Thursday, August 26, 2010

Hair Cuts and Shoes

We are getting all ready for Italy and Egypt. Thinking about seeing family for the first time in 8 months made me think about how the boys are lookin'. They received the WORST hair cuts a while back and it has grown out into ridiculously wild weird hair. Chris's fond memories of his childhood "Summer Sheerings" always win me over and I have hair cut amnesia of how much I dislike super short hair on my boys. This is Sammy with his long locks just before being shorn

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This is Lemers waiting for his turn
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This is Sammy during. He looks almost as concerned as I did
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I about had a heart attack when I saw how much hair was in the sink and that was only at the half way point
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This is Sam post cut
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Needless to say I put my foot down and Liam's hair will not be cut until we actually get to Rome. Sam told me today when I picked him up from school that he wanted his long hair back like Liam. I told him we would grow it back out and he asked when will that happen. Poor little guy. It is a ton cooler though! Bright side, think bright side ha! We also received amazing mail today. I received my shoes for the vaca. One of the more minial bummers about living away from family is that my shoe collection is dramatically impaired. With out Felicity's hand me downs I am stranded. Well everyone here wears Birks (Gizah style) and I decided to jump on the bandwagon and I LOVE them. I forgot how comfy they are! Abby also got new shoes. She got three pairs of roman sandal type shoes and a pair of gold Havianas. She is a HUGE shoe girl (I think she gets it from her Aunt Felicity) she was literally shaking and huffing and puffing when she saw the shoes. We had to sit and try each one on and then she would do a lap around the living room, come back, sit down and try another pair. Once she decided which pair to stick with she went and put them in our shoe basket. It is crazy how fast kiddos feet grow! We also cannot for the life of us find Sammy's Keens which were his school shoes and worked wonderfully because they could get wet and were sturdy enough to run around in. I have looked everywhere and know they will show up when we pack to move ha! We are getting soooo excited for our trip, is it to early to start packing? I bet my mom says nope start right now!





Tuesday, August 24, 2010

I like to fly in Helocopters

The Mercy left yesterday. I am totally bummed but at the same time so exhausted that I keep getting sick. Saying that I have been burning both ends of the candle doesn't hold a candle to the wild and crazy two weeks it has been (I was trying to fit as many cliches as I could in one sentence). Aside from attending church both Sundays, which was awesome, and having AT LEAST seven members over for dinner every single night but one, the highlight had to have been being the Commodores photographer when she went out to visit the medcap. We of course went by helicopter because it would have taken days to get there by car, the roads are that bad. This is what I look like when I am all gettuped and ready to go

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For some reason I wear the exact same outfit on every remote photo shoot. It has lots of pockets and I don't care if it gets ruined, but doesn't look super ghetto. (I learned how to dress for them after I lost one of my favorite ballet slippers to a mud slide and ruined a brand new top) The commodore joked with me that I was lucky to fly with her because they would go out of their way to show her the most beautiful parts of the island. And they weren't kidding. We saw the most amazing waterfalls and rice terraces. I have actually gotten pretty used to flying around in helicopters, although I do not call them Helo's yet like everyone else. It drives me nuts when people use trendy terms like "Cali" or "anthro" I dunno just a personal pet peeve, plus I don't think I have earned my stripes enough to use that term. But on this trip we made several mid air stops. We would just hoover there (I know thats the point of helicopters) but there is something totally unnerving about being completely suspended in the air. I just kept waiting for us to DROP and was very gratefully when we started moving again. I have so many cool pictures I want to share but could only get up a few. This was the "crazy" guy in the village. He walked around talking into the whipper beater and holding up his calculator and yelling. When I asked him in Tetun if I could take his picture he looked at me and said "oh yes thank you" in perfect English. Maybe he is only crazy in his own language?

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After watching several rather gorey procedures we went on a nature hike to see a beautiful river.

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I felt like I was in big Cottonwood Canyon again! The water is this amazing color and they said it is because it has silk in it from the silk worms in the trees above the river. How cool is that?

Then the Commodore and I played soccer with the local kids until I thought I was going to puke. Note to self, to loose pesky baby weight simply play soccer for a half hour every day.

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(That little guy in the front was totally ticked because I carried his friend around on my shoulders for half the game and then I had to leave before he got a turn, felt pretty bad about that whole situation)

I really wish I could get some more pics up of the children getting onto the helicopter going to the ship for treatment and the LINES and LINES of people waiting to be seen. They also had a bunch of dentists and it was amazing to see how totally organized they were. These volunteers are so amazing and I am so proud to be a member of our church who played a HUGE role in all of this.

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Crazy Jakarta followed by a crazy week

Just when I thought it couldn't get any busier it has! Abby and I had a crazy trip to Jakarta. It was supposed to only be three days, and we ended up staying there over a week. On the way we to Jakarta we missed our connecting flight, the airline said it was my fault for scheduling the flights so close together, so I had to run around the airport trying to find a flight to Jakarta that left that night so I didn't miss my one night at the Ritz that I was so so so excited for. I shelled out the CRAZY amount for a tiny one way flight and ran to the plane (oh and the airline had lost my luggage... on a nonstop 1.5 hour flight? What the what?) Abby and I just caught the flight and the flight attendant (I am sure trying to be nice) brought Abbers what I thought was rice pudding but after a few bites Abby started SCREAMING so I tired it and discovered that no, it was spicy yellow curry. Abby proceeded to throw up all over me for the next hour or so when she wasn't screaming. We finally made it to the hotel (which had CRAZY security because apparently it was bombed last year, ahhhhh!) and we got to our amazing room at 11:45 PM!!!! I washed our clothes in the bath tub and was never more grateful for huge fluffy bathrobes. OUr friend Cherylyn picked us up (after a wild goose chase, she thought I would stay at the other Ritz, not the one that had been bombed, apparently I need to do better research on my five star hotels ha!) The next morning I headed in for my root canal, joy of joys! The day after that Abby got her 1 year immunizations (5 shoots) and blood drawn. Cherylyn was kind enough to cart us around to all the amazing, out of this world, malls. I literally never thought I would say it but upon entering one mall the words "this is too big" actually escaped my lips. We ate out at fabulous restaurants and went to THE coolest fabric mecca I have ever seen. (I will upload pics as soon as our internet isn't lame). The dentist needed me to stay for five days so we had already pushed everything back so that I could make my second apt. On the second supposed day of departure, Tanner was kind enough to drive me to my apt. while Cherylyn watched Abby. About five mins after we left Abby tripped and hit her head really hard on her coffee table. Cher called and told us we needed to turn around and come back. Honestly I didn't think it would be that bad, head wounds tend to bleed like crazy. When I saw it though I totally went into shock and thought "oh my goodness there is a chunk of my daughters head somewhere on your carpet!" Tanner loaded us up and we spent the next 2.5 HOURS trying to find the SOS, medical center that Expats are supposed to go to. Keep in mind EVERYONE in Jakarta has drivers because traffic is so bad and the streets are so crazy, and the Nielsen's usually do, but Sat is his day off. My flight out was at 6:30pm and I REALLY didn't want to miss it. Cher sent Chris an email and then Skyped with him to let him know what was going on. We were about to give up when we finally found it. There was a sweet Indonesian man waiting outside with a huge umbrella (did I mention it was lashing rain?) and as soon as he saw us came running. We saw a very sweet American doctor who informed me that no, there was no way we would make our flights and essentially if I were a good parent who cared about how my poor daughter looked I would go to the hospital and have a plastic surgeon stitch her up. Flash forward 2 hours, the plastic surgeon finally makes it through the rain and traffic and they have to put Abby under to do the stitches. The local Embassy nurse demands to be in the operating room (she literally said to me "if I am not in that room this surgery is not happening" and took my gown) as I stand in the hall crying. 15 stitches later we head home.

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Yeah, it makes me so tired even thinking about it. We end up flying out to Bali a few days later. Our flight is again delayed (oh and we still have no luggage, they refused to send it on and told me just to get it on the way back to Dili) so we arrive at 10:30pm. In Bali you have to get off the plane and then take a bus to the terminal. You are of course SHOVED in together like sardines. Since I had no luggage (the counter was closed by now) I ran out to Que up for a taxi. I got to the front, told them where I was going, reach into my bag and my wallet is gone. It had been stolen while I was shoved in together on the bus. OH MY GOSH. I literally was freaking out. Here I was in Bali with no money, no debit card, no credit cards and essentially 1.50 in cash. I thought to myself okay, the flight leaves early tomorrow morning we can just sleep at the airport. I kept my Diplomatic passport in my pocket at all times so we were good there, but there is a 15 dollar exit fee, crap. I walked over to the crowd of 100 or so drivers waiting to take people to their hotels and yelled out "Conrad? I am going to the Conrad!" Miracle of miracles (there were several that night) a very nice gentleman steps forward and said he was from Conrad and asked if I had requested transport. I told him no and then started crying and explained what happened. He immediately took me to airport police and helped me fill out all the paper work to report the incident (which is just ridiculous and a waste of time). He then grabbed one of their other drivers and had him take me to the hotel. It was about a 20 minute drive and I literally sat in the back crying and praying the entire time. I had no idea how I was going to get a hold of Chris. It was past midnight Dili time so there would not be anyone at the switchboard and there was no way he would be on skype. We pulled up to the hotel and the manager opened the door and said "Our driver called us and told us what happened and we have your husband on hold at the desk" OH MY GOSH!!!!! I got to the phone and of course starting bawling my eyes out, the other workers defiantly thought I was crazy. Chris had no idea what was going on but right before going to bed though "I should call Kelly and make sure everything is okay with the hotel". When they told him I hadn't checked in yet he knew something was wrong. So, Abby and I get to our room AGAIN past 11pm, which is sooo sad because look how gorgeous THIS place is. The hotel manager was very kind and said they would easily charge extra money to the card for the room and give me cash so I could get out of the country. Then, the next morning when I came up for breakfast they handed me my wallet! The first driver guy had gone back with the airport police and searched through the bus's and found it! All the money was gone but my debit card and ID were still there! AMAZING! When I went to the airport I was finally reunited with our luggage, which I unfortunately had to immediately recheck, and boarded the plane no problem. I never thought I would be THAT happy to see Dili! The boys and Chris were waiting at the airport with little signs and I thought I had died and gone to heaven! Talk about a crazy trip. The thing was, except for the traveling and stitches it was such a fun trip! The Nielsen's are wonderful hostess and Cher and I had such a blast together. Of course right when we got back the USNS Mercy docked which has meant NON STOP fun crazy busy days. I was Helloed out the Same to take pictures of the Commadore visiting a medcap and it was amazing. But the highlight HAS to be the fact that there are 40 volunteers from LDS church services! I was assigned to photograph one of their deliveries to a Muslim orphanage. I loved seeing box's with our church's logo being handed up:
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And the children were adorable
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Soft spoken and shy
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And so excited to color, play with play dough and just talk with our church volunteers:
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They were all so grateful, and expressed their sentiments via a play dough message (note the spelling)
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On Sunday we were sooo lucky and got to go out on the Mercy for church! The kids were ecstatic to go on a little boat out to a big ship. Before church we were given an extra special tour that involved the boys getting to sit in an actual helicopter!
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(Abby also had her stitch's taken out about 2 mins after we boarded, hence the sponge bob band aide)
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(you are not allowed wear dresses on the ship hence my pants)
We had a YUMMY dinner with soft serve ice cream and girl scout cookies for desert then headed down to the chapel. It was lovely singing with an organ and shhhhshing the kids! Sam gave his very first talk on board woo hoo how cool is that! And then we had primary in the peds ward where we sang primary songs to the kids healing from surgery. The boys also had gone through their toys and picked out ones they wanted to give to the children and were able to hand them out. Chris and I made sure that everyone had our numbers to call us when they were on liberty and lets just say that everyday this week at 12 at least 8 have been on liberty shoved in our tiny jeep cruzin' Timor and then coming to the house for dinner.
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(okay smallest world ever, emily in the middle of the photo, was roommates at BYU with my best childhood friend! Man the LDS world is a small one!) I actually was really sick the other night and I think I had literally run myself ragged, and it is only the middle of the week! Ha! So needless to say things have been WILD around here. Add into that embassy and private photo shoots, and the fact that both boys start back to school this week and I am DYING for our R&R, 3 weeks to Rome! Plenty more pics and stories to come, I just wanted to do SOME sort of update, even if it is 12:45 at night here (yeah our kids went to bed at 10pm, way to much going on!) And this last picture just because abbers looks so tough with her band aide
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Crazy Jakarta followed by a crazy week

Just when I thought it couldn't get any busier it has! Abby and I had a crazy trip to Jakarta. It was supposed to only be three days, and we didn't leave until almost a week later. On the way we missed our connecting flight, the airline said it was my fault for scheduling the flights so close together, so I had to run around the airport trying to find a flight to Jakarta that left that night so I didn't miss my one night at the Ritz that I was so so so excited for. I shelled out the CRAZY amount for a tiny one way flight and ran to the plane (oh and the airline had lost my luggage... on a nonstop 1.5 hour flight? What the what?) Abby and I just caught the flight and the flight attendant (I am sure trying to be nice) brought Abbers what I thought was rice pudding but after a few bites Abby started SCREAMING so I tired it and discovered that no, it was spicy yellow curry. Abby proceeded to throw up all over me for the next hour or so when she wasn't screaming. We finally made it to the hotel (which had CRAZY security because apparently it was bombed last year, ahhhhh!) and we got to our amazing room at 11:45 PM!!!! I washed our clothes in the bath tub and was never more grateful for huge fluffy bathrobes. OUr friend Cherylyn picked us up (after a wild goose chase, she thought I would stay at the other Ritz, not the one that had been bombed, apparently I need to do better research on my five star hotels ha!) The next morning I headed in for my root canal, joy of joys! The day after that Abby got her 1 year immunizations (5 shoots) and blood drawn. Cherylyn was kind enough to cart us around to all the amazing out of this world malls, I literally never thought I would say it but upon entering one mall the words "this is too big" actually escaped my lips. We ate out at fabulous restaurants and went to THE coolest fabric mecca I have ever seen. (I will upload pics as soon as our internet isn't lame). The dentist needed me to stay for five days so we had already pushed everything back so that I could make my second apt. The day of Tanner was kind enough to drive me while Cherylyn watched Abby. About five mins after we left Abby tripped and hit her head really hard on her coffee table. Cher called and told us we needed to turn around and come back. Honestly I didn't think it would be that bad, head wounds tend to bleed like crazy. When I saw it though I totally went into shock and thought "oh my goodness there is a chunk of my daughters head somewhere on your carpet!" Tanner loaded us up and we spent the next 2.5 HOURS trying to find the SOS medical center that Expats are supposed to go to. Keep in mind EVERYONE in Jakarta has drivers because traffic is so bad and the streets are so crazy, the Nielsens usually do but Sat is his day off. My flight out was at 6:30 and we knew there was no way we were going to make it. Cher sent Chris an email and then Skyped with him to let him know what was going on. We were about to give up when we found SOS, there was a sweet Indonesian man waiting outside with a huge umbrella (did I mention it was lashing rain?) and as soon as he saw us came running. We saw a very sweet American doctor who informed me that no, there was no way we would make our flights and essentially if I were a good parent who cared about how my poor daughter looked I would go to the hospital and have a plastic surgeon stitch her up. Flash forward 2 hours plastic surgeon finally makes it through the rain and traffic and they have to put Abby under to do the stitches. The local Embassy nurse demands to be in the operating room (she literally said to me "if I am not in that room this surgery is not happening" and took my gown) as I stand in the hall crying. 15 stitches later we head home.

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Yeah, it makes me so tired even thinking about it. We end up flying out to Bali a few days later. Our flight is again delayed (oh and we still have no luggage, they refused to send it on and told me just to get it on the way back to Dili) so we arrive at 10:30pm. In Bali you have to get off the plane and then take a bus to the terminal. You are of course SHOVED in together like sardines. Since I had no luggage (the counter was closed by now) I ran out to Que up for a taxi. I got to the front, told them where I was going, reach into my bag and my wallet is gone. It had been stolen while I was shoved in together on the bus. OH MY GOSH. I literally was freaking out. Here I was in Bali with no money, no debit card, no credit cards and essentially 1.50 in cash. I thought to myself okay, the flight leaves early tomorrow morning we can just sleep at the airport. I kept my Diplomatic passport in my pocket at all times so we were good there, but there is a 15 dollar exit fee, crap. I walked over to the crowd of 100 or so drivers waiting to take people to their hotels and yelled out "Conrad? I am going to the Conrad!" Miracle of miracles (there were several that night) a very nice gentleman steps forward and asks if I said he was from Conrad and asked if I had requested transport. I told him no and then started crying and explained what happened. He immediately took me to airport police and helped me fill out all the paper work. He then grabbed one of their other drivers and had him take me to the hotel. It was about a 20 minute drive and I literally sat in the back crying and praying the entire time. I had no idea how I was going to get a hold of Chris. It was past midnight Dili time so there would not be anyone at the switchboard and there was no way he would be on skype. We pulled up to the hotel, the manager opened the door and said "Our driver called us and told us what happened and we have your husband on hold at the desk" OH MY GOSH!!!!! I got to the phone and of course starting bawling my eyes out, the other workers defiantly thought I was crazy. Chris had no idea what was going on but right before going to bed though "I should call Kelly and make sure everything is okay with the hotel". When they told him I hadn't checked in yet he knew something was wrong. So Abby and I get to our room AGAIN past 11pm, which is sooo sad because look how gorgeous THIS place is. The hotel manager was so nice and said they would easily charge extra money to the card for the room and give me cash so I could get out of the country. Then the next morning when I came up for breakfast they handed me my wallet! The first driver guy had gone back with the airport police and searched through the bus's and found it! All the money was gone but my debit card and ID were still there! AMAZING! When I went to the airport I was finally reunited with our luggage, which I unfortunately had to immediately recheck, and boarded the plane no problem. I never thought I would be THAT happy to see Dili! The boys and Chris were waiting at the airport with little signs and I thought I had died and gone to heaven! Talk about a crazy trip. The thing was except for the traveling and stitches it was such a fun trip! The Nielsen's are wonderful hostess and Cher and I had such a blast together. Of course right when we got back the USNS Mercy docked which has meant NON STOP fun crazy busy days. I was Helloed out the Same to take pictures of the Commadore visiting a medcap and it was amazing. But the highlight HAS to be the fact that there are 40 volunteers from LDS church services! I was assigned to photograph one of their deliveries to a Muslim orphanage. I loved seeing box's with our church's logo being handed up:
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And the children were adorable
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Soft spoken and shy
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And so excited to color, play with play dough and just talk with our church volunteers:
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They were all so grateful, and expressed their sentiments via a play dough message (note the spelling)
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On Sunday we were sooo lucky and got to go out on the Mercy for church! The kids were ecstatic to go on a little boat out to a big ship. Before church we were given an extra special tour that involved the boys getting to sit in an actual helicopter!
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(Abby also had her stitch's taken out about 2 mins after we boarded, hence the sponge bob band aide)
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(you are not allowed wear dresses on the ship hence my pants)
We had a YUMMY dinner with soft serve ice cream and girl scout cookies for desert then headed down to the chapel. It was lovely singing with an organ and shhhhshing the kids! Sam gave his very first talk on board woo hoo how cool is that! And then we had primary in the peds ward where we sang primary songs to the kids healing from surgery. The boys also had gone through their toys and picked out ones they wanted to give to the children and were able to hand them out. Chris and I made sure that everyone had our numbers to call us when they were on liberty and lets just say that everyday this week at 12 at least 8 have been on liberty shoved in our tiny jeep cruzin' Timor and then coming to the house for dinner.
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(okay smallest world ever, emily in the middle of the photo, was roommates at BYU with my best childhood friend! Man the LDS world is a small one!) I actually was really sick the other night and I think I had literally run myself ragged, and it is only the middle of the week! Ha! So needless to say things have been WILD around here. Add into that embassy and private photo shoots, and the fact that both boys start back to school this week and I am DYING for our R&R, 3 weeks to Rome! Plenty more pics and stories to come, I just wanted to do SOME sort of update, even if it is 12:45 at night here (yeah our kids went to bed at 10pm, way to much going on!) And this last picture just because abbers looks so tough with her band aide
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Sunday, August 8, 2010

Last week we headed up with our friends the Hiemstra's and the Harries to a little village in the mountains called Maubisse. On the way up there was a funeral procession that lasted for about a mile. It was interesting to watch.

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It was a wonderful little getaway where we did absolutely nothing. Seriously, nothing. We let the kids go nuts and run around and play with each other and we sat around talking and enjoying being in the rain and COLD. Where we stayed was at this OLD OLD place called the Poussada. It was a huge gorgeous manner when the Portugeuse controlled Timor. We stayed in the servants quarters as opposed to the main house and the kids had such a blast!
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I accidentally left my camera sitting on the couch so all of these were taken with our video camera in camera mode, they aren't all that bad.

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Abby on the steps leading up to the main house
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Liam and Roman making fishing poles out of sticks and tea bags (this is what happens when you purposely don't bring toys!)
Sam was hanging out with his best school buddy which always means Liam gets abandoned. It makes my heart hurt a little. So we spent lots of quality time together. We took a walk and found a monkey
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And flowers that looked like horns,
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then found out they were hallucinogenic if you touched them for too long, ooopps. We enjoyed wearing flannel and saying "I need some mittens it's so cold!"
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Figured out what we would look like if we were at woodstock and big ole hippies
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It was nice spending some quality time with just Lemers. He is such an easy going guy I think sometimes he is so content we don't worry enough about giving him his fair share of attention.
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Enjoyed the lovely tandem swing...
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"Um mom where are the seats?"
Admired the ingenuity and reuse of USAID products we have given the Timorese
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Ate our weight in rocks.... well some of us did
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ran around ALOT
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Some of us were good and just looked at the turtles...
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While others threw caution to the wind and threats of salmonial were ignored as was the rule that you don't throw turtles back and forth to each other
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One candle was lit, but it took four children to blow it out
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Some of the other guests had a huge fire going and a giant cooler (the biggest I have ever seen) chakabox full of sodas and snacks and kept bribing all the kids to take pictures of them by giving them sprite and treats until finally we had to put a stop to it.
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Abby was mesmerized by the fire and kept trying to walk over to it.
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(I know how to get rid of red eye but how do you get ride of crazy possessed silver eyes?)
On old drained pool became the coolest hid out ever,
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but mostly we saw a lot of these:
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and heard a lot of this "this is the BEST day ever mom!"! That night Sam and Chris slept in one room with Abby and Liam and I in the other. It was so nice to sleep without worry of mosquitos and being so incredibly hot you can't stand it (like in Autauro). We woke up in the morning and had a lovely breakfast of buns and jam and let the kids play for a bit in the rain. Liam and Roman enjoyed eating their cereal on our porch
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While Sammy pouted because we had to leave and he wanted to stay with Noah
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On the way back the weather looked like this:
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So it is not to surprising that we got lost. Especially when you take into consideration that in Timor the "road less taken" is the one that is pristine and intact. While the one that leads to the capital city is terrible and completely chopped up. About an hour into the drive our engine started billowing smoke so we pulled over and Chris and I had an adventure with the radiator. It actually turned out that when we had turned the heater on the car freaked out because it had never had the heater turned on before ha! After about another hour the boys were begging for food so we pulled over and I hoped out to get fruit snacks out of the back. There were three local children hanging out on the side of the road and I thought they might like some so I gave them each a pack of fruit snacks. The littlest guy had me open his and the smile he gave me was priceless
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The scenery was amazing
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And we made it home safe and sound, it was such a great little break!