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Sunday, January 31, 2016
Saturday, January 30, 2016
Friday, January 29, 2016
Wednesday, January 27, 2016
Tuesday, January 26, 2016
Cecily is helping to pack some product...sending to you, America!
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Words fail me about today...more to come. Cecily and I had an incredible visit to Jacaranda designs.
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Monday, January 25, 2016
Cannot get over how pretty the flowers from roadside stands are here!
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Saturday, January 23, 2016
Friday, January 22, 2016
Tuesday, January 19, 2016
Monday, January 18, 2016
Sunday, January 17, 2016
The artist at work! 2 butterflies and a tree made out of water. Rainy day activities keep us out of the mud. :)
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Saturday, January 16, 2016
Wednesday, January 13, 2016
Hiking Hell's Gate
One of the highlights of our Christmas break was a day trip to Hell's Gate National Park, right next to Lake Naivasha. Another family invited us along to celebrate their daughter's 4th birthday. It was a great day and a fun adventure as a family.
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| One of the cool things about this park is that it is one of the few where you can get "up close and personal" with the wildlife, you can rent bikes and hike throughout, but you still need to give baboons a healthy distance! |
The park is named for the geothermal activities going on underground (and several hot springs that seep out of the rocks along the river). But, after seeing the narrow gorge for ourselves and hearing about flash floods that bring down boulders the size of cars into a "meat grinder of a cave" aptly named the "Devil's Bedroom," you would see why the name is perfect for other reasons as well. When the rangers saw the number of little kids we had they required TWO guides! We balked at this originally and then were quite grateful as they helped us scramble up waterfalls (like the birthday girl getting a boost-below) and taught us a lot about the area.
The scenery is breathtaking. You descend into the riverbed that has been carved by hundreds of years of water, and soon you are enclosed in historic layers of rock.
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| Of course Claire was the first to volunteer on the rope-climbing part! Her friend was right behind. Our guides were impressed by the kids' energy and enthusiasm. |
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| When you have Dutch friends, the natural activity for river fun is building a dike (Even when the water is from a hot spring.) |
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| Devil's Bedroom, at this time of year the waterfall is only a trickle. |
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| Before: Full of energy...the kids ran down the trail ahead of us! |
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| AFTER: 2 1/2 hours later, we were tired and ready for lunch! Those little legs did lots of climbing. |
Monday, January 11, 2016
Our trip to the Coast
Being from California, it starts to hit you in a palpable way after you haven't seen an ocean in a long time. For us, it had been WAY too long. We travelled to the coast of Kenya last week for a few days of fun in the sun. We spent a LOT of time just looking at, smelling, and listing to the ocean. Weather-wise, we were reminded of trips to Grammie and Gramps's house in Maui-humid and warm, with water that feels like a bathtub. Every day felt like living in a postcard!
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| The "Beach Boys" gave us a hustle each time we went onto the sand the first day; business has been slim for them lately with tourism a fraction of what it used to be. |
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| Does it get more "postcard" than this? A camel on the white, white sand & a traditional boat (a "dhow") in the green ocean? |
As the New Year approached, we spent lots of time talking about what we want 2016 to look like. A lot boiled down to saying "yes" more and to taking time to enjoy each moment we find ourselves in. This vacation was good practice for us.
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| Over the last few months, we have watched Claire's confidence in the water grow so much. She swam constantly! |
We spent lots of time just enjoying each other's company, playing together, and having fun. It was wonderful and restorative, and exactly what we needed.
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| ...make that THREE little fishies! Cecily LOVED splashing every minute in the water (Ocean OR Pool) |
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| 4 Rosslyn families in all, it was a fun group! |
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| These girls did everything together! |
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| The dining hall's resident Bush Baby made an appearance one night at dinner! |
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| With 5 (!) teeth, this Baby got down to the business of EATING! |
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| Each day saw a similar scene: a peacefully exhausted baby! |
However, if you know me (Audrey) at all, relaxing is not exactly my forte. Or even very possible, most days. There is a feeling of needing to "do" something, needing permission to just enjoy. We had to ask ourselves, is this too much? Is this a good idea? (I know, boring) Then I came across this post, "Waiting for Permission to be Happy (and Snow)," from a blogger who I'm really starting to enjoy and I embraced her words wholeheartedly. I dream of the ocean the way she dreams of snow:
I sat with a friend recently, and we talked about the weird weather. We also talked about some of the awful, tragic things happening in the world. We wondered how exactly to go on living and loving and creating with that shadow overhead. Is it ever okay to forget about the shadow? Is it ever okay to just be happy? We don’t always have a choice when it comes to happiness, but sometimes we do. Yet, it isn’t always easy to accept happiness. Even if we find ourselves happy, we don’t advertise the fact. It is our guilty secret.Now IS the time for happiness. With these three girls, in such beauty, joy came naturally.
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Now is for happiness. Sorrow can wait.
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This world privileges Monday-morning efficiency and business-as-usual. But the kingdom of heaven is more like a snow day. It is right now. It is permission to be happy. It is laughter bubbling up from within the shadow of the cross.
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