Taylor covered Grandad with all of her dolls/stuffed animals
Above: Grandad and Bradyn took a nap together on the couch
Below: Grandad holding a leopard tortoise
Thanks, Grammy and Grandad, for coming to visit us! We had an amazing time and love you so much!
During our training in Richmond, Taylor met a girl who was 3 weeks older than she was and they became the best of friends. Her name is Madylanne and she is just the sweetest little girl. Madylanne and her parents, Mark and Melynda, live in Zambia so we don’t see each other as often as we would like but the girls always pick up right where they left off the last time. As you can see from the last picture, Amanda’s dear friend Melynda is going to be having a little baby boy on February 2 in Johannesburg, South Africa, so we had the privilege of getting to see them on their trip to South Africa and spending the week with them in Johannesburg while Brent was attending a conference. What a sweet time we had with them and we just love their family. I think Taylor and Madylanne will be best friends for life.
The girls had some fun in a toy store in Johannesburg trying on some masks.
The girls painted some best friends t-shirts and had a great time
They girls were loving on Bradyn and he was soaking up every minute of it.
Amanda and Melynda
Psalm 19:1 The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork.
This verse just went over and over in my mind as we stood at Victoria Falls and admired the Lord’s handiwork. Certainly we can see this in our every day lives, but when you stop and admire something as magnificent as Victoria Falls, it gives you a new found perspective on His handiwork.
Brent also did the zip line across the gorge and bungee jumped off the bridge. Craziness!!
Taylor watched from the sidelines as her daddy jumped and when she saw him bounce back up she said “Mommy, daddy is ok!”
Brent’s parents arrived on December 26 and after a few days to get over jet lag, we headed to the northern part of Botswana to explore Chobe Game Reserve and Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe. We had an amazing time!
On our journey north, we stopped at Nata Lodge to stay the night. It was so peaceful and relaxing and we had our own little cabin.
Beautiful rainbow at Nata
We got to see our first chameleon there
From Nata, we drove about 4 more hours on to Kasane to stay at Chobe Safari Lodge for the next 5 days. We were able to go on 2 boat drives on the Chobe River and 2 game drives in Chobe Game Reserve. Driving on the road to Kasane, we saw many elephants and giraffes just roaming in the wild. It was so great to see these animals in their natural habitat, not bound by fences.
The open dining hall where we ate breakfast/dinner
Sunset on the Chobe River
New Years Eve dinner
On our first game drive
We saw a puff adder snake just moments after getting into the park
Cape Buffalo
Baboons were all over the place
Botswana has the more elephants than any other country. We saw between 150-200 elephants in a single day.
We were looking for the big cats all day and on our way out of the park we ran into this mating pair. Too cool, they truly are so majestic
We also were able to do some boat drives. We were able to get up close and personal to some hippos, elephant, and crocs
The above picture was taken and about 2 minutes later this hippo behind us decided to charge our boat. We were chased twice by hippos and these big fellas are faster than you think.
Yikes we were very ready to get away from this guy.
A croc basking in the sun
Taylor feeding our hungry fella on the boat. I really need to learn to rub in their suntan lotion!
Elephants love to play and swim in the water
Brent and his dad got to go fishing and Brent caught a catfish
We also enjoyed the pool at the lodge, especially Taylor, but Bradyn was also a good sport in letting us hang out by the pool.
Taylor loved wearing her mask from new years eve the rest of the week just around the lodge. She was “super Taylor” when she wore it and could jump higher and run faster with it on. Love this girl!!
