Back in Kenya!

I arrived back in Kenya on September 18th to join JR, who had been here since June to start his Nairobi based job studying malaria. Pickle and I made the journey over in September and now, back together as a family, we are building our home and lives here now for the next few years. 

To say this first few months here has been a bit wild would be a pretty big understatement.

The first few days were fairly uneventful - ran some errands, got aqcuainted with our surroundings and just enjoyed being all together as a family again.

Things became quite eventful a few days after my arrival when there was a terrorist attack on Westgate Mall , which is right down the road from our house (less than half a mile).  This event made getting settled a little bumpier than anticipated. Nevertheless,  I have been delinquent in starting up my blog again - but now there are no longer any good excuses!

SO, now that we have had some time to settle, it's time to start sharing again....

First things first, our home:

Here is the view of the front of our house.

Another angle,

Yes, our house have a name...

Here are the front doors.

This is the view right after you walk into the house.

 
WELCOME TO OUR LIVING ROOM (our most 'put-together' room in our house):

 

 Another angle of the living room...

ON TO THE KITCHEN:

 Here is our 'breakfast nook.'

 Our pantry:

The outdoor room off our kitchen:

The dog washing area:

Outside off the back kitchen:

THIS WILL BECOME OUR DINING ROOM, BUT CURRENTLY HOUSES PICKLE'S KENNEL:

 Off of what will be our dining room is a little yard.

Here is the bathroom on the first floor of the house:

 This is yet another empty room on the base floor of the house:

 
This is my luxurious office:

Upstairs we have 3 bedrooms, the first is our guestroom (where John occasionally takes a Sunday afternoon nap):

Our second bedroom, which is currently empty

The patio off our back bedrooms

 

 

Our Master Bedroom:

 

 

The closet between our bedroom and bathroom



The master bathroom

 

 

Hallway between our bedroom and the walk-in closet

The walk-in closet:

 

Our car:

The garden:

Ibises:

Mingos in the garden:

 

WOOP WOOP!!!

I haven't posted to y blog since I got back from Africa, but I had a huge accomplishment over the weekend that I thought deserved a blog post.  I ran the Walt Disney World Marathon. 

Collette, Chris, and John were there to motivate and celebrate with me!

All those runs in Africa led to a great outcome of 3:34:48!

Thanks to Erwan for running with me in Africa, to Chris for running with me here, for John for kicking my butt out the door to go run, and to my cheerleaders on race day (both in Orlando and elsewhere!)

Ashley

30.5 kilometers of Kisumu

Erwan and I did a 19 mile run this past weekend and decided to bring a camera along to take some pictures along the way of both Kisumu and the places we like to run.  Below are some of the pictures.  Keep in mind that we didn't actually stop to take pictures (with the exception of maybe 3 shots)  the rest were taken while someone was still running which likely accounts for the blur.

Around Mile 2 or 3:

Somewhere between mile 5 and 9:

Somewhere in here, I took a nice flying fall over a rocky area.  The rocks were all loose and I was keeping a steady stride when I went to run over a rock that I thought was loose, well it wasn't and it tripped me up enough to send me flying rapidly to the ground. I was more or less covered in sweat layered with dust (which was basically mud).  My first running injury!  I have some nice road rash on my elbow (which is odd considering it wasn't even really a road - more like dusty trails) but it certainly offered us a nice laugh about half way through the run as I went catapulting through the air as Erwan watched helpless to prevent the impending wipe out.

Around Mile 13 ish:

Mile 15 ish

Mile 16:

Mile 17:

Close to Mile 18:

 Probably close to Mile 18:

 Mile 18:

Day 2 in Ruma (Paul's Birthday)

Day 2 in Ruma (November 6th) was also Paul Mike's Birthday!  Happy Birthday, Paul!

It was REALLY hot on Saturday, so Leta enjoyed some 'pool' playtime.

 Twice a day we had some visitors to the guest house

Just hanging out

A little Leta hug

Sunsetting on the valley

The tree where we saw the leopard!

More Morning game drive

The motley crew

A Maribu and Grey Crowned Crane (aka Crested Crane)

Impala

Topi and baby

Almost back to Mbita (on the way home)

Albert's favorite tree!