Our First Rugby Game [Nathanael]

We went to our first rugby game on Saturday (and I have to say football players are the biggest wimps in sports history I don't think I will be able to watch another football game in my life.) The game we went to was the New Zeland Chiefs vs. The Vodacom Blue Bulls. They were playing at Loftus Feild which is barely a step up from the Roman Colluseum. You couldn't meet a more devoted fanbase anywhere in America. They were CRAZY you can tell they like their rugby. A few weeks back we saw a guy dancing around in his underwear waving a Blue Bulls flag I dont think I have ever seen an Eagles or Phillies fan do THAT!!!! The bulls won and during the last ten minutes it started raining. That didn't stop them they just kept going till the end. We walked to our car amig they estatic supporters and got home deciding this was a pretty wicked cool expirience.

*(the translatoin of the signs we are holding is my blood is blue and bulls are great)*

Thoughts from Amy and homeschool updates

Our Garden Route trip was truly fantastic. Michael has given you a good overview. It is a beautiful part of the world and we saw amazing birds, animals, and vegetation. We took notes and are using our "field study" as part of a three week biology unit on birds, nature, and plants. We are using the Boy Scouts Merit Badge requirements as our curriculum. These merit badges are a really good resource. They give you a great overview of topics to complete. If you are interested, you can find them at meritbadge.org

It is hard to say what a favorite part of the trip was. Overall, my favorite part of this year regardless of where we are, is just the amount of time we have to be together. We completed a very long hike along the Indian Ocean coast along serious cliffs and boulders. It was a great family accomplishment. As a mom, it is really nice to watch your kids helping each other along the way. The elephants were amazing, even when they were charging our car, and we weren't sure they were going to change direction. They did, but it was like a huge, scary game of chicken that we would have lost. We just sat there, wondering what would happen and at the last minute, they finally swerved.

We enjoyed canoeing, hiking, and camping in almost perfect weather for two weeks and will remember it always. We are planning our next big adventure which will be from May 25-June 10. We will be going to the east coast of Africa and spending time in the Drakensburg mountains, Durbin, and the St. Lucia Wetlands/beach area north of Durbin.

Prior to leaving my mom will be with us from May 11-20. She couldn't talk my dad into coming, so she is braving it alone. I am proud of her because she does not like to fly, but We will take her to Pilanesburg Nature Preserve to see the big animals. She will also be doing a Dickens, "Great Expectations," unit with us as she spent 25 years teaching high school English.

About a week ago, we completed our first big cross country trip. We drove from Pretoria down to what is called the “Garden Route” a beautiful slice of coastline almost at the southernmost tip of the continent. The trip was a total of 13 days or so; all camping and all fun. This post is just an overview of the trip, and more details will follow.

Our first night was spent in Colesburg which is kind of half way between Pretoria and the coast. It is a small, sheep-dominated town. We ate at a great little restaurant and sampled the local lamb. I had a lamb shank on a bed of samp. Samp is a South African staple- it’s basically corn kernels that have been dried and then cooked again. It was good food.

The next day we drove to a town called Colchester, where we stayed at Pearson Park resort. Initially, we were quire unimpressed with this campground where we would have to spend 3 nights. Eventually, however, we discovered that despite the fact that it was a bit run down, it bordered Addo Elephant National Park and the Indian Ocean. So we got to spend the days viewing elephants and swimming in the Indian Ocean. Not bad.

We then headed for Tsitsikama National Park, where we spent 5 nights. Again we were initially unimpressed with this campground, although certainly not because of the location, but because it was so cramped. Eventually, when nearby campers realized that they were camped near a family of 8, most of them moved to other parts of the campground and we had quite a bit of privacy and great views. It was sort of like getting to camp on the Pebble Beach golf course in Monterrey, California. We slept each night with the constant sound of crashing surf in the background and got to watch the same thing whenever we were in the camp.

In reality, we were rarely in the campsite. We spent one day at Monkeyland and Birds of Eden. Birds of Eden was an especially impressive aviary- the largest in the world- that had some very impressive birds. Our favorites were the Louries and the Knysna Lourie in particular. The next day was spent hiking in Tsitsikama National Park itself, mainly in the Storms River Gorge. The day after this, we drove to George, South Africa, and took a train ride to and from Mossel Bay, where we explored the history and adventures of Bartholomew Diaz, the Portuguese explorer who was the first westerner to discover the Cape of Good Hope. The last day at this campsite was spent in Wilderness National Park hiking, canoeing, and swimming along the rivers and wetlands of the coastal area. Prior to leaving Tsitsikama we hiked along the rocky coast to a cave and waterfall. It was a very strenuous hike and Ezekiel walked the whole thing.

We then drove to Outschoorn, which is the ostrich farming capital of the world. Here we spent two nights at a great hostel and explored the previously mentioned cave, rode camels, rode a zip-line across a pond, and finally on the last day took a tour of a running ostrich farm.
The drive home featured the beautiful canyons and red-rock formations of the deserts of South Africa followed by a one night pit-stop at the famous diamond mining town of Kimberly, which we plan to re-visit in the future.

Amy and the kids will tell some of the specific stories and experiences we had. We were just grateful that the car ran well and that we made such a long and complicated journey without problems or difficulties. So look for the kids blogs on these topics later.

Lydia's Wedgies

Lydia is now fully potty trained. That is very good news. Unfortunately for Lydia, this means that she wears underpants now and with underpants comes wedgies. As you can plainly see from the picture above, Lydia’s wedgies are not your normal wedgies. With Lydia, if she wears a pair of underpants and they give her a wedgie then “There is a wedgie in those underpants.” In her mind it is as though there were some sort of small creature called a wedgie that lives in certain pairs of underpants and causes them to uncomfortably bunch in uncomfortable places. Once she knows that a pair of underpants has a wedgie in them, she will not wear them.

So we recently took a trip to the famous Garden Route of South Africa- sort of like the Monterray, Big Sur California coastline, only it’s in Africa and there are Elephants and beautiful African birds there. (Much more blogging about this trip to come.) While there we took a tour of a famous cave, and it was beautiful, but what was most memorable was our walk out of the cave.

Somehow, as we finished the tour of the cave, Lydia ended up at the front of the tour group. On this particular day she was wearing a cute blue dress we inherited from Marian Goates. Unfortunately, she was also wearing a pair of underpants with a wedgie in them. So, as Lydia walked at the front of the entire tour group she paused, lifted her dress up to her armpits with one hand, reached down to the offending underpants with the other hand, casually picked out the offending wedgie, and with a casual little shake of the bum the dress fell back into place and she resumed walking along the path. Meanwhile the tour guide and tour group all burst into laughter at our graceful little daughter.

Isn’t it great to be 2.