Happy Halloween!

The girls had a great time trick-or-treating this year, and they had some friends join them for the occasion too: Rafi and Arianna.

The night before, we had the girls open Halloween presents to get them into the Halloween spirit. They got some great goodies from both sets of grandparents and a Fancy Nancy sticker book from us. The presents were the perfect start to the excitement that was to come.

On the night of trick-or-treating, Taelyn came dressed as a penguin and sported her infamous waddle throughout the night. Kaelia was a butterfly because "bu-bye" is one of her favorite things to point out these days. In terms to getting candy, Taelyn was a pro after discovering the magic of trick-or-treating last year while Kaelia was completely new to the whole fiasco. Taelyn did a great job at saying "trick-or-treat" and then "thank you" once she got some candy. Kaelia, however, froze up a bit whenever it was time to say something. Despite all of her practice saying "tica tee" in the car, she did not manage to say it at all during the actual event. She did enjoy all of the other kids and decorations, though. In fact, well in to the night we realized that she took a plastic spider from one house to play with. We don't really know where she got it from, so it became a new toy for the play room.

By the end of the night, both girls were thrilled to come home and empty out their new stashes of candy - which did not last long before they ate everything!

Happy Halloween everyone!

Visit from Grandma & Grandpa

We had our first visitors here in South Africa as the girls' Grandma and Grandpa Walker made the long trip to stay with us during our October break. After a couple of days to get over jet lag, we all headed up to Pilanesberg for an African safari game drive. We saw the typical zebras, giraffes, wildebeest, elephants, rhinos, and springboks as well as a couple of rare finds. First, we witnessed some hippos fairly up close (from the car, of course). In the past, we have had to use binoculars to make out a hippo's face, but there was no need to this time. Then later on, we were driving along a deserted road far off the main road of the park when all of a sudden a leopard walked out right in front of us. This is an extremely rare find in the park - something that you may catch once in a lifetime! We ended up driving right behind the leopard for about five minutes. It was pretty awesome to be that close.

Next, we all hopped on a flight to Capetown where we spent a majority of our vacation. We stayed in the city for a few days to see the Aquarium, Boulder's Beach with the penguins, and to enjoy shopping and eating along the Waterfront.

Just up the road about an hour from Capetown is where he headed to next to a small town called Hermanus. Justin and I went there last year as well and knew that Bob and Karen would enjoy it during their visit. We rented a cottage on the beach where we could see whales in the ocean from the front door. One day while in town, we even saw the whales jumping out of the water. They were amazing. Hermanus is also a great destination to visit vineyards, so we went for a couple of drives to enjoy the gorgeous scenary of the winelands and stop in for a wine tasting from time to time.

After Hermanus, Justin and I returned to work while Bob and Karen took their own little trip to the Drakensburg Mountains for some hiking. They left South Africa having experienced three drastically different experiences but that all come together to define the landscape of the country.

We had a wonderful time and are grateful that our visitors came out to see us. The girls especially liked the time with Grandma and Grandpa. The only downside of the trip was that we got robbed in Hermanus, but everyone is okay and doing well.

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