Aunt Christy's Castle

Christy's apartment building in Hollywood kind of has a castle theme. The kids all loved visiting her there, and especially liked the touret like ceiling in her kitchen. When they first came into the building, they thought the entire complex was hers. :)

We're Back in America With Grocery Stores!!!

Colin's expression sums it up for all of us.

More Pics from the Long Beach Aquarium

Lorakeet Forest

While we were visiting Erin and Ric in Pasadena, we drove to Long Beach for the aquarium there. (Mostly because Britton is still an avid shark fan, and they have great shark touch tanks.)

One of the highlights of the trip was feeding the Lorakeets. It was great having them land on us. Taylor took away the most from the experience. She was the only one in our group to be pooped on, and she got it twice.

Time with Ty

Here's a cute video of Erin, Christy and Tyler. Tyler was born while we were in Africa. He's the first baby on my side of the family, besides our own children. I was able to briefly see him at my Grandmother's funeral in January, but other than that, we all had to wait to meet him until this summer. He's Erin and Ric's son.

Logan Swimming Pool

Maybe this would be better labeled as snow cone heaven, as that's what the kids are in it for. The Logan pool is lots of fun with a large wading pool, diving boards, water slides etc. However, the best part is that when you buy a snow cone, you get to add the syrup yourself, in the quantity you desire. :) Needless to say, the kids make many trips back to, uh, "refresh" their snow cones.

Even my sister, Cheryl, and cousin, Jaime, enjoy a good snowcone.

Pony Lease

Our kids were met with a pretty amazing summer surpise. Gramma leased a pony for the summer for them. She's a sorrel and white pinto, and is an absolutely perfect kid's pony. Her name is "Fancy Flash."

Britton and Taylor have been learning all about pony care and safety, and have been assigned the job of cleaning out her stall. They couldn't be happier. She's gentle enough that Colin can ride with help. Britton and Taylor are getting to the point where they can ride her around the corral by themselves. They're pretty smug about it, and spend a lot of time with her.

So... if any of our friends in the area want to take a drive out to Mendon for pony rides, we'd love to have you. There are two horses as well that work for leading around with kids on top. Mendon is a bit out of the way, but it's beautiful here, and there are lots of good kid activities.

Chelisa and kids are in Utah

Well, Chelisa and the kids have left Tanzania and are now in Utah, spending the summer in Mendon (near Logan) at Chelisa's family's house. Chelisa would love to see any of our friends who may be in Utah at the same time. Ping us and we'll send you our phone number. I'll be there in August, as I'm still here in Tanzania for a few more weeks. Senator Bill Nelson from Florida is coming for a visit, so I've been asked to coordinate his trip. Hope to see some of you this summer.

Last Night in Dar

I just reread what I wrote earlier about moving, and it sounded really negative. The move has actually gone rather smoothly. The packers were slow, but seemed to do a great job. It was a long process, but it's actually kind of nice now since there is nothing in the house other than furniture and our suitcases. It makes it easy to keep the house clean. We're looking forward to getting on that plane tomorrow. We've met some incredible people here who we're really going to miss. I'm grateful for the internet, since that's about the only way I stay in touch with people. One more night with mosquito nets. Yay!

Tootsie Rolls

My friend Karen inspired me to get off my bum and start doing some fun summer kid activities. Here's one of my favorites from when I was a kid. It doesn't taste just like the tootsie rolls you buy, but the process is a blast. (Yes, if your kids are in the potty humor age group, it's even more fun.)

2 tsp. butter
1 tsp. vanilla
3/4 cup powdered milk
1/2 cup baking cocoa
3 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup white Karo syrup

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl, mixing after each addition. Knead candy until it is very well mixed. Rollin into tootsie rolls. Be sure to store candy in an airtight container. This is a great project for kids because no heat is required to make it. They enjoy kneading the candy, and rolling it into different shapes.

Moving Update

Not much to report on, but I haven't written in a long time. Let me just state for the record, "I don't like moving." OK, I love the idea of moving back to America, but the whole moving out process stinks. They're currently loading all our belongings into crates. We've essentially ignored the kids for the last week as we prepared for the move. I am really looking forward to having some quality summer time with them. The kids and I leave next Tuesday. Poor Tim has an additional 2 and a half weeks here. I have a bunch of pictures I would love to post, but unfortunately, they are stored on our computer which is packed.

Backyard Swings and Pet Postings

I think I've been posting a lot recently, because the alternative is sorting through junk to pack. Here's one thing we LOVE about our house in Dar. The back yard has two awesome trees with tons of strong vines hanging from them. They make incredible swings and Tarzan ropes. The kids love to climb up on the wall nearby, then go swinging on the vines. (There are concrete blocks below, so I'm very thankful that none of the children have split their heads open doing this.) This has been a fun house for us, and we'll especially miss the yard. It's large enough that the kids are able to ride their bikes on the concrete, plus we have a chicken coop (no I won't miss the chickens), 3 rabbits and 2 turtles running around loose, a trampoline, and a tree house. We're particularly fond of our largest turtle, Kobe, as he now comes running (turtle speed) when he thinks we might have treats for him.
Here's a video of Chickenella trying to get some watermelon out from under Kobe. (Kobe has the brilliant strategy of laying on top of the food he wants to keep the other animals from getting. We think he's a turtle genious.) Chickenella received her name from my sister, Cheryl, because the other chickens are out to kill her. We have to keep her separate, so she runs around the yard with the turtles and rabbits. The other chickens literally pecked a hole in her head. She looked like Headwound Harry from Saturday Night Live. We never imagined she'd recover, but she's gone on to enjoy a pretty good life. In anticipation for our upcoming move, she's already been placed at a new home where she is no doubt pooping on their doormat. Her dream is to be a "house-chicken" and she attempts to go in any door left open to her. Unfortunately, the doors are closed in her face, so she waits patiently for her human "peeps" to come outside and keep her company. (All of course leading to the aforementioned...doormat poo.)

Tim and the Chimps

One of the things Tim wanted to check off his "list" here in Tanzania, was to see the Chimps that Jane Goodall studied. He was able to go to Gombe National Park for a couple of days, where he was lucky enough to see a ton of chimps. I'm sure he'll write about this later, then I'll replace this with his account, but... I thought I'd post a picture or two now, since it was pretty amazing. He loved watching how they're interactions were very much like people. (For example, one of the male chimps was pouting, and holding out his hand. So, the female chimp kissed him and took his hand, which made him look quite pleased with himself.)

Funky Orbits

Here's a picture of Tay, Colin and Britton at Funky Orbits, the Dar es Salaam kid's party hot spot. (I do mean hot, the weather is boiling here, so kids always return home drenched in sweat.) There is a playground, rock climbing wall, miniature golf, party room etc... It opened about a year ago, and now around 50% of the birthday parties around here are celebrated there.

Taylor went to a party there recently where they ran out of time to eat, so they carefully packaged up the food in take home bags. This consisted of half a hamburger, a slice of pizza, french fries (they call them chips here), and a piece of chocolate cake with icing thrown in a brown lunch bag. Personally, I think the icing complimented the half a hamburger patty nicely. My only question was, "why did they forget to squirt some ketchup in there too?"

Dirt is Good

With our move back to America being so close, we're running out of most of the consumables we brought with us. It was a sad day when we saw the last of our laundry detergent. (We haven't smelled the same since.) I've starting trying a variety of different local detergents. After pulling yet another dingy load of laundry out of the washing machine, I decided to read the box of the latest laundry detergent more carefully. It was then that I noticed their slogan, "dirt is good." I guess they really do deliver. I also love the directions of "put a handful in with the clothes." Gotta love it here.