Thursday, October 25, 2007

Saturday Afternoon Picnic...

Last Saturday, some new friends of ours took us on a ferry out to an island where we had a picnic. It was a very fun day. Seagulls followed the ferry with lots of people throwing bread out off the side. Some people even hand-fed them. It was quite interesting.
Also, at the picnic, we recalled that in America the ants are the traditional picnic pests. In our new country, they are the crows, the seagulls, and the cats! Zeke loved it, though.

Well, we are close to finding a place to live, which means we likely won't have the hotel's internet much longer. We will try to keep you updated as soon as we possibly can. Check back often.

Friday, October 19, 2007

The Long Journey...

We're here! Our flights went very well and getting through the airports with all our carry-ons was, well, interesting. This is a picture of how we toted much of the stuff through. (That's Zeke's stroller on top of which everything is piled.)
The flights went very well. They were about 2 hours, 8 hours, and 3 hours. Zeke cried maybe 5 minutes total. He slept a vast majority of the trip, which helped immensely. That much sleep did catch up to us the first night in our new place, however. Tired from the trip and the 1.5 hour, 18 km trip from the airport (traffic was a little bad), we crashed into bed about 10:00 p.m. local time. Zeke went right to sleep. We slept for what we thought was 6 or 7 hours, when Zeke woke up and wouldn't go back to sleep. We finally decided to get up, not knowing what time is was (because we didn't figure out until later that we needed to change the time zone on the computer and ipod, not just the time) and got ready for the day.

We're staying in a hotel the first week or so until we get into an apartment, so we headed down to the lobby to see what time it was and to see about getting something to eat. Well, the friendly man at the front desk informed us that it was 10 minutes past 2 in the morning. We were slightly surprised and decided to take to the streets anyway. So, there we were, our first night in town, wandering the streets of this new city at 2 in the morning with our one-year-old being pushed along in a stroller. We did come across a small restaraunt that was still open, where we got some very tasty lamb, also where Zeke made a new friend (see Zeke's blog), before heading back to the hotel for some more sleep. All in all, it's been a good first 12 hours, and we look forward to getting life started here.

Saturday, October 13, 2007

The Smitherman Family Fall Festival...

Today we went down to Mississippi to a Fall Festival that Dan's new brother-in-law's family was putting on. There were lots of games for the kids to play (which were also enjoyed by many adults), as well as a hay ride, beanie weenies, chili, and more. It was really a lot of fun. We are grateful to Dan's sister, Tori, for having married into the Smitherman family. If you wish to see more pictures from the day, you can find them by clicking here.

Thursday, October 11, 2007

Cedar Hill Farm

So, we went with Tami's parents last Saturday to Cedar Hill Farm, where we went on a hayride, visited a pumpkin patch, worked through a corn maze, and did lots of other fun stuff. Zeke got to ride a pony and watch a chicken show. Here are a couple of pictures from the outing. If you want to see more, click here. Hey, also, Zeke's walking now. Check out his blog if you haven't yet.