Summer Camp at our Besties!

As y'all know, we are staying in Oma and Opa's (my in-laws) motor home for the remainder of our time here before we leave for Africa. I swear Mickey and I are planning on showing our "crib" in a video soon, just need to find the time!
But last weekend, Mickey's sister had promised some friends a while back they could all ride in the RV to a summer fair/concert so we had to pack up and move on out for the weekend.  It was a lot of work and poor Mickey had to drive back and forth twice to the farm in 2 days, but we did get the pleasure of staying at Camp Port, and that made it all worth it!
They were the most generous and kind hosts, making us feel right at home, cooking a great meal, having a movie night for grownups, allowing us to take over the laundry machines, making yummy coffee and croissants in the morning, and the list could go on...My best friend Erin is truly the hostess with the mostess!  And I love how both her and Scott feel like God has blessed them with a large, beautiful home and they are to open it up and use it for His glory.  They certainly did that last weekend. So thank you Ports!  Oh and thank you to Grandma Wetherbee for getting Vera the pink convertible-the boys and Alea LOVED driving it all weekend! Evan keeps asking when he can go back and drive the pink car. :)
Here are some pics of all the fun we had!

The huge stuffed bear from Auntie Ellen was a hit with all the kids!  

Wish Alea would have stayed in her cozy spot, but alas she thought the bed with mom and dad was much better...haha.

Tucking the boys in for their first sleepover together

The infamous pink car where they spent the majority of their time

I might be biased, but these are two pretty cute little girls!

I adore this little girl-she is such a bright light

Up and down the sidewalk they went, actually taking turns pretty nicely since only two can fit!

Our yummy dinner-thanks Erin and Scott!

I brought stuff to make S'mores trail mix-it was a hit!

And more car driving...I kept fast forwarding about 12 years when these two are actually driving around together in a real  car!-Ahhhh!

Summerfest 2013

Best day yet for the Ankeny Summerfest parade since we have lived here!  Normally, it is about 95 degrees and we are all sweating and trying to keep hydrated and keep kids from getting sunburnt...so when we arrived to our spot (set up by the wonderful Scott Port-thank you!) and it was about 70 degrees and cloudy-we were thanking God for a beautiful day to enjoy the parade with our kids.  Mickey was working this year so he missed out-but me and the kiddos had a ton of fun and got lots of unneeded candy.
For those of you who don't know, the Ankeny parade is like PARADE EXTRAVAGANZA! Before we moved here, we had never seen anything like it.  The whole thing goes for 2 and half hours and just about every business and organization in Ankeny participates.
We will surely miss it next summer while we are in Africa, but will be excited to bring our new child to it the following summer-I can just picture the look on his face when he experiences the fun for the first time!  Brings a smile to my face...

Here are some pics of the awesome morning spent with great friends---

Best buds-these 4 love hanging out together

Love how one little friend of ours sits back and kind of just watches all the crazy kids!  

Friends of ours enjoying the parade

More of Evan and Alea's buddies-the Whitaker kiddos!

Alea quickly learned what parade means this year-candy!

Ev was on a mission to fill that bag!

Our MOPS group participated this year-love all these mommas!

Future couple?  Only time will tell...:)

Party Time: The 1st of Many Goodbyes

The time is drawing near for us to go and it was a holiday weekend when many people had a day off or two, so my mother in law threw us a fabulous going away party at the farm.  It was sad and happy all at the same time.  There was swimming, lounging, 4-wheeling, visiting, and food.  Did I mention the food?  Wowza.  I kept justifying trying all the desserts since they probably won't have it in Zambia.  I have been doing that a lot lately-at this rate-I will gain 20 pounds before we leave in month and a half! haha!
Anyways, back to the topic at hand. Truly a great time was had.  The cousins loved all being together and we really enjoyed all the love poured out to us and time spent just talking.  The extra special treat was the Stolzers were there (Mickey's cousins from Omaha who are now living in Canada for a few years).  We are incredibly thankful they made the extra effort to be there.  And we are thankful to all who came-you made our day and we will miss you so much!
Last, but not least, thanks to the awesome host, my in-laws.  It was all put together wonderfully.  They even got a cake made and it had little African animals on it!
Here are some pics of all the fun:

Our yummy delicious cake with African animals (yes, farewell is misspelled-everyone makes mistakes! haha!)

Mickey was first to dig into the cake of course!

The outdoor scene-everyone enjoying their food

Opa and my little niece Chloe

Miss Alea-she was my in and out of the pool girl all day and quite attached to mommy!  

The pool scene!

Aunt Cari with Alea and cousin Brandi with Caden and Chloe

Family enjoying conversation

Sis in law Cari with her daughter Chloe

Uncle Casey with Ev (Ev spent about 5 hours straight in this pool-couldn't believe it! He was just having so much fun!)

Ev with cousin Chris and Sophie

 

Love this Iowa landscape with kiddos enjoying the 4-wheeler

Moving on Out!

Yes, I know, I already posted on moving out...but I took a lot of pictures of the crazy process and our last day in our house so just wanted to share them with the world.  Moving is crazy regardless if you are moving across town, to another state, or wherever!  But in our case, moving kind of took on an insane level since we had to separate our things into 3 different categories- storage until we get back from Africa, totes that we are taking to Africa but we don't need this summer, and things we needed to live life in the RV for 2 months.  It was a puzzle I still am not sure if I got it correct!  But life goes on...God is supplying us with all we need and more.  I am thinking a "Cribs" style video needs to happen so we can show our home on wheels-I know y'all are curious!  :)  Look for that coming soon (if I can get Mickey convinced to help me out on that one...).  Anyways, here are some pics-we still miss our house, but at the same time, it feels right.  We know we are in the center of God's will for our lives right now and there is no better feeling than that!  

My awesome momma doing all the really annoying packing jobs-like storing hangers!

The totes we will be using as luggage to Africa-we each get 3 of these 27 gallon Rubbermaids

Boxes, boxes, and more boxes

The living room looking pretty crazy! Command central for packing...

All the things from our little preschool/office loft

Alea's walk in closet looking pretty empty!

The kids tote of clothes for the summer

Ev's closet-almost cleaned out!

Gotta love the bubble wrap-popping it with their friends Solon and Vera

Last photo of us in front of our house

Tears....so glad my friend Erin reminded us to take this picture!

Our pretty full semi-trailer-so thankful my in-laws have this and that all of our stuff can be stored at their farm while we are gone.

Zambia Update-2 Months!

2 months from now, we are jetting off for our new life in Zambia.  With the rate this summer is flying by, it is going to be here before we know it.  I mean, really, how is the 4^th of July over with already?  CRAZY! 

 It is all becoming super real for us though for these TOP 10 reasons:

1.  We moved out of our house this past Sunday. (tears…)

2.     We now call my in-laws RV our home (so awesome they have this and our letting us use it!)

3.     We are having a going away party tomorrow at the farm (since it was a good weekend for everyone to come with the holiday!)

4.     We are living out of our storage containers that we will bring to Zambia with us and live out of there as well.

5.     We got our last set of fingerprints taken to get approved for adoption. (yes, we had to get them twice-you think our government would keep them on file or something since fingerprints don’t change-but pretty sure they just wanted some more money out of us-I digress…)

6.     We purchased a lot in Prairie Trail (Ankeny)-so we have somewhere to build a home when we get back.  (or we can just sell it if God calls us to do something different!)

7.     The president of Gospelink is in Zambia and he is working on getting Mickey his work visa so he can hit the ground running when we arrive.

8.     The founder of Give Life has been working hard on our home in Zambia-getting us an air-conditioner, putting in ceiling board, building us kitchen cabinets, and some painting and cleaning. 

9.     Our flights are booked for September 3^rd at 5:15 out of Chicago and itinerary is London for 2 days, Hungary for 7 (to visit missionary friends), back to London, then down to Lusaka, Zambia on September 14^th. 

10.   Summer is flying by and I can’t slow it down…I just know September 3^rd will be here before I know it.

There you have it!  I will be blogging more frequently soon to keep you all updated on all that is going on! Life was pretty crazy this past week with moving out and getting adjusted to life in the RV…thinking a post on that will be next. J