We're ba-ack!!!

We got from Detroit this evening, after spending the last 3 days with Andreas and Jaqui, Liesel's uncle and aunt. We left on Saturday morning at 8am for the 3 hour trip. Since we know we will taking a few more long trips with Nathan this year, we decided to buy a Car DVD system for Nathan. It worked brilliantly! It comes with 2 screens. One screen I attached to the back of Liesel's headrest (in front of Nathan) with the velcro straps that are provided. The other screen contains the actual DVD player, and is connected to the other one with a cable. Liesel kept it close to her, so she could start the DVD when she wanted to and switch it off. When we were 2 hours into our journey, Liesel started the DVD, and Nathan was transfixed! This purchase so far has already had great returns!


We arrived there at just after 11am, and we found Andreas hard at work painting their house. Since the houses have a lot of wood, it needs a decent barrier to protect it from the elements. I volunteered to help, and got painting almost straight away. I am glad I was painting, because that gave Andreas and I a great opportunity to chat. While we were painting outside, Liesel was helping Jaqui inside with the children and preparing meals, tidying up etc.

That night I was so proud of Nathan. He is growing up so quickly :-( He was going to sleep with Jaqui and Andreas' 2 kids (2.5 and 5 year old) in their room. He would sleep in the toddler bed and the other kids would sleep in the bunk beds. Jaqui got her kids ready for bed and was sitting on the carpet reading them a bible story. Nathan came and joined them and sat quietly on my lap while Jaqui read and then prayed. I then tucked him into bed, and there were no protests whatsoever. We put the lights out and soon they were all fast asleep!


On Sunday, we went to church in the morning. For lunch I offered to take us all to the Rainforest Cafe. This is a themed restaurant, with a number of aquariums with amazing fish, and a whole lot of "robotic" wild animals. They have elephants that trumpet, move their heads and flap their ears. There are gorillas that beat their chest and a leopard in the tree that looks down at you and growls.
It has a great atmosphere, and the kids are always intrigued, sometimes frightened by the wild animals. The food was good too! The rest of the day was relaxful, no painting taking place on the Sabbath ;-)

On Monday, Andreas and I got back to painting. The ladies took the children to a park and later prepared a fantastic lunch! We had barbecued chicken breasts and Brats (Sausage that was pretty close to Boerewors). After Nathan's nap, and my shower, we had the car packed and headed back home. Nathan seemed to have bonded with his "cousins" in Detroit as he has been asking many times, "Where's Claudi (Claudia)? Karl? Jaqui? Bassi (his name for Andreas)?"


It would be great if we lived closer so that we could make visits like that more often! Now I am off to bed to get a good night's sleep as house painting can wear you out!