Excellent News!

After two months of checking the e-mail every morning to see if there was any news of our visas:), we finally got the word last night. We're going to Asia-Pacific!!!!! We booked our tickets today- we leave on the 20th of April.

Sea World

On our way to Sea World on Friday, we stopped so Dylan could surf. Tim met us there, and they caught a few waves.



Raquel preferred playing in the sand to watching her father.

On Thursday night, Raquel got to take Buddy and Jessie for a walk.

Trip within a trip

On Tuesday we went down to San Diego to visit our friends, Tim and Kat Warner from the MTC, and their new baby Caden. It was so good to see them- they are headed for Mozambique later this year. Tim is also from South Africa, so that's fun for Dylan. On Tuesday night we watched Dylan's brother, Wesley play soccer, and then spent the night at the Warner's. On Wed. Dylan and Tim got a good surf in, and that evening we had dinner with BJ and Kirsten Spor (Evan's brother) and their little boy Justice.

Raquel insisted on carrying the bags at Wal-Mart

Sweet baby Caden

Raquel and Tim

Raquel was really excited to get her picture taken:)

Aquarium of the Pacific

Of course Mickey had to come with us

looking at fishies with Ouma

Dorie:)

petting the sting rays

Disneyland

Philip and Tirzah took us to Disneyland on Wednesday. The weather was beautiful, and Raquel really loved it. Thanks Oupa and Ouma!

One of our first glimpses of Mickey Mouse.

Snow White's Scary Ride (or White Snow according to Raquel:)

Train ride

Knocking on what she thought was the door to Mickey's house.

For some odd reason Raquel is in love with Mickey. She's never really heard about him until we started talking about going to Disneyland a few weeks ago. Once we got there she would not rest until she got to hug him and talk to him (it was NOT enough to see him from a distance.) Once she got to meet with him, she started sobbing when she had to leave.

Waiting in line for the carousel

I waited in line for almost two hours so we could get these pictures. Raquel wanted to see Cinderella, so I waited in this line to see what we thought would be all the princesses. After an hour and forty five minutes I found out that there are only three, and Cinderella wasn't even one of them! Raquel wasn't too devastated, and we settled for Ariel, Mulan and Snow White. I do not agree with the parents I spoke to when I started waiting in the line who told me how long the wait would be, and then said 'oh, but it's worth it!' :)

One last shot of Mickey

So much fun can be exhausting:)

The Ocean and the Beach

On Tuesday we went to Huntington Beach. On the way there Raquel was very excited about going to the beach, and when we told her that she would see the ocean also, she was even more excited. It was pretty chilly by the water- all the adults wore jackets, but Raquel was in her swimsuit wading in the cold water. After an hour, when she was turning blue and shivering she finally admitted to being cold. When we left she said 'I want to go to the ocean now.' We had to explain that the ocean and the beach are right next to each other and that she had indeed just been to both.

We're in Cali

We're in L.A. visiting Dylan's parents for two weeks. We've been having lots of fun and are enjoying the nice weather!

Grandpa and Grandma Blaubach

To Alabama and back

This past weekend my cousin Allyssa and I drove our four children down to Montgomery, Alabama to visit her husband Josh who is in officer training with the Air Force. We left at 7:00 Friday morning, and after 16 hours we arrived at our hotel. Josh was able to get out at 9:30 on Sat. morning and had to go back on Sunday around 4. The weather was beautiful, it was in the 70's all weekend, and the sun was shining:) We went to a lot of kid friendly places so they could release their pent up energy from sitting in the car for hours and hours. On the drive back we split up the drive. We drove 8 hours on Sun. night and spent the night at Allyssa's grandma's house, and then just had six to drive on Monday. The kids were suprisingly good in the car. There were very few bouts of screaming and minimal pinching and fighting. We were thankfully able to use Aunt Diane's DVD player that kept them entertained for hours.

Some of my favorite quotes from the trip:

Elijah - "Raquel, you're making me very angry"

also Elijah to Raquel when she was eating beef jerky "Raquel stop eating dirt!"

Isaac in the car at 10:30 pm "Mom would you like to learn all about sloths?" (it was an option on the Ice Age 2 DVD, one that they watched four times on the way down.)


At the Montgomery Zoo


All ready for bed

It was a gorgeous day, and they got to RUN! (one of Raquel 's favorite things to do:)

Cool Cats

The boys reuniting with their Daddy:)

We got to sleep together for three nights. Yes!

Not one of her finest moments:)