Saturday, August 29, 2009

Summer Recap and a New Critter

Hey there!

Once again its been awhile so I thought I may just do a quick recap of our Summer up to this point. Unfortunately Summer is coming to an end. But I will say we are looking forward to/already enjoying cooler temperatures. We are very proud of ourselves having made it through the hottest parts with no AC. We bought an AC for our last apartment but sold it to the new tenants.

Well by now a lot of you have heard about our vacation to Africa. It was amazing and it was a trip we will never forget. We went to Nairobi to see Paul, Kari, and Micah (Tim's brother, our sister-in-law, and our nephew) and we also got to meet up with Tim's parents! It was so refreshing to spend time with family and we are so blessed to have been able to go.

We have a ton of pics so I'll spare you all ba-jillion of them and just include some favorites.

Some highlights of the trip included

-Spending much needed time with family
-Watching Levi and Micah play together, these boys are already best buds and Micah is too cute!
-Speaking of Micah, getting to watch him dance! That boy has moves!
-Watching Tim and Paul be together
-Going on the Safari, it was surreal almost how beautiful everything was and how close the animals were
-Riding in a Hot Air Balloon! I never thought I would do this!
-Riding in the Safari truck, talking and catching up with everyone
-Kazuri Beads!! Kari talks about this on her blog, these are so pretty and we spent a lot of time in their stores. I have so many cute earrings, bracelets, and necklaces now, the problem is just picking one out each morning!
-Hearing English spoken, and eating more "American" type food
-Shopping at all the great stores in Nairobi
-Enjoying the landscape and people of Kenya, and just enjoying a new country all together
-Going down to the center where Paul and Kari used to work, it was so fun to meet all their friends
-Catching up with some old friends
-Going to the Tea Farm, it was so beautiful!
-Getting to meet Josephine
-Spending time with family, I said that already, but again, it was great, and I thought it should round out the list

We are so grateful that Paul and Kari let us come and so glad Danny and Charlotte could be there too.

















Okay, I know its a lot, but it was so hard to choose, there are too many favorites!!

We also got a visit from Uncle Gregory!! It was so great to see him and we loved taking him around the city. I was also glad that he got some rest from all that backpacking! Thanks so much for taking the time to see us!


The rest of our days have been filled with lots of preparation and practice for the new football season, on Tim's part. Getting some new friends settled in, visiting with local friends whenever we can, and chasing after this new critter!

We have a RAT.....


A Rug Rat that is...

Every time I turn around he is eating our shoes, eating the fuzz from our rug, and trying to play with any electronic device/cord he can get his hands on. I am convinced he has a large fuzz ball from the carpet in his tummy and since I had to wrestle him to try to get some fuzz out of his mouth the other day, with the struggle ending with him swallowing it!

Oh well! I guess thats the stage we are in with this active crawler!

We took some "9 month" really 10 month pictures the other day with a friend. We think he is awful cute!

His face is totally smushed in this picture, and I don't think he knows what to think, its obvious I love my kisses!





Hope to be back soon!!

5 comments:

Tara said...

So good to hear from the Akins!!!! What a wonderful trip to Kenya with family...Loved seeing all your pictures too!!!! I can't believe how big Levi is... and don't worry about the fuzz. Miraculously, their little systems do a pretty good job of getting everthing back out. My Natalie eats everything in sight!!!

Rachel Rainer said...

I Loved reading your new post!!! Levi is the cutest! I am so glad you had such a great visit with family!

Akin's said...

love this post. and love your new blog. well, we are skyping with you right now, so im gonna go. love you!

Bess said...

Loved reading your update and seeing all your pics. What an awesome trip to Africa! (I'm jealous!) Levi is adorable! We miss y'all!

Kay Sue said...

What beautiful pictures. I love them. And, I love you all. Can't wait to see you this winter.