A Scrabbulous "fall" break!

Since Mother's day was on a Wednesday, the school just decided to add that onto a long weekend/fall break. SO, we had a nice 6 days off of school. We had big plans to go to the Lake on Friday, but after a tough Thursday night, I wasn't feeling too excited about facing a long drive to the beach where it is hotter and there are more mosquitoes. It seemed like it would have been more stressful and not relaxing at all.

So, we stayed at home and had a nice restful (and cheaper) break. We had a great time with our good friends David and Rebecca from Seattle. They are only here for another month, so we are getting as much time in with them as possible. We play Scrabble with them, even though they are WAY better than us! Eli was very interested in the game too, as you can see.


We also enjoyed spending more time with our friends who work here on campus, the Evans and the Ketchums. Again, Eli was very interested in the game we were playing, Settlers of Katan (thanks to the Adeneys for teaching us this game...it's so fun!). There are so many new people here on campus. I have enjoyed being a hostess and getting to know people.



The Stom's girls came for a little visit, too. Clara and Katherine love playing with Elijah, and you can see how much Eli likes to play with them:)


On Mother's day, David and Rebecca came with us on a little day trip to Dedza. It's about 2 hours south of Lilongwe. Dedza is where you can buy beautiful pottery as well as dine at the hotel restaurant and then go for a hike in the "mountains" (not like in Seattle....but they are pretty large hills). We didn't do the hike, but we did wander up through the hills for a scenic view of the area. It was beatiful. Next time, we will stay the night at the hotel and go on the hike. Here are some pictures of the landscape and of course, the drive which is sometimes way more exciting than the destination.

On the way out of town: The Indian Country Club!

This is where we bought our really expensive but almost useless pots and pans when we first got here last year.

Here is what a tire store looks like...seriously though. If you need a tire, you could stop here or somewhere like it.

Getting closer, you know how I know? It's not flat anymore.

We're finally there!

Here we are waiting for our food at the restaurant. I had cheese cake for dessert, which is actually pretty good!

All of the tables are done in tiles which were made right there in Dedza!

Inside the bigger building, there are all sorts of pieces of pottery for sale. They also make it there and glaze it there.

Elijah sports his crocs

This is a picture from the beautiful drive up the mountain.

Of course before leaving, we had to make sure we didn't forget Elijah (reffering to the sign below)

"Let God be God" Who needs bumper stickers when you can just paint the phrase on your car?

The rest of our weekend, we played cards and went to the pool. Eli loves splashing in the water!

Eli playing cards with daddy...he was actually very helpful as you can see :)