Saturday, December 5, 2009

Early Christmas










Some family members sent gifts out to us, and we decided to open part of those before we leave for vacation, and the rest when we return. We'll use money sent to us by others to buy gifts at the "nice store" in Malawi, so we'll have Christmas surprises several times! They boys got lots of books, and you can see what they spent their afternoon doing. Scuba Bob also made a reappearance . . . you can see our tree behind him. Yes, it is a fake tree but we are very lucky to have that here. With all the cheesy colored lights, it is a glory to behold and we love looking at it! - C

Bye to Johannes




Here are some silly photos of Toby with his little Norwegian friend, Johannes. He is going away while we are on vacation, and likely won't return before we leave for the USA, and perhaps will leave Moz before we come back, so it was a sad goodbye! He came over and spent the night and Toby and him had a lot of fun. They are in 2nd grade together at school.

Sunday, November 8, 2009

Our Dogs





I know people would probably like to see how big the "puppies" are getting, so here are photos of Nibbles, Bella and Tintin, in that order. Nibbles is looking pretty old these days, and has started losing some of her hair. She is still very sweet, but moving slower lately. Meanwhile, Bella and Tintin love each other very much, though we recently realized that the older dogs are eating some of Tintin's food. We wondered why he wasn't growing very well! Here's a lovely photo of a "kiss". Ick. Bella is about 14 months old now, and Tintin is probably 7 1/2 months old. Maybe we'll be having some puppies next year.

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Thursday, August 27, 2009

More Kite Flying in Nacala





Here's more kite flying, at another beach, with some different kids. The white kid is also not our Ben, but another MK. These kids enjoyed helping us get the kites flying, and they kept crashing because the wind was so crazy that day. So, we needed a lot of help. They enjoyed it when I took their photos, though I tried to be discreet in case an adult came along and got upset at me.

Kite flying in Nacala

Here's Toby and Ben with their kites on "our" beach - the place we usually stay in Nacala. You can see Ben's kite behind him, up in the sky - pretty high up!



Friday, August 7, 2009

Cold Weather


It's been chilly the last month, off and on. Here, the boys are huddled on top of the basin of clean laundry, wrapped in blankets. Probably was about 72 F. Crazy, I know! -C

Chocas Mar






Here are some photos from our night at the beach Sunday. We usually don't go to this beach, since there isn't much snorkeling and we don't have friends there. And the cost is really too high to stay more than one night. So, we usually go to Nacala where we have friends and there is a super cheap house to stay in where we can cook and be right next to the beach. But THIS beach, Chocas, is SO beautiful and peaceful. To get there, we drive on cement/tar roads for about 75 miles and then turn south for about 20 miles, then east for about 20 miles on a very bumpy and sandy dirt road. That takes about 45 minutes. We go through some villages along the way, with a few cement buildings and there is even a cafe that we pass. Once we reach the coast, there are quite a few holiday homes there, though the town itself has pretty much nothing but some huts. We drive another 3 miles south down the coast on a very bumpy and sandy dirt track (4x4 required) and turn into the complex, where there are 6 rustic houses. They really are very nice by our standards, but any of you would call them rustic. They have straw roofs, very nicely done, and the one we stayed in, with another family, has two bedrooms and then a loft with 3 mattresses. I should have taken a photo. Anyway, the beach is across the "street" (dirt path) and over the bluffs. It is enormous, as you can see. And deserted. There was one other little group of Germans that we saw a couple of times, and fishermen in their dugout canoes going by or trying to sell us shells. So peaceful and quiet. We love it there. We had a great time with the Beutlers and their 5 and 2 year old boys. It was a little chilly, which is why the boys have long sleeves. Probably not less than 75F, though. :-) -C

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

The Snugli


Toby likes to put on these velour pants after his bath, to keep him warm. He decided last night that they are even warmer when pulled ALL the way up!

Sunday, July 5, 2009

Ben's Cone Fashion Show







Ben decided to take his clothes off at the 4th of July party and he was modeling with some cones. It was chilly at the party, so he was quite the focus of attention, walking around half-naked like that. He entertained quite a few people, though, as usual.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Toby's Shiner


Toby is sleeping in this first one, so that's why he looks like that! Well, hitting the ground also is why he looks like that. This is 3 hours after impact.
Day Two is below.


Day four



At the bottom is at about Day 10

Saturday, June 6, 2009

Friday, June 5, 2009