaser for what is to come in some future blogs there well be 2008 in Review for the Nicholes family. 2008 was a great year for us and I will share some of the highlights and then another post will be Goals 2009. Seth usually posts his goals, and I always thing the more people that know about your goals, the more motivated you are to accomplish them, so like last year I will post my goals for the coming year, I will also update you on what successes and failures I had with last years goals. But enough on what I will be writ ting about in the future and on to our Hawaii trip.

We spent six wonderful days in Maui at the Royal Lahaina Resort in West Maui. This was the longest Becca has been away from Spencer, and although we missed him, we were happy we decided to do this trip with just the two of us. Our Hotel was great, we were on the 11th floor and had great views of the ocean. Our room had three balconies, so we also had a view of the mountain and overlooked a golf course. If you want to see what the inside of our room looked like, and what the rest of the hotel looked like you can click on the link above. Otherwise here are some views from our balcony. Becca was able to take some really great photos, we plan on making a Nicholes Vacations Coffee Book and several of her pictures from this trip will definitely be included.


The sunset from our bedroom the first night.






Being in Maui and seeing all the beautiful golf course made me want to take up golf.



This was taken the last day we were there. The water was very blue and clear that day.



One of my most favorite pictures from the trip. This is also taken from the balcony of our hotel room.



ACTIVITIES
We didn't want to be too busy while in Maui, since we wanted to make sure we actually rested while on vacation, but we did get to do some very fun activities. Whale watching, snorkeling at Black Rock (only a 5 minute walk from our hotel), snorkeling in Honalua bay, sailing, the drive almost to Hana (it was taking to long to actually make it to Hana so we turned around), the Old Lahaina Luau, and eating out at alot of restaurants. My favorite thing we did was the snorkeling to Hanalua bay. While out there we saw several sea turtles, I actually had to swim out of the way as one came up for air and had I not moved, the turtle would have ran into me. Another reason I liked this activity was on the way back we saw a mother whale and her calf acting like Free Willy and completely jumping out of the water. We were unable to get pictures of that, but here are some pictures from the day we went whale watching.

This picture was taken just before the whale dived under our boat.

The rest of the pictures are from our trip down the road to Hana. Hana is one of the main attractions on the island, although it is more the journey that is the attraction than the actual city itself. The road is less than 40 miles long, but it takes more than 3 hours just to get to Hana, and then you have to turn around and drive back. The reason for the length in time is the roads are very, very, windy, plus you get out often to look at waterfalls, jungle, and the beaches. In Hana itself is the grave of Charles Lindbergh. We started early, but it was getting late so we turned around at the Black sand beaches.

Another one of my favorite pictures, taken at the black sand beach.

I wanted to go play in the water, but Becca said no since there were jelly fish, man-of-wars, strong currents, and riptides.

We loved it there and have already said we plan on going back, probably not for awhile since it is a very long trip from Africa, but maybe when Spencer is older. Since we enjoyed the whale watching so much, the next time we go we plan on going in February when whale watching is at its peak.

Becca and I have decided we love traveling to different places and going on vacation, so if anyone has a good idea of where we should vacation next just let us know. Also while on vacation we thought it would have been fun to have another couple with us, so when we are planning a vacation and any of our friends and family would like to go to the same place let us know, and we can plan a vacation together.

Jazz Game

Okay, so since we live in Africa, Becca and I decided to splurge a little when we visited.  We love basketball and we don't have very many opportunities to go to an NBA game.  So we asked around and we were able to find some court side tickets!!!!!! The game was Jazz vs. 76ers. It was awesome.  Included in the ticket was parking right across from the Energy Solutions Arena, a buffet dinner overlooking the court with shrimp, prime rib, and some really good desserts.

Now to the actual game.  We sat court side, across from visitors bench.  During the warm-up were able to do some trash talking with the 76ers. The game was awesome with the Jazz winning. There was even a play where AK 47 was diving for a ball right in front of us.  Becca said she was wanted to reach out and help AK get the ball.  Kyle Korver looked over at us and smile and nodded as we were yelling to Williams that Korver was open.  Although the tickets were expensive, we plan on doing this again, not every year, because we won't be in Utah every winter. 

Tyler

Gingerbread Houses

Last night we made Gingerbread houses at the Nicholes house, it was my first time attempting it and I found out that it takes a while, but it is sooo much fun! Here are our end results:

Tyler's House: which is our actual house in Congo, complete with barb-wire, guard, banana tree, pool, columns, and big cockroaches!

Becca's house.

Spencer's train.
Stephanie's house.
Ally's whole countryside with castle!!!
Lilly and Daisy's castle.
Haylee working on her masterpiece. I loved the rocks on the back for the fireplace/chimney.

Jeanne's masterpiece. It is quite obvious that Haylee and Jeanne have the talent for this gingerbread house making. But it was all fun and very yummy! 

long time...

Sorry we haven't been on much lately, but we have been busy filling our time with family and friends! We have made it back to the States, for just a visit, but we are loving it! We have seen so many family members and friends since being here. It's been great! I'll have pictures up here soon enough of birthday parties, Christmas parties, family, battle of the bands (rock band) and twilight viewing. :) It's a wonder I have time to write anything on here. :) Oh and tune in on Dec. 29th to the Jazz game against the 76ers. Tyler and I scored COURTSIDE seats at the Jazz game!!!! Yes that's right, I think we are pretty much towards the middle of the court on the floor, so see if you can spot us (we'll be on the opposite side of the players). Anywho...pictures to come. 

Happy Birthday Becca!!!

Just so everyone knows it is Becca's birthday today. And since it is her birthday I wanted to let her know how much I love her and list the reasons I love her. She holds our family together and makes our home a peace full loving place even though we are in the middle of a war torn country. There never has been a day when I don't looking forward to going home after my work day is over. Having never left the United States, I wasn't sure how Becca would react when I told her that I wanted to work for the State Department and live overseas, but she knew it was something I wanted and supported me, even when we found out we would be going to the Congo. And even though she doesn't understand the language, hates all the spiders and cockroaches and doesn't like dealing with all the street kids knocking on our car windows asking for money, she has stayed here with me. She is constantly surprising me what she likes about this place.

Becca is wonderful, beautiful wife and mother who is always looking out for others. One of the things I admire about her the most is how much charity she has. She is always wanting to help those around us, and it was amazing to see her at the orphanage on Saturday, talking to the kids, asking questions about the program and trying to think of other ways we can help out.

Spencer loves his mom very much, in fact most morning when he wakes up he calls for her and if I go in there he says that he wants his mommy. Spencer is a good kid, and it is Becca's patience and loving personality that has put Spencer on the right track. Spencer wanted to right a few things so here is his message:

Spencer says "Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday dear Mommy, Happy Birthday to you" Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Happy Halloween and Happy Birthday. All of that stuff. Kisses, Kisses, I love you. I think my mommy is the greatest because she carries me, builds houses with me. Mommy is sharing and loving and she plays gold fish with me.

More Spencerisms....

I'm thinking we are going to start having weekly "Spencerisms" posts on here. What can I say...he's 4?!?! Kids definitely say the darnedest things. So here are the stories for this week.

-My mom wasn't feeling great this past weekend, and we called her on Sunday to see how she was doing. Spencer got on the phone and said, "Hey Grandma, how's that leg of yours going?" What kid begins a conversation that way?? :) Ours. He was remembering how this summer she had foot surgery and we were there, there was nothing wrong with her leg this time.

-Another one that happened on Sunday was at church. And the teacher asked Spencer if he was going to see his Great-Grandma Rigby in a couple of weeks. I reminded him that she is the one that played ping-pong with him. He said, "Yes I'm going to see Grandma, but Poppa died. It made me really sad and I cried. It still makes me sad sometimes." He is talking about my Grandpa Rigby who passed away in August. Although I told him that he had passed away, he didn't go up to Logan with me for the funeral or anything. It amazed me that he was so perceptive to realize what was going on. These little ones are special spirits that's for sure.

-Last one. Today Spencer and I had lots of boxes at the house so he figured out to use them as a car, and we cut and taped and got a big car made. Well he also decided that the car was going to drive us to the United States (his words not mine). I told him there was a big ocean between here and the United States. So he decided his car would be a plane also and could fly. Anyway, we start on our adventure and we "drive" to the airport, get our suitcases and proceed into the airport. He says to me, "Oh I hope we didn't miss the plane, we have to hurry." Then he gets up to the ticket counter (the coffee table) and asks "Are we too late?" We find out we just made the plane. So we rush onto the plane and put our suitcases in their proper places, have drinks, and watch TV. He then told me we have to take 3 planes to get to Ally's house (that's where we were going, Utah). So we continue rushing up to counters making sure we weren't late, and getting on airplanes, putting suitcases away, drinking drinks, watching TV and sleeping. Finally after our third airplane we get off the plane and he goes into the living room looking up and asking, "Now which one is it? Number two? Yes it's number two, it's this way Mom. We can get our suitcases there." Now....how does a 4-yr. old know these things!?!?!? Obviously one that has spent WAY too much time flying during his life. It's crazy!!! Finally we see Ally, which he runs up to (imaginary) her and we get into a car (that looks just like the one we made in Africa) and go to their house. He looks all around their house and went down for a rest. WHEW! What a morning! :) But look at all of that imagination!!! I love it! But really.....do any other 4-yr. olds play airplane/airport? I think we do at least once a week.