Halloween in Cameroon 2013

It has been a while since I posted, this seems the constant litany every time I create a blog post. Honestly, I am not keeping our life here in Cameroon a secret. I am happy to share all the exciting details of our life with our family and friends, and the blogosphere at-large. But that is just it, most of life is simply not exciting. 

We work, Sofia goes to school, I cook dinner, Sofia does homework, Al fixes stuff, kills bugs, and plays his video game. That is the regular pattern of our life. It really isn't so different than the life you lead back in the USA, or elsewhere in the world. Yes, we have to be more creative with ingredients for cooking and yes, we worry about things like whether we will have water and how many times the generator will run today, but all in all, our life is pretty simple and boring.

This week, however, was Halloween. In the US, most people went trick-or-treating on Thursday evening. I hear that most of the country was soaked with rain and I am so sorry that the weather may have ruined the fun for lots of kids. Since Cameroon doesn't recognize Halloween, which is a decidedly American custom, we decided to have our Halloween fun on Friday night. This is just easier for everyone involved, since the kids don't need to be in bed early for school the next day. This is especially nice, since they ate a lot of candy.

Sofia and her friends had a great time trick-or-treating throughout the embassy. She and her daddy made excellent pirates! Arghhh, have a look at some great pictures.

Arghh mateys...where be your buried treasure?

My happy pirates

En guard

This is a face full of mischief!

Thar' she blows....

Pretty Pink Pirate

Halloween is fun with friends!

Sofia and her friend Rachel acting silly!

She looks so serious and so beautiful!

We had a great time with Halloween and when I was downloading the pictures, I found some others that I had taken previously. I will leave you with a few final shots of Sofia.

Until next time......

Two posts in one week...what is going on?

We have officially been assigned to our onward assignment.

We are thrilled with our next assignment...huge geography props to those who know what nation this flag belongs to...anyone, anyone

I would insert the Jeopardy song here, but can't figure out how to do it. Oh well, imagine me humming it for you.

COLOMBIA...we are going to Bogota. We could not be more excited about this assignment. Bogota is a beautiful city with restaurants, movie theaters, malls, and other exciting things to do. Yeah, we will be in the same time zone again with our family and friends. After two years in Cameroon, we will definitely be ready for some first world comfort. We will spend about 10 months in Washington DC before heading to Bogota.

I will share more information about our next move, once we have more information. We are so happy about this and really appreciate everyone who kept (and keep) us in your prayers during our crazy adventure.

Until next time....

More Disney World pictures

So this is my second post with pictures from Disney World. These are the professional pictures that were made throughout our time in Disney World. We had a great time! Look and see....

Group shot from the first day

Sofia holding baby Simba

My nephew, Charlie Wells

Fun times!

Disney fun with Lita

Sofia had fun with Tigger and Pooh

Charlie had fun with Tigger and Pooh

Lita had fun with Tigger too!

Look Sofia caught Tinkerbell

I had a great time with my mom!

Sofia in her Minnie Mouse costume

Disney has some really neat pictures with added items.

Apparently Stitch is eating her ice cream!

My sweet girl

This was an excellent trip and I am so glad that we did it. Stay tuned...the next post will include information on our next assignment.

Until next time...

Summer 2013 Update

So, I realize that it has been a while since I posted anything and for that I apologize. Honestly, before our vacation, we hadn't done anything worthwhile or exciting for me to talk about. Well, all that has changed now. We just returned from R&R (vacation in the Foreign Service) and I have tons of pictures to show and some stories to tell.

We left the day after school ended for Sofia. Can you tell that we were itching to get away. We spent 2 days traveling to get home and our first Air France experience was really good (not so on the way back, but that is another story). We stayed in Philadelphia, MS for a few days visiting my mom and the rest of the Philly family and doing really boring stuff like going to the eye doctor and dentist and getting hair cuts. These things are important and most people take them for granted, but we were so glad to have clean teeth and short hair. 

Next it was off to Biloxi, MS for a short visit with Dad and Deb. We enjoyed doing really normal stuff like going to Walmart and Sams. We got to visit with great friends (thanks so much to Felica, Marie, Cheree, Carla, Ashley and the guys for making us welcome). I had lunch with a great friend and mentor, Krystyna and we checked out Margaritaville for some average food and pretty good live music. Sofia got to visit with some of her friends and even spent the night with a couple of them while we were in town.

It was back to Philadelphia for a few short days where we got to see even more great friends (thanks for swimming and making a wave pool with us) and had a nice meal with my brother and his family. Mom makes the best ribs ever! We got to spend time with Grandma Sue and Papa and played lots with Anna Katherine, who was very small when I left for Washington in 2012.

Our next adventure began with a trip to Walt Disney World. We took Sofia and my mom and my nephew, Charlie, came along. It was busy and not particularly relaxing, but we had a great time! 

The kids enjoyed swimming and we got some fun shots with our new underwater camera. The camera was a gift from my sweet husband. 

We stayed at a neat resort at Disney World called the Art of Animation. We took this fun shot with Rafiki right outside our hotel building.

Up next, here are some random pictures that we took. 

We went to Epcot and got these fun shots. 

Sofia playing in a fountain in the rain in Germany

Al and the kids enjoying the mariachi music in Mexico

Last up, here are pictures of the kids with some of the Disney characters. There will be more Disney pictures to come, once we get our disc from Disney World in the mail. Wait until you see the ones of Mom dancing and singing with Tigger.

Sofia and Charlie with Chip and Dale

Sofia with Tigger and Pooh

After a busy week at Walt Disney World, Mom and Charlie headed back to Mississippi and we left for a few relaxing days on the Disney Cruise. My dad and stepmom, Deb, came along on this leg of our vacation. It was a bit more relaxing than Disney World. Here are a few of my favorite pictures from the cruise.

We took a ride on a catamaran.

Sofia went snorkeling!

Sofia liked snorkeling. I always call her my little fish!

Disney Cruise Line took some professional shots and I wanted to share those. They turned out pretty good. We had a lot of fun on Pirate night!

After our Disney trip, it was time to head back to Yaounde, after a short stop in Philadelphia. We stayed for a couple of nights in Paris to try and get over the jet lag a bit before returning to Cameroon. We saw Notra Dame, the Louvre and took a Seine River cruise. We were really tired and I don't know that Paris is really a city for kids, but here are some good pictures that we got.

We all had fun on our vacation, but we are glad to be back home. We have another year here in Yaounde and then we will be off to our next post. Stay tuned for information on where that will be...I will share it soon!

Until next time....