Keeping Busy

We've been keeping busy around here this past week. We have gone out in the canoe quite a few times. The last time we went out we stopped at two different parks just off of the river. Here we are right after our limo dropped us off at one of the parks...

Geremu has recently learned how to do the monkey bars. I have never seen him more proud of himself, when he gets to the other side I usually get a, "Me did it!" (We are still working on him using the word I)
Here the boys are looking for frogs, this is a favorite activity.
Last night Nick went fishing with his father, he said the water was rough. They had some luck catching 6 large fish. Judging from the look on his face, he had a good time.

Hans

Lately when it rains it pours, literally. We've gotten a lot of rain in a short amount of time recently. The other night it started raining so the boys ran to the back porch to snuggle with Nick and watch the rain come down. We have to pull the furniture away from the screens because the direction of the rain shifts quickly and things get wet inside the porch.
When I was younger, we had neighbors from Germany named Hans and Anna. It seemed like every time it rained hard Hans was outside (sometimes in his tighty-whities) in the rain cleaning out their gutters. We have new neighbors, Chris and Meaghan, it turns out Chris has a little bit of Hans in him...

Right after taking the above picture I went around to the back of our house only to find Nick pulling a Hans as well...
My boys don't seem to mind the rain, here they are enjoying the puddles after the storm...

Black Listed

While I was staying at my sister Megan's house I got the honor of helping decorate Meredith's "new" bedroom. Here are a few shots of the end results.... After we started decorating we had to make a trip to Target, while we were there I found the cute little book/shoe/doll house you see in the picture below for the low price of $19.99. This super cute shelf also got me black listed from shopping with my sister in the future (according to her husband). Just try and stop me Kyle- blahahahaha.

After leaving my sisters house we made a little detour to one of Nick's favorite parks. It was a perfect stop for our family.

Here Nick is showing me why he can't run with the boys and me.... He pulled his hammy running two weeks ago when I first left for North Carolina. Is this what happens when we start getting old?

Weekend Festivities- Mehaber

I mentioned yesterday that I flew into Minnesota, it was because there were some happenings I just didn't want our family to miss out on... Such as the Mehaber! We had our plans set before I left for Ethiopia and assuming my flights were all on time I was pretty sure we could do it all. Then reality hit, when I got got in I was a bit tired and just wanted to spend a little time with my boys. We ended up missing out on a party Friday night that I would have loved to attend but we did get to catch up with several of the attendees on Saturday.

We spent the night Friday at my sister Megan's house and got up early Saturday to meet up with our "travel group". We met at a park and only two families were unable to attend (one of those families being Maureen's). It was good to catch up with everyone, the time seemed to go so fast.

Here are the boys from the group except Abinet.

Geremu was willing to help anyone cross the monkey bars...

Here is the best group picture I could find. Unfortunately, it is missing Sefi and his new baby brother Andrew (they were both in attendance just not in the picture). The babies of our group have gotten to be such big kids.

After meeting up with our travel group we headed to the Mehaber. It was nice meeting several new people as well as families I have read about but not actually met. The boys had a good time playing with other kids, jumping around, dancing to music and just hanging out.

Fun in Ethiopia but Happy to be Home

I could post lots of different stories/pictures from my trip but I just don't have the time. I have been busy with my boys since arriving home. I've been away much longer than I ever through I'd be away.

I do want to post a few pictures of Maureen's new little one. Introducing Hanna, she is alert, beautiful and petite. She has an amazing story that is not mine to share but I'm so happy to have been a part of her journey home. I'm pretty sure she will also be a "one dimpled wonder" like Geremu.

And here is what I got to come home to...
Well if the truth be told I didn't actually fly home. I flew instead to Minnesota (where I met up with my boys) for the Mehaber before heading home on Sunday. Wooo-hooo it's good to be home!

National Park (in the South)

My pictures are never going to do this park justice and I have to go consult my book before I name it because I can't remember the name for the life of me (I'll edit this later to name the park). Before this destination I noticed just how lush and green everything in Ethiopia was because of all the rain. This park is not at a high altitude and is considered the plains. It was HOT and dry, what little rain they have received in this area has dried quickly. Cactus plants thrived in this area of the country and seemed to be used as a fence around the huts.

Here are a few of the different animals that I saw on this adventure....

Lots of gazelles

Tortoise
Ostriches (these animals took us a LONG time to find and they were not afraid of us).

The park included 2 lakes, you can see one in the distance here.

I didn't get the impression that this park is visited by foreigners often, the children and people were more into me here than anywhere else I traveled in Ethiopia. They were VERY persistent and would chase our vehicle for long distances. What you see them below standing on my translator referred to as "sand" it was more like damp/moist dirt.

The flamingos had migrated to the park, they seemed to be afraid of us unlike the ostriches. When I would try to get close for a picture they would just head out further in the water. There were a few times when I questioned if driving down to the lake was a good idea. I also wondered if we had enough gas to get out. There were little to no trail/road to follow and we got stuck several times. The driving was rough, ugh... We got stuck several times (as shown in the video)

Wenchii

I have no idea if Wenchii is spelt correctly (I saw it spelt several different ways and locally it seemed to be pronounced without the n). I hired a driver, Zinabu, and translator, Lemlem, to hang out with me. I really liked both of them and hope to get in touch with them again. It was sort of like paying people that I really liked to hang out with me. Zinabu did not speak any English but he seemed to like me and I enjoyed his company. I had a book and had highlighted things I would like to see/do while I was in Ethiopia. Wenchii was one of those things.

Travel was rough and with all the rain Ethiopia has had the road was not in good condition, think washed out in places. The elevation was roughly 23,000 meters and once we arrived we hiked down the mountain to Crater Lake. Here are some of the sights of this trip...

The locals seemed to be a close knit community. The kids came out to check us out and follow us along the way.
Once at the lake I was able to cross over to a church on an island by boat. The boat was taking on water which really didn't concern me too much, I figured if nothing else I know how to swim. The lake was weedy and didn't appear too deep. I had to hire a second translator because my translator did not speak the local language. Since things were translated twice I'm pretty sure some stuff got lost in translation. It was a relaxing and beautiful day. When it was time to head up from the lake I started on a mule (something I had never done), it was fine but slow. I switched to a horse (again, something I have never done) and by the time I got to the top my abs were feeling it. Not only are the people of Ethiopia petite/small but also are the animals. I'd post a picture of me on the mule/horse but I'm not going to so I can avoid comments about me crushing the animals- LOL.