Our days in pictures

Here's Aidan on a climbing wall at a local park. Both the kids are loving the availability of parks to play at.
A fun hammock style swing.

We were given some bikes for the kids. This was their first ride. Aidan's bike is a tad short and Eli's is a tad big but they love them!

The neighbors water pond, the water lilies and hyacinths are beautiful.

We're living at Pete's parents. The kids having been in the pool almost every day.

Aidan likes to jump in.

More pool fun.

Elianna hurt her foot so Nanny got her an ice pack.

Pete's parents have some beautiful flower gardens.

some climbing roses

A beautiful lily.

Daisies... they're so pretty.

From Canada

We're back! Our trip went really well. Of course it was long and tiring but smooth. We've been back about 4 days now. We're feeling pretty good. Here's some pictures of our trip and the last few days before we left. Pete and Aidan claiming our luggage in Toronto. Long airplane rides...
In the Conakry airport. Once we boarded our flight was delayed a while because of heavy rains. When we opened our soft sided luggage in Canada we had a number of wet clothes etc.

Omelets that we enjoy eating in Conakry. Delicious eggs on a nice soft bread.

This is how the omelets come wrapped. You buy them from a small 'restaurant' on the street.

Usually they are just wrapped in plain paper or old receipts etc. This time ours came wrapped in a National Geographic written in English.

One of the last things Pete did before we lefts was to unhook our batteries, solar panels and the fuse box etc. Here is the empty power corner!

Our luggage packed before we left Hamdallaye for Conakry.

The beginning of our trip

Hi all,
Sorry it has been forever since we've updated here. We've been pretty wiped and our internet hasn't been great for a while. For any of you that don't know we're are expecting baby #3 and heading back to North America in a couple days.
Today we finished packing up our house and putting our stuff into storage for the next 10 or 11 months. Whew! It was exhausting, because in the midst of it we were still dealing with ministry stuff. We're so thankful for all the help we've had from friends.
Tommorow morning we are heading to the capital city for couple days of rest hopefully before we embark on another continent. Thanks so much for your prayers on our behalf. We are a bit sad to leave here but looking forward to arriving there.
Happy belated Canada and Fourth of July.
Once we're settled we'll be posting more regularly and with updated photos.
See you soon! Can you arrange some warm weather for us? Must be at least in the 80's F!

Aidan's 6th Birthday

These are Aidan's friends who came to his party. It was a creature theme. We had parfaits with chocolate rocks. There are some rocks on the plate below. We also ate gummy worms. Thanks Aunt Ruth for sending all the fun stuff.

Wow, can he really be 6?

Aidan with a boy from the village. They have fun riding their bikes together.

Aidan's cake on his actual birthday. We didn't receive our packages with gifts and party stuff till about a week after Aidan's birthday. He actually got to celebrate twice.

Happy Birthday Aidan.

The rains are coming

After nearly 6 months of no rain, the first rains that fall are soo sweet. It's like a reminder of God's faithfulness. Never late, just on time and sometimes even earlier than you expect. We have been getting our first few rains. Of course there are downfalls as well. While it's raining it's cool, afterwards it heats up and gets really humid until the next rain. After rainy season is in full swing the time lapse between rains won't be so great and the humidity might not build as much. In a month or so the grass will come up again and we'll have a yard, like what you see in the background of this picture.
Right now our yard looks like the background in this picture. Elianna seems to attract dirt. It's a bit hard to tell from the picture but her face is pretty dirty.

In preparation for rainy season the people burn their field to prepare for planting. Here's some smoke from one of those burning times. It sort of looks like our house is on fire.

The burning fields and the smoke can really stink. Depending on the wind you might even get a layer of ask in your house. Fun fun!
Not to mention it blocks the sunlight so it's harder for our solar system to charge!

This is the road right near our base. It's hard to tell but the big trees in the foreground are in full bloom with beautiful red flowers. It was a breath of fresh air in the midst of a mainly brown landscape.

Mothers Day

A wonderful Mothers Day walk.
To find a peaceful river, with even a canoe at the edge. There was also a tadpole 'hole' that Aidan found at the end. He was able to bring some home in a little jar we found on the rocks.

Over wooden bridges.

Down dirt paths.

We walked through recently burned field still smoking.

Happy Mothers Day and misc.

Rainy season is soon upon us but many of the trees are getting flowers and new leaves now. Here's a pretty flower on one of those trees. When you see a big tree full of these red flowers in the midst of otherwise dry looking things it's beautiful.

I know, you don't see many pictures of me. We were going to the village for a wedding.

The kiddos. Aidan loves to wear the headlamp when given a chance.

Some 'lion' pictures the kids drew a while ago.

Our friend Pete with a black cobra that he and pete killed.

Someone saw the snake and was able to trap it in their storage shed. Then the guys went on a snake hunt. I guess pete was the one the actually got it. They sort of clubbed it to death with a stick. It was about 4 feet long.