Ancient Village

We spent several days this week out on the basketball court. The kids played and I either talked to other parents, aunts, uncles, grandparents, or I was chasing after Lauren. She has become quite the handful. The kids gave Jonathan a basketball for Christmas, but Lauren seems to think it is hers.

I was very excited because Benjamin played with these 2 little boys for several hours. He skated over to me and told me that he has some new friends. They skated everywhere, held hands, bounced basketballs back and forth (while on skates), and went exploring with sticks. They had a good time. I hope we are able to see them out again soon.

Katherine has gotten pretty good at riding a bike. Lauren fits perfectly on the back. I have to give her a little push if Lauren climbs on. It's just a little too hard to get going with the extra weight on the back :)

I happened to look up to do my head count of children, and I saw Regan playing badminton. This sweet lady offered to play with her, and Regan loved it.

People are gearing up for the biggest holiday of the year! In doing so, there is even more laundry out everywhere! It was a beautiful day. Jonathan and I were going to sit on one of the benches at lunch, but this is what we found. The trees, benches, bushes, everything was being used for the laundry :) so we sat on a rock underneath a tree (that was also full of clothes)

This is another thing that makes me smile. Anything will draw a crowd. Now I don't think I would call this a crowd, but it made me smile to see that these men had all brought their kids or nephews over to watch the men pour concrete. It was the entertainment of the day.

This is our most favorite toy...the nu nu che! It is a great little toy. Katherine can go incredibly fast on it and Lauren is getting faster and faster too! Note Lauren's clothes...I got fussed at all evening for not dressing her warm enough. I thought 2 long sleeve shirts, a sweater vest, and 2 layers of pants was plenty warm. Oh well.

We went as a family to an ancient village this weekend. We saw a write up about it in a tourist magazine, so we thought we would check it out. The article said that you could see ancient architecture and see the inside of buildings and see some pictures (museum style) hanging inside some areas. So, when we arrived by taxi (out in the middle of nowhere) I was very surprised that this "tourist attraction" is still occuppied. People still live there, so we quickly became the attraction.

The kids didn't care much for all the buildings, but they had a blast with the local kids. It was quite amazing. These kids were catching fish with their bare hands. Most of the fish were small, but they had some decent sized ones that they caught.

The kids thought it was funny that Regan was afraid to hold one, but Katherine was all about it. They gave her a little one. The kids were very kind and one little girl even ran home to get a hair bow to put in Regan's hair as a gift.

So, here is some of the building styles we saw in this little village. We did not go into any of the homes, of course, but the temples were all open and some of them had been turned into museum type places. It was an interesting place to visit, and I enjoyed it. The people wanted to know if we give Lauren a perm. We actually get that question frequently which is funny to me, but then when I look at Lauren and Katherine side by side I can see why they would ask that.

So, after we looked around for a bit, we decided to try and find our way home. We figured we would have to walk towards the main road in the town to get a taxi home. We were right. We walked for 1.5 hours towards town (it seemed like 10 miles, but I'm sure it was just 2)

We finally got to town, and the kids all collapsed...so this what not a posed picture at all, but I thought it was too cute. We did finally catch a taxi here and rode home.

I just like this picture. Lauren had just gotten up from her nap and had her favorite sleeping buddies in her hands. Oh, and the fan in the background is actually a heater :)

This picture of my little one's hair cracks me up. We were so thankful to this week to receive some packages in the mail. The kids had such a good time opening them (and we did also!) The girls got these headbands in one of the boxes and put them in their hair themselves. Regan was also beside herself because she got a book from her best friend, Kayla. What a blessing to have such wonderful friends back home! Thank you all!