Dublin

We've arrived in Dublin!  The last few weeks have been a blur as we arrived in Dublin, fought jet lag, Jeff traveled to Budapest for a week, received all of our household effects and our car, met new colleagues and church friends, attended many holiday functions, and held our own family Christmas!  It's been busy, but everything has gone so well and we've had lots of fun.

Dublin is a great city - even in the dead of winter - and Ireland is beautiful.  Here are some "first impression" photos:

Here's our great little house (front...

...and back)

At the coast at Bray (just south of Dublin)

And at Wicklow Mountains National Park

We are so happy to finally be here and get settled in.  Visitors are welcome, so make your plans to come out in 2009!

Happy Halloween!

We really enjoyed being back in the States for Halloween this year.  We arrived in Arlington just a week before the first Halloween party, but Stacey still managed to make excellent costumes for Noah and Caleb.  She picked up costumes for Elijah and Ivy on sale at Old Navy.  They had so much fun dressing up. 

Caleb's bones and face glowed in the dark - which was very cool, but we couldn't get a good photo of it.

Ivy was a pink cat (pink is her favorite color, or more accurately her ONLY color).
Noah was a vampire...
...with his own sidekick bat!

The trunk-or-treat at church got rained out, but we moved down to the classrooms and set up trick-or-treat booths.  Stacey created a very mean monster, and the kids had to reach their hands into the mouth to get their candy!

On Halloween night, the kids went around our neighborhood - which was spookily decorated all down the street - and scored way too much candy.  Despite squirrels eating extra holes in the jack-o-lanterns we left outside, Halloween was a smash!

Fun Weekend

A couple of weeks ago we took advantage of a long weekend due to a Friday Cameroonian holiday and decided to make a trek toward the north out to a resort we have heard great things about - Petpenoun. We traveled with our friends, Tad and Danya and their son, Kavi.

Our drive on Friday was about 5 hours, made longer by some traffic as we headed out of town. This gave us a great opportunity to take some pictures of things that we pass by everyday but haven't recorded on film. Chances are we won't see this kind of stuff in Ireland, so we wanted to capture some of the essence of the busy Yaounde streets.

These were all shot out of our car window. Here are a few carts and stalls, people hoping to sell something to passers-by. The main carts in the picture are piled with peanuts.

This is a hardware store condensed to a movable cart.

Here is a typical, side-of-the-road lumber yard.

Anyone need a wheelbarrow full of flip-flops?? The ultimate in convenience shopping - just do it from the comfort of your own car!

That is a pile of foam matteresses . . . stacked outside . . . in the dust of traffic and the elements of weather.

And here is the living room set next to the mattresses. They do pull out some plastic sheets to cover these when it rains. They don't get very wet.

Homemade manequins.

Here is the clothing section of the department store, hung on a curb dividing the street.

We finally made our way out of the city and drove through some beautiful scenery and ended up at our destination, nestled in beautiful hills next to a small lake. The buildings of the resort are just visible in this picture:

The resort had lots of activities: wakeboarding, boating, hiking, golfing - and plenty of great food. Here are some photos of the weekend:

Ivy Is Two!!

We had a very busy time packing out, but we did not want to forget about Ivy's birthday. Our little girl is two years old already! We decided to celebrate a day early so that we could have a swim party at our new house with our friends, the Hendriksens and Tad and Kavi. Ivy, born in water, continues to love splashing around in a pool. She also really liked her cupcakes and blowing out the candles. Happy Birthday, Ivy!!!

Pack Out

Even though we still have 6 weeks left in Yaounde, the time has come for us to pack up our stuff. We have a weight limit, so I have spent the last couple of weeks furiously organizing our things and getting rid of anything unnecessary. A small army of movers decended on our house on Thursday, July 31st, and were able to box up all our possesions. The next day they loaded it all into crates. I'm glad to have that done!

Our house is now being spruced up for the next occupants who will arrive in a week. We have moved to a temporary house just down the street. The kids are having fun exploring the new rooms and swimming in the pool. They have taken all the changes pretty well, except for Elijah, who has cried everytime I have dismantled something or given things away. We moved here when he was just over a year old, so this is the only home he remembers. He is happier now that we are in new quarters, and we are selling him on all the great things we will do in Ireland.

Caleb's Baptism

Caleb turned eight while in Houston, and was excited to be old enough to get baptized. He decided he wanted to wait a bit longer until we were back in Yaounde in our own church branch.

We planned the baptism for Saturday, June 28 - the last weekend before our good friends Elder and Sister Hanks were to finish their mission and depart Cameroon. We invited close friends from the Embassy community as well as members of the branch.

The service was held in the new chapel. The meeting was conducted in French, with the talks given in English. Sister Hanks played the organ and gave a very nice talk on the covenants of baptism. Then we moved outside to the font, where Jeff baptized Caleb. While Jeff and Caleb changed clothes, Stacey distributed index cards and pens for everyone in attendance to share their feelings or testimonies. We have a wonderful collection of heartfelt thoughts in English and in French that will always remind Caleb of his baptism in Central Africa. The service then continued with a talk by Noah on the Holy Ghost, a song by Elijah, and Caleb bore his testimony. Elder Hanks closed the service with a prayer.

It was a wonderful afternoon, and we were glad to have some dear friends there, including the Ham family (the boys' cub scout buddies), Tad Brown, Mary Namondo, and our (former) housekeepers Odelia and Nelly. Of course all the young Elders were there along with the Hanks and the Hendriksens.

Caleb was confirmed a member of the Church on Sunday, July 6 (exactly 23 years after Stacey's baptism). After the confirmation, Jeff shared his testimony in French, which was nothing short of a miracle!

Caleb says he feels good and wants to keep his promises to the Lord to keep the commandments, be kind and helpful to others, and take the name of Christ. We think he's already a great disciple of Christ.

American Vacation

We have started an entry on our vacation in the U.S. several times, but a combination of bad internet connections and demanding children have kept us from it. So now that it's so late, we'll just say that we had a WONDERFUL time from Tennessee to Texas to Arizona to Colorado with all the Smiths and Bishops and Sabeys. Here are some photo highlights:

Saying goodbye to Mchanga, who is staying with a family in Houston for the summer.

We spent A LOT of time in the car - but managed to have fun!

Smoky Mountains National Park - site of the Smith Family Reunion
All the Smiths (except Matt's family - Beckie was too close to her due date to travel)
Whitewater rafting in Tennessee

Smith cousins having fun

Our junior herpetologists always love finding salamanders in the Smoky Mountains, but finding this Eastern Black Rat Snake was especially exciting!

On our way West, we stopped at an old favorite spot in West Texas - Balmorhea State Park

The Bishop Family Reunion in Arizona

The Bishop cousins had LOTS of fun in the woods around the cabin

We explored Lava Tube Cave near Flagstaff

And, of course, we went to the Grand Canyon - the first time for Stacey and the kids

Elijah saved his cousins from the one-mile drop to the bottom of the canyon!
The Bishops all helped Noah celebrate his tenth birthday

Then we headed north to Colorado

How do you get four kids to get along on vacation?
Keep them in four different states!

Four Corners - CO, UT, NM, AZ

It was wonderful to be back in Colorado!

We enjoyed yurt camping at the Sabey Family Reunion near Colorado Springs

And especially enjoyed meeting the newest Smith - Sheri Anna!

Stacey and Jeff were heading for the horseshoe championship, when Zach Sabey topped Jeff's ringer with two of his own and stole the game!

But Stacey and Katie did go home with the Sabey Cup after winning the Rook championship!

This is only a small portion of the great times we had enjoying our beautiful country and our fabulous families. It was awfully hard to say goodbye again and return to Yaounde, but we're glad to have a few more months to get things together in preparation for the move to Dublin.