our view of summer

Summers are the best! Nothing to do but hang out, relax, spend time together and go on adventures. Summers are filled with bonfires, all the smores you can eat, homemade goodies, chalk creations, lego cities, movies, game nights, swimming even though it is winter and loving the freezing cold dip (even a naked baby), nerf battles, bocce ball tournaments, plenty of parties, sleepovers, way too much ice cream, staying up as long as you want, sushi, nights out and bugs. Just to name a few. We have loved having the kids around and just hanging out enjoying the last month we have had in Zim. We will miss this place and all the memories that we made here, but are so thankful that we had this opportunity to be here for a while!

Just a small glimpse of the many summer memories…

the best babysitter

Shelby has watched Sahara for the last 2 years to give us nights out and she has been the best! She is awesome with her and Sahara loves her! We are sad to leave her and we know Sahara will miss her but look forward to her coming to college in the States and seeing her again.

 

sushi making night

I taught the kids how to make their own sushi and they loved it! It was a lot of fun and they did an amazing job…

A few of our favorite things: fondue night

One of our favorite things is our traditional family fondue night!

hiking & cave paintings

A fun day hiking Domboshava and searching for cave paintings…

4th of July

Since we were now home for the 4th, we were able to celebrate our traditional way with parties, fireworks, a bonfire and smores!

a trip cut short

We ventured off to see the last little corner of Zimbabwe that we had not yet been too, and we were so excited to hang out for the long weekend. However, a couple hours into our trip, it was cut short when we were hit by a drunk driver. We went off the road and ended up in a ditch only to see the driver flee the scene. There were many witnesses though who knew the guy (welcome to small town Zim) and we were very well taken care of by the Chivu police department. It was a pretty bad wreck and the car had to be towed back to Harare. J has some amazing driving skills though and managed to keep everyone safe and the car upright. The police officer said that accidents happen in this same spot every week and she had never seen a car not flip. We were blessed and everyone walked out of the car without even a scratch. Incredibly thankful! We knew the kids were ok when the first thing Grant said was, “are the eggs alright?!” They didn’t understand why we couldn’t continue our trip since everyone was fine and in the end everyone was bummed to be headed home.

Hanging out and enjoying each other just before the crash…

The scene and the damage…

Hanging out in the police station while we waited for the Embassy to come and pick us up and take us home…

Learning how to carve Shona sculptures

Shona sculptures are famous Zimbabwean art pieces. So, we signed the kids up for lessons to make their own. It was definitely harder than we thought trying to carve away the rock with a nail and hammer and will take multiple days, but it was fun. Grant decided to carve a giraffe and Gigi choose a lion. Their teachers were kind enough to draw an outline for them after they chose their rock…

Grant’s rock pre-carving…

Learning from a master…

The end of today’s progress by Grant…

Motocross

We have never seen Grant so excited, or wanting to do something so bad than we did at the motocross raceway. We went to check out the kids racing and he LOVED it and has not stopped talking/asking about it! He kept asking us if he could rent a bike and try the jumps. Hopefully, he will get the opportunity to sign up and learn this year…

Family Photos

A few favorites from our family photos taken in Zim before we leave…