Fall

Fall has arrived.  We are seeing evidence of it all around our city, as people are preparing for the winter ahead.  There are fish hanging from trees, telephone poles, and windows, and every afternoon vegetables can be found lying around on playgrounds and tops of cars.  Josiah and I are currently studying native Americans and as we read we often see similarities in how food is prepared for the winter ahead.  Makes me laugh, when everything else seems so different.

This morning, I heard Judson speaking the local language in the playroom.  I went in to find him talking with our neighbor at the window.

We live on the second floor!  Our neighbor was setting vegetables out to dry on the roof of our apartment building entrance.

To the joy of our kids, especially Judson, there is roadwork happening on almost every road in our neighborhood.  Too soon the ground will be frozen and all work will have to be complete.  I think we stop everyday on the way to school, to just watch, so makes sense that Jacob keeps coming home from school with pictures drawn of tractors and diggers.

Last week we enjoyed a week long holiday/vacation.  Half of it we spent here, and the other half we traveled
One day was spent on the river, we ended up being there almost 7 hours.  Kids came home wet and covered in sand.  Similar to a trip to the beach in Oregon?  Not quite, but our kids don't know any different.  They had a great time, and we came home still speaking local language...couldn't help it when the entire day, as a family, was spent with local friends.

 A few more random pictures from the past week.  Trip to the mall...

 hotel sleeping...

fall paintings... (why is it that I almost always end up with a toilet in the pictures at our dining room table!)

 As many of you may have noticed, we no longer have access to Instagram, boo hoo :(.  Jared and I are trying to figure out if we will find a way to continue having access.  In the meantime, I will try to be more diligent about posting on the blog.  I definitely am missing my daily updates, from friends and family, via Instagram pictures.  I cannot describe how awesome it is to be able to daily see what is going on in the lives of my nieces, nephews, and friends around the world.  Missing you all!