October 2010

Mom and Dad

Dad had the opportunity of being a bachelor for a couple of weeks, while Mom went to Utah to tend grandkids. Before spending a week with Brenten, Landon, and Caitlin, she made a surprise trip to St. George and just appeared on the Harding doorstep. Spending a couple of days babysitting while Amy and Will worked was a fun time for her. Wearing some of the hats that moms wear, she was soccer mom, housekeeper and entertainer of kids. Although they were all sooo good, it was wonderful to be home again with Dad. After all, “there is no place like home.” Dad was left with a “to-do” list and was able to get most of it accomplished, along with taking care of the outdoors and making sure the dishes were clean before Mom came home.
We finally finished up the canning and have our food storage up to par again. It is a lot of work, but so rewarding once the shelves are filled.

Brian and Jessica

September was quite the month! Before Africa, Brian had a work trip to Taiwan and we went to Colorado Springs for a quick weekend (we won’t talk about the reason for the trip – the BYU vs. Air Force game). Two days later we were off! This was my first real international trip, so the travel alone was exciting for me. We eventually got to Uganda and met up with Scott (who works and now lives in Africa), Brian’s travel buddy Peter, his wife Kelly (who is also Scott’s sister), and Scott and Kelly’s parents.

The first two days were quite the adventure! Brian, Peter, Kelly, and I were driving to the other side of the country to do a gorilla trek. I can’t go into the details here, but let’s just say that the adventure started with our “trusted” driver hopping out an hour into the trip for a “family emergency” which left us with some random guy no one knew anything about, followed by getting lost on several “short cuts” which led us to almost run out of gas in the middle of nowhere, followed by a 7 hour trek through the mountains (part of which included a torrential downpour with hail) which allowed us to sit about 10 feet away from several gorillas, followed by another exciting drive to a different national park, and ended with an armed guard cocking his automatic riffle at us…two times. It was quite the introduction to international travel!

The rest of the trip wasn’t as exciting, but included so many highlights – game drives at various parks, staying in some beautiful lodges, shopping in the market, visiting an elephant orphanage and giraffe center, etc. In Kenya, and probably one of the highlights of the highlights, we went on an early morning hot air balloon ride (thanks Brothers for the gift!). It was spectacular! After our flight, we had breakfast out amongst the zebras and wildebeasts. We also managed to cross over into Tanzania so we could add another country to our lists (Number 54 for Brian, 8 for me). The trip ended with a tour of the Kibera Slums in Niarobi…very eye-opening and emotional for me. Overall, it was a fabulous trip and we are both looking forward to our next adventure abroad!

Peggy

I don't have a lot to add but since Becky has texting....she can "encourage" me to find something to put in. Just kidding Becky! I need a swift kick to do things lately. I appreciate you taking care of us all.

Basically-

-getting married

-remodelling a house

-unemployed once again -yet another child that thinks I'm the worst because who knows...

-Financially strapped because I tried to help someone one of them out and got stung

Thats the excitement of it all. I'm excited for a fresh start which may not include my kids very much, which is heart wrenching, but should bring new and exciting

adventures. I'm excited for all of you to meet him. Brenten calls him Cowboy Roger.

He runs a 14000 head calf ranch not far from Twin Falls. That will put me closer to some of the family and not too far away from Mom and Dad.

We were able to visit with Becky, Christian and boys for a day. Lunch was great and watching the kids interact with all the baby horses we went and saw was so cool. They loved being out there with them. Brenten is a natural. Landon and Cait warmed right up to them. Those big faces looking at you is kind of intimidating when you are that small I am sure.

Hope you all have a great month!

Take care,

Peggy
The Weavs

It has been an exciting month for us. Again more softball and soccer and it has been going great. We took first in our league. We are now in tourney. Wish us luck. The boys are still loving soccer. Brenten is really getting the hang of it. Landon tells us how awesome he is every week.

Peggy and crew came down for a quick trip and took us to a baby horse farm. The kids loved it. And we had a nice time chatting.

Christian and I took our first trip with out the kids. We went to Hawaii with his parents. It was awesome. The weather was perfect and so was all the fun. I felt like we did so much. We went to the PCC, Pearl Habor, snorkeling, shopped, played in the waves, and went to lots of different beaches. We have tons of pictures on face book if you want to check them out.

Mom was awesome and came and stayed with the kids while I was gone. She did the whole soccer mom thing. The boys didn't even want us to come back because they knew that it meant that grandma would have to leave.

The rest of the month was trying to get back to normal life and recovering from all our fun.

I think of you all often,

Becky