so we went to namibia over easter.  i hadn't been anywhere since landing here november 5th.  which i am pretty sure is a record for me of not packing a suitcase.  that's over 5 months of not going anywhere...anywhere!  i was ready!

the carry on situation at airports is really irritating me.  your things are not safe in the johannesburg airport, so we do our best to avoid checking luggage at all costs.  our carry ons were big.  our carry ons were heavy.  our carry ons were not within code.  we continued to carry on.

from durban to jo'burg it was smooth sailing.  unfortunately, liv lost her school scissors at security in jo'burg on our way to swakopmund.  bummer.  why did you have scissors in your bag, liv?  weird.

swakopmund was fantastic.  apparently germans settled there at some point and their language and food choices remained.  i'm down with that.  i could eat my weight in spaetzle.  i may have eaten my weight in spaetzle.  pretty sure i ate my weight in spaetzle.

we are on the opposite side of the continent of africa here in durban.  we get the sunrise.  which is great and all...if you're awake for that.  namibia is on the other side so they get the sunset.  it's fantastic.  and i'm usually awake for that.

we went in a couple of days early for some urban tribes related stuff, but we had some time to do the things people do in swakopmund.  we went for a quad ride.

this was nerve racking for me because a certain member of my family tells me every time i speak with them about someone they know being injured on a quad.  so then i naturally let griffin, who has only ridden once or twice by himself on such a vehicle,  take off as the primary driver.  😳

my prayer life was kicking while we were in swakopmund.

then we went sand boarding.  i didn't bring my camera, which turned out to be a wise decision.  because then i would have had to carry it up the sand dune.  and the weight of the camera would have been enough to make me just drop, tuck and roll back down the dune.  it's safe to say that in my opinion, the physical exertion was not worth the "fun" of sand boarding down.  i'm grateful for the experience.  i am also too old for said experience.  which is weird because randy and i are the same age and he seemed to do fine.  it is possible i'm just out of shape.  either way, my prayer life was once again strengthened as i begged God to help me get up that dang dune.  everyone else did fine.  and then they gave us a sandwich.  that was nice.  i was hungry from my one trip up the sand mountain.

so then we flew from swakopmund to windhoek.  olivia lost her lotion in security there.  who brings their full size lotion in a carry on?  weird.

windhoek was lovely.  i promise you, we met the coolest seasoned missionary there.  he had so many great stories, and he was a heck of a driver, too!  apparently he had been driving since he was 8 years old, and honestly, you could tell.  our whole family loved meeting him and his wife.  griffin is still talking about uncle jim peterson.  (missionary kids call other missionaries uncle and aunt) this guy was great.  i hope we see him again sometime.

randy preached a couple of services for an easter conference they were having there in windhoek.  the kids and i went on youth night.  it was totally fantastic.  the youth had prepared raps, dances and songs.  the people of namibia were wonderful.  it was such an honor to be there.

we went from windhoek to johannsburg.  i got my fingernail scissors taken at security.  basically, we tried to take things in carry ons that we weren't suppose to take.  we gambled, and we pretty much lost everything.  don't gamble, friends.  it causes nothing but loss.

a special thank you goes out to another awesome missionary, lance hines.  he was our host for most of our journey, and he had the unfortunate experience of waiting for us at every security point while our bags were being dug through.  sorry.  that said, you were so kind and helpful as we traveled around...we can be kind of a handful.

as a side note, the kids all tried fresh oysters.  and now no one ever has to do that again.

and that was our easter trip to namibia.