Grandma is Here!

All the Grandparents have now met Immanuelle and the boys are probably even more confused about how far "Florida" is away... seeing as how grandparents show up quite often around here! It's way awesome to get to see them and we think they understand our life better because they've seen, tasted, smelled, touched, and heard the place we call home.  Their visits work double-time though in helping them connect with our world here and us (especially the kids!) to remain close and shorten the distance between "home here" and "home there."

3 Generations of Rivers girls at the nail salon. Just as it should be!

Eating Italian (for her birthday!)

Eating Japanese (sushi)

Eating Malaysian (Free! At a wedding!)

Eating Chinese (??? Not rice or dim sum, oh no, we had fresh-baked coconut buns!)

Hindu temple...

These girls were like bridesmaids at a wedding. Except we can't figure out their outfits, which are like nothing we've ever seen before here. We think the bride may have chosen these just to make her wedding stand out in some way. Or she's a big fan of "Aladdin."

Waterfall!

Days like today and pictures like this make me want a dozen more kids! (then I get over it;)

Their eyes are why this one made it to this post. My handsome guys!

Baby girl not a huge fan of the water (though she was crying before, so I think it was actually how bright the sun was...and how hot!)

Love love love this one!

Thankful Tree

We made a Thankful Tree today!

Everyday (that we can remember to) in November we'll each write on a "leaf" something we're thankful for. I got the idea from this blog. I decided to do "leaves" because it makes sense for a thankful TREE. However, it's fall, so we're working backwards and putting leaves ON our tree...that and we live pretty much on the equator so "fall" is a foreign concept anyway! 

Here's us looking for sticks under the very lush green trees. :)

Isaiah stayed on his bike most of the time. I think he found one stick and one flower.

Me smelling a stick. I could smell cat pee near there and didn't want to bring a smelly stick into my house. It was pee-free, fyi. I have NO clue why my husband took a picture of me smelling it. But thought it was funny.

We colored paper with fall-ish colors and then cut leaves out of the decorated paper.

Writing on the leaves what we're thankful for. If Isaiah had really been thinking he would have said he was thankful for "markers"...why??....

...because when the markers got taken away from him it was obvious he really liked them.

We will be hot-gluing our thankful thoughts onto the tree. Living in the tropics where electricity is REALLY expensive means that most rooms are cooled by fans only. We need to make sure those leaves don't go anywhere!

Thank you Jesus for all you've given us! Your blessings in our lives are so undeserved and yet you pile them on. Thank you!!