Move # 8 is complete!

Yep, that's 8 moves in 6 years.

The good news is, our stuff from Atlanta finally arrived! Hooray! Bad news...quite a few things were broken. But only the one of a kind fragile items...which is just seriously frustrating. Such is this life I suppose, its just hard to lose special and irreplaceable things.  The packers packed a target lamp shade in a box by itself, wrapped in a thousand pieces of paper but somehow managed to throw multiple picture frames and Tom's Samurai (like) sword in a large clothes hanging box...with absolutely NO paper. Oh, and in the same long tall box with the picture frames and sword was my espresso machine (still, no paper). Really??  The hanging clothes boxes they brought were not actually even used for clothes because those were all stuffed in a regular square box.  They did manage to keep the hangers on- I mean, thank goodness!  This is moving folks, not one move is the same and yet I thought it would get easier.  It seems to be just more frustrating now that you know what is actually supposed to happen and now that you have also experienced excellent movers and really crappy ones too. Surprisingly the crappiest movers in all of our moves were from the US.  Errgh!

On a positive note however, all the boxes have been unpacked in just ONE week and this house is already starting to look a little bit like home. There are a few rooms left, but we are getting there and faster than we have done in any other of our moves.  I guess that is what moving too much will do to you.  I, on the other hand, thought I purged SO much stuff and somehow...it all still ended up here. How does that happen? 

I just realized too that we are still waiting on Tom's stuff from Pakistan- it left there in July. ??? I guess this move is not 100% complete, but we are almost there. However, Tom's stuff did leave on a random pick up truck and he received no paperwork. So who knows if we will ever see that stuff again. Ha Fingers crossed!

We have had lots going on, a fun Halloween, birthday parties, etc. but that will have to come later. Again, downloading the pics- it takes forever!!!

Imire Park

Last weekend we took our first trip out of town to a place called Imire Safari Ranch.  It was only about an hour and a half a way, which was great, but we still decided to stay over for the night.  I am so glad we did! We left early in the morning and followed a group of Embassy families for the fun day together. There was about 20 of us, including kids, and we all had a great time. They all went home around 4 pm and we got to stay for some fun stuff that night ... and the next morning. Enjoy the pics!

Our Elephant Ride

Dad and Chase...too cute for words with the Rhinos in the background.  And Hannah with the elephants.

So cool!!

Chase and the Zebras with his "bone" he found. Not sure what kind of bone it is, but he found it and picked up it immediately. (Probably a zebra or cow bone). He would not let anyone look at either. Ha

A baby elephant trying to say hello to Chase...I think. Kind of neat though that the baby lifted up his long nose to him.  :)

Taking a break for our lunch and after, feeding the Elephants their lunch. Super fun!!!

Hannah and Mommy...and Daddy and Chase on our ELEPHANT RIDES!!! What an experience!

Tom and I talked afterward...we were both worried about the exact same thing. What in the world would happen if this elephant had had its last ride and decided we are the ones to get booted off and while we had our KIDS!  We were both trying to come up with scenarios if the elephant stood up or tried to throw us off.  It was still relaxing, dont worry- just my hubby and I's crazy head. Ha Luckily, that was not us and the elephant did not decide to "boot" us that day either. Ha Ha

It was a breathtaking view and a once in a lifetime experience. Hope the kids remember this one! :)

And last but not least, the kids passed out on our safari. Ha!

After the Embassy crew left, we got to stay for Sundowners (drinks) and snacks. We watched one of the most amazing sunsets while wild animals grazed behind us and we watched the falling rain in the distance.  Truly breathtaking. 

If I take the time to download the rest of the pics- you will never get to see these- sorry!.  Just got Internet fixed today, it worked for three days- go figure.  More pictures to come, but for now...hope you will enjoy these.