Below, these photos may look like a fun cookie decorating exchange gathering with other homeschooling families in our province complete with hot drinks, gift exchange, carols, great food, and a bonfire. To US, however, I think we may be remembering it as the super-spreader that gave us all Covid for Christmas at the absolute soonest this country could possibly have given it to us. Potato, Potato.

One perk of being an established foreigner where there aren’t many is that we get invited to grand openings or events to try them out before these venues get very many more guests. Last week, we got invited to a luxury hotel that wants to start a horse riding activity for their guests. We were happy to oblige. It was thrilling and fun to learn. I’ve been on a horse many a time but this was the first time I actually was in a class on how to do it and why. It was scary but quite fun. Jubilee was our little black horse here coming up the rear with the most fun had and the most praise from the teacher as the most natural. I hope to remember her smiles of joy for years to come!

Back in October, we found some mysterious droppings in our garden and evidence of quite a bit of vegetables eaten. The next day after said discovery, Jubilee ran in the house proclaiming, “Mom, Mom! I found out what pooped in the garden and ate all the vegetables! And IT’S STILL THERE!” Follow the photos to discover what it was and how we helped it out!

Jubilee and Hosanna have taken to regular bike rides around the village. One day, they told me they discovered the village horses and like to go visit them. I went with them recently and took photos of their new world. Quite amazing.

Alright, let’s do some school…AGAIN! We do our school year from January to December so that when we get busy during the summer, there isn’t a start/stop. Just a less and more. Now that things have settled down, We can start teaching history, writing, geography, science again. I’m so happy to have the time to do that again. I really enjoy these topics and I get to spend more one-on-one time with the kids. Yay!

This girl has turned 14! She requested club sandwiches for dinner and deep-fried Oreos for dessert. Here are some Jada highlights. For her birthday celebration, she wanted to go to a karaoke place. We’d never been EVER so we invited whoever was around and had a blast. She wanted a “Goth” party so, we just dressed in black and went heavy on the eyeliner. Fun times.

Writer, dancer, illustrator, designer, sister, daughter

August in pictures. We hosted 5 family camps this year and 2 private school groups. It was insane. But we were quite happy to have 2 months of crazy to keep the business alive! Yay!

Every year, at the end of the summer, we have the privilege of being invited to the anniversary dinner of another western restaurant in town. This year the theme was “White Party”so Jada and I dressed the part. The owner sent a reference photo so, we took the que. Jada even made my hat. Others, however, did not and came in their t-shirts and summer casual. As a result, we stuck out like sore thumbs! The owner, however, really appreciated that we took the theme seriously and Jada and I had a blast getting dressed up. Normally, Nathan and I go just the two of us because it is normally an adult affair but we knew our fashionista would have a blast with it.

I made a new friend this last summer and it comes with a great story! Well, an expensive story! Our car is acting weird…it locks you out with the key still in it. AND we lost the spare. The logical conclusions are: 1: get it fixed 2: don’t ever leave the key in the car 3: get a spare key. BUT, not one time, but TWICE did I leave the key, in a rush, in the car. At which point, the car decides to do what the car is going to do and lock me out. Once with the car running! As a result, I had to spend half the day getting to town and finding the (extorting) locksmith. He said that I must have “accidentally pressed the lock on my way out the car.” I obviously don’t like my integrity questioned but alas, here we are, TWICE. The second time this happened, I had made the decision to just get a spare key made…which is the cost of having him come out 3 times. Trust when I say neither option (locksmith, spare key, finding summer-time to fix it at the shop) was cheap…which is why we just tried really hard to not ever leave the key in the car.

Getting the spare key ALSO involved half a day and a fist-full of cash. The only ONLY highlight of that trip was meeting the locksmith’s daughter. (Sounds like a book title. Is it?) She was such a joy and crazy smart and had a lot of questions…which I enjoyed answering for once, mainly because they were quite different questions from the norm. I was even able to share some Good news with her. Please remember her with me! Every time you get in your car or lose your keys!

Note: We’ve since taken the car in to get it fixed.

The mechanic’s reply, “Yeah, these cars do that sometimes.”

Patrice hopefully, “So did you fix it?”

Mechanic deadpan, “No.”

We get so crazy busy in the summer, I have NO time to give updates! Here is our June to July from this year!

Jada and Jubilee had a dance recital and review.

Recital Pic

My best friend and her family were able to come and visit with us here this summer. Our families went to an amazing gorge together and we were able to have a great time together here at the BnB.

This was our first family photo of the season. We took it during our last crazy week of the summer so it’s a somewhat celebratory picture…even though guests are in it.

This lovely couple next to Ephrem is a part of our team! They’ve been working with us now for several years but this last year was the first year they got a good taste of what life is like running a BnB and adventure company full-time. It has been a wild ride and we’ve all learned so much. They are currently traveling back to their passport countries and hope to return in the spring. Please be remembering them and their travel and opportunities. I just LOVE this picture….sigh.