life in the fast lane...

Yes...I've finally hit the fast lane here a couple of times now and despite one episode of being scolded for driving too slow, it's been quite fun. And, once some of the other PWC peeps saw our jewel of a car, they just had to have one...as you can imagine. Several of them have rented the same model in different colors...it's pretty funny to see them parked together. Naturally, as we've gotten more comfortable with getting out and about, our weeks have gotten busier. This past week was the busiest for us yet and went by so fast. I have a feeling it's been a taste of what's to come for the remaining weeks here. This week was pretty full with a few more birthday celebrations (more to come on this later), a relaxing day at the beach, and a fourth of July celebration complete with a trip to the nearby amusement park and a barbecue with the PWC peeps. While it was a nice day, it was very different to celebrate the fourth scarved and without any fireworks. I definitely missed all of my favorite Americans and our family's yearly march of the flag ;-)
On Friday, Eli's third birthday!, Daddy arrived a little after noon. You can't tell very well in the pic, but we made E a very small sign to hold up for "Pop" at the airport. We were very happy to see him! On Friday night, we dined at an authentic African restaurant named the Africa Cafe. The decor consisted of lots of cool artwork and light fixtures made from recycled materials, like plastic bottles and metal scraps, etc. Our server washed our hands in rosemary water before the meal and painted our faces later. The menu was family style, so we passed around our little bowls full of mystery, I mean, interesting new foods. I'm not the adventurous type when it comes to food...in fact, this trip has made me realize that I'm just downright boring in this area. Needless to say, I didn't exactly get my belly full that night, but it was a neat experience and I enjoyed a yummy no-risk pasta dish the next night :-)
On Saturday, Jesse's birthday!, we toured Daddy around a few hotspots since the weather was nice. We spent the greatest part of our day at Cape Point, which Jesse, E and I had not visited before. It's the point at which the Indian and Atlantic oceans meet and is incredibly beautiful. There were some baboons and ostriches hanging out in the area, so they were neat to see too.
Today has been the most dreary and rainy day that we've had so far. We headed to church this morning and enjoyed a great video sermon by Louie Giglio and then had a yummy lunch in town. We spent the afternoon strolling around the mall and doing some grocery shopping. Daddy's with us for the next couple of weeks so I'm really looking forward to showing him around more, spending more time together, and having an extra set of hands during the week.
To all of our prayer warrior friends, would you please remember my Maw-maw on Wednesday of this week? She'll be having surgery on her foot and it feels so weird to not be home for it. She's been in much debate over whether to go through with the procedure or not, so please pray that it will be worth it for her. Those of you who know her know that she's still very much on the go and full of life. She needs those feet to keep her going! Thanks, everybody ;-)