The Fey Family

On Monday morning, we all woke up bright and early, ready for another day of fun. Darin was still feeling pretty tired out and sore from our big day on Sunday, but for the most part, he sucked it up. After breakfast, we left our cottage and headed out to see the sights. Our first stop was the Pinnacle, a large rock rising up from the canyon below. It was pretty impressive, but there was only a tiny railing to keep my precious children from falling to their death, so I was not really having the best time. We looked at the big rock for a while and then Darin held the kids hands so they could peek over the edge at some waterfalls and then I fell over dead from a heart attack. Ok, I didn’t really, but man, do I hate having my kids up high!!!  We piled back into the car and headed to God’s Window. We started walking to get to the lookout point and were confronted with stairs, lots of stairs. The kids took off running up the stairs, so we had to follow. Each time we got to the top, there

Well, my parents arrived on Wednesday night, and after 2 days of unpacking (so much unpacking!), renewing old acquaintances and catching up on sleep, we left for our holiday on Saturday morning. During our lunch stop, we ran into a group of Americans. In the group was a couple from Hudsonville, Michigan, our hometown! Dr. Dykstra (dentist) and his wife Jan. Such a small world. After talking a bit, the world got even smaller, as we discovered that Jan’s brother goes to our old church (Hi Buteyns!) and her cousin was my mom’s dear, dear friend, Cheryl who recently passed away.  After that stop, we were on our way again. Our next stop was Pilgrim’s Rest, which was a gold mining town many years ago. The kids were thrilled to feed a pair of donkeys some carrots and then to make things even more exciting, they got to go on a donkey cart ride down the main street. They looked SO CUTE bouncing around in the back of the cart. I am sure there were more things to do in Pilgrim’s Rest, like panni

In 2 days, my parents will be arriving in South Africa! We spent all Saturday morning cleaning the house in preparation for their arrival. The kids are so excited to show Papa and Gram all around our little corner of the world and Darin is all geared up to play Canadian Salad, his favorite card game ever! We went on a game drive on Saturday night and saw a HUGE kudu by the side of the road. Darin and I both jumped when we saw it because it was RIGHT THERE, looking right at us and showing off its beautiful twirly antlers. It really was amazing. The kids are getting to be such good animal spotters. Jori has to keep count of how many things she sees first, which drives Tyson nuts. It is fun seeing how excited they both are when they see something without Darin pointing it out first. I must say that I am also quite proud of myself for making a spot because my vision is so poor that I rarely see things without having Darin (or Jori) point it out to me first.  I have made pear crisp twi

We went on a game drive to look for animals.   When we got home we locked the gate.   I wanted to have a race with my dad.   I looked back I was running in the grass then doooooooooooooooosh! I slamed my head in a thorn tree, then I fell to the ground.   I went inside.   I was bleeding all over that’s why I had to take a bath.   I went inside the house to tell my mom what had happened.   I started to cry.   I took a shower, then it was all better.

Jori and I were walking home from TYB today and I was having her practice spelling some words. Out of nowhere she said “I wish my name could always be Jorin” (which is her given name). I asked her why and she said “Then people would know there is an ‘n’ at the end”, which didn’t totally make sense to me so I probed a bit more. She said “Some people spell my name right, J-O-R-I, but some people think my name is Jori-ya and they spell it J-O-R-Y.”. She sounded so sad and disgusted by this, that I had to hide my smile as I consoled her and told her my name is also often misspelled and mispronounced.  Speaking of names, Jori went through a time where she was calling her brother “Ty”, which drives me nuts. I am all about Tyson and Tys, but he is not a Ty!! I had him start telling her “Why do you keep calling me that? It’s not my name.” : ) That must have worked as I have not heard her say that for several weeks! Tyson likes mustard! I am so glad I have one child that likes condiments a

On Saturday we had some friends over from Pretoria.   When they first came we played.   Then we ate dinner.   A girl named Aliya saw a snake.   It tried to hide but it didn’t hide.   It went in my mom and dad’s bathroom.   We sprayed doom on it to make it come out but it didn’t.   We stood back to make it come out and it did. A guy named Jared caught it we begged to go with across the road to let it go.   We did get to, then we went to bed.   On Sunday, a friend came over from across the road.   While we were playing, I(Tyson) saw two snakes.   I called my mom and dad!   “There’s snakes!   There’s snakes!”   My sister got my dad.   He brought a broom and a bucket.   He swept one in the bucket.   He put another bucket on the snake.   That snake died.   We think it was the doom that killed it.   My dad threw it over the fence.