Pumpkin Carving

A good time was had by all! Everyone really got into the carving. We toasted pumpkin seeds and had pumpkin bread with pumpkin butter. It was all grins as they showed off their handi work. This is a tradition to keep for sure!!!

His First John Deere Moment

A boy his dad and a John Deere tractor. Need I say more...

Sasha loves to drive anything!!!! This was the king daddy. Thanks Buck!!!

Great Pumpkin Weekend!

We went all the way to Louisville, Ky for our pumpkin this year. Our very good friends Buck and Keira and their kids Hannah and David helped us in our quest! We had a great time!

Putt Putt for the fun of it!!

We had such a good time playing putt putt that we did it twice during our trip. There were two and we had to see how they compare. One of them even had a place where you sign in and put a pin on a map where you were from. Can you believe we were the only ones drom Kazakhstan?

Sasha really enjoyed seeing his first palm tree and wanted his picture taken with it.

Mama really impressed the kids with her putt putt skills making the big win at putt putt. You can imagine the excitement. There were several hole in ones and many muti "bogies".

Feeling Beachy...

Here is the proof that I did get dirty. We put together quite a sand drip castle i must say!

Stella spent many a day in this position on the boogie board. She would stand for hours holding the leash waiting for a tiny wave and stand on the board riding the wave until it stops. She had a big time doing this and I think it will be the new big sport on the beach.

More Beach Pictures!

Oh the waves!!! They had a ball in the ocean. At first they were not sure about the water and said they did not want to go in. That did not last long! The boogie board was their friend and they wanted to start everything. Garrett got a great workout helping them catch waves and I was happy to sit on the beach and record the moment for you to see. It was a great sacrifice but someone had to do it. I did show them how to make a sand castle!

Our First Beach Trip!!!

This is Stella in one of our favorite pictures of her. We are convinced she is doing her best Godfather impression saying..."You tawkin to me?"

Happy New Year! Is it 2007 already?

It is hard to believe we have reached our 6 month mark! It is even harder to believe we have not updated our blog in a LONG time as I have been reminded many times from various people which shall remain unmentioned.

We are finally settling in to a "usual" routine for this new set of parents which are recovering from getting a set of "twins" as it has been referred to us. We are even returning phone calls at a reasonable time and being seen in public quite often. We continue the process of melding together and becoming a family.

The kids are great and are a tremendous blessing to us. We have had our first trip to the beach, first quarter of school, endless doctor appointments and getting to know all the family on both sides. We have celebrated all four of our birthdays, (five if you include Ali, our dog) Thanksgiving, all the other November and December birthdays in our family and Christmas and New Years. It has been quite a ride and we are still on it! God is so good!

They say pictures are worth a thousand words so we are including a couple thousand in this posting.

We covet your prayers and continue to need them. To say this an adjustment is an understatement but we can already see the rewards. We have had all our needs provided for like a great school, support of family and friends, healthy children and God's many blessings. We look forward to 2007 with eager anticipation of what is to come. We are expecting great things for our family and yours. May God richly bless you!

American Soil and Family

Photos...Photos...

Yeah!!! I have been having a hard...ok impossible time of loading pictures but here we are today and we have some.

This was us on arrival day, July 1st, as we headed for home in the Limo!!! What a way to travel.

A little updating!

August 4, 2006

We have made several failed attempts to upload pictures and will continue to try until we get our new pictures of our adventures here at the good old U.S. of A! We are adjusting quite well once Kelley realized Garrett had to go back to work on July 5th! Uggg! It is a good thing when you can spend 24/7 together for 9 weeks and are sad when you have to be seperated. We are very blessed indeed with a great marriage and great kids.

The last month has been a whirlwind of meeting family and friends, accumulating necessary stuff and finding a school! That has been quite a feat in and of itself but I am pleased and relieved to say God has made a way and had it all planned out. Sometimes we do not listen well. It has been our prayer that where ever they went to school that the people at the school would be as excited for them to be there as we are and that has happened! We found out on August 3rd they are going to Trinity Academy which is where we go to church so this will be great all the way around. We are very excited and the kids are coming around to the idea...sort of!

We decided to celebrate our efforts by going to the beach for 5 days since Sasha and Stella had never seen the ocean before. We had a great time of sun, ocean, sand castles, putt-putt, and of course swimming in the pool with you guessed it, blue water! It was a great bonding time of relaxation in our natural habitat! It was also great to see the beach through the eyes of a child or two! The first night we arrived after dark and went for a walk on the beach. The kids firmly clutched our hands as we made our way in the dark. We had a flashlight but it was still a little scary for them at first. It was about then we saw our first Ghost crab. In the light of the flash light they did not see as well allowing Sasha to catch about four. We did encourage the catch and release program and were glad he was so agreeable to that since we had no crab food at the apartment. Riding the surf on boogie boards was very fun for them both and in no time Garrett had them both sailing in on the waves. They also had their very first Ron Jon Surf Shop experience. They just walked around constantly saying "Wow!" We got a few souveniers and the necessary Ron Jon t-shirt. It brings back so many memories! They had so much fun and I will get these pictures up very soon!!! Funny I could get pictures and postings up in Kazakhstan where it was so slow and can not do it in the land of high speed internet! Go figure!

As the days have gone by so quickly here at home we constantly realize, now that we are out of the fish bowl, just how blessed we are and how we truly walked in God's favor the whole time while in Kazakhstan! Little things that others have dealt with were not a problem for us and we praise God for that, knowing it was the prayers of all you at home lifting us up during our 8+ weeks stay. We can never repay you but know great will be your reward in heaven!

Every day of parenting just gets better and better. It has been a challenge unlike anything we have faced but well worth any effort we have put into it. God is faithful to give us wisdom and knowledge beyond our experience to help us in this process. We look forward to the future and try hard to enjoy each new day and the miracle we are living. God is good and worthy of our Praise!

We're Home!!!

July 1

Well we did it. We made it home and many of you have asked if we will be continuing to blog and we are going to continue to update on our progress. The flight was wonderful! We were upgraded to business class and we have decided that is the way to go! Next time we fly 22 hours we are definately going to do it. The kids had a ball with it and we decided we are glad they are the age they are since they were pretty self sufficient. They slept a great deal of the time on the first flight and pretty well the second. When we got off the plane we were ready to see everyone but of course had that much needed paperwork to deal with but as we walked along in the airport we told the kids, "Okay, your are American Citizens! How does it feel?" They both grinned and were very excited. Stella did a little happy dance.

We were all tired and ready to see family and home! It took about and hour and a half until we were finally able to see our family and we were all so glad to see everyone! The kids were so excited until just before we saw them when they got a little nervous but that did not last long. Our family got a limo for us to ride home and the kids loved it. What kid would'nt...okay who am I kidding, I loved it! Sasha touched every button in the car and then started talking to the driver. He had fun and got the most out of the experience. Stella and Garrett both fell asleep but woke up when we got off the interstate. They started recognizing some landmarks and when we finally pulled into the subdivision Sasha really got excited. He even remembered which house was ours which was impressive since he only saw it once.

Once we got in the driveway they were anxious to get out and see their rooms. they have been thinking and talking about this moment for weeks. They ran upstairs and both went into Sasha's room first. He just kept saying "Wow" over and over again. It was so cute! Stella could not wait another minute and ran to her room and was very excited. She jumped up and down and clapped her hands. Our families all arrived about then and we had a nice afternoon of catching up and eating and I got to visit my closet and finally put something else on other than the four outfits I have worn for the last 8 weeks! We all did actually. It was so nice! God is so good and I pray we never take for granted the simple things in our life again. We are so blessed here as a country and a family. I give Praise to God for all He has done, all He is doing and all He will do. He gets all the glory for everything!

We finally got to bed around midnight and slept pretty well until 4am...

More to come...

Our last day in the land of Kaz!

Friday, June 30, 2006

We woke up and the kids were ready and raring to go to America! It is like waiting for Christmas. They are trying to be patient though…I think. I have a feeling it is all coming down to the reality of actually leaving and they have been through a lot of waiting during the process. They are tired of waiting but are excited to know we will be traveling at night. Sasha once again says he will not be sleeping…we will see.

After a morning of packing we headed over to the American Embassy at 2:30pm. We got there at 2:50pm. We were the only ones there for a while until another group of two families came in. We wondered if it was first come, first serve. We hoped! They called us into an office and everything went very well. It was nice to talk to an official that was American. He was super nice and answered all our questions then gave us about 5 pounds of paperwork to carry in our carry-on. As Sasha would say, “no problem.” They also gave us two sealed envelopes that they told us not to open and not to let anyone else open it either until we get to the airport in the U.S. Boy that sounds good! Just one more experience in this weird process of international adoption. We have heard about the secret sealed envelope before although it does make you think of days when the teacher sent a note home to your parents. I hope we are not in trouble!

We are leaving Almaty at 3:30 am….doesn’t it sound fun?? We will be home Saturday afternoon on the same day because of the 10 hour time difference. Yippee!! We will be flying for about 22 hours. I know you are all jealous. We are grateful for all the love and the prayers over these 8 and a half weeks! God is good. Praise his mighty name!
See you in America!

A little culture, a little sightseeing.

Thursday, June 29

Today was our last full in Kazakhstan, perhaps forever, perhaps not, only the Lord knows for sure. Lola had our driver pick us up at 11:00 am for another trip up the mountain to check it out without rain this time. It was very cloudy and we prayed for the rain to stay away. We got to the top, as least as far as you can drive, and we were excited that the ski lifts were indeed operating today. We quickly paid and got on 2 by 2 for the scenic ride up the mountain. Everything was so green and lush and beautiful. The kids have never ridden chair lifts before and it was great fun for them. Garrett and I have never ridden one without snow everywhere, so it was indeed an adventure for all of us. We videoed and took pictures as we ascended up and both of the kids said “this is not big tall”. After we rode the first lift as high as it would go we paid again to ride the next one up to the next level. It ended much higher but still did not go to the top. Fortunately I had everyone bring a light jacket (even Garrett!!) because it might be cool up there and I was right. The temperature dropped quite a bit in the cloudy overcast day. There was another lift that would go up higher but it was not running today, so we exited the lift and looked around a bit. Sash decided he wanted to hike up this very rocky area and reach this patch of snow/ice that we could see. We decided to walk part of the way and then showed him that it was indeed farther away than it appeared. About this time we felt a few sprinkles and abruptly turned around and hiked back down the rocks. The sprinkling quickly stopped but we decided to start the journey back down since our driver was waiting on us. We assumed we did not need to pay to ride down the mountain and we were correct, no tenge needed. Several people hiked a path up and down the mountain basically following the chair lift.

Once we finished our mountain ride we headed to Mama Mia’s for the second time this week, the third for Garrett and I. This time it was open for business and very crowded. When we first walked in the hostess simply looked at us and said “nyet”. We looked around and saw that is was full at the moment but tried to let her know we would wait. After a few minutes she got the idea that we would wait for a table to open up, we assume people here must not wait if there are no seats available. They obviously don’t know who they are dealing with here, we come from the land of restaurant waiting….we have waited for hours…even days…but I digress. We finally got seated and had a delicious meal.

After our meal we were off to the zoom…yes there are zooms everywhere.
We wanted to have that last minute souvenir shopping experience. We gave both of them some fun money and they had a great time looking for those special things. Stella has the lets see how fast I can get rid of this money thing. She is getting more discerning though and many times asking us what we think and then at the last minute going “no” and then runs off to another place to look. She bought a Kazakh house model which is like a cross between a tee pee and a round tent. They are quite interesting. We have not seen one up close but they are neat in the tiny form. Sasha was on a mission to find a gold tiger or lion statue but they were all too expensive so he found a lion made out of real fur. He was very pleased with his purchase and named him “Simba.” Quite appropriate I think.

We had a good time but were tired, hot and ready to go rest for a little while since we were going out for a genuine Kazakh restaurant with performances in singing and dancing. We got a taxi successfully and arrived home around 6pm. That gave us an hour and a half for me to blog. The driver picked us up at 7:30 and we met Lola there. When she first walked up we were a little concerned because she was dressed very nicely and we were more casual. I mean if we knew Garrett could have worn his suit, right? Anyways, when we got inside we realized we were ok not like it mattered but we did not want to be totally obvious we were from “out of town.”

Lola assisted us with the menu which was also in English and she thought we should try some of the more popular Kazakh food. Unfortunately for me many of the dishes involve horsemeat!!! Since Tuey and I had that conversation about me not eating any of his cousins while over here I knew this was not an option for me. Garrett agreed. I guess Diamante had talked to him also… So what do you eat when horse is not an option in a Kazakh restaurant you may ask? Camel, of course! I think my equine buddies would agree under the circumstances it had to be done. Garrett and the kids got Mutton. We also ordered some salads. The food came and I have to say the camel was quite good. It is a very lean piece of meat which is why horse is so popular from what I understand. Sasha was all over it and ate quite a bit of mine. He is a serious anti-fat on his meat man. He also ordered fresh squeezed lemon juice, no sugar, no water just juice. He can drink it without the slightest pucker of the lips! I can tell we are going to go through a lot of lemons.

Shortly after we ordered the show started. We did not have the best seat in the house and had to crane our necks to see but it was all very good. There was a lady that played the violin but she held it like a cello on her lap and was very talented. They also have a small mandolin that they play and there were many singers and dancers and little acts. It was neat to see. We forgot to charge our camera so a lot of it will need to be in our memories but we got a few pictures. Some people started dancing and Stella was doing a little solo dance on the side. She wanted Garrett and I to dance but I had a headache so she asked Garrett to dance and he foolishly thought she wanted him to dance with her but after he accepted she got Lola up to dance with him! Garrett felt a little awkward but he was game. So off they went and at the last minute Stella decided to make it a three-some. They were so cute. I got a little video to seal the moment. We headed home shortly after as it was 10:00 and we have a big day tomorrow.

When we got home we immediately checked email and found out we got our flights!!! We get to leave at 3:20am Saturday, July 1 and get home that same day at 4:20pm! We are so excited!!! We were talking though before we went to bed and Garrett and I do not feel like it is real. We have been away for such a long time it seems weird. So many times we have had to push back flights and change plans it is hard to believe it is really happening but we are going with it baby!!!

Praise God we will see home on Saturday. Sasha says the first thing he wants to do is hug all the family and then go home and see his room! The kids are pumped!

Until then good night and God bless.

Yet Another Aqua Park

Wednesday, June 28

Well as we close out Wednesday we still do not have a confirmed flight home. The Eagles song comes to mind. “You can check out any time you want but you can never leave.” We know that is not the case for us as we are 11th hour people serving an 11th hour God. Still we are ready to hear something…soon…please?

We had a nice day if you consider a nice trip to the Doctor good. For a medical it was very pleasant though. They saw us right on time, better than a lot of doctor’s offices I have been to in America. They did all their vitals and measured their height and weight and did a brief eye exam. Sasha is one inch taller than Stella and about 8 pounds heavier. After the nurse did the vitals we saw a woman doctor that spoke some English. She was very nice and gave suggestions about various things we should do when we get home to America. There were also records of shots and it turned out that Sasha needed a measles mumps and rubella vaccine to go to America. We were a little unsure about it since what kids handles getting shots well but he said, “No problem.” He was right. He watched them give him the shot and did not even make a face. We were very impressed. Garrett told him when he was his age he did not handle shots that well. He did not have any reaction to it either. He did great!

We went with Lola and had lunch at one of her favorite coffee shops. We had sandwiches and fries. It was good. I had an ice coffee. Sasha thinks they are great and Stella does not. We are not too keen on them starting a coffee habit just yet!

Sasha has Aqua Park on the brain! He feels it is his duty to inspect as many pools as possible and he was determined to give it his best shot to get to one today. He talked to Lola to find out if she was available to take us. We thought she may not be since she had more families coming in town today but she asked if we swim and of course we love to but I have had a little head cold and was not feeling up to swimming and Garrett pulled something in his shoulder. She has a 12 year old daughter and asked if she could take Sasha and Stella swimming at the pool and Garrett and I stay home! After a brief moment of guilt we decided that would be okay or as Stella says, “This is yes!”

We came home and got the kids ready and at 3:50pm Lola came and got them and said 2 or 3 hours. We said fantastic! I caught up with my blog and we rested a bit. We started dinner, thinking the kids would be hungry, with what we bought at the grocery store. They did not get home until 7:30 and had lots of stories about the pool. Sasha let me know they had blue water and it was lots of fun. They were BIG hungry! We could hardly fix stuff fast enough. After dinner they had showers and we watched a little t.v. We decided to try to get to bed a little early and we did an ok job of that. We are still waiting on confirmed flights to come forth. We are calling them forth!! It is time for the new Boyd Family to come on down to America!!!

A Papa Shot!

Thought some of you might be wondering where Papa is lately so I wanted to show he was looking good and feeling good in Kazakhstan! We are looking forward to going back up Thursday! Stella did a good job taking the picture. She is always very careful.

A High Yet Wet Adventure!

Tuesday, June 28th

After our day of rest we were ready for some Almaty excitement and nothing satisfies like a little shopping! We went to the Zoom along with Lola our translator and authority on the finishing process of the adoption. She will basically hold our hand through the Medicals for the kids and all the paperwork for passports, visa and exit interviews at the Embassy scheduled for Friday at 3:00. They do all the families that have appointments Friday at 3:00pm so that should be interesting. We have to change our flights from Friday to Saturday and are still having trouble finding flights without having to buy one-way tickets back for us all. The World Cup has made all flights booked along with high season for travel so we are keeping things interesting right up to the end. As a child I loved Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew Mysteries and my Mom says I have been writing in that style so I guess we are keeping the mystery going. We are expecting the mystery to be solved and for there to be a very happy ending!

We arrived at the Zoom via a taxi and recognized our old “neighborhood.” We stayed just down the street from there at the beginning of our journey so long ago. We looked around a little bit outside and then headed in to the 3rd floor for a little souvenir shopping. We are looking for things that are happy memories for the kids and their heritage. We found some flags, a picture book of Kazakhstan with some English in it, and a doll for Stella and a Gold Man for Sasha. The Gold Man is a symbol of Kaz that was found only in 1998. It was a soldier that was from ancient times and he was dressed on all gold armor. He is all over the place on statues sometimes riding a tiger. Sasha has had his eye on one for a while so after finding out its historical significance we decided to purchase a small one for his room. All the vendors at the Zoom seem to have the same prices.

You can also find lots of native clothing and bow and arrow sets along with canteens, saddles, crops made out of animal feet and animal pelts. It is hard to decide what all to get while considering what will travel well. We plan to go back again before we leave. We find when the kids have a chance to think about it for a while they can narrow down to what they really want. We do want them to have treasures that will last as well as fun things. We wanted to get them a native costume which is velvet. Marina said a vest would be great and based on the prices, we like that idea. From what we understand the older the person the more fancy and longer the coat and taller the hat. We were all about a vest and went into a store and started looking at vests. We wanted Sasha to have one that is bigger than he can wear now and for later when he is bigger but the lady would not even let us look at them saying the vests are only for girls! Well Sasha will not have a vest now…thanks a lot! Oh well, we will see. Marina said that she always recommends a vest. I have never been to a place like this where you are a good paying customer and they will flat out refuse to sell you something for strange reasons but I am sure it is not strange to them just us weird Americans.

We looked around a little more and then Lola left to pick up two families at the airport. They are actually from Atlanta. It is Elaine and Pam and Robert who are in their interim time of adoption called the waiting period. A lot of families go home and come back in about 3 weeks to pick up their children here in Almaty. We had lunch at a little coffee café with a simple sandwich menu. It was good and I got an ice coffee. Just about as we were finishing Lola showed up and we went to see the ski resort and the snow capped mountains. It started to rain shortly after we left and we thought it might be a quick shower but it rained hard all the way up our slow ascent to the resort. After we arrived we found out they were closed. We were bummed but took a few pictures. It was still pretty. We decided we would definitely go back on Thursday. It is gorgeous up there and nice and cool.

On our way down Lola told us the families from Atlanta wanted to have an American dinner with us so we made plans to go to The American Grill. It is a place in town that has good American style food. Lola said there is a place in town that has a dinner show of authentic Kazakh food with a horse and rider performance in costume. We will do that another day hopefully before we go home. Anyways we met them at 6:30 for dinner and the food was really good and we had a good time catching up. They leave tomorrow morning at 7:30 am. We promised them we would not be here when they get back in a few weeks!

We got home and worked on trying to get some flights home on Saturday the 1st but do not have anything confirmed yet. We will though. God is faithful. I pray He has found us faithful!

Some Pretty Horses or Loshods in Russian

This Stella in front of the Zoom with a large horse with a chair on it's back. These horses are all over the city painted all kinds of ways in a variety of poses and sizes. They are purchased by groups and corporations in the city as a fund raiser from what I understand much like the turtles throughout Sandy Springs. They are kinda neat. I wonder if I can fit one in my carry on. It might look mighty fine in my front yard. Would that break any covenants? Hmmm...

A shopping we go!

This is me and the kids in Almaty next to the Zoom on Tuesday. We were on our way to lunch and stopped for a photo opportunity. Their Zoom is much larger. We were looking for more Kaz souveniers for the kids rooms.

The Twain...The Twain!!

Monday, June 26th

Here we are in Almaty. We made it! It is a beautiful city and very clean. It feels like any other European city. It has beautiful snow-capped mountains off in the distance. We look forward to visiting some of the sites here.

We left the train station in Karaganda around 9:50pm. It arrives 15 minutes before departure and there is much anticipation when getting on. Marina was there with us the whole time and we were hanging back a bit getting out our Passports when Marina said, “Garrett, hurry!” We did and had no time really to say goodbye to Marina, just a quick hug and a kiss from me. I was a little emotional. I brought up the rear on the train and got on just in time to see Garrett wrestling with one of our suitcases through the narrow corridor. Garrett won, because he is so muscley. Marina said we would be fine if we did not have too much luggage. I think we were borderline. The little cabins have a sink straight ahead under the window and two seats on each side. We were riding the famous “Spanish Train” that we have heard so much about. The other train option is apparently not a very good experience. There is a common bathroom to each train car much like an airplane. Nothing real exciting but Marina told us, “you will survive.” We were not real sure what that meant but she was right! As soon as we got in our room we looked out the window and Marina was standing there like a mother hen making sure everything was ok. I think she would board the train and straighten out a few people if reason arose. Stella went over to the window and waved while Marina blew kisses to her and continued until we left a few minutes later. She walked along the train for a few seconds and blew kisses to us all. Stella said over and over, “Goodbye Karaganda!”

The seats collapse and four beds drop down. We paid the attendant an extra 600 tenge for something…we are not real sure what for, maybe to lower the beds. They used a key to unlock them. We went ahead and dropped them down since it was after 10:00 and we did not know when she would come back. The kids immediately crawled up on the top bunks, which was ok with us and according to our plan. I pulled their genuine Karaganda blankets we bought at the Green Bazaar and they stripped down and we turned out the lights and stared out the window watching the sun finally go down. Sasha told me before we got on the train that he would not be sleeping but would play gameboy all night long. I said yeah, right. They did play for a while but it was not too long before the lull of the rocking train drew us all into a mediocre sleep. Sometimes the rails were loud and sometimes quiet. We stopped twice, we are sure of that. At 3ish I got up and went to the little girls room which is also the little boys room. I decided to close the curtains since the sun would be rising in another hour or so and I knew we would sleep better but...at first light Sasha threw open the curtains so we could see the sunrise. Yeah… I decided to see it on video later as Garrett was recording. I was nursing a head wound after all and had a band-aid to prove it after all!!! Me’s was still big hurt!

I thought I would not fall asleep with all the blinding light in our cabin but amazingly enough I woke at 7:15am. Garrett was up too but the kids were sacked out. At about 7:30 there was a knock at the door from the train attendant and she basically said, “Get up you lazy Americans…we will be in the train station soon and we want your butts off this train!” (loose translation) It worked too because the kids hopped to it. In 15 minutes we were dressed, had teeth brushed, put up our beds and had our luggage ready to go. We were not going to be left behind! We pulled in at exactly 8:05am feeling as fresh as we looked. We pushed the kids off first sacrificing ourselves for their sake. Praise God Lola was there to get them while we wrestled the mighty suitcases out of the train unassisted of course. Marina told us sternly not to accept anyone’s help there because the bill would rise with every step they took. I was relieved Lola had a driver to help with one of the suitcases and in no time we were at the car. Lola looked at us and then the car and asked if we needed another car. We laughed after all our escapades with many more people in a much smaller Mr. Bean style car. We won’t know what to do when we get to America where the amount of people in a car is limited by the number of seatbelts! We could be candidates for the circus I think!

She brought us to our very nice apartment with a/c in the master bedroom!!! Woo-hoo, happy times!!! We are very thankful for such nice accommodations. We went immediately with her to a grocery store but they were not open yet so we ate at a café outside on croissants and 7 up…yummy. When the grocery finally opened we were there to secure what we might be needing. We are on our own now, like everyone else having to cook or prepare food three times a day!!! How barbaric! I do not think we can live under these conditions! It is hard to come up with meals in a foreign grocery but we did the best we could and lugged home what we thought we could carry.

We were all pretty tired and I was not feeling well. Remember the mirror to the head incident…so I took a nap and the family sacrificed and gave me the a/c room and closed the door making the apartment get quite warm. About 3 hours later I woke up and the kids were HOT! The apartment has a very nice shower with a rain shower head and massaging jets and a small bath area, just big enough for a kid so they filled it up with cold water and took turns dunking their heads in the ice cold water. Then they had to put on their bathing suits and try to put their bodies underwater. Needless to say they were “BIG cold” soon enough. Garrett went out and got us all “King Burgers.” They looked a lot like Burger King but without the lingering flame broil taste. He wisely chose chicken burgers and “frites” for the kids. He said it was an adventure ordering them.

By 7pm Stella officially passed out. Sasha followed by 8:30. We got our internet up and blogged a bit and then headed to bed ourselves in our a/c room. Ahhhh….