Riding the Dunes

Jayson got down the dunes just fine, Tim had to help him back up!
For our last hurrah before school started again this year we took three vehicles, 8 kids, six adults and a picnic to the sand dunes just 10 km outside of Niamey proper.

These are a few of our favorite things...

Just thought you all would like to see our kids doing a few of their favorite things like eating a popsicle or an aibaga, as Jayson calls them.
Mikaylah helping Ladi make some rolls for supper. Mikaylah loves to roll things out and then roll up the cresent rolls. We love to watch her do things like this with such enthusiasm, although poor Ladi is slowed quite a bit when this happens!
And of course, Jayson being a boy. Notice where he is laying? Yes, he loves the dirt. He often has a clean shirt on for maybe 15 minutes before he is in the dirt or something:)

Yes, I am still blogging...

Got a little reproof today when asked on facebook if I still blogged, of course I blog, and then I saw that I have completely missed the entire month of December... oops. Well we do have the excuse that our lovely MAC died, yes, completely, however my Friend's sister had some extra room in her purse for a new hard drive and she was coming to spend Christmas in Niamey, so hurray, we are up and running again, albeit with out my pictures that we had taken... very sad about that, Tim had just downloaded 300+ pictures from the camera and poof, they are gone with the hard drive to hard drive heaven... Yes I call Cathy my Friend with a capital F because whenever she calls Tim doesn't say "Cathy is on the phone" he says, "your Friend is on the phone." and since she is a capital friend, she deserves the honour... I digress...
We had two thanksgivings, two Christmases and one happy new year since I last wrote, plus a tabaski and a Muslim New Year and Niamey's 50 anniversary... plus two visits to the clinic
(which is way better than the hospital) for stitches, one of our boys in the toe and my DH who sliced up two fingers. Chung and his room-mates, Josh and Daniel were playing in the bathroom, since it was Tabaski and so no school so what better place to play than in the bathroom, right? Mind you this was after trying to play baseball in the kitchen and I sent them outside, only to find them playing baseball in the living room, again I sent them outside, only to discover that they never actually made it outside... down the hall they were, of course playing in the boys' bathroom... (remember there is no school so I have to prepare lunch in the dorm and this is about 11 am). Okay time for a period, that sentence was WAY too long, sorry Dad. Any way, by climbing over the stalls Chung inadvertently stepped on the toilet paper holder and sliced his second toe, quite deeply... A quick call to Dr. Ace confirmed which clinic would be open on the Muslim holiday... a Christian clinic... they sent me to the pharmacy to get anesthetic and Tylenol and some antibiotic, when I got back to the clinic Chung was still waiting to be looked at... the doctor put in four stitches and taped him up... we got home about 2 in the afternoon... I don't even remember what Tim did for lunch... hmm I guess they survived... then two days later while hanging Christmas lights the ladder Tim was standing on slide out from under him and crashed through the living room window with Tim's left hand acting as a buffer for the ladder, he sliced his index and middle fingers like one would peel a banana... I was scared! Back to the clinic Alissa... Good thing I had a dry run on Monday and could do it again on Wednesday. My Friend came over to the dorm to keep the kids calm and help them clean up. I was so proud of how they all worked together to clean up the glass and blood and pray for Uncle Tim. Tim received about 15 stitches (should have been 45 in my estimation) and now, more than a month later he is starting to look more human and less "Frankenstein" like. We had a special dorm Christmas party where the biggest hit was the bubbles I got each of them... hmmm we also played a white elephant game, and four on the couch (girls won!) and watched A Charlie Brown Christmas... what a great bunch of kids we have... We said our goodbyes to our three Sim kids who are on home assignment in Australia for six months and will say hello to Nat and Blessing next week! We also said goodbye to our dorm grandma, Jean Campbell who was filling in for one semester teaching grade one and two and living in our dorm assistant's apartment. We also said goodbye to Miss Megan who helped Miss Kathryn cover our dorm on Tuesday evenings and Wednesday mornings.
Our kids both had fun opening presents. My mum and sister sent them new PJs for Christmas that arrived December 24!!! Yeay! Tim had taken some of the kids to Ouaga in Burkina Faso and did some shopping for them... balls and cars for Jayson, puzzles and kitchen dishes for Mikaylah who said she is sharing the plastic tools Jayson got! (btw, Jenn Jay already broke his drill :(...).
We packed bikes for them in August 2006 (Jayson still in utero) which they unwrapped the day after Christmas because they were so content with playing with their toys that we didn't push opening the bikes until the next day! We were invited out for dinner... because of our kids and not in spite of them!! very fun time with them and our kids almost fell asleep before we got home.
New years we played games before midnight then our night owl, Mikaylah came with us to the river to watch the fireworks from the hotels on the other side of the river! we put Mik to bed and stayed up talking to the wee hours of the morning...Jayson decided to hide some rocks in the tailpipe of Totman's Prado... diesel soot is pretty greasy! We had a group of Canadians stay in our dorm that night for the SIM conference and we have one more conference to go before school starts next Tuesday... Pray that our kids will arrive safely (two have already arrived, though they are still with their parents during the conference) and that all flights will go as planned. Happy 2009! PS I am still trying to post pictures but am having TROUBLE so please be patient...