Vegas baby!

well tom and i are in Las Vegas! I'm typing on  a tablet so I'll keep this short. because of all the activity this summer and fall we did not celebrate our tenth anniversary or either of our birthdays! so tom in his ever thrifty ways wanted to plan a getaway for us. we ended on this free trip to Las Vegas! Totally crazy place that feels slightly familiar. we think it is like a theme park for adults :::
anyway, we'll post pictures later:

We're Back!!

well folks....after 4 weeks on the road we decided we needed to head home to Colorado. Our last day we drove for 12 hours and got home at midnight to a happy house with mom and dad and Jen and Mike.  A few short hours later we woke up and found SNOW on the ground! AND.....Jen started to go into labor! Great timing! She hasn't gone to the hospital yet, but all signs are pointing a delivery in the next day or so!

I'll update the blog soon - due to some snarky comments I realize I haven't done anything the blog. I was shocked by the many places we haven't had wireless or internet access or even cell phone access. media would have you believe that america is fully wired and city-fied.....but after 4 weeks of driving across country, I beg to differ.

 

Finally connected!

I finally got my blog connected to the clouds that contain our photos (= How FUN is this pile of kids?!?

 

Vandenbergs were so close to us we just had to make the drive out to see them. Karen and I lived together long before we were married (=

Layla is being a real trouper and just having so much fun with whomever we are visiting. She and Bekah were great together!

We are loving the super cool playgrounds in America! Even if we are FREEZING! Layla is way at the top there. Still insisting on wearing dresses.

Ryan insists on very little. He is super easy going and just a happy kid. So helpful! Every time he sees water he yells WAAATEEERRRRR! Happens a lot in MN.

 

Through good old FB realized some friends were staying in a hotel nearby as they were on their own road trip and we had a dip in their pool!

Ahhh, the mall of America. So much entertainment in one place.

 

We have been blessed with a plethora of little girls to play with. Violet was super fun and very conciencious about cleaning up her toys. So cute.

Our old small group from church (minus 2 families). It was very newlyweds at the time. Obviously, we've all moved on!

One of our old haunts....awesome pizza right near Lake Nokomis!

 

Minnesota

We are really enjoying our time here. We have some great photos but due to our tremenously cool new phone they are floating in cloud storage and need to be sent to earth to live on my computer so I can send them back up in the air to you. Is this a crazy world or what?

We had about 4 days of warmth and then it has been too cold to really enjoy being outside. Such a pity as we had about one week of good weather back home before coming here. It had just gotten cool enough to enjoy being outside. My kids are really mixed up right now.

Thankfully they are sleeping well! ryan still takes a nap and needs to be woken up after about an hour and a half but they both sleep about 11 or 12 hours no matter when they go to sleep which is GOLDEN given our lifestyle.

We are enjoying the free, clean indoor play areas, and when it is sunny we run to the nearest playground and enjoy running around on all the fancy highquality equipment. You may know that MN is the "land of 10000 lakes" and the kids shout WATER! everytime they see one which is all the time aroun here

little humor

Things Layla has said/asked:
what is jogging?
what is skiing?
What is a sweatshirt?
can I touch the ground? (it had just rained and was really wet)
What is a service? (talking about a church service (= )

The kids are real troupers. And lest you feel terribly sorry for us with all the transition, I have to let the cat out of the bag and say that our kids are super sleepers and will sleep just about 11-12 hours straight from the moment they go to sleep. So really, all this lugging them here and there isn't so bad (=

We are in a basement apartment of a friend's house here in MN so that is a great set-up. We have a rental car and lovely places to play so we are doing well. Layla did get up early this morning and say "mom, sometimes I just wake up and am scared because this isn't home". poor kid.

Tom finally bought a new phone (thanks dad for the I Phone but it was dropped one too many times and the screen cracked in the corner. figured we should FINALLY get him a new phone). He has been wanting the samsung SII for ages and ages but just couldn't bear the price tag. Finally after the SIII has come out he is willing to do it. So we bought it the day before we came to the US and he is IN LOVE WITH IT. Just a tad irritating at how much he keeps looking at it, but that is because it is so darn useful. I must say that I have never been enamored by the smart phone world and never felt a pull to jump in, but let me tell you, this little phone is amazing. I think it really is useful during this period of travel in our lives, but I'm not convinced it will really make a difference in my normal life back home (= We have two other samsung devices that were given to us and we just recently discoverd that they ALL have GPS all the time! even without a data plan! So useful for people going on a massive roadtrip.

anyway. It does mean that I am still hanging up on people a bit as I sort out the new phone, but WHEN i get a chance to use it, I am learning fast (=

Coming to the US

The kids travelled SO well. layla is really enjoying being a big sister and really helps Ryan stay happy. We were carrying two extra suitcases for friends back in the US so we had a lot to manage but it all went well.

 

Both kids pulled these suitcases all through at least one airport. Ryan was a maniac and pulled his all over JFK and Minneapolis. It was SUCH a help and a source of amusement.

3am jetlag is a lot better with hot chocolate with marshmallows! Throw in a little Dora and all is well...until about 11am that morning.....

Traveling and arriving

We left town about three hours later than planned but we were calm and happy. Very much worth the three hour delay (= we had problems at the border which were our fault so we had to sort through that and thought we'd get lunch at the same time.

We headed up to the  town where we were departing from and played in a mall. There is a british toy store that has a track in the back for you to play with their outside bikes, and other random riding toys. Needless to say we monopolized that for awhile (=

Then we went to the house where we were going to have dinner and sleep a few ours before our 4am departure. We just met this family and had a GREAT time laughing late into the night. Much needed after the stress of packing and long travel ahead.

Kids were GREAT on the plane. It was super helpful to have two rows of three seats to ourselves. Qatar airlines are fabulous. Ryan stared at the TV screen so long I thought there would be permanent damage! Layla slept a lot as usual and the airline people never said a word about her being on the floor.

We are in Minnesota now and trying to get used to the cold. We experienced this slightly just in August when we were in the mountains in Kenya. However, layla did ask me the other day "mom, what is a sweatshirt?" hahaha kid. you have lots to learn.

I have pictures to post but it is 5am and I don't want to dig for the camera. The kids have been waking up at 3am and they haven't stirred yet! Jet lag is getting much better. When they wake up at 3am I've been making them hotchocolate wth marshmallows and then trying to send them back to bed. Speaking of which, here is a little one now (= must go make hot chocolate!

Want to see inside my neighbor's house?

One of the things I tell people about our town is that it is really in transition, there is a HUGE spread of people who live here (some poor, some middle class and some really wealthy) and that there is no "norm" to align yourself with or against. So here is just a shot of my neighbor's house. I went the other day to tell her goodbye before leaving for the US.

This is the main sitting room. That white box is her oven. The red blanket is where her baby lays, the blue pillow in the bottom left is one of four to lean against for our backs.

 

This is looking through to her kitchen. She doesn't have an oven (see the white box above) but has a simple two-burner stove top thing. This is where I learned to make local coffee.

 

This is the other wall in her main room.

This is a shot into the bedroom where all the girls in the house sleep. Mats on the floor with some simple bedding. Totally the way to go. We had this for Layla for some years before finally getting a bed for both she and Ryan this Spring.

Life at the moment

We have a huge dirt space in front of our house. There are about 15 kids who regularly play in this area. They love our toys to be sure! Ryan and the little boy are buddies - he likes to ride and Ryan insists on pushing (=

 

The pavement ends right next to our neighbors house so the dirt area is pretty safe for the kids.

 Two of the five kids who live next door

Tom has had to work almost three weeks solid to get the house put together. Things just take so much longer here! We're grateful he is SUCH a handyman!

Our new house has a room for a play room/guest room. What a blessing!

The girls next door LOVE the playroom (= We are learning the balance of letting them play with our toys and actually playing with Layla.

Our 5 year old!

This was Layla's best friend at school last year and she is in her class this year again. We are grateful they can keep their friendship going.

The sweet one on the right is also in Layla's class again this year. Her family was the subject of the post on the Outdoor Wedding this summer. These are the two friends we are focusing on for helping Layla stay connected at school.

Pictures

https://picasaweb.google.com/steph004/Layla5thBirthday?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCLvO7ePO_smOMQ&feat=directlink

Well I've tried everything I can to get the pictures to show but it won't work. Hopefully this link will work!

By the way, in the last week we've had TOm's car get attacked by dogs who chewed his bumper and pulled it off. Then, while it was in the repair shop, the guys lost control and the car sped backwards out of the shop, across the street and hit two other cars. So now the back bumper and one wheel panel has to be replaced.
crazy, no?


 

Happy 5th Birthday Layla!

Here are some pictures of our day! We had a great birthday with several celebrations.
I had pictures to show but they just won't appear for some reason. grrrr.
great day. great fun...time to clean up!

 

Thoughts on world craziness....

http://www.djiboutijones.com/2012/09/freedom-of-speech-and-sanctity-of.html

Rachel says it better than I can - such a perspective on what is happening in the Muslim/Arab world right now......

My Birthday

I have often complained to my parents that my September Birthday was at a terrible time....always a move or a trip or the start of school or SOMETHING to cause it to be overshadowed. This year was no different and included several rather unpleasant events like passports being with Tom 1.5 hours away when I needed to cross the border...cars breaking down AGAIN an hour away from home and several other things. One bright spot was finding a SUPER nice restaurant to have a birthday lunch! Tom and I were meeting at a mall to hand off the passports and this little gem was upstairs!
 



kids were happy to get out of the car with terrible AC and into the mall!



I LOVE LOVE LOVE these Moroccan lamps!

Rarely do you see second/third storey views out here. I don't know why. This NOT our town (= Far too clean and organized (=

 

The restaurant had water fountains! Ryan loves these.

And gorgeous Turkish plates that mommy want to take home in her purse.....

Here we are! I'm 39 today!

Very aggressive snuggling (=

The cake, candles and balloons were about 3 hours away - our original destination until the passport fiasco. It all ended well by nightfall.

My dear friend Vic even ventured out to make a Pineapple Upside Down cake for me! I usually make it for myself every year. I LOVE this cake!

Of course the kids were a bit more into the party atmosphere (= I did it largely for Layla who cannot imagine a birthday without gifts, cake, balloons etc etc. It was a fun time!

 

Ramadan 2012

This may look like a staged photo shoot, but her hair is blowing from the strategically placed AC vent (= This is a bag of generic "break your fast" take-away bundle available all over town from about 45 mins before the Iftar meal. It cost $3

The Coffee Shop on the left is where we bought the fried food in a bag...the store next door is my usual fruit stand...drive up, honk, give your list, get your fruit and veg, pay your food and STAY IN THE CAR WITH THE AC! While America may be cleaner, more convenient and more predictable, as a mom with young kids this is pure luxury!

Our first meal in our house! Tom was fasting for Ramadan as usual so we ate dinner at sundown with him to break his fast.

This is from the pink bag of food be bought for $3. Chock full of all sorts of fried stuff....we even found a WHOLE fried boiled egg!

Rotissere chicken, salad and homus...not traditional ramadan food but you can't beat it for a $5 meal for the whole family!

Just had to include the afternoon snuggle!



The malls on the other side of town are all decorated for Ramadan much like we do for Christmas. This prayer was so interesting!



 

Like the encouragement to "Be Devout"? So many parallels between the religions of Islam and Christianity.