Family pictures

We haven't been very good at taking pictures but here are a few from a "photo shoot" that we did for our newsletter picture. These are a couple of the ones that didn't make it.



And here is Samuel playing with some of the neighbourhood kids. He loves to play in the dirt and put sticks in his mouth. Hopefully in the long term he'll develop a better immunity to whatever he is putting in his mouth.

Some pictures of our life in Nigeria

Hopefully there are still some people who visit this blog once in a while. We can't promise that we will be any more regular, but we will do our best.
Some of these pictures are recycled from our email update that we send out. But here they are again.
Stephen sitting on one of our 14 suitcases!!
New Duplos!!
Samuel enjoys them, too.
The easiest way to keep the boys out of trouble... Stephen LOVES Mighty Machines. Samuel actually doesn't really like watching movies too much. I suppose that's good.
Here we see a rare sight indeed! First, Janice is ironing. Second, she's ironing diapers. Apparently, when it's mango fly season it becomes necessary to iron clothes in order to kill the mango fly larvae that may have embedded themselves in your laundry. It's not actually mango fly season, so on this particular day we didn't need to be ironing the diapers. Live and learn, I guess.
Janice and Stephen are making cookies in the kitchen. They turned out very well, especially considering it was Janice's first time baking them with this gas oven.
Samuel has learned how to crawl the "real" way. He no longer drags himself commando-style through the house. Isn't he cute? He has not been feeling himself the past couple of days. We think he has a cold, or is sick with something. His naps are very short and he wakes up happy, but only for half an hour, or so and then he realizes he's tired and grumpy.
This is the general state of Stephen's room.
These are a few of the neighbourhood kids. There are a few who are closer to Stephen's age, too. These guys really enjoyed playing with the Duplo.
Here is Stephen with his ball, walking to invite some of the kids to play. This was before he knew any of them, so he was actually being quite brave by just walking over to their house and asking them to play with him. Now he knows most of the kids pretty well. They get along well for the most part, although it's not always easy for him.

Some pictures of our life in Nigeria

Nigeria!

Well, now that you know that.... our apologies for not updating for a long time. We have been realizing the limitations of the internet here. It is even more severe than our dial-up connection in Ontario. We also were unable to log on to our blog for a couple days. Every time we tried, we were rerouted to the wrong page.
Anyway, now that we have most of the bugs fixed, we will make sure we post some new stuff up here.
The battery in the laptop is almost dead, but tomorrow we will try to post some new stuff!

Weird

Everything on this page is in Italian and I don't know why. Hopefully I can navigate my way around well enough.

The Wedding of Jonathan & Kendra Ippel

We spent some time in Michigan to be a part of our friends wedding festivities. Our family went camping for that long weekend. We were able to see friends that we hadn't seen in years and months! Stephen did a great job as "Superkid" and all the brown dresses looked pretty good together. Here are the girls.

Jon & Kendra cutting the yummy cake.

Samuel standing up on the beach.

The Bride & Groom

The Group Reunited from all over this continent!

Uncle Jake & Aunt Donna - it was great to spend some time with you again too!

Despite all the misfortunes and adventures, it was a great weekend!

Friends

Back in July we also got to visit some friends down in the Niagara area. Stephen and Noah played in the pool right next to the new subdivision that's going in around the house.

Stephen and the neighbour kids at the Listowel parade.

Stephen and Zachary looking very hot and tired. The more we talked to Hannah and Ryan about Zachary, the more we became convinced that he and Stephen could have been brothers. It's reassuring to know that Stephen is normal.
Janae, Samuel and Daniel smile for the camera.

Stephen's birthday

Here we are again, after a loooong break from blogging. We do apologize. These are some pictures that we took for Stephen's birthday. We made a pinata of Bob the Tomato. Stephen really enjoyed making the pinata for about 5 minutes.

These are the girls from the party. Stephen doesn't really have any kids his age that are boys, but he doesn't really mind that.
The kids made Fruit Loop necklaces to kill some time.
The kids took turns hitting the pinata with a baseball bat, but it wasn't breaking, so we ended up using a croquet mallet which did a lot more damage.

New York

So, we had a great time in New York City. We visited Jono's Uncle Marten in Manhattan and a friend, Dorollo, who also works in Manhattan.
Stephen and Uncle Marten played "blocks" with checkers pieces. The best part about Uncle Marten's apartment was the automatic vacuum cleaner, according to Stephen. Janice and I liked the view from the balcony.
You can't have pictures of New York City without pictures of Lady Liberty.
Here is Janice trying to teach Stephen to play the piano at F.A.O. Schwartz.
We went to the zoo in Central Park, which Stephen really enjoyed.
Here, Janice, Stephen and Samuel try to stay dry while we wait for the rain to stop.

Boston

We're now in Boston, Massachusetts visiting some friends whom we haven't seen for almost two years. Josh and Minhee are friends from Korea. They have been living in Boston where Josh is a pastor and Minhee is studying. Thanks for everything, guys.

High Peaks Wilderness Area in the Adirondaks

My college friend, Dan, and I went for a three-night hike in the Adirondaks. It was a very enjoyable time despite the rain. We slept in lean-to's every night, making it seem less like hiking and more like a holiday. We made it to the top of one peak, Mount Marcy. My camera battery died on the second day, so these are all the pictures I got.

This is really the only wildlife we saw, except for some chipmunks, frogs and toads.

Niagara

Jono's parents watched the boys for a one night and two days while we went out for the night. We went to Niagara Falls and saw a show. Cirque Niagara put on quite the performance. Of course, they wouldn't let us take any pictures, so this one of the tent will have to do.
When we arrived back at our hotel room after the show, we were able to see some fireworks over the falls. The casino was also very prominent outside our window.
We did a "drive-by" of the Falls this time, rather than get out.
Thanks Mom and Dad, for taking such good care of the boys.

Summer activities

Here are a couple pictures of things that the boys are enjoying doing this summer. Samuel loves the swing that we found. Stephen loves the sandbox in the backyard. He is also willing to push Samuel on the swing for short periods of time because then he gets his turn faster.

Killbear

We were fortunate enough to spend some time at Killbear with the Drost family for a week. Here are a few pictures of our time.
Here is Samuel on the way up to the park.
Dinner time.

Theresa putting together some yummy Smores.
Stephen pushing Samuel on the swing that we found.

Chayton's second birthday! The poor little guy had a bad ear ache and had to leave early from camping.
Breakfast.
We went for a picnic on some rocks.
Uncle Joe and Stephen in the "Tube-n-it."
Stephen and Samuel in the lean-to that Joe and I made for them.
Walking home.

At the beach.
On the way out of the park.