What a beautiful country and a wonderful trip! Although I'll have many blogs about the trip, I thought I'd sum it up with two pictures to start it off... breathtaking beaches around every turn and spectacular sunsets by night.

Did you know my husband is an excellent photographer? I think so anyway.

I've been back for a couple days now but it took a while to recover from the 3 flights which took 29 hours to get back home!

More to come...

Twas the night before I leave on vacation... I am excitedly running about packing my bags. I secretly brought some pictures of the kids so I wouldn't miss them so much. This is the longest time we've been gone, although they are in capable hands -spoiled rotten by their grandparents - both sets! As everyone has told me, I will miss them leaving the house and then out of sight out of mind. (I don't believe it's that easy!)

I am excited about meeting everyone at Bug Zoo and am disheartened that I won't be able to meet Hooligans after all. Another time perhaps...

Until I return then... with adventurous tales of South Africa!

Now that you've seen pics of my youngest daughter, did you notice anything funny about her hair? My daughters played hair salon (not on my watch!) and it seems my youngest sat through getting a full hair cut, about 1 1/2 to 2 inches all the way around her head. I must say, I am proud to say that my oldest did a pretty good job as she went evenly around, except for the scalped section in the front by her part. I believe that was her first cut and then she realized her mistake and started working much more evenly around her head.

Everyone is commenting on how cute the short hair looks on her. I'll admit I like it too (although we had just started pulling it all back in one ponytail), but my daughter is still not allowed alone with scissors!