Grandma and Grandpa Came to Chogoria!

We are still enjoying the memories of my parents' visit to Chogoria last month.  We didn't have much on the agenda except to hang out, show them our daily life here, and see animals sometime.  We accomplished all of that and had a great time!

We had started a countdown for their arrival by creating this autumn tree.  A leaf would fall each day until their arrival in Kenya.  The boys loved it, and when the last leaf fell we knew it was the day to go get Grandma and Grandpa!

The first couple days were filled with them recovering from jet lag and me doing homeschool and Eli going to work.  Life as usual.  But it's such a blessing to show people our normal life here.

We also went into the Mt. Kenya National Park one day for a picnic.  The rain stayed away and we had a lovely time walking around and trying to catch a glimpse of the mountain.  Eli plans to hike the mountain at the end of the year, so we're glad to be familiar with the launching point for his hike.

And then to see animals!  Kenya's wildlife never disappoints.  We took my folks to Ol Pejeta, a place we visited in August to see that last two northern white rhinos in the world and to feed the chimpanzees in the chimp sanctuary there.  The boys remembered that last visit well and were super excited to head back, even though we told them we wouldn't be having those experiences this time.  Ol Pejeta holds a special place in our hearts!

Also, the equator runs right through there, which is just cool :)

Brace yourself for tons of safari pics!

We saw so many birds!  Including so many birds of prey!  Check out these beauties:

1) long-crested eagle 

2) fish eagle and marabou stork

3) steppe eagle

4) tawny eagle

And this crested crane family was also rather exciting.  We'd never seen a baby before, and this trio squeezed my heart!

This is a Superb Starling.  No joke.  That's it's name.  And I heartily agree that it is superb!

And a spoonbill!  I was so excited to finally see one of these!  It flew right over us as we watched an elephant in the marsh and it was simply majestic.

And no trip to Ol Pejeta would be complete without seeing rhinos.  Ol Pejeta has a large number of rhinos, both black rhinos and southern white rhinos, and we had the privilege of seeing this mama and calf up close.  Kai was the one who spotted them.  They were quite far away from us but he was convinced he'd seen a rhino, so I pulled out my zoom lens to get a closer look and sure enough, that kid was right!  The baby was nursing when we pulled up closer, which was also a first sight for us, and we were thrilled.

It cannot be stated enough how much we love to see animals in the wild!

The boys were excited to revisit this guy.  His name is Baraka, which means "blessing" in Swahili, and he is a blind black rhino who was born at Ol Pejeta 25 years ago.  Several years ago he got into a fight with another rhino and lost his right eye as a result (no joke), and then cataracts took the sight in his left eye which left him completely blind.  Baraka is now in the constant care of park rangers.  And people like us get to visit him and feed him!  It's a great chance to get up close to a rhino and learn all about them.  The park rangers at Ol Pejeta are wonderful and informative and we've learned so much from them both times we've been there.

On our way out of town we stopped for lunch at this place we'd heard about.  It's called Trout Tree Restaurant and it's basically a Swiss Family Robinson-style restaurant.  It's literally built around a huge mugumo tree, and yes, it was amazing!  It was cold and rainy that morning, but that didn't dampen our excitement.  The boys keep asking when we can go back.  We even got to see colobus monkeys up close!  The animal adventures never seem to stop :)

Finally we made our way back to Nairobi and spent a couple days exploring places in the city we'd never been to.  The first stop was Mamba Village where we got to hold a crocodile and tortoises.  Again, the boys excitement was palpable.  Everyone loved holding the croc...except my mom :)

And the boys were allowed to go right into the tortoise enclosure!  They spent awhile picking them all up and identifying if they were males or females.  Males have a concave belly, while females have a flat belly.

Lastly, we visited the Nairobi Safari Walk, which borders the Nairobi National Park.  It was basically a mini zoo, and although you might think our kids wouldn't appreciate zoos given their experiences on actual safaris, they very much love seeing any animal up close.  So this was a hit!

So we had a wonderful time with my parents!  It was not easy to say goodbye, because it never is, but we are grateful for the fun and the memories made.  And we are now looking forward to a visit from Eli's parents next year.  Goodbyes are a little easier when another hello is coming.

Fall Festivities

Tenwek does an amazing job of celebrating the American holidays, which we greatly appreciated.  I wasn't sure what the holidays would look like here at Chogoria, but so far our family has been intentional to remember the fall season.  We created some fall-ish decorations and I've been burning a candle called "Autumn Wreath" and I've been baking pumpkin and apple goodies.  

Best of all, we paired with the Webbers to celebrate a "Fall Fun Day" together.  We scrapped school for the day and opted to do all things "Fall" instead.

First on the docket: sugar cookies!  We busted out cookie cutters shaped like pumpkins, apples, leaves, bats, and owls.  The kiddos had a great time, and our kitchen was an absolute mess!  I've said it before and I will say it again: baking with kids is a labor of love.

I loved this assembly line for frosting cookies :)  It was the most focused the kids were all morning.

Then it was costume time!  The kids really wanted a chance to dress up and trick-or-treat.  The former was possible, the latter not so much.  But we busted out some Halloween candy that my sister sent across the ocean and it appeased the disappointment of not being able to trick-or-treat.  Check out these cuties!

The superheroes in action mode :)

And I gotta say how much I love these two together.  Before we moved to Chogoria I was a little worried for Kai because I knew there wouldn't be any other missionary kid his age (whereas both Caleb and Asa had someone their age).  But we've been pleasantly surprised at how much Kai and Olive have become attached to each other.  We often find these two playing in the yard together, or snuggled up reading a book together, or giggling over something silly together, or whatever.  I am so thankful that Kai has this girl!

So, with their costumes on, we introduced them to sack races!  None of the kids had ever done them before, and they loved it!  Because who doesn't love a good sack race?  And who can resist this adorableness?

Kai was the only Horn boy who wanted to race, and he did awesome.  He really jumped his way across the finish line!

After a couple rounds for the kiddos, it was the daddies' turn.  I couldn't stop laughing at Eli in that sack!  He looked so ridiculous!

Then it was another first for these kids: bobbing for apples!  Seriously, none of the kids had ever done this before.  It was so fun and hilarious to watch them figure it out.  The girls were naturals, the boys not so much...

We ended the day with a viewing of It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown and stuffing ourselves with popcorn.  It was such a great day!

We had really wanted to carve pumpkins for Fall Fun Day, but alas, pumpkins could not be found anywhere around here.  It was a disappointment, but what's a mama to do?  Well, the Webbers were in Nairobi recently and found pumpkins there, which they graciously hauled back to Chogoria, so it was "game on" for pumpkin carving!  The kiddos were pretty happy :)

And, surprise surprise, Asa wanted a rhino carved on his pumpkin.  This boy just loves rhinos!

Also, surprise surprise, Kai wanted a dragon carved on his pumpkin.  This boy just loves dragons!

Then, Caleb wanted a chameleon carved on his pumpkin.  Not too surprising, given that we're living in the land of chameleons.  The one surprise is that Caleb wanted to carve the bottom of his pumpkin.  An odd choice, but whatever!

So we've had a great time celebrating the fall season and are so thankful for another homeschooling family to do these things with.  It's such a blessing!  And since I'm one of those people that refuses to skip over Thanksgiving on our way to Christmas, we'll continue celebrating this season for the next few weeks.

Six Years and A Dragon Birthday

I have to share these photos of our Kai Guy.  They show his beautiful personality perfectly.

I took these photos on his 6th birthday, two weeks ago now.  I haven't been taking as many photos of the kids lately, and these photos make me want to change that.  I also love them because he's sitting on the playground, which he transformed into a jungle.  He was quite thorough with this project, as with all his projects.

Kai really wanted a dragon birthday this year.  He's loved dragons for awhile.  He particularly loves the movie How to Train Your Dragon and also loves listening to Eli tell stories from The Hobbit.  When I asked what he wanted on his cake this year, he was very specific: "A dragon sitting on a pile of treasure inside a cave."  After heaving a sigh, I starting crafting how to fulfill that desire.

I was lucky enough to find gold chocolate coins in a specialty store in Nairobi, then I drew this picture to work with.  All in all, it turned out rather well.

Birthdays are important to me.  I want them to feel special, and because of that I'm willing to go out of my way to make them so.  Even before we had kids I made a point to celebrate birthdays well.  Eli once told me that he didn't enjoy his birthday much until he married me - and that's because I showed him how wonderful birthdays can be!

So doing this dragon cake for Kai was an outpouring of my desire to make his birthday feel special.  And thankfully I succeeded because he was pretty pleased with this cake!

Shortly before his birthday I was able to find these dragons at a toy store in Nairobi.  I didn't know stuff like this could be found in Kenya, but we're finding more and more stuff available in Nairobi with each passing year.  It's really amazing what we can get here now.  I mean, dragon toys!  In Kenya!  Woohoo!

So we had a great birthday celebration, and I am so thankful.  Our Kai Guy is the most beautiful kid.  He is creative and energetic.  He is a fast and curious learner, way ahead of his age as far as school is concerned.  He is messy beyond belief but also the best helper I could hope for.  He loves silly things and laughs easily.  He loves snuggling up with a book and he loves drawing.  He makes sure to give me "Kai squeezes" every day because he is thoughtful and he knows I need them.  He is rather active and plays outside in the dirt and water like it's his job, unless he's literally climbing up the side of our house (which we've found him doing the past couple weeks).  He is brave and willing to try new things, but also shy around new people at first.  And he's a deep thinker.  Kai has a lot of questions and thoughts about God.  Recently he whispered in my ear, "We're like rags, and Jesus has to squeeze the sin out of us" - which he thought of all on his own.  A couple days ago he wanted to know if dinosaurs lived before or after Bible Times, and if before, then why did they eat meat, before sin entered the world?  His mind is always thinking, always wondering, always processing.  He is such a beautiful kid!  We are incredibly proud of him and so thankful we get to call this God-loving, God-fearing child our son.  Our lives are infinitely better because of him.

We love you, Kai!

A Birthday in the Park

It's already been a week since Eli's birthday, but I don't want to neglect a chance to acknowledge him and honor him.  He's been on my mind a lot today, what with being on-call all weekend, preparing for and administering an OSCE exam in the midst of being on-call, and skipping meals as if they're not important anyway.  Eli is a hard-working man and I've thought several times that this place would fall apart without him.  Well, not exactly, but you know what I mean.

The insanity of his work schedule this week made last weekend all the more special.  It was Eli's birthday and he had the entire weekend off with nothing to do but be with us.  It was bliss.

I had the idea of using our time to finally explore the Mt. Kenya National Park, which is so close to us.  Eli was on board, so I packed a picnic and off we went.

It was a glorious day!

The park is gorgeous, as expected.  The eastern side of Mt. Kenya is heavily forested and we crossed paths with some monkeys, duikers, and a bushbuck.  The boys were determined to spot the extremely endangered bongo, but of course that was not to be.  Sykes monkeys and colobus monkeys kept them thoroughly entertained, however.  (Next time I'll take my zoom lens and get better photos.)

We reached the gate and found a picnic table of sorts - a rough-hewn table with four logs serving as chairs - so we settled down to eat.

(2950 meters = 9678 feet above sea level)

Can I just say that eating PB&J sandwiches outside together is one of life's greatest pleasures?  Especially when the PB&J is followed up by a birthday scotcheroo?  Truly, one of life's greatest pleasures!

We were able to explore a bit but didn't venture to the lake or the waterfall we had intended to go to.  The rainy season is here and the rangers told us the road further down was too difficult to maneuver.  But you better believe we'll be back in dry season to check out more of the park!

Also, isn't this shirt great?  I found it on Amazon before we came back to Kenya and knew I had to get it for Eli's birthday this year.  It's too perfect!

It was a glorious day that filled us up.  We needed that, and God provided.  Surrounding ourselves with God's creation is always a good thing, and we're so grateful to discover a place that's so close to Chogoria that offers a marvelous step into nature.

At the end of the day - at the end of every day - I adore my man.  He is good and godly, an example of righteousness in our home and in this world.  He cares deeply about people and selflessly listens, helps, encourages, and pours into others.  He is patient and kind.  He is faithful.  I am incredibly proud to call him my husband and so thankful for another year celebrating him and this life we live together.  I love you, Eli.  Forever and always.