When kids have the Camera!

I took the good camera with me when I went to Kenya and left the not-as-good camera behind. I instructed Joshua to make sure there were pictures of the 2 important things that occurred while I was gone: His Pinewood Derby Race, and them playing in the snow. I finally discovered the file where that camera downloaded into and this is what I found!

Joshua's car did okay in the races, and it won the "X-Factor" award. He was pretty pleased with it.

Callie and Delaney at the Derby. I am glad that Dan took them all. I thought he might just send Joshua and stay home with the little girls. Look at Callie's hair! Isn't Dan a great dad to do her hair so nicely?!

Rylee is wearing my favorite shirt! Apparently she did not miss me at all and barely noticed I was gone. Okay, Dan said she was fine and didn't seem upset or anything that I wasn't around.

This is one of the 2 snow shots. Yep, this is the snow that grounded the plane and kept us at Dulles an extra 24 hours. Joshua said they built a snowman or fort or something, but they didn't take any pictures of that. Slackers.

I don't know who is taking all these pictures. I know Delaney loves to get her hands on the camera and I know she loves getting her picture taken. She is such a ham.

Ah, a lovely self-portrait. Joshua must be the official photographer!

Ha ha ha! I took this one before I left and Delaney was wanting pictures of everything. She took a picture of me too, but I didn't have a head.

Hammin' It Up!

Delaney and Rylee are a lot of fun to hang out with all day. And more fun to be with when they play nicely together! Lately, Delaney has been asking to have her picture taken. since she's been trying out new faces, it has been entertaining to do so!

The new "game" is to pretend they are going to bed. I like this game. sometimes Rylee is a good sport, and sometimes she's not. Today they had a good time. Check out Rylee's cheesy grin!

I love it when they get along and have a good time together.

Somebody had a birthday! Delaney turned 4. She said she wanted a pink cake with sprinkles. I can do that! She was thrilled with the cake.

She was so funny blowing out her candle, and so cute!

Somebody has had too much cake!

Opening presents was interesting. She actually got most of them open without any assistance from her older siblings who were just dying to get their hands on her loot!

More "Take a picture of me!!!" from yesterday.

And here is today's must-have shot! She likes to get her picture taken, and she's such a silly ham!

Priorities, priorities.....

This is me. I had a good day today! I got 6 meals in the freezer today! I made and froze: White Chili, Corn Chowder, Tai Chicken, Sunday Chicken, BBQ Cups, and Cheesy Italian Chicken. Yep, I feel pretty proud of myself.

Then I look around and see that there is laundry from 3 days ago still on the chair. I need to fold it and get it put away. But let's be honest here.... We both know I'm just going to pull the clean clothes out of the pile until the pile is gone and all the clothes are dirty again.

While I am feeling impressed that I got all my dishes washed and the sink is actually empty for once, I am not impressed with the rest of the house. The kids had a lot of fun playing and it seems to have involved a lot of blankets and toys, which are still on the floor and attached to the elliptical machine and card table. Sigh. I may just move into the kitchen and stay there.

And on a cute note, here is a picture of Rylee. The sad thing is, this was taken just before I left for Africa, and she has a crusty nose again today, and looks about the same!

Motherly Joys

I made the kids walk home from school. I usually do. The Kiss and Ride is too annoying and its probably faster to walk. Plus, I like making them get 15 minutes of sunshine and exercise. And I like getting my own 15 minutes of sunshine and exercise.

These wonderful perks do not come without a price. On a really good day I try to see how many kids I can make cry in one afternoon. Yesterday Rylee cried halfway home because I stuffed her back in the stroller after a mere 20 minutes of playing at the park and she didn't want to go. Callie wailed the entire walk home. Yes, wailed like a banshee because I would not let her ride in the stroller. Ironic sine she was the only one who did want to ride.

Delaney had a terrific time running around, but suffered several episodes of tears, usually when she thought I was going to keep walking and leave Callie in a crying heap on the trail. (I was.)

I nearly had a full sweep, since Joshua was distressed over the breakup of a friendship. He was very manly and did not imitate his sisters, just looked very sad and walked home. Marian was delightful and laughed at all her sisters' pain. I'm not sure if that is better or not.

Getting back to normal

Things have settled down and life goes on. I know you think I have forgotten about my other children, since I have not posted pictures of them lately, so here are some photos of almost everyone!

Rylee thinks she is a big kid now. She thinks she can do whatever the big kids do. She sure is cute!

And Friday night the school held a Barn Dance. The place was packed and the music was loud! The food was good and the kids had a marvelous time! They were in constant motion and that made it tough to get good pictures.

This is Delaney "break dancing"!! She's trying to be like her big brother, and I was cracking up watching her.

This is the best shot of Joshua. He was "break dancing" as well, and running around with his friends. I was glad he had a good time, since he said he was NOT going to dance!

The did the Limbo and it was fun to watch the kids. Check out Delaney. She thought the whole event was awesome!

Look at that smile! I love this kid!

And the best part of the Barn Dance were the mustaches!

Delaney is rockin' her 'stache!

Rylee was not happy at all with her mustache.

I had to bribe Callie to get her to wear the mustache for me!

And this is what Rylee did while I was not watching her this morning. I left her alone at the table with her pancake while I got Delaney dressed.
Yup, I forgot to put the syrup away and she emptied half the bottle on the table, floor and her chair. She has sticky feet and a puddle in her booster. She got to go directly to the bath and after that, I got to clean up the sticky mess. Her seat is currently outside waiting to be sprayed off with the hose. Fun times!!

All about Marian!!

Even thought Marian didn't have fun being sick and in the hospital, I think she would do it all over again. To show you why, I'm putting up pictures of Marian doing her thing and having a marvelous time!

Howling with the wolves in the airport at Minnesota.

Marian and the Masai women at the the entrance of the Mara.

Marian and the Rhino!

Marian and the elephants. She was getting pretty tired here. We were out for 7 hours that morning. She had a great time, but was still a long, tiring trip.

Marian and the hippos. They are so ginormously huge! It makes me want to wax poetic and write about large pustulating blisters laying upon the shore.

Marian and the Jackal. Until now, I totally thought jackals and hyenas were the same thing. Now I know better! In case you didn't know better, this is the jackal.

Marian and the torpidly large crocodile. Due to the large numbers of bones littering the shore, it was easy to see how it acquired its girth.

My favorite animals with my favorite traveling companion! Oh, wait, they are ALL my favorite animals! But I did like the giraffes a lot.

Marian and the sleepy king of the jungle.

In case you were wondering, all the tests on Marian came back negative. All they know for sure is that she had something infectious in her system and it was bacterial. Since we ate local food, I can guess what might have happened. She is now 100% herself and feeling great. I am trying to remember what day it is and what I am suppose to be doing with it! Good thing it is the weekend and I can start all over with a fresh week!

Africa was an amazing experience and I would do it all over again in a second! Now I am putting together a book for Marian. When I'm done with that, I'll make one for me! That way we can remember the good times forever. And we can make you sit down and hear all about it!

Not Such a Happy Ending

After a spectacular trip to Africa, I was ready to relax at home. Alas, this was not to be. Marian seems to have brought something home with her!

This is where she spent the last 2 nights. Dan was the lucky winner of the first night and we swapped out yesterday afternoon and I got to spend last night at Fairfax Children's Hospital with her. Nice hospital; good pediatrics, but ug..... it takes so long to do anything! Check out Marian's pointer stick. Dan was an awesome Dad and thought to bring it with them when they left for the ER on Monday. Marian really enjoyed using it and it made her stay much more enjoyable.

She was suffering from inflammation in her Colon and surrounding areas and there was concern about her appendix. She had terrible tummy cramps and hadn't eaten or drunk much in a few days. She was quite dehydrated and they gave her lots of IV fluids. She was a good patient but I was not happy to be there. I wanted to sleep in MY bed! Not in a horrid hospital chair that's only redeeming quality was that it was better than a plane.

Fortunately, we were released today and are happily at home. Whew! No idea what the culprit was, and there were lots of possibilities. Some were ruled out, and we're still waiting on some of the test results. Bottom line is, we don't know what messed up her insides, and they will finish fixing themselves all on their own. I just need to keep her hydrated. She's doing very well and is back to her usual fantastic self. And now I can finally sleep in my bed tonight in peace.

Short Calls

I drink a lot of water. I am a firm believer in the rule that you should drink 60% of your body weight in ounces of water each day. And I actually have found that more is better for me. So I aim for 80-100 ounces of water intake a day. This keeps the headaches at bay. Unfortunately, it has a very annoying side effect. You see, what goes in, must come out. This means that one of the things I was preoccupied with in Africa was my intake and output. With the intake, you have to drink bottled water- the tap isn't safe. I had to figure out how to consume a vast amount of water that wasn't readily available.

Then, we did a lot of traveling and finding a good output place was a major issue for me. Kenya has a serious lack of appropriate potty facilities. Well, they have facilities, but usually not running water, toilet paper or hand washing available. Oh yes, imagine the fun! When we first arrived, Mom said to make sure I always had tissues in my pocket, since there may not be TP in the bathrooms. Good advice! The hand sanitizer in the car was also my new best friend.

Just to give you an idea of the sorts of things that consumed my thoughts, here are some pictures for your enlightenment. They are in no particular order!

This was the public facility at the Mara Camp. No flushing, just a drop. There was tp, and there was someplace to hand-wash outside. My favorite part about this one is the zipper door!

Busted! Deborah caught me leaving this one at a gas station as we were traveling. Once you reach that uncomfortable state of overfullness, you no longer care about anything but privacy. As long as there's no one to see you struggle to not pee down your leg or on your pants, you can go anywhere!

This was the bathroom in our tent at the Mara Camp. It was nice, very nice. However, less private than I would have liked. Overall, I was happier to have a lovely toilet and the open layout of the room wasn't a problem.

Ah, yes, the Choo at Erica's Shamba. This is what her family used. It boggled my mind. No flush, just a drop. And a door you have to lift and pull to shut. No lock. They never really had locks.

This is the bathroom in my parent's house in Kisumu. It is marvelous and while the bathroom is all one room, you can close the door and get privacy. Plus, there is tp and a sink! Whoo-hoo! You may notice that there is no shower curtain. This means the bathroom is regularly cleaned, as you mop after each shower. Still, it was my favorite bathroom during our trip!

I think this one was at the church.

This was at the Elephant Orphanage. Its the public restroom there.

Another gas station horror.

Next time you want to complain about the state of a bathroom, remember this and know it could be a lot worse!!

On Safari!

My parents took us to the Mara on Wednesday. The Mara is the Kenya portion of the wild Africa that they show on tv. It is protected and you can go on game drives to see all the animals. We made the 7 hour drive out there over some impressively horrible roads and got there at 2:30. We had lunch and then turned around and headed out for a 3:30-6:30 game drive. AWESOME!!! It was so amazing! We had a great driver who found lots of things to see and got us so close we could have touched some of the animals. We saw everything! We saw all of the "Big 5" animals during our stay, and had a great time.

We stayed at the Aruba Camp (Highly recommend it!) and went on a 6:30 am-1:30 pm drive on Thursday morning. Again, it was AMAZING!! Loved it all! WE saw some of the same animals and new ones. I was surprised that I loved them every time I saw them, even if we had just seen the zebras, I loved seeing them again. It was just incredible. We came home for lunch and a short rest time and then went out again for the 3:30-6:30 drive. It was fantastic, and just as we were heading home, we saw the holy grail of the game drive- the elusive Rhinoceros! The hallelujah chorus sang and life was perfect. We left Friday morning for the 8 hour drive to Nairobi and got to drive ourselves through the Mara to get there. We saw almost all the animals again and it was still amazing to see them! Most fantastic trip EVER!

Sorry, it was very exciting for me, and I'm still excited about it. We spent waaaay too much time traveling home: 7 hour flight from Nairobi to Amsterdam. 5 hours at the Amsterdam airport (which was long enough to go through immigration and get stamps on our passports and walk outside so we could say we were there). Then 9 hours flying from Amsterdam to Minnesota, 2.5 hours there and then another flight to DC, which dragged out to 2.5 hours due to high winds. I was SO ready to be done traveling!!

Here are some pictures for your enjoyment. They are not in order, since it is surprisingly difficult to sort through 2,000 pictures taken by 4 different people with 4 different cameras!

Here is my new favorite picture. Its me and the rhino!

These 2 elephants were so doggone cute! We got to watch them play and mock fight. I wanted to bring one home, but my mom said no.

This is me saying, "Guess what is in this tree?!" The tree has a leopard in it, and there is a fresh killed deer-like-animal right next to it. Way cool!

The giraffes were so interesting. So tall and awkward looking, but strangely graceful as well. I loved watching them move.

This was our vehicle. Loved it! We loved standing with our heads up like groundhogs. And Marian thought it was the most fun thing ever to get to hang out the side window or sit on the top of the seat so she could have her head poking out the top. It was fun!

Me and my girl! She was the best traveling companion ever! I would take this kid anywhere now! She really had a good time on this trip too, and I'm so glad I brought her.

Its me and the elephants! Yes, there were people who would take my picture for me, but I thought it was much more fun to do self portraits!

Check it out! Me and a lion! Do you see how close it is? Some of them walked by within a few feet of the car. So awesome!

We saw a surprising number of lone hyenas. I always thought they were ugly, but in real life they didn't look that bad! Maybe because they were all at rest. Love my cheesy smile!

And I will say again, I love this kid! She was terrific for the whole trip and was so great on the planes and in the car. Well, other than the puking incident, but that was totally not her fault.

I may post more pictures later. If there is anything you want to see, let me know and I'll find pictures of it. As I may have mentioned, we had OVER 2000 of them!