Walking in our village

A few pictures from a walk in our village the other night... 

We often go out after dinner to walk around the village and visit with our neighbors. This is the best time of day to visit because everyone's home from work but still waiting 'til later at night for dinner. Plus the temperature has usually started to go down, so it's often cooler outside than inside. 

Eva is walking down the street alongside our house, and the older woman (she told us she was "past 40" when we asked her age) was walking down the street behind our house. 

Eva

Eva is such a happy girl! She wakes up smiling, and when she goes down for the night or for a nap, she almost always reaches for her bed and then waves goodbye. Sometimes she'll blow a kiss or do sign language for "i love you!" Everything is so exciting for her! She trots around the house playing with whatever she can find, whether it's a can to roll across the floor or a chopstick to bang on things, or a broom to help with the cleaning. In between times, she's on the constant alert for animals in the front yard or mimicking the roosters or cows she hears throughout the day!! She loves Laos!

Oops, didn't mean to cut off part of the picture here! 

morning routine

One of our morning routines is to bring the motorbike back outside. Nathan brings it in each night so it's not stolen, and here Eva is helping him bring it back out again. She loves to help!!

Getting around

I took this shot in Vientiane, though I see this all the time. Kids travel on motorbikes with mom or dad or both, and sometimes we'll see up to five or six people piled onto one bike! This one cracks me up... poor guy doesn't look very comfortable.

I can use a spoon!

This is is Eva learning to feed herself oatmeal! As long as we have her covered in a bib, she doesn't do too bad. Thankfully all the floors here are tile too, so cleaning isn't that difficult!

We're getting settled!

We've been here in Tha Kaek now about five weeks I think, and we're beginning to get things settled and in place. When we first arrived, we looked at most of the houses that were available for renting here and didn't find anything that seemed to work. We eventually settled for a "fixer upper" thinking that we'd rather wrap up the traveling period of our lives and just get settled! As it turns out, it's just the perfect house for us!! 

We have had SO much help with giving the house a thorough deep cleaning, and we no longer feel like there are rooms we won't enter or places we won't touch. Thanks especially to the guys who cleaned the scary places under the kitchen sink and counter! We've also painted some of the bright orange, lime green, and turquoise blue walls, thanks again to much help.  Screens are on the windows to keep out the swarms of mosquitoes and moths (and snakes). We have air conditioning in each of the three bedrooms now, and they all work! And the electricity has been adjusted to provide adequate current to the house, though running at a low voltage. :) 

And, we have internet!!!!!!!!!!! Woo hooooo!!!! And we have a P.O. mailbox, for those of you who have been asking. So we're well on our way and will be posting pictures hopefully soon. 

Happy bday Nathan!!

Nathan and Eva after swimming in the water

Some friends singing happy birthday to Nathan at the swimming hole today