Random Pictures in Nairobi

There are snails like this all over the service center where my parents work.

Elephants

Here are the elephants!! Here are some of the facts I learned from Joseph, our driver,

• They are non-territorial
• The matriarch of the herd is in charge
• If a baby can walk under the mother's belly it is under 1 month old
• The herds usually consist of about 10 to 15 elephants
• Herds join together for a time then as one of the matriarch elephants starts to walk away, her whole herd follows her and the others stay with their matriarch. They do this so the young elephants can get to know each other and interact with others.
• When it is hot during the day they like to play in the mud. They pick up the mud with their trunks and throw it on their backs.
• They are very light on their feet. Our vehicle was stopped and a large male elephant was walking past us and you couldn't even hear it. Elephants are always portrayed as these huge animals that make the ground shake when they walk. They are huge but really quiet.
• They have a gland right behind their eyes that secretes a liquid and it looks like they are crying. It secretes when they are hungry or anxious.
• Just like humans elephants are either right or left brained. You can tell by looking at their tusks. The tusk that is shorter means that it is used more so if the right tusk is shorter then that elephant is right brained.The grass was so tall we we could barely see the babiesHow cute is that?

See that gland behind the eye?

The baby is nursing.

The end.

Job Prospects

So last year when Lars was unemployed he applied anywhere and everywhere. He never had any type of response for 7 weeks. We were beginning to wonder if our email actually worked and sent out those applications and resumes. Well Lars has been unemployed for 2 weeks tomorrow and he has applied to 3 or 4 jobs. (It would have been more but I've been giving him lists to do around the house). He is currently at his 3rd interview in 3 days. It's so funny because Jack says, "Are you going to go to interviews every day?" We told him hopefully Daddy will have a job to go to next week to which Jack replied, "Then he won't have to tuck in his shirt anymore..." For those of you who know Lars - you know that's quite a big deal for him to tuck in his shirt 3 days in a row.

Kazuri Beads

I have a few more things to post from Africa. We went to a bead factory called Kazuri. You can check our their website http://www.kazuriwest.com/. They began by employing single mothers and really give them a great life. They make the beads from clay found in the mountains of Kenya. After shaping the beads by hand, they fire them in a kiln and paint them by hand then fire them again then string them by hand. It was an amazing process.

They were painting my parents apartment complex while we were there. They don't have really long ladders so they just lash short ones together and go to it. How crazy is that?

Mercer Botanical Gardens

I got the family storytime time mixed up and we were there 30 minutes early so we went next door to the Botanical Gardens. The lighting was great and the flowers were in full bloom. It was beautiful.

Family Time

On Friday, the 14th Lars was laid off from his job at Suncoast... Yeah, I know. It was quite a shock to us too. We are pushing through and still trying to find our purpose here in Houston. We are confident that something else will come soon - in the mean time Lars has; hung curtains, fixed the sprinkler system, installed ceiling fans, weeded the front yard, gone to storytime at the library, watched the kids so I could volunteer at the cannery and help can over 5000 jars of peanut butter, gone to the temple, tried to go camping, hunted for jobs, had 2 phone interviews, had a job offer from Ogden, UT, rejected a job offer from Ogden, UT and had a 2nd interview with another company here.

We spent a great evening at a park here in our neighborhood.

Time to Catch Up!!

Kayla and Henry had field day the week we got back from Africa. They both did so well. Since Jack, Brin and I were carless we used the next best thing - the double stroller and my tennis shoes!! We walked over to the school and enjoyed field day 2 days in a row. Kindergarten was at 8:15 on Wednesday and 3rd grade was 8:15 on Thursday. We totally lucked out because it was soooooo hot - we were fortunate to be outside so early (our poor neighbor had to go over at 12:30pm - yuck).

The kids were sitting ready for family night and they said, "Take our picutre!" We've been trying to have our family night lesson on Sunday nights now and then just do the activity on Monday night. It's been working our really great!! We are much less rushed on Monday night and it's a great end to our Sabbath Day.

Here's what I found as I walked into our bathroom during a fantastic game of SARDINES!!

On May 14th we tried to go camping with our ward to Huntsville State Park. I guess we are "lightweights" when it comes to camping because we didn't even make it to Huntsville. It was raining so very hard. The lightening was was amazing and the last place I wanted to sleep was in a forest of tall trees, in a tent, during a storm like this. So we went home.

Brinley's favorite place to wait for the kids, or daddy, or the mailtruck, or the garbage truck...

Henry was teaching Brinley how to clean the window. How cute is that??

Her new favorite word is "AWSOME!!"

More Mara

Day 2 was filled with a long morning game drive that started at 6:30am. It is an amazing sight to watch the sunrise on the Mara. The sunrise pictures don't do it justice. We combined our early morning and later morning game drive and we had a picnic breakfast out in the bush. It was beautiful!!We told Joseph, our game driver and walking wikipedia, that we wanted a "sunrise" shot so we went around the landing strip and got this shot. This is a bush buck. I looks like a donkey doesn't it?

Cool shadow shot.

My parents, Joseph, me and Lars and THE LAND ROVER!!

I know, I know it's ugly but if you saw it run, the wart hog would become endearing to you too. It runs exactly like Pumba on The Lion King. Don't you just love the long 80's rock band hair?I forgot to include this elephant on the day 1 post. It was throwing mud up on itself to cool down.These male lions belong to a pride of lions that we also saw. The male lions don't usually stay with the females and the young lions. They don't hunt, they don't take care of the kids and they can sleep for 23 hours a day!!

Ostrich x3. They really are odd looking animals.I love this shot of the giraffe because it shows just how huge they really are. This was an older male. They have the 2 horns on the top of their head and one on the forehead and one just behind the horns. I will be the smartest person at the Houston Zoo this summer!!

A crocodile. He was looking pretty full and fat. He must have just eaten.

We were lucky to see any zebra. Most of them are in Tanzania and they, along with the wildebeests will migrate back to Kenya this summer. You may have noticed that the grass is very long and that is why those animals will migrate back - they love to graze on the long grass.

We saw a lot of zebras at the Nairobi park and I will post those later. Since the Nairobi park is enclosed the zebra can't migrate.A lizard.

Male lion up from his nap only to lay down and take another one.

Hyena. Apparently they are pretty scrappy little animals. They just wait around for another animal to kill something and then they try to get a piece of it.

Giraffes are my new favorite animalHow cute is this. They both assured me that they weren't really sleeping. Gotta love 'em.