Aubrey's New Trick

She is crawling. I knew she was close, but I was secretly wishing she would at least stay put until we had the unpacking done, but no, there is too much to see and explore, so off she goes. Now where did those baby gates go... a house full of stairs and hardwood floors are not a good match for a nine month old baby...

Settling in...

Well the week has gone, and we have done a lot. We got all our stuff back, hurray, it's just in 600 plus boxes, most of which are labeled wrong or not placed in the right room. It's all here, but where is a different story.

We have suffered from what is being told to us as a "heat wave" this week. Not good timing to leave a comfortably air conditioned hotel to a large house with no AC. Getting use to the humidity is one thing I hope not to do, just bear it for a couple years and just plan on showering twice a day and not ever spend the time straighting my hair. No just remembering to close chips and crackers out so they don't turn to a soggy mess is an important thing to remember.

The kids have had a fun time exploring the forest we call a back yard and making cities out of boxes. The forest didn't last as long as we had hoped, since they discovered mosquitos the size of honeybees that live there, and after one day, and a bodies covered with welts, they decided to admire it from afar until we figure out how to control the mosquito population.

Hopefully soon we will have no boxes piled high, we will know where I put the dishes and find the box with our socks, but for now, we are here, enjoying our new adventure and missing you....

Love from Canada.....

oh p.s. the pictures are of the box city the kids built in the backyard, our first dinner in the new house (pizza of course) and Abby showing of her stickers from the boxes and furniture (her job her dad gave her!)

House Tour

Well it's finally time to get into our house here in Moncton. We close tomorrow but tonight was our final walk through with our realtor. The house was clean and ready to move in. We took the kids and let them run around through the house and the woods while we examined every detail of the house and garage. We discussed ways to improve the yard and small things we will do to change the house around a bit. We are sooo excited to get our stuff back. We have been living out of our suitcases for 19 days and I think we are all sick of wearing the same stuff, doing laundry every few days, and trying to keep 4 kids entertained in a two bedroom hotel. Wish us luck and the next pictures should be of us unpacking in a few days. We miss our family and friends and hope you are all enjoying the summer. Here the temperature has been quite warm (low 90's and 100% humidity. It reminds me a lot of my mission in Virginia and it is not any more comfortable now than it was then. My sympathies go out to Melissa and Kimball in Atlanta as well as Nate and Melanie in DC.

Love from Canada,
Nat, Ben, and Kids

What to do in Canada on a hot summer day...

You go to the beach.

We went to Parlee Beach today, about 20 minutes from our house. It was a wonderful hot sunny day with a tempurature around 32 degrees - yes that is hot enough to go to the beach - it was close to 90 something I think... The kids had a blast, the boys caught hermit crabs and Abby collected sea shells. Apparenltly it was "the thing" to do, since it got crazy busy after lunch time and we ended up heading home around 3 so the baby could take a nap.

We went to the ONLY Mexican restaraunt in town tonight for dinner. It was called Mexicalli Rose, a California Mexican Restaurant. I didn't know that California was known for their fine Mexican food. It wasn't Cafe Rio, but the chips and salsa went quickly, or maybe because they wern't equiped for a family that likes chips and salsa. It was good non the less, and I am sure since it was the only one in town, we will go again.

We are getting anxious about our house, but we are enjoying our "vacation"

We made it to Canada

We finally made it! Hurray. We left early Monday morning (12:50 a.m. to be exact) and landed in Atlanta at 6:30 a.m. and was welcomed by my sister Melissa and my new little niece Emma! Thanks Melissa for making such an effort to come see us, I am sure it was a lot of work, but we appreciate the visit even if it was short! We met Emma for the first time and she was an absolute doll, and the kids enjoyed sharing a cinnamon roll with her!


After a long long night on the plane, we arrived in Portland Maine, where our car transport guy was waiting with both of our cars. After resting in Bangor, we headed towards the border after a final, sad, goodbye trip to Target, where we bought a much needed GPS unit and then headed to customs. After about 3 hours, we walked out with immigration stamps and a work permit for me, and two cars legally imported to Canada. What a pain.

We made it to Moncton and checked into our temporary house called the Marriott Residence Inn, room 602. The kids think they have died and gone to heaven, with our two bedroom suite, unlimited Wii, a pool, breakfast buffet, someone to make their beds, and view of the "Chocolate River" (the one that goes in and out depending on the oceans tide). Boy are they going to be in for a rude awaking when we have to cook our own meals, do our own dishes, and make our own beds.

We have been busy working out all the details, like opening bank accounts, getting cars registered, new drivers licences, new cell phones and sign up for Medicare. I am sure the kids will be grateful for not having to stand in lines with us as we discuss what internet options we want, give out vin numbers or hand over a collection of passports.

I went grocery shopping the other day whiched proved to be more difficult than expected. I need a crash course in French so I can read labels and isle names. I just need peanut butter and jelly, is that too much to ask?

We are learning a lot about the Country. We figure that our coin jar is going to be worth more than in the states, since we are not use to holding on to 1 and 2 dollar coins. (which for some odd reason they call lunies and tunies) I still have no idea why the queen of England has a role in the goverment is nor do I know who the prime minister is, but they gave me a licence, and I am going to be eligable to get "free" health care. (You pay enough taxes they should let us do anything, right?)

We had our only taste of home last night as we went to Costco to get a membership, bought diapers and wipes, and ate a hot dog and Diet Coke. We felt like that was the only thing normal we did all week. That is sad.

We drove past our new house yesterday and are getting anxious to have our own space back. Hopefully things go as planned and we get sometime early next week.

We love all of you, and miss you sooo much.

Homeward Bound from Dubai

Hello Everyone,

I am so excited to finally be heading home. I have spent the past two days with Christa, Guy, Laura, and Laura's two cousins in Dubai. It is an amazing city. It sits all by itself but has a huge number of sky scrapers and other buildings of all shapes and sizes. We started our tour of the city by buying a tour bus ticket. We rode the double decker bus around Dubai and stopped at all the popular sites. It is very hot here but luckily the bus was air conditioned so we did not die of heat. Part of the bus tour included a boat ride on the Dubai creek where a traditional boat showed us various sites up and down the riverfront. After the river tour we took a taxi to the Mall of the Emeriates. This is a HUGE mall! We wondered for a bit but the real reason for the visit was for Guy and I to try Ski Dubai. It is an indoor ski resort with one chair lift and two different runs. By the fact that Guy and I have seen snow before we were in the upper level of experience. The fact that we had skied before made us experts. We bought a two hour pass and instantly went from a desert to a 28 degree ski slope. It was very fun to see some of the locals in ski gear and full arabic robes and headgear.

The next day we visited the Atlantis waterpark. We rode water slides and enjoyed a day of relaxation in the sun. Once again, it was also very interesting to see a range of arabic swimsuits from a bikini to full robes. I think it would be very hot under those black robs in the summer.

I am currently sitting in the Atlanta airport and so excited to have Natalie and Abby picking me up in a few hours. I love you all and look forward to seeing you soon.

Love,

Ben

Word from Tanzania

I am traveling through Tanzania right now. Today we are going to be taking a ferry from Geita to Mwanza. It is such a beautiful country full poverty. Yesterday we were driving about 130 kilometers per hour (maybe 65 or 75 MPH) down a dirt road. When I asked my safety guy who was driving why he was not slowing down he indicated that the road was filled with bandits and if we go to slow we were at a higher risk of being robbed. At each end of the road they had armed police guards who would stop all traffic at 4 PM because the risk of driving the road at night was too great. The area is heavily forested and the forest connects to the Rwanda and Uganda areas. The fighting there has lead to refugees fleeing into the forest and unfortunately criminal elements have taken advantage of that. As our South African General Manager said, this area is “Real Africa”. The ladies are carrying pots of water or baskets of fruit on their heads, the little kids are herding goats or cattle, donkeys pull carts full of charcoal and many of the adult men are living in other places to find work. My local guy indicated the unemployment rate is around 50% and the poverty is just amazing. My hotel last night costs $20,000 Tanzanian shillings (about $13 USD) and while I was trying to talk to Natalie and frog came in under my door. I had to chase the frog back out with my sandals and decided that I would barricade the bottom of the door with a pair of dirty Levis. I am looking forward to seeing everyone again, being able to sleep without a bug net, drink cold water, and taking a small vacation with the family.