Trick-or-treating

We had a clone trooper, Boba Fett, and Thumbalina! They loved all the candy and costumes!

I had fire coming out of my mouth! lol.

On our last trip from the countryside, our car died halfway to the city! Here we are trying to limp to the nearest town!

Cali and Diesel the kitty

Cali turned 4 in July

Back in Florida, Aiden learned to swim in 2 weeks!

Ayrik is still working on it! They all love to be in the water.

random pics

Ben and a friend

This lady wanted her picture taken with Cali but Cali was too shy. I finally convinced her to do it but got a super silly face. Oh well!

Two wrestlers at Naadam.


After seeing the wrestling, Ayrik was dying to try it. During a break he convinced Cali to wrestle with him. (There was no way Aiden was going out there where people could see him!) Everyone thought it was the best thing in the world to see to little foreign kids wrestling. It was so cute!

One of the Naadam races.

Archery is the last of the "three manly sports" that make up Naadam.

Aiden and Ayrik enjoying the local wildlife. =)

Aiden turned 7 in May! (That's his cake he's sitting with)

New House? Definitely!

This is the loft after the men had finished building! See the last post for before pics. I am so excited about all this extra space! (you can only see half of it in this pic.)

This was the kitchen space before...

...and after!

We used to have a closet in this corner of the living room.

Now we have stairs!

This was the bathroom before. Check out the bucket shower! It worked fine but I like the new one MUCH better!

A toilet and sink and hot water heater! Whoopie!!!!

Thank you to everyone who helped with this!

A New House?

Ben and a team of guys have taken 2 trips out to work on our house. It was pretty rustic with no indoor plumbing and very little space. They spent many hours fixing up the attic space, adding a septic tank, building stairs, putting on a new roof, installing sinks and a toilet as well as countless other things. These pics are from after the first trip. I'll post more when I get them! The picture above shows the work on the septic tank. These two men dug through the perma-frost which was only just starting to thaw.

Ben, working on insulating the "loft."
This area will be our home school room and offices.

Hmm...I guess this one came before the other one.

Half of our new roof.

Thanks guys, for all your work!!

New bikes!

We recently bought some bikes for the kids. Here's Ben teaching Ayrik.

Ben teaching Aiden.

Cali trying out her training wheels.

Aiden loves to figure things out!

Buddies

Mongolian wedding

We recently were invited to the wedding of Ben's best Mongolian friend. (Pictured above with his bride) It was a wonderful experience and felt honored to be there!

Katlin and I with our good friend.

This was the first course! We were served 2 more before dessert. We were so full.... The liquid in the bowls is not cream of mushroom soup but salty milk tea! Actually quite yummy.

Here we are getting our picture taken with the bridal couple. Who ever wanted to could go up and have that done after the ceremony. We also had to sing a song before presenting them with our gift! I was so glad there was a big group of foreigners there so Ben and I didn't have to do it alone. That would have been a disaster! lol

More Malaysia pics!

One of Uncle Ben's favorite memories!

Good friends.

We went to a restaurant where you could catch the fish that you were going to eat! The kids all got to help and loved it!

I wonder if this is what Eli will look like when he grows up. lol!

Ayrik was being himself.

Aiden enjoying the water slide.

The ladies and I went to a fish spa. It was one of the weirdest things i have ever done. All the fish surrounded our feet and ate the dead skin off (see below). It tickled like crazy (above) and i could barely keep my feet in the water! After it was all done though, my feet were incredibly smooth!

Durian, the smelliest fruit ever. Ben wanted to try it so we all went and gave it a go. I did not like it although it didn't taste as bad as it smelled. Both Ben and the kids liked it though!

Malaysia trip

We had a wonderful time with our family in Malaysia. The cousins hit it off and are great friends now. Cali and Gabby are shown above.

The kids all enjoyed the albino python at the Batu Caves.

(Left to Right - Cali, Aiden, Gabby, Eli, Ayrik)

We celebrated Ayrik's 5th birthday while there!

One of our rare family pictures.

Ayrik riding an elephant with his Great-Uncle Ed.

Our whole group!

Aiden with his Papa.