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. :)

Happy Birthday Tyler!

Just wanted to put out there that today is Tyler's birthday!!! We want him to have the best possible day today!!! Spencer woke up and thought we should do something special for Daddy's breakfast, so we made him crepes (one of Tyler's favorite foods). Tonight we will celebrate more and do presents. But for now...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TYLER!!!

We Love You!

Also we should say Happy Birthday to Dannon!!! tyler's twin brother. :)

the After

So, once we found out where we were going, and were able to have fun with family and friends for guessing where we went next, things are pretty quiet and anti-climatic. This is what we have done with the after of telling everyone we are going next to New York City:....

Yep! not much. We told everyone, everyone is excited for us and they all say they want to come and visit us. Then nothing else exciting has been going on. Next month I promise we'll have more fun to share about living here in Zimbabwe now (we are going to Victoria Falls next month!). But for now, we are just a little boring.

I did get sick a couple of weekends ago, the sickest I've ever been I think. It took me two days to recover and we still don't know what caused it.

Tyler last Sunday hurt his back. We found out that it was a torn disk, so all he can do is rest. Well, Tyler can't rest, he has a very hard time resting. So he is working four hours a day and then coming home to rest, but I really know he wishes he could be there longer working. O-well, doctors orders, kinda. :) This is Tyler resting.

Spencer is having fun at school and learning about silkworms and Zimbabwe. Not the two together, but separately. He has started doing spelling tests this year, and is doing fairly well. He did start going to soccer on Saturday mornings, and he loves it!

Oh yeah, there is one more thing that we did do, night kite flying!!! Spencer got this kite for his birthday and wanted to fly it, so Daddy went outside to help him fly his kite....with a flashlight.

Lastly, here is a spider we recently killed. It's big, and gross and popped.

BEWARE: this is a gross picture!!! EWWWW!!!!

Also a picture of some flowers that are growing in our yard that I thought my mom would think were pretty.

So you see, we really are just plain ol' boring people here. Not much else is going on. I'll write more though after our trip to the Falls. We are planning on going to a couple of the parks nearby to go on safari runs, hopefully a night lion run, and enjoy the country we are living in now. Stay tuned.

NEW YORK CITY!

That is right, in summer 2011 we will be moving to Manhattan.

The winner was Mary, who guessed it pretty quickly. Well done Mary!!

The State department is sending me there to work on United Nations issues. We are really excited to be back in the states, especially to have an opportunity to live in Manhattan without paying the super high rents. We are excited we will have a temple close by, being able to walk around freely, great restaurants, good sporting events, etc... We plan on living in the upper west side, upper east side, midtown, or near the financial district. Visitors are welcomed, but those who visited us here in Africa get priority.

(not taking reservations yet)

A few more clues.

Here are a few more clues.

7. This city has hosted the world fair

8. While many languages are spoken here, English is the main language.

9. The city is 789 kilometers square.

Happy guessing.