The Walker Family: Thanksgiving Weekend

We had a couple of days off of school for Thanksgiving, so we decided to take a little road trip down south to the ocean. Before leaving, though, the school had an International Day celebration where everyone came dressed to represent their own countries and marched in a parade in sections of the different countries. I brought the girls up to school that day, and we all marched together in our red, white, and blue. It was a very nice celebration.

The next day, headed south to a small diving town called Umkomaas. We stayed in a great little cottage with a swimming pool and a big back yard for Taelyn to run around. One day while Taelyn and I were hanging out outside, we noticed that there was a mango tree in the yard. So we went to investigate and see if there were any ripe mangoes to pick. As we got closer and closer to the tree, mangoes kept falling down, nearly missing our heads. We looked up and found several monkeys in the trees that were trying to hit us with the mangoes! Eventually the monkeys decided to leave us alone, and Taelyn loved to see them every day. We soon discovered that they were a family with two little babies that would hold on to an adult monkey's belly every time they moved about the trees.

Most of the time while in Umkomaas we just relaxed, but Justin and I also went scuba diving over a couple of days. Depending on what sources you read, Umkomaas is ranked in the top 5 or 10 diving spots in the world. My diving experience definitely lived up to these expectations. I saw many sharks and at one point was just a few feet above one. They were large and harmless. The diving instructor found a shark tooth during our dive that he gave to me under water. I also saw huge sea turtles and again, came very close to one, and I saw lots of interesting types of fish and coral. It was an amazing dive - the best I have ever had. Justin, however, did not have the same experience. He struggled with some ear issues, and his dive site was not as eventful as the one that I went to (we went separately from one another so one person was with the kids while the other person went diving). He had to end his diving short for the weekend and unfortunately did not get the same experience that I had.

We also took the girls to the ocean during our trip. It was our first time ever going to the Indian Ocean and Kaelia's first time at any ocean. We were not dressed to swim, but I dangled her legs in the waves; she seemed to really like it. Taelyn could not say the same thing, though. At first she liked the beach and the waves. But then when a wave came crashing in and knocked her down, she did not have a good experience any more.

The entire weekend was very relaxing and calm, and we were happy to see a new part of South Africa. It truly is a beautiful country.