Victoria Falls, of course

Yes, the reason we came all this way was to see one of the 7 wonders of the world - Victoria Falls! As soon as we arrived on Sunday we put on our raincoats and headed to the Falls. Being the 2nd time we have seen this wonder, I was able to watch my parents as they saw it for the first time. Their reaction to the greatness of God's creation was priceless. I enjoyed taking the pictures (underneath my umbrella, of course) of Mom and Dad and the kids. Enjoy our favorites!

Safari Day to Botswana

Early to rise to meet the bus for our all day safari in Botswana at Chobe National Park. First we had to ride the bus 45 minutes to the border between Zambia and Botswana. Here we had to go through immigration office for stamping of the passports. Then, we met a boat to ferry us across the Zambezi River. On the other side of the river, we had to make another immigration stop and cross over the cleaning mat to clean off any "foot and mouth disease" we had carrying with us on our shoes. After arriving into Botswana, we went to the Chobe Safari Lodge where we boarded a cruise boat for a 2-hour river game cruise. We saw lots of birds, hippo, elephant, lechwe, one crocodile, and we even got to step into the country of Namibia while watching the cape buffalo. Niki was so excited from being in Namibia that she hit her head coming into the boat. Ouch! After everyone was sure Niki did not pass out or have a concusion, the cruise continued. After the cruise, we had lunch back at the Chobe Safari Lodge, and then it was off to the Park for the game drive. We were greeted by the baboons and impala. This is the time of year for impala (and all of the animals) to have their babies, and, boy, we saw lots of babies! We saw more elephants (and baby elephants), warthogs (and baby warthogs), sable, giraffe, and kudu. One exciting part of our game drive was seeing 2 elephants fighting, or at least, one defending his territory. After our game drive with our guide, Rambo, we returned to the ferry to cross back into Zambia. Because Mom and Dad had single entry visas into Zambia when they arrived on the 20th, they had to pay AGAIN for another single entry visa when coming back from Botswana. Dad thinks they should spend the extra visa money on fixing the roads! Our day ended about 6pm when we returned to the Zambezi Sun Hotel, just in time for the kids to take a quick swim before dinner. You can check out all our safari pictures in the previous blog on the slideshow.

Chobe Safari in Botswana

Trip to Livingstone

We left Lusaka at 6:00am for our drive to Livingstone. We packed a lunch of sandwiches for the long ride ahead. Along the way, we saw many "new" things for Mom and Dad including this man carrying straw on his bicycle...

We did have to make a couple of pit stops along the way. We stopped at the Golden Pillow Lodge where they have a restaurant and bathrooms...

The road was fine until we got to the detour...

The detour took about 30 minutes, and we could see the main road to our left, so it was like we were on the frontage road. The workers have removed all that was left of the tarmac (pavement) and have begun grading the road for new pavement. The detour road was actually not that bad, only a few "humps" (speed bumps) every few meters. And we laughed at all the road signs...

After the detour, we were headed for the worst road ever. It was a bumpy 35 minutes along the last stretch before arriving into Livingstone...

Finally, after 7 long hours, we made it to Livingstone, arriving at the Zambezi Sun Hotel, where we were greeted by the tribal dancers...

Stay tuned for more stories from our trip to Livingstone!

Baptism Video

Kelsey's Baptism

Today, Christmas Day 2008, Kelsey was baptized in the Chongwe River in Zambia! We were joined by Kelsey's grandparents (the Abstances) and the Rodgers family. Kevin Rodgers gave the opening, then Ricky got to baptize Kelsey, and her Pop Pop gave a closing prayer. She was very excited to have her best friend, Hannah, there to witness this special occasion in her life. The water was a bit chilly, but when she came up from the water, her words were, "That was cool!" And she wasn't referring to the temperature of the water, she was stating what an awesome experience that it was to be baptized. Thank you Kevin and Suzie, Zach, Justin, and Hannah for sharing with us your home and your time! Kelsey will always remember her baptism on Christmas Day in Zambia.

Here we are traveling across the river rocks to find a good spot for the baptism.

Uncle Kevin explaining about baptism.

Best friends - Kelsey and Hannah

Merry Christmas

Before... (around 6:30am)

During...

After... (around 7:00am) - Now it's playtime!!!