so, what did we do for thanksgiving?

We went to conference!

As many as could make it from our region, packed up and went camping at a hotel (confusing only to those of you who have not stayed at a hotel in Indonesia) for a week.

 Meetings, times of worship together, sermons, encouragement, refreshing,

and playing at the beach!

The South China Sea is a lovely place to play American football

I was trying to take a photo of Nadia swimming with Candace, but got this fantastic photo of Patrick (Candace's husband) toting sea water with his cute orange bucket! Something about the beach brings out the ten year old in all of us.

The other wonderful thing about this year's conference was that a team came from the States to run a VBS for us. The kids LOVED it. Twice a day for a week Nadia got to go to class with all her friends and learn some new things. She hopped and danced with joy every time we reminded her that she had class that day. :) So fun!

Here's the photo i was trying to get. When Mommy is wrangling the 4 month old giant covered in sand, and Daddy is playing football with buddies, darling friends step in to take T3YO into the water for a swim. Thank you, friends!

What happens when it rains at the beach? You slap your damp bathing suit back on and play in the downpour!

 And race through the puddles.

And shower in the run-off.

We spent lots of time visiting over our daily rice. Some of us took pictures of each other taking pictures. (Also - what is little Katrina doing in the lower right corner of this photo?? Gopher?)

 Revenge to Jael.

  Hotel workers bussing tables. Nice Wheelbarrow.

When we got back from our week at conference, i got back to work in the kitchen. One morning, i was particularly sweaty as i worked on canning some spaghetti sauce. I wondered why, so i checked my thermometer. Check out the temp. Hell's Kitchen?

This one is for Phil's parents. Thank you for the portable DVD player! Here, Hanna, Pascal, Dina, Abby and Nadia watch 'Horton Hears a Who', while taking a break in the heat of the day.