Тэрэлч руу явсан, Ямар гоё!

Hey Ezra.  Do ya wanna go campin', Buddy?  Huh?  Do ya?  Do ya wanna go campin'?

 

And to camping we did go!  Welcome to Terelj!!!  A favorite of UBers only about an hour-and-a-half east of the city.  There were 5 Mongolians, 3 Americans,  2 Germans, 2 Chinese, and one Swiss Miss.

  Check out our little camper on my back.  This was the first day we tried the carrier on the back side.  It worked great although I still need to be a little careful swinging around too quickly.  In the area behind us we saw all 5 Mongolian domestic animals, and often in herds:  horses, cows, sheep, goats, and yes, even camels!

 Of course I had to moo at the cows.  I don't know what I was saying but we really had a good conversation going!

Does this cow not look like Fozzy Bear?  Wocka, wocka, wocka!

Had to go back up the road to pick this one up.  Strange thing in Mongolia, when they cut down a tree here and there, they don't bend over in the least, just cut it off right at comfy height.  High stump made for a good place to mount our weekend mascot.

This is Namu, our German/Mongolian friend's daughter and she love's our little Ezra...who in this photo is doing a killer impersonation of The Donald.  Of course the ladies loved him.  The one just behind, called DJ, spent quite a bit of time holding him.

 Here she's schooling the adults in the Memory-like game.  At least that's what I perceived as I walked by.

My new Chinese friend spend most of the afternoon blessing us with his mad "street vendor" meat cooking skills.  Mmmmm....  We even broke out my new solar oven, which worked really well, but I'll save that post until I have some more field experience.

 Oh look, Ezra found another Mongolian sweetie to coo over him.  The other is our new Swiss friend.

I tried my hand at Badminton...fun game.  Behind me and just before the mountains is the Tuul River which flows through UB.  We stayed between two of it's tributaries.  Sooo pretty...and GREEN!!!

 Oh boy, he found Shinee!!!  He loves his Shinee and I think she loves him too!

The main cause of the weekend outing was our German buddy Pascal's birthday, the day before which he was given this new guitar.  I tuned it for him...well, and Jess got it better and we all gave a few strums.  Ah, the good ol' days of Alpha where our sweet sister Laura taught me to play.  Ezra really seemed to like riding piggy-back.

Jess went out a ways to see a man about a horse and took the camera along to snap up some of the beautiful Creation!

 Surprisingly, these iris-looking things were all over the place.  What a contrast to the dusty Spring in the city.

 Apparently, you can eat the roots of this pretty plant.  It's called "үхрийн нүүд" (cow's eye).

Bird report for Dad & Nancy.  I think it's a crow.  There were several other birds that I hadn't seen before but neither of us had the camera at the right time.  There was this one that made an elevator-like "boong" sound for the first few hours of the night...   ..........   .....

 WOW, Jess!  Nice shot!!!  You know I love yellow flowers...and great depth-of-field...right Abby?

 The sun started to descend and our multi-course, eat-it-when-it's-ready, all-day meal also came to an end.

 Jess and Philip did the dishes.  Баярлалаа!  Besides just taking pictures, I did help hold the washed ones. :)

 What a wonderful place.  We really only saw a few other people all day.  I guess most folks go to the main river as the road going there is a bit nicer.

 Jess had a little photo shoot with our new friend. She's so beautiful!

 Well, good morning Mr. Cute Face!  My two and I got one of the sleeping compartments of the Great Tent and, oh boy, did the temperature drop that night.  It was easily mid-70's during the day and [it felt like] under 40 in the morning.  Ezra had lots of blankets on top and bottom and of course, Grandma Debbie's bunting!

  Don'tcha wanna kiss those little chubbies?

 Spent about an hour Sunday morning with the b-day boy and Philip talking about the most Wonderful Person and how His claims stand apart from all others. The night before the stars were so beautiful so we started off the morning with a little Ps. 19.  Thanks guys for the great chat!

Sunday breakfast in the center of the tent.  What a great group!  It appears that Jess took this one.  :)

 After breakfast I had to go get some pictures of a herd of horses that, like all the rest, walked right by our campsite.  These two caught most of my attention...

 Soooo cute!  He looks like a little fawn.

 Mama's sure pretty too!  I'm sure in a few weeks all that winter fuzz will be gone.

 Somethin' about horses...

 So when they were all finished splashing around, about 15 of them decided to climb out of the river right to either side of where I was.  Pretty sweet!  This little guy took off toward its mommy.  Super cute!

Hard to show the horses all around, but why not?!  :)

 On the way back I spotted this delightful yellow flower.  Not a dandelion, about 3 inches across the bloom actually.  My tribute to my [now officially] old friend, TT!  Here's to 10 years!

 When I got back to the camp somebody was sleeping.  Mommy found this hat right before we left UB.

 Well, since one of the SUV's broke down the night before, we all piled our stuff on top and piled ourselves inside.  11 in all, not too bad really.  We got to the gas station where the other one conveniently broke down next too and Shinee's dad and brother just simple disconnected the drive shaft from the broken rear differential and drove it home by the front wheels.  Pretty impressive.

Happy Birthday Pascal!

Thanks for the great weekend!!!