Happy Halloween

We had quite a Halloween weekend with too much junk and candy. Good thing Halloween only comes once a year!
We had a party with the Embassy, school parties and trick or treat around our American neighbors.

At the beach

We made it to the beach this month. It was a nice family day and the kids had ALOT of fun.

Getting used to visitors

This was the first visitor we met in our temporary house. We're not used to seeing lizards run across the ceiling. At least they eat mosquitoes.




We found this guy on one of our bags. It was big, but actually only the size of a quarter. Apparently he hasn't met the Gecko yet. Brent released it outside..... after taking close up photos of course.




These guys live under the awning over the balcony off our master bedroom. At least they will until we can get the embassy to come and "evict" them. Hope the can of Wasp Killer has a prettly long range because they won't be able to get all of them at once.

One month update

We have been here one month! We just moved into our permanent house yesterday and it felt really good to be able to unpack suitcases. Well, the kids unpacked and set there room in order. I've been sick yesterday and today! (so I haven't done much but think of what I want to get done)

I woke up today in our new bed feeling like I had just arrived in Morocco. Forget the whole last month of transition, I feel like I have gotten over a really long trip and finally got where I was going. Its no wonder I feel so terrible all the stress and anxiety has caught up with me and now today I'm paying for it.
So I guess for now I'll take this time to sit around watching tv, planning and recover from a heck of a long summer vacation and new posting.

I think I'm going to like it here...

Isn't that a song, maybe from Annie or something like that?

The weather is beautiful here. It has been 70-80's and definitely not as hot as I thought it might be. People say it gets a lot colder here than you would think in the winter months. Flowers are in bloom all over and shrubs, palm trees and greenery everywhere.

Rabat isn't a big city so we don't see the crazy chaos or traffic and people as we did in Kyiv. (or perhaps we just haven't seen it yet) I believe if we went to Casablanca we would see it.

The week right after we arrived, Ramadan started. This is when Muslims fast for one month eating only after sun down. Such dedication I couldn't imagine but these hard working people are still working through the hot summer sun without drinking or eating until later that night when the sun goes down. All month. Stores close by 4-5pm and all is quiet out at night. Moroccan's seem like very friendly and nice people.

Things in our new life are starting to fall into place.
Grade schoolers started school -we've signed Cody up to attend preschool at the same school as them for 1/2 day.

Found a housekeeper. She is Filipino and seems to be working out alright (she's only worked 2 times however).

We move in our house next week. We looked at it and we're very excited. It is really beautiful. The kids will all have their own room and a great yard to play in and build a garden hopefully.

Hyrum has started Cub scouts.

And much more to fall into place as we go. I try to remember we've only been here 2 weeks so it really hasn't been that long.

Morocco

We arrived in Morocco safe and sound. We had a good flight and after a few days of readjusting (which is never fun) we are really liking it here. The kids have started school and the school is beautiful with an outdoor campus. They leave their classrooms and they walk right outside-the kids thought that was really cool!

We are in a temporary house while our permanent house is getting fixed up. We are anxious to finally be able to unpack suitcases and really settle into a new life. It should be another 1 1/2 weeks until we move in and another 6 weeks until our car and household stuff comes. I try not to dwell on that fact. We've meant some really nice people, have a small church group and the kids have made good friends already.

It is really a beautiful country with palm trees lots of green shrubs and flowers.

We are still learning and adjusting to some things here are a few things off hand I can mention:

1. When you are suffering from jetlag and you are up and walking around the house at 2 am seeing a gecko run across your wall doesn't help you sleep either.

2. Just don't get out of bed at night! Last night I came down and found a slug in the middle of the living room. I'm still trying to figure out where he came from. I put a cup over the top of him and left Brent a nice note to take care of the slug!

3. I'm teaching the kids to shake their shoes out before putting them on after seeing a baby gecko run into Hyrum's shoe.

Okay I have learned more things but the small critters seem to be most prevalent on my mind today.

Playing in Cody Wyoming

Trip to Yellowstone

Here are the highlights of our two day trip to Yellowstone Park. We stayed overnight in West Yellowstone and went to a small bear and wolf sanctuary. It was a long trip it seems but it was nice to see the scenery.

Family Bowling

We are in the hotel this week while Brent is taking a class. This is the same hotel we stayed in our last trip to Virginia so we know it well. Perhaps too well. This is the same hotel that is the boonies where there is no stores, restaurants, playgrounds, etc within walking distance. Brent has the rental car during the day.

To prevent insanity for the week while he is gone I worked on a schedule which has worked quite well. The kids are working on a summer reading program I put together so they can earn a gift certificate. So after breakfast we come back to the hotel and have reading time. Then back to the breakfast area where there is actually room for spreading out and they work on some math/writing worksheets. I told them this week will be our focus on summer learning.

After we've accomplished that then we can go swimming. Pack our lunch from the small refrigerate in the hotel and picnic outside on the lawn. Back for computer time and then cartoons. About that time Brent comes home or we get stir crazy and go outside and play while we wait for him.

All this careful planning has worked out well but I'm still getting rather sick of this hotel room.

When Brent comes back we go out and play. One of our outings was bowling. The kids really liked it some doing better than others. I even won which is truly amazing. (just dumb luck)




Other outings or highlights this week was playing at some fun parks/playgrounds one with a stream, shopping at a used book store, seeing an ice cream truck and more I can't remember now.

A day at the beach

We went to the beach and took a picnic. The kids loved it. At our next post we will be close to the beach so it made all of us a little excited for such a change.

The kids also had a water fight this week and Vance was so nice to let Cody douse him with the water hose. Cody thought it was hilarious and giggled excessively.