What's new?

A lot, actually...we've started a new school year, moved to a new apartment, got a new mode of transportation, and Ezra is learning new things everyday! He is clapping, waving bye, walking along the furniture, and showing more of his adorable personality everyday.

Here are a few photos and video clips of what's new with us! Enjoy!

We had our first ear of sweet corn of the summer (and first we've had in Mongolia)! Grown in Mongolia, and it was some of the yummiest sweet corn we've had. Mmmm.

This was Matt's first day of school at New Era. Mom, Dad and Ezra got in on the group photo, too. These are most of his new co-workers. He really likes his new job!

This is our new home! We love it. It's so peaceful near the river and mountains. Even though it's a little further from a bus stop (and the road to get here is a little treacherous), it's worth the peace and quiet. And there are so many families in this area too, including our German friends! And it's only a 7 min walk from Matt's new school.


This is our new mode of transportation! Some dear friends of ours gave us money to go towards an early Christmas present. Matt has already taken in downtown a few times and I used it to haul some groceries home from the store. Just for future reference, in case you ever need to know, it's a nearly impossible to ride a bike with 70lbs of groceries on your back. I ended up strapping the bag to my bike in front of the seat and walked it home. :) I got a LOT of stares. :) Oh, well. It makes for good stories.


Today we woke up to our first snow fall of the season. It always reminds me of harvest time in MN. I seem to remember several first snows coming down while we were unloading grain trucks. :)


And last, but not least, our sweet lil' Ezra boy, eating big boy food and showing off his new skills.

Lil' Ezra just turned 9 months old a couple weeks ago! Hard to believe how fast the time goes. He's getting so big. You'll have to check out his blog for more 9 month photos from mommy's photoshoot. :)

Bye for now! Love and miss you!

Matt, Jess and Ezra

Terelj - Take 3

While Mom and Dad were here for a visit, we got to enjoy 4 days in the countryside in Terelj, a national park about 2 hours outside of UB. Our whole team went out there for our Fall Training and kicked-off the new school year. The day we arrived was a little dreary and raining, but the clouds were amazing among the mountains! This was our third visit to Terelj. For more photos from our previous visits you'll want to check out "Easter Celebrations" and "Тэрэлч руу явсан, Ямар гоё!".

On the way there, Ezra got his "select comfort" back! I think this might have been one of Grandma's highlights. :)

Here's our ger camp! The 5 of us got to stay in a Ger for 4 nights. It was a good experience, but we didn't get much sleep. It's hard for people to realize that these are like tent walls...you can hear everything! It was a little noisy with other guests staying up late.

Ezra had to check out the new living quarters. "What's this water doing in the wood bucket?"

And of course, Grandma and Ezra had a great time together in the ger!

 He's getting so big!

What a sweet boy!

We had meetings in a larger ger that was really nice with a tiled floor and nice lighting around the room. Here are the guys having a good discussion during training.

We also had a great time singing together on Sunday morning! This dear sweet man on the left is the father of one of our Mongolian office ladies. He has one of the most amazing smiles and loves our Father very much!

We also had a time of lifting up and sending out for our dear teammates who were moving out to Western Mongolia.

We had a couple birthdays to celebrate together, too! This is the largest ger any of us had seen. It was where we ate all our meals...which were actually pretty good (beef or chicken instead of mutton!). Mom and Dad were pretty happy about the food, too. They thought they were going to have a hard time finding something to eat. We didn't even need to tap into "the reserves" we brought along!

They even had a highchair for Ezra!

  

Here's the 2011-2012 Team Mongolia! We're hoping to have a few more join us in February!

(This is the large ger where we ate our meals.)

And here is our smaller team for 2011-2012! Josh and Jennifer, Matthew, and us!

Of course, it wasn't all work. We had some free time to explore the beauty around us....

Several of us went on a 2 hour horseback ride, including Dad, Matt and I. (Grandma got to stay with Ezra!)

 

Here's Dad and I with our cute lil' Mongolian horses and our new Mongolian cowboy hats!

I told everyone it was the only time they could call me "Jesse". :)

On our return ride we saw a camel! My horse got spooked by him and decided to walk waaaayy around him in the wrong direction (I didn't get this close, Matt took this one!). Then he stopped and wouldn't move! I had to get the whip out. Then we finally went for a good gallup! :) We had a great time.

Matt and Matthew also hiked to the top of one of the nearby mountains. The little white specks above Matt's head is our ger camp!

Dad and I went on a walk to a nearby forest, found a log to sit on and read parts of "After America" together. Very interesting and sobering outlook on America's future.

 Three Generations! It was so great to be together again.

We loved having Mom and Dad here with us for a couple weeks! It went by too quickly, though.

What a great time together in the countryside! More of our city adventures to come soon!