THOUGHTS FROM THE THRONE

It's time to do a post safari update. Thanks to all of you that have commented about the blog.
Things went well on our return. 3 days later something I brought back from Africa got to me. Hence the title of this blog. I think it is self explanitory.
After a visit to the ER and 7 days the alien has left my body. The state dept of health is still trying to figure out what I had. Each time a deadline is met they give a future date. Now it is suppose to be next Friday.

Now regarding the slide show. More will be added in a day or two.
Also, if you click on the "view all slides" you can enlarge and look at slides individually.

Thanks again for visiting us and the comments.

Check out my Slide Show!

Pictures

Double clicking on the pictures enlarges them.

These guys rescued my book after the baboons were done with it..

More photos

WE HOME

Every time we came back from a game drive one of our drivers would say "we home".
Well as of 3:30 this afternoon, "we home".

Hi to our African friends that may be looking on this site. Hope to hear from some of you.

I will try to add some more pictures now that we are home. I can't blame someone elses computor now.

Thank to those of you who kept in touch while we were gone and to those of you who tried and couldn't get the blog to work.

SAFARI SO GOOD

Happy birthday dear Anica Happy birthday Anica Happy birthday dear Anica Happy birthday to you.

Thanks all you blogger friends and family. We are back in Nairobi and we will be flying out tonight around 11 PM.
Back in Mpls around noon Tuesday. Thanks Steve for picking us up. I just checked the weather looks like we are going to have a cool welcome.

As we were leaving the resort this morning we got pictures of 2 more lions and 5 elephants on the road and 3 giraffes on the side. Quite a farewell.
The last resort didn't have a fence of any kind around it so last night as we were walked by the security we saw 2 hippos and a hyena in front of our room.
TThis morning there were a number of Impala in the same area.

Jana we met with annes mom today more about that later.

God Bless see you all soon. We are looking forward to getting back.

friday, feb 15

hi from masai mara, an area in the very south of kenya, near tanzania. we are in a tent camp here for two days. we are camped rught next to the river and the baboons- yes, they followed lloyd here- and the hippos woke us up a number of times during the night. it rained very hard last night so the roads were exciting for the morning drive. grandpa saw micah's jackal today, plus lions, hyenas, serval cat, topi, reed buck, etc. we are moving tomorrow to alodge about an hours drive from here for the next two nights. we leave early monday morningfor nairobi. another story we will tell later is about the trip here. the roads are very rough- lloyd says that is an understatement. thanks for all the news from home. hope kayley is well now. Jana, glad your surgery news is better- can't wait to see the braces. steve, are you coming to pick us up? Friends- thanks for keeping us in your prayers.. It has been quite a journey!!!! P.S. Would somebody tell Lloyd how the BB teams are doing? Marie and Lloyd

SUNDAY BLOG

Hi again. Tomorrow we leave this lodge that we have been at for 4 days. Each morning we do a game drive at 6; 30 AND then again at 4. Each lasts about 3 hours. This morning we watche a pride of 3 lions and later 2 cheetas. \later at the lodge we were sitting outside and about 50 baboons came through. I was taking pictures when one of them stole the book I got from the Hoffmans in 2000. I chased it as marie hollered at me. Two of the native dancers went into the bush and retrieved the torn book. A good time was had by all.
We are well and having lots of fun. Still appreciate the prayers. We will continue this the next chance we get.

Day 2 in Africa

Well Allison we are trying to download a picture on the worlds slowest computor.
We are in Samburu Game Lodge for the next 4 days and it is great.
Today alone we have seen a herd of 45 elephants that walked in front of our vehicle, 5 lions, 4 of which were chased up a tree by water buffalo, and many other birds and animals.
Chuck got his dinner roll stolen from his plate by a monkey. Two monkeys freaked mom out when they were trying to get in our cabin.Thanks for the prayers keep them coming.
You are all doing a good job.
P.S. Downloading didn't work.

WE ARE HERE

We arrived safely, not that there was any questions. Everything looks pretty normal here in Nairobi. There is a little higher security, but we like security.Last night we had to go through security check and metal detector just to get into the hotel.
So far Marie is impressed with this roughing Africa style in the Nairobi Hilton.
We are leaving in just a few minutes for our first camp.We are on schedule with what I posted earlier.
We met some wonderful people on the airplane that were returning to Kenya.
Clifford and Judy and 2 childred that are here to bury his mother.They have to go to the most difficult part of Kenya and were asking for prayers.
I don't know when our next update will be, but we hope for some pictures at that time.
Thanks for those of you who added to our blog. As for the rest of you lets get on the stick.

Africa Itinerary

The state department is not being very encouraging, but we have gotten some good news from Kenya and the trip is still on. We will be leaving Mpls Monday at 3:30 P.M.

8+ hours to Amsterdam and 8 1/2 to Nairobi . We will be 9 hours ahead of your time.

5th in Nairobi hotel.

6th-Drive to Safari Sweet Waters Lodge (should see camels, yes camels and rhinos, etc.)

7-10th in Samburu Lodge. You can actually find Samburu on some African maps.
(at this time we will have crossed the equator as we go North)

11th Alliance Naro Moru Lodge

12-13th Lake Elementaita Lodge- Lake Nakuru (also on some maps)
and Masai Mara Game Reserve

14-15th Fig Tree Lodge

16-17th Sarova Mara Camp

18th Back to Nairobi and fly out late that night arriving home on the 19th

All this is subject to change according to the conditions. We hope to find internet connections so we can update this and get some pictures of what we are doing.

Hope you all keep things going in New London-Spicer until we get back.

How to leave a message on the blog

Hi again. Some folks have said they were not able to leave a comment on the blog.
If you will click on the word "comment" under each entry you will find a place to leave your message. Since this is taking the place of a lot of emails we would love to hear from all of you.

Family-(missing Steve, Timm and Lloyd)

Hi from Lloyd. We are still planning to go ,but we are not encouraged by the news coming out of Kenya. Stay tuned.

The picture on the left are all the knitting projects that Marie did for Christmas.

Sweaters for herself, Jenna, and Jordan, vests for Isaac and Ted, scarfs for Allison, Jana, and Daidre, mittens for Micah and Ander, backpack for Anica, rug for Kjerstin, and a throw for Aasta.

Whew that was one busy grandma.

Here is a picture of most of the family that will be praying for us-PLUS YOU- while we travel!!

Preparations

Today is Sunday, Jan.27. I (Marie) am busy packing and prodding Lloyd to do likewise. Although the news from Kenya is not encouraging, we are confident that we are travelling away from the "action". We will be travelling in two vehicles- 7 Americans, including 2 grandchildren of fellow travellers, and 2 Kenyan guides.

By the way, we will be flying out of Mpls. on Mon., Feb. 4 and will change planes in Amsterdam, arriving in Nairobi on the evening of the 5th. We will return to Mpls on Feb. 19.

More later...