The Traveling Banana: Aunt Janiece

Last year at this time I was in Mozambique. If someone from the States had asked me, "Hannah, what's the thing you miss most about the USA right now?" My answer would most definitely have been –after friends and family– SNOW! Yes, in Mozambique this time of year it is scorching hot. The rains come once a day, but even then it is still like standing in front of a furnace. It was especially hard to bear when friends from the US would email and say, "Ohhh the snow is falling right now and it is SO cold.. I can't wait for summer." SUMMER! Summer?! Really! I couldn't believe that! How could people not appreciate the snow? Well, God knew that snow was something we all missed those three years in Mozambique and so He has blessed us with, not only, a white Christmas, but also white weeks after Christmas! :D I have never seen this much snow in Missouri, but wow is it ever beautiful!

A few days after Christmas the snow was still falling. Huge, beautiful flakes were falling from the sky. It looked like God was up in heaven cutting up clouds and parading them gently to earth. It was mesmerizing and stunningly beautiful.

Sarah, in all her creativeness, took the snow and molded it into a snowman :) A cute one too, if I do say so myself :)

Ohh, a little insert about new year's amidst all this snow :) We rung in the new year... well ok, it was more like bang in the new year :) Nonetheless we welcomed in 2010! Hard to believe we are already a decade into the millennium! I feel slightly... old.

Our Aunt Janiece was in town fro Christmas and the New Year. We had loads of fun playing games with her and just hanging out with her :) She's a great Aunt!

Alright, so I got really sidetracked from the snow... but this, I just couldn't resist not putting this picture up :) Yah... my brothers a little goofball :)

Aw, last night... yep, SNOW!!! :D It was stunning, again, watching it fall from the sky and coat the ground, once more, in a layer a shimmering whiteness :) What an amazing Creator we serve!

After a fun 12 days at the beach we are back in the city. We all definitely had a blast at the beach and all of us came back with darker skin... and it's not red :) Yeah! Soo... here's a little view of the past 12 days :)

We headed to The Palms (the beach we stayed at) on Sarah's 15th birthday! Wow! Happy birthday Sarah!! She's a young woman now :)

Since it was her birthday we had a special breakfast for her. Muffins :) mmmm...

After a long drive we got to the Palms :D Yeah!!! And celebrated Sarah's birthday.

Happy Birthday Sarah!!!

The next day we got BLTs :) Mmmm... we don't get bacon in Nampula, so it was a very special treat.

February 12th was Damarise's 19th birthday! My goodness, my siblings are getting old!! Anywho, that morning us girls decided to go on a shopping trip :)

When we came back from shopping we realized we'd accidently taken home two tubes of toothpaste, but only paid for one. Oh no! We felt terrible. It's a long story on how it happened, so I won't post it on here, but we did go back to the store and buy the tube of toothpaste and the cashier thanked us for being honest. :)

I interviewed Damarise about how it felt to be 19... :P

And we ordered pizza... Mmmm... that is another thing we cannot get in Mozambique. Pizza :) So it was a very special treat!

We sang happy birthday to her...

And then she opened up her presents :)

Ohhh and how is Ian doing?? I'm sure everyone is wondering. Right now, as I'm writing this, Ian is doing amazing! According to me, and I could be wrong, Ian seems to be back to his normal self! Yep!!! GOD is amazing!!! There is no other way to describe Ian's health! Anywho, it does look like Ian is sick in this picture and he was. A flu, cold and who knows what else kept going through our family the whole time we were there. Plus Ian was just regaining his energy, so after doing something energetic for an hour he was wiped out the rest of the day.

Damarise got her camera as a birthday present :) Hehe... and graduation... and Christmas :)

Friday... not sure what we did :P hehe... Ohh wait I know! We celebrated Mom's birthday... only 5 days late. We didn't get any pictures though... hmm strange.

Saturday....

Damarise went down to the beach with Andrew to take pictures :)

Not sure why, but I love this picture!

Andrew... the mighty explorer...

Awwww.... Best oldest sis... and cutest littlest brother! :D

Another one of Damarise's amazing pictures!

The 69 stairs we had to climb to get to the beach... *phew!*

Saturday night we girls and Dad went to Durban's international airport to pick up our Aunt Janiece :) It was SOOO great to see her!!! :D We got back to the Palms around midnight... so we were pretty tired to say the least ;)

The next day was a rainy one, but we decided to go out hiking :)

This plant was so cool! The Creator is amazing eh?

All of us listening to Aunt Janiece .... not sure what she is talking about :P hehe

That night we went into the town to go shopping and ate dinner out :) Another special treat :)

Monday... we swam but not much else. Aunt Jan worked with Ian all morning and the rest of us did school... so it was a pretty blah day :P

Tuesday... the monkeys came out!!! Oh they are SO cute!

Another one of Damarise's amazing pictures!!! I may sound biased, but she is an amazing photographer!

Wednesday we went out to the point on the beach...

This is a neat picture of Dad... he looks deep in thought :)

And speedy Andrew...

"Sisters, sisters, there were never such devoted sisters..." :)

Aunt Jan working on stuff for Ian...

Thursday...

I'm not sure what we did all of Thursday, but we did do a puzzle. Damarise, Sarah and Aunt Jan had worked on it the night before and got done everything.... but the sky. The sky was hard! All the pieces were the same colour! Ah! So Aunt Jan and I worked on it a lil bit Thursday night, but didn't get too much done. :P

Friday:

Sarah worked on the sky... :)

Awww I have two beautiful sisters don't I?!

Aunt Janiece and Andrew...

Bringing Aunt Jan's luggage over to the other house so she could repack and we could head off to the airport :(

Saying goodbye at the airport. Thank you SO much Aunt Janiece for coming all the way over to Africa to help Ian and see us :D It was wonderful to get to spend time with you!!!

Dad and Mom with Aunt Janiece.

Awww Big Brother and Lil' Sister :D

Damarise and Aunt Janiece. :D

Saturday: Our last day at the Palms...

All week we'd go down to the ocean... but never swim in the actual ocean. Instead we'd go on our body boards in this river and be swept into the ocean. The current was really strong so we'd go pretty fast. Well, come Saturday, the strangest thing happened! The current was going backwards! WOAH!!! So we were floating upriver... hehe.. it was still fun and went fast :)