Our Fall Family Outing

One of our favorite things about our new apartment is the fact that we are so close to one of our favorite getaways in UB, the river! There is a large island that reminds us of MN, especially in the fall, with lots of trees changing colors and the beautiful river. Well, it's an island when the water is up, but more of a peninsula when it hasn't rained in a while. We took several trips down there this summer, most of them having to take off our shoes and cross a little stream. There is a little bend in the river where we like to set up camp. Here are a few photos of our favorite spot...

We had a little family picnic recently to enjoy the fall weather and colors. We set up the tripod and got this great shot of our family!

There is a little road that goes along the other side of the river. Can you find the jeep?

Matt got a nice fire going, but it was hard to find enough wood to keep it going. The wood was so dry that it burned up rather quickly.

We found just enough wood to get some sausage cooked. It was...interesting. In the package it looked like a ring sausage, but it was more like summer sausage with huge chunks of fat that melted and got all sizzley. That would have been great, except that it also tasted like mutton. :)

Ezra had a great time, one of his favorite places, too! He loves being outside, exploring His creation.

Oh, and we had just enough fire for some s'mores (thanks to Deb and Jill for bringing us some graham crackers and marshmallows!). 

Mmmmmm.......tasty!

We had a beautiful sunset to end our great time together down at the river.

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!

Jill and Deb's Most Excellent Adventure!

 We were so delighted to have Matt's mom Deb and her dear friend Jill come for a visit for 17 days! From the moment they stepped off the airplane into this brave new world, it was quite the adventure. Ezra and I greeted them at the airport with our dear teammates Ruth and Pam. Matt was in the countryside when they arrived, but a couple days later we headed out to Yol Khad to pick him up. And then they really got to experience Mongolia...beautiful countryside, traditional Mongolian Hor Hog (see Easter post for more details!), and crazy bumpy roads! So many fun stories and photos to share...hopefully you'll get to hear some of those stories from them firsthand back in the US! 

Here are just a few of our adventures...

Ezra sure loved seeing his Grandma Debbie again. He didn't have any problem at all lovin' on her while they were here (and vise versa!) 

 She got to read him a story from the cloth book she made for him.

And we all took turns reading from Ezra's Bible and praying together each night during our family worship time.

He loved to play with Auntie Jill! She had so many fun new noises and songs to sing (even taught Mommy the rest of Zip-a-dee-doo-dah!). And he especially loved chasing her around the table in his car. :)

We had a great time showing them all our favorite places in town, the markets, where we used to live, and of course, meeting our dear friends on this side of the planet. Here is a shot of the city from the Zaisan monument...only 600+ stairs to the top!  Matt's friend Tamir from the countryside came with us and took this picture.

Oh, there he is!

"Wanna get your picture taken with an eagle for ₮2,000?"  I'm sure it would be well worth it but we got the picture for free.  We also got to see him hop off his perch and walk after someone...I'm sure there was no immediate danger!

 After we made it back down from the monument, we enjoyed some Hoshuur (fried meat pockets) at one of the "Fast Food" places at the base of the monument. Looks like we're at the state fair or something! Everyone loved seeing Ezra in his new hats that Grandma Clarine sent along with Grandma Debbie.

Here we are hangin' with the Germans after bumping into them on the street. And they gave us a tour of Matt's school the day that it was closing for the summer! What good timing! :) As always, we had a great time with our sweet friends Shinee and Pascal. (I really want to take some fun senior pictures down by all these crazy pipes!)

We also got to experience Naadam Festival together, along with all our German friends: Shinee, Pascal, Namu and Severin! We had breakfast together at our house, watched the opening ceremonies on TV and then headed out to see what we could see. :) Here we are in front of the Naadam Stadium. During Naadam they have wrestling, archery and horse racing competitions...and eat lots of Hoshuur!

After the opening ceremonies were over, they let people in the wrestling stadium for free to see some of the wrestling (just after we got in, they closed it so people couldn't come in anymore!). We had countless experiences like that where He provided for our every need. From taxi's and buses at just the right times, to perfect seats at the archery stadium.

Here we are at the archery stadium where we found seats along the sidelines, just a big enough section for all of us to sit down...and right next to the Christian broadcasting channel's camera man.

Here's Pascal, Matt and Severin enjoying the view...it was a beautiful day!

Jill got this awesome shot of the archers! Check out the arrow in the corner!

I think this man has been doing this a long time. He even has a hat with an archery medallion on it. Not sure what it was for, but he must be pretty good. :)

After the festivities, we headed back to our place and just missed the downpour! But we got to see the beautiful full double rainbow right outside our window! We thought it was so funny that it landed on the little red car left in the parking lot. The lot was used for parking during the opening ceremonies. And it was completely flooded and pure mud after the rain! I feel bad for the people who had to walk all the way to their car in that mess!

We also got to visit a lot of fun restaurants we had never tried before. This one was one of the fanciest I've ever eaten in. The restaurant was at the top of the Central Tower and had a view of the city on three sides from the 17th floor! 

Here's a view of the square. We had just come from the History Museum on the far side of the square and they were having a traditional Mongolian clothing fashion show in the square. Shinee, Pascal and Namu also met us at the top to enjoy the view.

Ezra sure enjoyed his company! We were pretty sad to see them go and it sure made the house feel empty. But we were so glad to have this special time together. Some people are here for years and never get visitors and we have 4 visitors coming this summer! Our time together was so sweet, something we will remember forever!

We love and miss you and look forward to being reunited again soon!