Kribi

Here are some happy photos from our little weekend beach trip!!

It was a nice overcast, cool day our first morning there! :) Yea!



Claire was fine as long as she wasn't too close to the water.



Here is Andrew chilling with Amadou (our French instructor). He's right at home! :)



Josh and I are testing the water. The Atlantic Ocean is SO much warmer than the Pacific!! Even on the Eastern side of it! :)



We got wet! Josh is so proud! :)



Here are the kids with their 'sand castle'...or sand lump...



And, as always, you can't keep a good man down! Devin is so good about jumping right in and playing with the kids! (Especially when I'm suffering from lack of energy and morning sickness!)



This is our peacock friend. There were 2 of them, just roaming around the place!



Here we are walking to some waterfalls just down the beach from our hotel. Claire kept falling behind, so I held one hand, and Amadou held her other. How I have missed walking along a beach barefoot!!



Claire did NOT like the waterfalls!!!



Most of the family posing on a rock. Devin was actually trying to get them to calm down and hold still, so I had him do a quick pose in the middle of it! :) (You can still see poor Andrew having a hard time...)



Here is a fisherman! (Out for a pleasure cruise in Eel infested waters...)



Some Pretty Views of the Falls...





There was a little restraunt just above and to the left of where I was standing...and this is the girl who washes their dishes for them. She wasn't the only only one washing things in the falls. There were two other ladies there washing their clothes...Not to mention......



They also catch the food that they serve at the restraunt right there with the washed dishes and clean clothes! Whew!



Did anyone know that Shrimps had huge claws? I didn't. I must be retarded, but I was shocked! But, hey, they taste good! Especially barbequed! :)



And, as usual, I have to put in a plug to remind everyone how pretty it is here... :)

Clarification

I did want to answer a few comments that have been posted, as I felt they were especially relevant...ha ha ha...

As far as the little baby widgets that I have floating around my blog, it mentions (twice, I believe) about having my 20 kids. I have done the numbers, and have figured that if I continue on my '2 year track' of having children as I have hitherto done, I will be 62 when I have number 20. Well, obviously, that might not be quite possible. And, as we have no history of twins in our families (right????) we won't have that option available to supplement. I did know of a woman who was 56 when she had her last child, but she only had 13 kids, and if I were to have my last at 56 that would leave me with only 17, which would, of course, be short of my goal of 20. I have thought of adoption, but I don't know that they would really consider that with the number of kids we'd have. So, alas, I suppose that 20 kids may be beyond my reach...but who knows? Miracles do happen! :P



It is true that this baby will catch us up with my own parents. It also means we are halfway to Devin's! :) Devin has 6 sisters and 1 brother, I have 2 brothers and one sister. Usually, when people find out how many siblings Devin has, they always ask us if we're planning to have that many, so I always tell them we're not...we're going to have 20 instead and out-do everyone! Ha! Of course, it's not the truth. It's more of the We-have-absolutely-no-idea-how-many---Do-you? answer. I do love babies...and I love my kids more than anything. I plan to have at least 3. Probably 4. More than likely we'll have more. They're a fantastic tax break, and they definitely keep me from being idle and lazy! :) And beyond that, they teach me how to be extra loving and patient, how to be humble and teachable, and they show me each day a little vision of heaven! They are a blessing, and I will take as many as Heavenly Father is willing to send me! :))

Long Weekend

Once again, we are leaving for the weekend, so my blog will be silent. This week has been spent enjoying Monday and Tuesday off (Cameroonian holiday), and not much else! :) I will be happy to be able to post some more pictures and movies from our little holiday at the beach!!! In the meantime, my dad sent me this via email, and I thought I'd share with everyone the new $5 bill:



Happy Memorial Day, everyone! I hope you all have a bar-b-Q and eat a lot of potato salad, chips and ice cream for me!! :) (Oh, that sounds good!!!)

Swimmer's Hair

Well, I wish I could say that my long absence from making any new posts is because I've been busy doing exciting things...but, sadly, that's not it. We've gone swimming in the new pool nearby, and that's been REALLY nice. I've just been sick and tired. I know, I know...complain, complain! I think I'm still in denial, and sometimes I actually wonder why I'm so completely exhausted and without energy! Ha! I would have thought that after already having three kids I would be 'used' to this...but luckily, we somehow forget (no matter how good our memory is...) how NASTY we feel those first few months! I really am not that bad, though, so no worries! I am VERY grateful for my circumstances this time around--that I'm not tired, sick AND overwhelmed with all the cleaning I have to do! It is a GREAT blessing for which I am grateful a million times over every single day!!!!

We were supposed to go canoeing yesterday it fell through, and I admit that I was sad!! I was looking forward to another interesting jungle adventure! Oh well. We went to a dinner party instead. It was nice--we met some new people that just moved in. It's nice not to be the new people here anymore! :) And it's nice when the new people moving in have little kids, and the mom doesn't work! Yea! Friends!! :))

So, here are some pics of our swimming fun. I'll try to think of interesting things to post again so it isn't weeks and weeks between posts! :)

Isn't this the most beautiful vista? And there's little Andrew contemplating jumping into the pool without his floatie! He has no fear!


Here are my happy boys! :)


It was 8am on a Saturday--and a fantastically beautiful day!! :)

Claire had a bad hair night! :) I washed her hair using the bathwater, but since I also use Skin So Soft, it made her hair very oily. I was playing with it, and realized that it stayed in whatever position I happened to move it, so this was the funny result!




Claire's sad face...


This is the Mother's Day card that Devin and the kids made for me! I should have taken a pic of the back, too, because that's where the kids added their pictures! :) My favorite was Josh's comment: "See mom!? I drew a picture of me and dad, and I wrote, 'I love Dad the most! I love mom and Claire and Andrew, too, but I love dad the most!'" I had to laugh that he put that on my Mother's Day card! :)) (And no, I didn't feel bad!)

Honorable Mentions

Here are a few kid funnies that I have to share:

The other day, Devin came home for lunch so that we could fill out our absentee voter registration stuff and send it off. Devin was really concentrating as Josh kept trying to talk to him. Finally, Josh looks at him and says, "Daddy, what are you doing?" "I'm trying to fill out mommy's voter registration." I looked over at Josh and he had that furrowed brow, and you knew he was trying to figure out what all of that just meant. Then I heard him mumble..."Hmmm...voter implication. Dad, why are we going there on vacation?"


I was helping Claire in the bathroom (as usual...since I have to put ALL of the toilet paper up as high as possible so I don't come in to see that the toilet paper roll is empty and the kids are swimming in toilet paper...), and after, I washed my hands. I told Claire, "Come wash your hands with this nice soap, Claire!" Claire asked me what kind it was, and I said it was berry scented. Then she looked at me and said, "Mom, we need to use Palmyra soap!" (I didn't think Palmolive and Palmyra would be something that would be mixed up, but there you are!)


While we were on our trip to Foumban, we did a lot of shopping. Thankfully, there were some wonderful girls there that helped me to keep track of my kids...and the kids absolutely adore them!!! :) Well, the girls gave Claire 50 cfa (roughly the equivalent of about 12 cents) and said that was her money, and she could buy whatever she wanted to if they would take it. Well, it turns out, Claire is a natural! She had that money clasped in front of her, and when they would go into a shop, she would hold it out, smile adorably and say "Pleeeeeeease?" or "S'il vous plait" (which really got 'em!) and the vendors would smile at her and pat her head and give her free things because they thought she was so cute!! She got a necklace and SIX mini masks all for free--she even got to keep her 50 francs! :) What a girl!! I'm going to have to lock her in her room when she gets older! :))


Josh didn't have such good luck while we were in Foumban. He LOVES to run, as anyone who knows him knows. But he was so tired and off-kilter while we were there, his balance wasn't so hot. We'd gotten to the hotel, and he and the other kids started running around the 'tennis court'. I think they were playing tag. Well, Josh biffs it. Poor kid. So, I come running...thankfully, Devin packed bandaids in the diaper bag, and I carry around neosporin type stuff, and I was able to patch him up a bit, and he was happy to have his Scooby doo band aid on his left knee. Well, about 1/2 hour later...I hear Josh screaming his head off. I run out: Scooby Doo is plastered across the pavement, and there are more rocks and dirt to clean out of his knee. *Sigh* So, I told him he couldn't run anymore that night. Next day, they were running around in the courtyard around some vendors as some of us were shopping...and...SMASH! Once again, Josh is on the ground and scooby doo comes to the rescue. Same knee. More rocks. Next day...a different place...another courtyard surrounded by vendors and a perfect place to play tag--or soccer, I think it was this time--and down he goes! Timber!! My poor little boy! His knees are going to look like mine--scrapes and bruises and scars from falling down a lot in foreign countries! That kid used up all the Scooby Doo band aids on ONE spot on the SAME knee! Now that we are home, he hasn't fallen again...yet! :))

Hotel Baba

We made a little 'Pit stop' at a hotel in a village called Bafousam.



They had some pretty sweet bushes! This one looked like a fish diving in the water:



No one was really sure what this one was, but it looked pretty cool!



When we finally got to Foumban, we found our hotel: Hotel Baba! :)

This is the Hotel front taken from the front seat of the van as we pulled in:



Another good shot:



We hadn't eaten all day, so here we are in the hotel's restraunt waiting for our super expensive dinner of fish, chicken, plantains and french fries:



I wish I had taken more pictures of inside our 'fancy' room! This bed Josh is sleeping on was shared by Josh and Claire. You can see Andrew's little pack-n-play in the corner there. The smell of mothballs was SO strong in that room! Whew!!!!! Gives me a headache just thinking about it! :P But it was definitely an experience! From creepy foam beds, to damp blankets and sheets, to huge foam pillows to dirty floors with moth balls to a very interesting bathroom with only cold water (because the water heater was next door, and off!!!), to no screens on the windows and no mosquito nets...it was a very interesting stay!! There is, of course, no air conditioning there. So, we asked for a fan. They brought in this HUGE monster fan! It was as tall as me and twice as wide! BUT, there were no outlets to plug it in! So, we told the owner, and they came in, took a plate off the wall (not one for eating), pulled out some wires, and hooked up a new outlet--all without turning the electricity off! So, I came in to see this outlet hanging out of the wall by a few wires, and this huge fan going full blast...boy was this an experience!!! :)



This is outside one of the 'rooms'. They were cute little 'houses' outside. Josh has a nice bag of oatmeal-craisin cookies for the road.



I took this picture! Fun, eh?



Claire was playing tag with some other kids that had come with us. I yelled out to her to smile, and she turned her head and grinned without even breaking stride!



Family photo in front of our lovely room:



Camping, eat your heart out! :)

The Sultan's Palace

When we got to Foumban, the first thing we did--before finding a hotel, before even eating-- we visited the home of a Royal Princess. She had invited us over. I thought it was really funny as we were all sitting in this room...she had her television on and there were all these skanky music videos on, and all of us were sitting half dead! We'd just traveled for 6 hours straight, none of us had eaten since about 6am and it was around 4pm, and we knew that it took at least 2 hours for food to be prepared... so most of us sat in the room with glazed over eyes. :) But, Joshua sat next to the Princess, and they struck up a conversation:

P: So, are you out of school for this trip?

J: No, I don't go to school yet.

P: Oh, do you do school at home?

J: Yes, but I'm not old enough to go to real school. I will start in the fall (these people have no concept of what fall is, so I thought that was funny...)

P: Oh, the fall. You will like school?

J: Yah, I'm excited. I'm going to be gone all day every day.

P: Will it be fun?

J: Yah. I will be gone and I'll have fun. My mom will miss me, though.


What a conversation to have! Ha!!

We also got to see the palace of the Sultan of Foumban. Here we are standing in front of it!



There were some interesting murals on the walls and statues on the grounds...
These 2 are parts of one long mural:




This is the dynasty of the Sultans all written out. Sort of like a 'Who's Who' of Sultanry in Foumban:



And here was a wall with portraits of the sultans. This is the current sultan! Nice glasses, eh??



Devin bought some bread, and, as is the usual culture in Cameroon, if they see a white person, the start coming over to sell. If the white person buys, they swarm! So, Devin took some pictures with the street vendors. All street vendors here carry everything on their heads.



There were some 'royal riders' as I called them. Guys all dressed up and riding around their ponies. The kids thought it was pretty cool. They even got to pet one!



The Royal Musiciens played for us, too! It was pretty fun!



They even had me dance with them!