TALEVINUKULEKA'S

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

29 Regt Family Day

So every year the regiment has a family day. We decided to go this year. There was tug-a-war, Fijian gospel choir, helicopter, ambulance, fun slides, BBQ, bull riding, face painting, balloon making, henna tattoos, and more. It was nice to go.

Sparrenburg

So one of the sisters was transferred this week so before she left she invited us to go to Sparrenburg (the castle in Bielefeld) with her and the other sisters. Sai and I have gone before but we learned this time around that there are dungeons underground! We missed the tour so now we'll have to go back...again! lol. A lot of the castle is still unearthed but there's not enough money to dig it out. I imagine it's a lot bigger then anyone thinks it is. Anyway, not many pics of the place, but here's a few.

5 Months...

Well, our little one isn't so little anymore! He just started eating some rice cereal a couple days ago and decided that he LOVES it! He even wants to grab the spoon and feed himself. He's so good at opening his mouth when the food comes and doesn't even spit much out. I think he's gonna have a BIG appetite...just like daddy!

Sunday, June 19, 2011

Paris

We finally did it...we went to Paris!!! Sai had some time off of work so we decided to take a quick trip to Paris. And believe me, it was a quick one! Sai got home from work on Thursday at 1pm. We packed up and headed out. It took 8 hours to get there instead of 6 1/2 because of a few REALLY bad rain storms we hit and traffic.
We decided to go to the Palace of Versailles first so we decided to leave at 7:30am to get there since it was 45 minutes away from out hotel. Well, that would have worked out except that we had to find fuel before and finding a gas station was impossible! We finally got fuel after an hour of searching (so frustrating). By the time we left at 8:30 our navigator said it was going to take 3 hours to get there (mainly because of traffic) so, after having to figure out way around construction and closed freeway entrances we were on our way. We got lost to Versailles because the address we had didn't compute in our Tom Tom and we had to ask some random French people where we could find it. And although they didn't speak much English at all, they got us on our way! We finally got there at 11:30am and bought out tickets. We walked to the end of a LONG hour/hour and a half line when some of the workers came up to us and told us that we could go straight to the beginning since we had a baby! Wahuu! We headed straight up there, went in and started our tour! It was sooooo amazing, and we hope you like the pictures! We were so sad because we forgot our baby carrier and Sai had to carry Inoke everywhere! After the palace, we went to walk through the gardens to the Grand Tiranon and Marie Antionette's Estate. Sadly, we didn't go into her estate because it started raining really bad and we thought that if we left we could hit more attractions that day. Uwee were we wrong!
We headed out and got stuck in traffic! It took us an hour to go 6.1 kilometers to KFC...Sai's choice! lol. Then after that we tried to find where the Catacombs were to get some info on it. It only took us about 3 hours of driving everywhere to finally find it. We were all so frustrated! All of the addresses I got from online just weren't reading in our navigation system! But we got there and got the information for the next day and then we drove 15 minutes to the Eiffel Tower. Amazingly enough we got great parking and didn't even have to wait in a line once we got there since it was 10pm! What a perfect time to go to avoid a long line! We could only go up to the 2nd floor and not all the way to the top since it had been raining, but that was okay. I was just glad to go, and actually the view of the Tower is best when you're looking at it, not being on it. When we came down from the Tower there were some Brasilians behind us in line so I got to talk to them and it was so nice! Then we headed back to the hotel.
The next morning we went straight to the catacombs and got there 45 minutes before it opened. so we waited in line and went straight in for the 2.2 kilometer walk. It was really amazing to see so many bones! They were to bones from the cemeteries throughout Paris, being relocated due to health hazards. At first they were just thrown down there but then the guy in charge of the quarry told the workers that they needed to organize all of the bones and hence the nicely stacks of larger bones and skulls. There are about 6 million people burried there! I was glad we went. And again, Sai was a trooper and carried Inoke (who slept the whole time)!
That was our trip pretty much! We drove the 7 hours back home and were happy to be back!

Things I learned from the trip:
1. 1 1/2 days is NOT enough time to visit Paris.
2. Get a hotel in town, close to at least one of the attractions.
3. Don't drive! I have decided that Paris is the city of CRAZY motorcyclists!!!
4. Do a bus tour that takes you to all of the main attractions. You can stay at the attraction as long as you want and jump on the next bus to the next attraction!

But all in all...I LOVED IT! I had waited so long to go and now I can say I've been to Paris! Ooo la la!

Roll Over!

So, he did it!!! He finally rolled over...on purpose! haha. Sai was ironing his uniform and I was eating dinner and I looked over and there he was, trying to roll over. I called to Sai to watch and we both witness his 1st roll over! lol. Since then he is rolling over all the time. He loves to actually roll over but once he gets onto his tummy he doesn't know what to do and he starts screaming! haha. We turn him back onto his back, but he just rolls back over and screams again! haha...so we just leave him there for a bit. He has no idea how to roll onto his back yet. What a funny kid.

Friday, June 3, 2011

3 Months Old!

Here are some updated pictures of our little Inoke. He turned 3 months on May 27th! He's growing fast and is much more fun as the days go by...smiling, laughing and recognizing us more and more! He loves sitting up and even trying to stand as much as he can. He has also discovered his fingers and is constantly trying to fit his whole hand in his mouth at a time and gets really frustrated when he can't! lol. Enjoy!

Monday, April 25, 2011

Easter 2011

Our little boy!

Family foto

Heading out for a walk

Daddy...always thinking of some good shots for the camera! LOL!

Yes, this is our creamed egg on toast! Sai's new found favorite food!!!

Happy Easter Sisters!

Inoke's 1st basket

My little Easter creation

Sai's first time coloring eggs

Inoke's 1st Easter! Daddy colored eggs for the first time ever! There was no egg hunt, but we got some things from the American store for the sisters and had them over for dinner on Saturday night and had baskets for them.

After church we went out for a walk and ended up at the park where the firemen had a HUGE bonfire prepared to burn of all of the dry shrubury in a field next to the park. It was about 30' wide and 20' high! We watched it burn and then there was a marching band that came and performed! All of the people in the area rode their bikes over to watch. I was so sad I didn't bring the camera!!!

Spring Break!

So Sai has 2 weeks off for Spring Break, which we are just looooooooooooooooving! Last Friday we went to the park for a picnic with some other families! Enjoy!

American Boy!!!

So on Tuesday, April 19th, we headed down to Frankfurt to go to the US Embassy to register Inoke as a US Citizen, get his passport and apply for his SSN. We were so afraid he wouldn't do good in the car for the 3 hour drive, but on the contrary, he did great! He slept the whole way there!!! We got all of his paperwork done even though we only had enough money try once for his passport picture, and even though we ended up with a picture of him in the bottom left hand corner with his hands up, mouth open and eyes closed because he was crying, amazingly, they accepted the picture! We're pretty sure that was due to Sai's faith because I was sure they wouldn't accept it!

After we left there we went to the cheap little bed n breakfast that we booked where our room was as small as the one I grew up in, but we were ok with that. We also had a communial bathroom, but it wasn't even bad. We saw a carnival on the way to our b&b so after we checked in we went to the carnival and walked around. When we were done there we went back to the area of our b&b and walked around there where we found KFC...just where Sai wanted to ear! lol. After thar, we called it a night!

The next day we went to the American camp to do some shopping. We got plenty of American comfort food and our cupboard is full! I even ate some good ol Taco Bell for lunch! Yummy.