Just Relaxin'

Wordless Wednesday

Pool Time

I never got to finish posting our pics from the coast since we started moving right after we got back. I thought would go ahead and work on getting the rest of them posted while we get the house in order. We'll take pictures of the house once we get it all together. We have a couple more curtains to get on Thursday and some more pictures to hang. We did 7 tonight before it was time to give the kids a bath and get them in bed. No drilling holes in the concrete while the kids are trying to sleep. Anyway...

here are the pool pics.

         

I think this was the first day and they were still a little unsure of the water and what the swimmies could do for them.

       Looks like she's not quite sure, but man, did she love the water!

He liked playing with the water hose that was supposed to be refilling the pool.

The humidity by the coast just made the curls bounce. They were just adorable! Wish Papa could have been there to see them!

We took this boat for Ruth but after the first day Dinah used it most of the time. Ruth didn't want anything to do with it once she got used to the water. 

John found these goggles in a bin on the porch. He wore them every time he got in the pool. :) They made a horrible mark on his face when he took them off, but he loved them!

She loved to sit on the side and play in the water. It was a comfort to have the swimmies on her in case she fell in.

John was all over the place after he learned the swimmies would hold him up and he could kick his legs and go wherever he wanted.

        Dinah finally got the hang of it, too, and was all over the place.

       This is back to the first day when she would still get in the boat.

He looks so serious.

You can just barely see the shovel above her right swimmie. She was just sitting there scooping the water.

And the bigs boys had to have some fun, too. I thought I got some funny pictures of them acting crazy. :)

   

Prayer and Praise

Prayer~

All of our kids seem to have a congested cough. Please pray for healing for them. I think the cold weather does this to them every year.

Please pray for the nation of Kenya on the days surrounding August 4, 2010. The citizens of Kenya will be voting on a new constitution. There are many differing views so please pray that God's glory would be evidenced as the church speaks to the issues, that the people would be wise in their voting, that voting would be fair, and that the results would be accepted.

Praise~

We were able to get everything moved to our new house this past weekend! We had a lot of help from some of the short term missionaries that are here and the Neuenschwanders. We just have a few more things to do to feel like we are home. PTL!

First Night

Tonight is our first night in our new home! Yay! After a load or two almost every night this week and 3 loads with Angie today, we decided we had enough stuff here to just stay the night here. If it weren't for the Neuenschwanders, we wouldn't be here! Thanks SO SO SO much guys!! We couldn't ask for better friends!

Tonight is also Ruth's first night in her big girl bed! She was so excited and happy!

Our girls in their room. It was fun to hear them talking and then have to tell them, "Girls, it's time to be quiet." :)

And John now gets to sleep in the top bunk. He was excited about that, too! I just can't wait for our little man to get here to sleep in there with him!

So the move continues tomorrow with the couch, dining room furniture, fridge, stove, washer, dryer, and whatever else is left over at the other house. Hopefully it won't be a long day! 

The Bowden House

The house we stayed at is called the Bowden house. We rented the whole house for 5 nights and it included a cook and a lady to clean and help with the cooking. A lot of missionaries do this sort of thing for a holiday, as it's called here. Usually you go with one or two other families to split the cost and it usually ends up costing less than if you stayed in a hotel in the US. There were 4 bedrooms sleeping a total of 11 people and 5 bathrooms! It was quite large and spacious.

       

This is the best picture we got of the back of the house.

And here is the front.

Through the door on the far left was the room we all stayed in. It had one very firm king size bed and 2 twin beds. Ruth slept in her pack-n-play. Then the table you see is the dining room table. And through that door just to the right of Ruth is the kitchen.

This is the living room. It's much bigger than it actually looks here. The door on the right of the picture goes out to the front porch and pool. Micah stayed in the room just through the doorway in the middle of the picture. The stairs are through the doorway to the left of the picture. Kurt and Angie stayed up there and then Judith when she got there on Friday morning.

The kitchen obviously. Man, it was huge!! It was probably the size of our kitchen and dining room here. 

And the pool. This is where we spent a lot of time. 

       And the front yard that you walk through to get to the beach. 

All God's Creatures

        

Micah found this beautiful star fish one day while we were down at the beach.

We were visited by the monkeys almost every day. It was fun to watch them, and the guys had fun feeding them, too.

See the crab popping out of his shell?

Either a centipede or a millipede. We're not sure which. But they were all over. We saw them crawling outside and they would sneak under the doors and get inside.

Nathan found these cool shells with something inside. We took them back to the house and whatever was inside came out so we brought them home with us.

Nathan was teasing him with an orange. The window is at the end of the dining room table so two or three monkeys would gather to watch us eat. 

Another crab. We ended up bringing his shell home, too.

We also saw all kinds of bugs and mosquitos while we were there, too. The bugs are much worse there than they are here. There were also two geckos that live behind two pictures hanging on the wall in the living room. They would come out at night while we were playing cards and catch the bugs on the wall. Nathan and Kurt went out exploring when the tide was out and saw several sea urchins. We didn't get a picture of those either though.

The Drive

Tuesday morning we left bright and early for the coast. I think we rolled out of our driveway about 5:45am. The kids got in the car in their jammies, and we headed out in the dark. We made it out of Nairobi before there was much traffic which was our goal. These are some pictures from the drive. Driving here is crazy. You never know what's going to happen, what you're going to see, or how long it's going to take you to get anywhere. So, you just have to sit back and take it in stride. 

I have no idea how I got such a cool picture. I was just snapping pictures of the sunrise and this one turned out really good. 

Nathan thought this truck was funny because it says "servi----ces" so far apart.

Having yummy bagels for breakfast. 

This was my first time to actually see a baobob tree. They were all over the place. This is about the best picture I got because we were going so fast on this nice stretch of road.

Our first pit stop for food, petrol, and a potty break about 3.5 hours into the trip.

A camel! Just grazing on the side of the road. We saw a whole herd of them on down the road, but I wasn't fast enough with the camera to get a picture of them.

Anyone know what this is? All of a sudden Nathan says, "Get out the camera!" while he's snickering. This guy was riding his bicycle ice cream cart down the road in the middle of no where. Quite hilarious.

Once we got out of the city, there were ladies all over the place carrying things on their heads. It just amazes me every time I see it. I guess this is the only picture I got of a tractor trailer carrying a container. These guys are literally all over the roads. The road we travelled on is the main road from Nairobi to Mombasa so all the containers coming in and out of Nairobi are ferried on this road. We probably passed  several hundred of them on the way there and back. 

The ladies were more traditionally dressed once we got out of Nairobi. Here we see a lot of Western dress with some traditional dress. It was neat to see the more traditional clothes.

Here we are just getting into the outskirts of Mombasa.

This was a container yard. Remember when we first came over and we sent 800 lbs. of stuff? It was most likely in a container yard like this one. 

Another picture of coming into Mombasa.

Know what this is? This guy has sugar cane that he peels, cuts up, and puts in bags to sell. Know what they do with it? You take a big chunk of it, chew on it, and suck out the sugar cane.

Need a reservation at the Comfort Inn?! :)

There were a ton of piki pikis ready to take you wherever you want to go.

This is on the road down to the house where we stayed. We made a few wrong turns and had a scenic tour, but finally made it.