More Babies

Baby zebra following mom

Warthogs are ugly animals, but there is something cute about the baby

Baby hippo

Baby topi

Baby cape buffalo - it's called a water buffalo in the United States

Baby Animals

It is spring time in Africa. Baby animals are everywhere.

Lion cub

A giraffe family at the orphanage

A leopard with her baby

Egyptian geese

Black rhinoceros with her offspring

Home from Africa

The sunsets in Africa are absolutely amazing. This photo shows an acacia tree in the foreground. There are clouds near the horizon. It looks like mountains instead of clouds. There are some places north of the Serengeti where you can see for miles and miles. Nothing like the Las Vegas valley where we are surrounded by mountains.

The hippopotamus is an amazing animal. They are actually quite fast. They are able to run to protect themselves from their predators. Hippos stay in the water during the day. Their skin is very sensitive to the sun. At night, they come out of the water to graze. We saw hippos in the smallest water holes. We couldn't believe they were able to get in and out of some of them.

The cheetah is a beautiful animal. It is sleek and powerful. This cheetah was stalking prey. She saw a Thomson gazelle with two babies. We followed and watched for nearly an hour as she slowly approached the gazelles. As the cheetah made her move, she chased one of the babies over a small ridge and we lost sight of them. However, the cheetah brought her catch right back to within about 20 feet of the truck. She was so close, we could hear her panting. We also heard her break the gazelle's neck before beginning her breakfast.

We saw this leopard in a tree. Vincent, our guide, told us that she would be coming down from the tree to go back to her babies. Just then, she started her way down. We followed her for about 45 minutes. Just when we were ready to give up, she emerged from some trees with her two babies. Vincent had parked in the perfect place. In order to get to the next stand of trees, they had to cross the road near our vehicle. The mom went in front of the truck, about 6 feet from me. The babies crossed behind the truck, about 5 feet away from us. It was amazing. We didn't even mind that we were nearly an hour late for breakfast. We had to eat fast to make it to our next game drive.

Out of Africa Volume 3

Well, we are home from our Safari. We had a great time being pampered and seeing the beauty of nature. Africa is a beautiful place. The sunrises and sunsets are amazing. Our guide for the game drives was Vincent. He was amazing. He knew the animals and the birds and knew all the right places for seeing the best animals.

We saw all the animals. Elephants, zebras, hippos, crocs, impalas, elands, giraffes, lions, cheetahs, gazelles, leopards, etc, etc, etc. It was amazing. We knew we were seeing great things because our guide had his own camera out and was taking photos. We got lots of family pictures. It is spring in Kenya so all the animals have had babies recently. We will be putting pictures up when we get back to Las Vegas. The internet connection in Nairobi is too slow so it won't upload the photos. I will keep trying.

The tents we stayed in on our safari were something else. Hardwood floors, tile shower, flushing toilet, running water. The wake up calls were the best. Our room steward stood outside the tent and softly called to us that it was time to wake up. Then, he would come in with hot chocolate and cookies. He turned our bed down every night and put hot water bottles in it to keep us warm. We had so much fun. The food was delicious. We ate Kenyan gourmet for nearly every meal. Different choices for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Four course meals every time. They usually have a buffet set up for breakfast and lunch, but there were only about 10 people staying at the camp so we were extra pampered. Francis was our server for every meal and he did a great job taking care of us.

We are heading out for more sight seeing today so we will post again later.

Out of Africa Vol. 2

Today, we went to the Nairobi Animal Preserve. We saw so many animals!!!! It was great. We were there for nearly 5 hours just driving around and looking for things to take photos of. I took nearly 500 photos. This will just be a small sampling.

Well, the pictures won't upload. I will try again later. You were going to see a water buffalo, a giraffe, a zebra, ostriches, warthogs, etc. We saw one leopard in a tree really far away. Only with the binoculars and telephoto lenses on the cameras were we even able to tell what it was.

Tomorrow, we travel to Masaai Mara. We will be there until Thursday night. We get to go on game drives every day. I'm so excited to see some of the big cats and maybe some elephants. Mom says we will have to ride a camel before we come home. We'll see how that goes.

We are wishing all of our friends and family could be here with us. We miss you and love you.

Out of Africa - Volume 1

We made it all safe and sound to Kenya. We got in Thursday night about 9:30. It was a lllllloooooonnnnnnnggggggg trip. Wow! I didn't realize how far it was to Nairobi. It took about 27 hours from the time we left our house on Wednesday morning until we got here.

We stopped in Chicago and London on the way here. It is my first time out of the United States except for cruises to Mexico. The London airport is amazing. Terminal 5 is like an international shopping mall. We really enjoyed browsing through all the shops. We decided that it would be better to buy things there on the way home.

Today, we went to the Masaai Market. We had lunch at the Silver Spur. It was good food. I had chicken and cheese quesadillas. Conrad had the Brazilian style beef. The french fries were very crisp on the outside and tender on the inside. When you order drinks, you have to specifically ask for cold drinks. Nothing here is cold. The Kenyan people think that cold drinks will ruin your teeth. Besides, cold things hurt your teeth.

The Masaai Market was interesting. Everyone was set up in small 'booths' on top of a building. The booths were just areas on the ground. There were fabrics, shawls, wood carvings, bowls, baskets, paintings, beads, jewelry, etc. The list goes on and on and on. The handwork was beautiful, but we didn't buy anything. We will have time to go back next week if we don't find other things in the rest of our travels.

Pictures will be coming tomorrow. We love and miss all of you back home.

Africa

Tomorrow is the big day. The suitcases are packed and within the allowed weight. Just 29 hours until takeoff.

Africa Countdown

Only 9 days to go!!!!! We are so excited. One suitcase is packed with stuff for Mom and Dad. I just have to finish Christmas shopping for Deric and get his package in the mail before we leave so he will have it by Christmas.

Photos from Honduras

We got pictures from Honduras today.

Top Left - Deric and Elder Orozco at a baptism on October 31st.

Top Right - Deric finally got to golf. He said the course wasn't great and he didn't play well because of the clubs. I guess when everyone is 5'8", that's the size the clubs would be. Deric should have played on his knees.

Right - Deric's first baptism on his mission. Deric did say that the Honduran people are not generally happy. They only smile when they think something is funny.