We Made It!!

This post is coming to you live from Nairobi, Kenya, AFRICA!!! I know - we still can't believe we are here. We flew out of Houston on Thursday afternoon and arrived in Amsterdam on Friday morning. We really can't complain about the flight because like everyone else on the plane we were just happy to be able to travel. The volcano in Iceland hasn't hindered our travels at all - it just caused an enormous amount of stress on Monday and Tuesday before we left, "Are we going or not? Is it going to erupt again? What if it erupts while we're there? What do we do?..." So needless to say the Amsterdam airport was BUSY!!! We had 2 hours to make our connecting flight and by the time we had our boarding passes and got to the gate, they were already boarding. The flight was overbooked and we were some of the last people to get a seat... a little nerve racking!!! But we boarded and left about 1 hour late but arrived in Kenya Friday night safe and sound... then we got in the truck with my dad and took to the streets of Nairobi and started to fear again.
My dad is a great driver but holy cow - these people are NUTS!! They drive like maniacs. No lines on the road, no posted speed limits, a law that says police can't chase you, traffic lights that aren't turned on, people who don't obey traffic lights when they are on, driving on the opposite side of the road, lots of pedestrians, lots of motorcycles, roundabouts, and the best part - no mandatory smog checks. (I've been having flashbacks from my mission in Romania since we arrived.)
Despite all the traffic nightmares we are having a fabulous time! We talked to our kids via Skype on Saturday and they are all happy and healthy and loving their time with Aunt Annie the Saint. Really, no amount of bead necklaces from Kenya can express our gratitude to her. It is quite a change to go from empty nester to caretaker of 4 small children. We will forever be in her debt!

Forest Oaks Park

For playgroup this week Jack, Brinley and I went here
It's, as Jack would say, a GINORMOUS park. There's a play area, lake for fishing, waterfalls, squirrels, bridges, pavilions, walking trails, ducks, wildflowers, turtles and a lot of humidity. I can endure the humidity if I get to spend the day here! And best of all - it's FREE and not crowded at all.

So today we took the rest of the family to enjoy the great weather. We were, for the most part, the only people on the playground. The kids had a blast playing tag with Lars and watching the squirrels. Great Day!!

FOUND...

...one Dodge 1500 truck that was stolen 1 week ago. Looks pretty good huh?



Just the tailgate is missing...
Wait for it...






Wait for it...





Wait for it...





Wait for it...



The insurance company is continuing with the "Total Loss Claim". I asked Lars if he cried when he saw it, "No! I couldn't stop laughing...." We aren't laughing now. It is a pain in the rear to "have to" buy a new car. We are putting it on the back burner for now and we're still planning on going to Africa - Icelandic Volcano or not!! Our original flight is supposed to go through Amsterdam but looking around the web we have a few different options if it comes down to it. Cross your fingers that the ash disperses by Thursday.

Awards!

The school where the kids attend does an awards ceremony every 9 weeks and Kayla and Henry received awards last Friday. They both had perfect attendance. (It helps when you've only been enrolled for 4 weeks and 1 of those weeks was spring break) Kayla also got an award for "Best Effort". They are both doing great and loving school. They love buying lunch and I love them buying lunch. When they have to catch the bus at 7:25 AM it makes for an easy morning if I don't have to pack their lunches. They both had wonderful grades on their report cards. Henry is already reading at the level he should be at by the end of the school year. Kayla has "caught up" with the rest of the class in math and her grades are great! It seems this school is really concerned with "quality" of work and not "quantity". Henry has a reading book every night and Kayla has minimal work every night and they both seem to excel with this approach to teaching.

Conference Jam

I love to make jam over General Conference weekend. It keeps me awake for the sessions and gives us a really yummy treat!! The jars were sitting on the counter and I would walk by and find them in different configurations. Thanks Henry!!

Easter Morning

Easter Morning was just as foggy and wet as Saturday so the egg hunt was in the family room. Who cares where the eggs are as long as there's candy in them.

Easter Cookies, Conference and Fog

We woke up on Saturday morning anticipating a great General Conference and we were not disappointed. The fog rolled in as the sun came up and rolled out by 8AM. Since Conference doesn't start until 11:00 in Texas we made cookies and had a leisure morning. In between sessions we decorated the cookies and delivered them to some new friends in our ward.

This is the last picture of Lars' truck we have - it was stolen from the parking lot at his office the Monday after Easter :(

This is what it looks like when you use frosting as hair gel.

Easter Eggs

We colored eggs on the Friday before Easter. Brinley was a quick learner and loved every minute of the organized mess. If there was an empty cup she was quick to fill it with as many eggs as she could. Needless to say we had alot of brown eggs.

Mercer Arboretum and Botanical Gardens

It was supposed to rain and thunderstorm today and the kids were out of school - Not the makings of a fun day!! But the clouds held in the rain so we decided to venture out to the Mercer Arboretum and Botanical Gardens.

Can you believe that this is BAMBOO??? It's a whole lot bigger than the stuff I used to have sitting on the kitchen table.