Nathan and Liesel ejoying their favorite pasttime

You may need to turn up yor sound!

Happy Birthday Liesel!!!!!

To my gorgeous wife!!!

Hope you have a fantastic day today! May your first birthday as a US resident be a wonderful experience, and may the rest be even better. I look forward to the many adventures that lie before us in the USA and can't wait to share them with you. Thanks for everything you do for Nathan and me, the way you look after us and make sure we do not lack anything. We are truly blessed to have you in our lives and pray that we may be able to spoil you even if it is only a fraction of what you deserve. We love you so much!!!

with heaps of love

Your two men in your life

Grant and Nath

Just another average weekend

Well, there is nothing phenomenal that we did this weekend that is really worth writing about. On Saturday, we headed down to a another park for a picnic. This park again is in a beautiful setting. A place where anyone who is a little boy at heart will love. On the one side of the park is a train line, a river runs down the other side, and with the airport being about 3 miles away, aircraft flying a couple of hundred meters above on their final approach. Then of course there's the playground. Nathan had a great time running up and down and exploring the structures. At lunchtime, we decided to bring out the food.... bad idea. Five seconds after the containers were opened, insects (bees, I think) descended upon us. Didn't take us long to realize that if we stayed we may get some extra protein in our diets, so we packed up and headed back home to have lunch in an air-conditioned, pest-free environment.

That afternoon, Nath and I went to Costco, to get new tyres fitted to Liesel's Buick. The service is exceptional, as these tyres come with lifetime pressure checks, wheel balancing, and tyre rotations. These are the tyres that will get is through the winter season, and are specially designed for snow! Bring it on (in small quantities please)

On Sunday, we went to Church, later on that afternoon, we went to Barnes & Noble bookstore. In the children's section, there is a Thomas the train train set laid out. Nathan can easily spend hours here playing with Thomas and all his friends. And that was our weekend! Tomorrow (Monday) I have been invited to play beach volleyball again by a colleague at work. It will be at the same place as last time, on Lake Erie's edge, but this time we will be playing under flood lights since the sun is setting so much earlier!

Next weekend is a long weekend here in the USA as we celebrate Labor Day on Monday. This day officially marks the end of summer :-( We will be driving to Liesel's family in Detroit to spend the weekend there (about 3.5 hours drive). So my blog may only be updated on Tuesday once we return from Detroit.

Then, of course, its my beautiful wife's birthday on Tuesday. Looking forward to spoiling her on her special day! Until Tuesday next week then........ (video to follow shortly)

Nathan helping with the washing

Nathan helping Liesel do the laundry

Preparing for Winter

Now don't read too much into the title. We are not on the brink of a blizzard just yet! The weather has been generally the same as last week with high's around 25C. It was raining on saturday, and since we couldn't do any outdoor activity with nathan, we decided to take a drive to Burlington Coat Factory. This is a wholesale factory that has all kinds of clothing and other stuff like baby furniture, but they specialize in winter clothing. We thought that we may get better prices for some winter clothes now, before there is a huge demand for it later on in the year! We found a big winter jacket for Nath, as well as a very cute (and warm) snow suit. We are making sure that he will be ready for sledding when his granny arrives in December! When we tried it on him, he wasn't too impressed with this bulky blue uniform, but I suppose you can't blame him when its 25C outside ;-)

As it rained throughout the day, I took Nathan with me to Costco (similar to Makro). This is a excellent place to be if you want to covet! They have all the latest and greatest plasma and LCD televisions. Then we also had a few samples of food that were being handed out all over the store. Not a bad way to spend a rainy afternoon!

On Sunday we went to church as usual. Nathan is loving church because he gets to hang out with other children his age in the nursery! Today, the lady watching them told us how Nathan was pointing to differnet animals and telling everyone in the room what animal it was, and then he made the sound of that animal. The others in the class clapped for him each time! He seemed to love that so much that he even started clapping for himself! This kept the "teacher" amused the whole time we were in church!

After Nathan's afternnon nap, I took him with me to the Westlake Recreation Center. Here I signed up for indoor volleyball that will take place from September 6 onwards. It is held every Wednesday night from 8pm to 9:30pm! Looking forward to getting back into the game!!!! After the quick sign-up Nathan and I spent some time in the playground before heading home for supper!

Our condolences to the Cloete family

Last night, my brother-in-law's (Roy) father passed away from a heart attack. It was quite sudden and has taken the family by surprise. He leaves behind his wife, and 3 sons. Please pray for them as they drive out to the farm to be with their mother and sort out the estate.

So much for Summer!!!!

Yes, its true - it seems like the weather has changed, and fall is making its final approach
:-( Compare the 2 photos here, first one taken only 3 weeks ago, and the other one taken yesterday! See the difference. Also, the days are visibly becoming shorter and the temperatures have dropped 10C since last week! Well, Summer was fun while it lasted.

Liesel had been on a picnic this week with Nathan and the lady that arranges the Mothers of Pre-Schoolers (MOPS) group in our area. They all had a wonderful time and Nathan absolutely loved it! So, on Saturday morning we headed off to one of the parks in the area for a family picnic! The park was in a stunning setting with a playground, a covered lapa, a pond (which you could skate on in winter) and a sledding hill. After a good lunch and some compulsory time in the playground, we ventured back home for Nathan's nap. He was so exhausted from the playground that he slept for almost 4 hours, about twice as long as normal!


On Sunday, we went to church and had a good sermon by the pastor, entitled "Trust God, but lock your bike!". The pastor says we must make use of our "feurons" (when you use your common sense, you use the neurons in your brain. Now if you combine faith with your neurons, you get "feurons"). Afterwards we met Marianne, the MOPS organizer, in the child care wing of the church. She is a lovely lady, and she introduced us to her husband Phil. They were so warm and friendly, that they invited us out to lunch with them that afternoon. Unfortunately, Nath was in desperate need of a sleep, so we took a rain check on that. Phil told me about the men's ministry of the church and how the men have been going on outings together, even white water rafting!! That sounds like my kind of men's ministry!

After church we headed home, where I chatted to my mom on Skype, spoke to my sister and her family on Skype with our web cams, and then later spoke to Liesel's parents in Botswana. I love the weekends as it's my time to catch up with family!

Till next weekend then, just pray that I won't be sending photos of snow in next week's blog ;-)

Nathan and his wah-wahs!

Nathan in the Playground

For Angie and Abby! Here we are having a picnic in a nearby park. Nathan, of course has to play on the Jungle gyms, especially if it has anything that goes round and round (wah wah's)! When he points to the X and calls it a "wah wah", it is because it looks like a ceiling fan, which of course, goes round and round!

Nathan and Chocolate Cake

After my wife had cut us each a slice of freshly baked chocolate cake, Nathan leaned over and picked up my entire slice in one hand and proceeded to eat it! AND HE FINISHED IT!!!! Pa se kind ;-)

Zoos: fun for the whole family - NOT

Liesel had previously bought Nathan a wooden puzzle with wild animal shapes on it. He loves this puzzle, and can point out the Lion to you, roar like the lion, and mispronounce some of the other names like Rhino, Giraffe and Elephant. So obviously we thought he would love going to a zoo where he can see all these animals in real life. The weather on Saturday was perfect for a trip to the Cleveland Zoo. We got there as the gates opened and we were hoping that Nathan would appreciate the outing. We first go to the elephants enclosure, quickly checked Nathan's facial expressions and there was nothing! It was then that we realized that he was too young to comprehend that these were real animals! But it also broke Liesel's and my hearts to see these elephants kept in a relatively small enclosure. It seemed to be a lot smaller even than the Joburg Zoo's elephant enclosure! I don't if it because we come from Africa, and that we are used to seeing these magnificent animals in their natural environments, but we felt really sorry for these elephants. And it was not only the elephants, but cheetah, lions, gorillas, polar bears, wolves, monkeys etc that could not experience the freedom that they were intended too. There was also an eagle that was kept in a huge cage. It's sad to think that this eagle's destiny is to sit on the branch of a tree and not be able to soar over the plains...... I think this will be the last visit to a zoo for a long time. I must remember the next time we come to South Africa to visit - to book a few nights in the Kruger National Park again!

Needless to say, we left the zoo after a couple of hours and headed home for lunch and Nathan's doo-doo (nap). Nathan must have been worn out by the zoo because that afernoon he slept from 1pm to 4pm!!! There was just enough time to head for a swim before supper time!

Sunday meant Church in the morning. Nathan really seems to be enjoying it at church and playing in the nursery with some other children his age! It also a huge weight off our shoulders as we can both sit back and enjoy the service, knowing that Nathan is looked after. This afternoon is going to be pretty warm again (29C) so we will more than likely head out for another swim.

For those of you who were interested: on Monday evening I played some beach volleyball for a colleague at work's team. It was in the most incredible setting, located right next to a marina. Then the courts were all set up along the lake Erie shoreline, and while we were playing we could watch the sunset gracefully into the fresh water! The volleyball was good fun, and I didn't embarass myself. In fact we won 3-0. My colleague has also invited me to play in the indoor league with him in the fall and winter, so of course I said "YES"!!

Then this week, we also bought the air tickets for my mother to come visit in December. Now there's no turning back for her. We told Nathan that his gogo (granny) will take him sledding in December!!!!

I must say - life is good in Cleveland - now if only we had a baby sitter ;-)

Then this photo is especially for Janine - she wanted to see more photos of Liesel and myself - so here is one of me (where I haven't shaved for a few days)