Catch Up!

Over the course of the next week I am hoping to post many posts, beginning with Claire' birthday from October! One of my New Year's resolutions is to keep up with this blog and begin photo albums! This blog serves as a journal for me, I have never kept journals but hope that this blog will help me remember our life! Have fun catching up with me!

Claire turns 5!

My baby turned 5! So many emotions come to play for a momma of three, when her third is no longer a baby..sadness, happiness, excitement! Claire is a very active, strong willed child that has stolen our hearts! She has scared us to death, with all of the unknowns; but has made us stronger for walking her down this road!
Claire continues to make lots of progress in all of her therapies, and has proven many therapist wrong in what she can achieve! Her biggest issue is her speech, but like everything else she has made remarkable progress this year! She finally is intelligible to most people, and my translation skills are not needed as often!!!
She loves to play outside, and loves to change clothes! She has really had a great year in school, and has made some friends! She recently had her first play date, and loved every bit of being with her friends!
Gosh, she is growing up and with every new word, long sentence; I am able to catch my breath and know that there is a great big future ahead of this little girl!!!!
Birthday breakfast

School Birthday Bash

Claire and friend, Emma

Birthday dinner at local restaurant with friends....

We went all out for her birthday this year, and had a "Wizard of Oz" theme. She loves the movie, and made quite a cute Dorothy!

I made all of the decorations, her dress, and even had the Wizard of Oz gang for display! The food was all labeled with Wizard of Oz names; such as "lion cookies", "red slipper juice", "tornadoes" and many more! My good friend made her cake..OMG! First, she made it a rainbow cake and then with fondant decorated it, so cute!

It was a beautiful day for an outdoor party...

The whole "gang" was represented...

The food table...

The cake...

Love this pic, everyone was quite surprised to see the rainbow cake!

Claire's friends...



The Wizard of Oz party was a hit, and everyone had a great time including "Dorothy"!

Goodbye 2010!

What a year it has been! We took the kids to dinner tonight for a quiet, as quiet as dinner can be with three children, evening! Before we got our food, I asked everyone what their favorite part of 2010 was...guess what we ALL said, our trip home! If you know me at all, you know that being so far away from home is hard, so hard that I choose not to talk about it! I really miss my mom and dad more than words can say, luckily we where with them for almost 2 months this summer! We spent good quality time together, maybe better quality time than what you get when you live only 15 minutes away!
I am thankful for all that we have been given, especially this assignment here in South Africa! Although it has taken me away from home it has blessed us with amazing friends, awesome memories and incredible, affordable therapy for Claire! I am happy to say that we have come out of 2010 without any cuts and bruises, we are healthy!
I hope for peace, happiness, and healthiness for myself, my family and my friends in the upcoming year! I dream that more people will visit, and we can show off our "home"! It will hopefully be a year to remember, bring on 2011!
Happy New Year!

Christmas....

I know I have a ton of catch up blogs to do, but I guess Christmas is on my mind! I am so longing for a "traditional" Christmas; where it is cold outside, Christmas lights, Christmas PJ's, Christmas music on the radio, my mom and dad! Oh, I wish I was home for Christmas!
But just like always, we will overcome! We will have Christmas here in South Africa, differently but we will have it! I will try extremely hard to get everybody here in the Christmas spirit, when will they all learn it is not just about what happens on the day....but the whole month?!

September...A Whirlwind!

Wow, I can not believe it is already October! September was EXTREMELY busy for us...we had Hunter's birthday party, Claire had a ballet recital, went to the Hermanus Whale Festival, Franschhoek, and went to Zambia!

Claire as a sleeping butterfly, being awoken by the fairies!

Butterfly and fairy dancing!

Skinny little feet...doing it!
Hermanus is a small town on the Indian Ocean in South Africa; during whale season this is one of the best viewing spots for the Southern Right Whales! Every year they have a whale festival, and we decided to go with our South African family (our American friends, The Bells) this year! We stayed in a house overlooking the sea...gorgeous! 4 adults plus 5 kids equals great, but very wild fun! We spent 2 days in the town of Hermanus, and you can really see tons of whales! One day we ate at a restaurant that was built into the side of a hill on the rocky shore of the water....within feet of whales! While there, we tried a bottle of wine that had been buried in sea water for 10 months....Very salty! We had a great time in Hermanus...viewing whales, eating, drinking, craft shopping, and just spending time with friends all while surrounded by the most gorgeous scenery! At one point on our last day we where all sitting on a hillside watching the whales; and we (4 adults) all said what an incredible gift this ISP assignment has been for all of us! It will be so hard to walk away from all of this, especially my friends....it is amazing the bonds that can form in such a short time! Here are some shots of Hermanus...it is IMPOSSIBLE to capture what an incredible sight the whales are, as most times it is only their backs or tales that come out of the water...and so very hard to take pictures of!

Our Crew!


Cameraman Pat catches a few whales!

Hunter and Claire at lunch!

Restaurant by the sea!

After Hermanus, we went and spent the day in Franshhoek......it was so gorgeous and quaint! We visited 3 wineries, and each one was beautiful; then finished off another great day with a great meal at an Italian restaurant!
Gorgeous views of Franshhoek wineries...



We were home for two days from that trip and then off to Zambia! To be honest, I was not thrilled about going on vacation again; but wow was I in shock when I got there! We were greeted at our hotel with authentic African Warriors, and then we were shown around the resort....beautiful! Our first day there we settled in and took a quick trip to the Falls, only a 5 minute walk from hotel! Our resort was in a national park, so there where animals everywhere; no predators as this is one of the smaller national parks. We saw zebras, giraffe, monkeys, hippos and elephants(these two where seen on kids safari walk from across the river)! We saw the Victoria Falls and we were amazed, what an incredible site! The next day we took a much longer walk around the Falls, Hunter and Claire stayed behind in the kids camp at the resort! Unaware of what we were doing we went on the actual side of the Falls; and a local asked us if we wanted a tour, we bit! He was awesome and walked us through the top of some of the Falls,and then walked us up to the side of Falls where we got a bird's eye view of the Falls, we actually overlooked the Rainbow Falls! There is always a rainbow there! We hiked through the Zambezi river, it is not rainy season so the water is very low and there are many dry spots...during rainy season where we walked would have been completely impassable on foot! Pretty Cool! After our awesome hike, the boys signed up to ride Segways; they were in heaven! The rest of the day was lazily spent sitting by the pool enjoying some down time!
The next day....well let's just say at least we survived this day! Pat and I went White Water Rafting on The Zambezi River, an experience of a lifetime! We set out at 8:30, we met our "fellow" mates for the day! Let's just say Pat and I were by far the oldest, only three other people close to us...all the others were college kids and most of them from the States! So we get suited up... life vest, helmet and oar and we walk down to the "boiling point"! We had six in our boat and our guide, Tenga! Amazing, fun, crazy, scary, intense, laughable, hard and Memorable...that is how to sum this up! We rode through or paddled through 10 rapids ranging from category 3 to category 5! We did awesome our first few, and then the first cat 5 comes...our boat goes straight down into the rapid and flips! I came up and could not find the boat, I swallowed and ingested half the Zambezi, thought I was done; but put my legs in front of me(in case you collide with a rock) and finally a kayaker came to my rescue and we finished the rapid! So basically not only did I go on a boat through rapids, but I went through a category 5 rapid SOLO! We continued going through the rapids, we dumped on one more category 5 rapid, but we all managed to keep a hold of the boat! Yeah, we survived! At the end of our 1/2 day tour, they let our group out at the BOTTOM of the mountain, same size as what you see the Falls go down; and tell us to hike up! What, we had to go straight up on a man made ladder, made out of tree limbs...thought I was going to die...but again we conquered!

Our resort greeting committee!

Victoria Falls at sunset.

Local who walked us across Falls.

Looking down into Falls, notice rainbow!


Does not look like much, but that is our first rapid, category 3! The bridge is linking Zambia to Zimbabwe...while rafting, there was a point that we were actually on the Zimbabwe side!

Boys on Segways.


Pool!

Pool bar!


So that was our September, exhausting and wonderful! Now we are in October, planning for Claire's birthday party, Wizard of Oz, and our annual Halloween party! Time goes way too fast!

Who Builds US.....

"Strange is our situation here upon earth. Each of us comes for a short visit, not knowing why, yet sometimes seeming to a divine purpose. From the standpoint of daily life, however, there is one thing we do know: That we are here for the sake of others...for the countless unknown souls with whose fate we are connected by a bond of sympathy. Many times a day, I realize how much my outer and inner life is built upon the labors of people, both living and dead, and how earnestly I must exert myself in order to give in return as much as I have received.” Albert Einstein

This quote speaks to me in so many ways! Mostly tells me to show appreciation for who has helped mold me! Mostly there are my parents, my mom! They guided me in the right directions, I swayed off path many times but eventually got on the right path!! My mom showed me how to be a mom, and taught me what true unconditional love is! Pat, has always made me laugh and has showed me what it means to be a provider and a best friend! My friends, especially my ones here in South Africa, have showed me what TRUE friendship is! They have helped me come out of my bubble and enjoy a brand new world, and LOVE it! My parents, Pat and my friends have given me the opportunity to be myself, and love me anyways(or most days!) Thanks to all of you for molding me on the inside and out! Without you, I would be lost! I hope that I am able to give back as well, if only through my children I am able to use my knowledge!

To My Mom....

Mom
I love you so much and am so proud to call you mine! I am who I am because of you, Thank You! Happy Birthday!
Megan