I give up . . .

This:

I'm reading it.

Hamba Kahle Jon!

We said goodbye to Ben's brother Jon yesterday after a fun-filled 2 weeks with him here. It was so great to have the company! Especially while Ben worked lots. We wanted to tell you thank you so much for coming and spending the time with us. You're the best!

Highlights:
-Tons of Lion and Tiger play time.
-The big bird chasing Ben
-The lions that bit Jon's back and butt, Ben's crotch, Jon's biceps, Ben's feet, Jon's shoes. They had so many scratches, holes, and bruises.
-Game Drives at the Lion Park and in Pilanesberg.
-Jon Bungee Jumping. Hilarious.
-Me waking them up in the middle of the night in Pilanesberg screaming like I'm being murdered, with my eyes open and pointing at the ceiling. Pretty freaky huh? Talk about bad dream.
-Taking him to our favorite restaurants: The Butcher Shop and The Meat Co., and Jon ordering a 800 GRAM steak! That's almost 2 pounds. What a meat head!
-Playing Rook and Settlers of Catan.
-Seeing Wolverine and Star Trek.
-Shopping lots and getting Jon some awesome souvenirs.
-Showing Jon all the massive mansions in our area.
-Ben & Jon's many Squash matches.
-Breaking out the Mensa Puzzle Book. The boys were HOOKED. Talk about competitive.

Here's a couple you can all try:

How Old is Mary
The combined ages of Mary and Ann are 44 years, and Mary is twice as old as Ann was when Mary was half as old as Ann will be when Ann is three times as old as Mary was when Mary was three times as old as Ann. How old is Mary?

No...I'm not joking.

Unique Number
What is unique about this number 854,917,632

It's not that there are just the numbers 1-9 there.

Peoples
What do the people of Belgium have in common with the people of Bangladesh?

You'll never get this one.

Ya. Wow. Answers will be posted in next post or maybe as a comment if you want to try them out! I took the Mensa Club Quiz though and got 17/30! I'm proud of myself! :)

Having Jon leave made us both realize how much we love, miss, and appreciate family. Love you all!

Pilanesberg & more Simbas!

What an eventful weekend! We were running around non-stop! And we didn't get to "nestle" once like Jon is so used to doing. We left mid-day Friday and went to Pilanesberg. We stopped at a different Lion Park to play with MORE LIONS! We just can't get enough. The pictures might seem repetitive, but we love them.

This one was especially fun because it was the youngest you're allowed to even touch the lions. TWO WEEKS OLD!! And we were able to bottle feed them. They are so adorable I just want to take them home.

We stayed the night at our favorite Guest House up there, Authentique and then got up early in the morning (5am) to do a game drive in Pilanesberg. We love this reserve. It's on the small side, so you're able to see more animals in shorter time. There are LOTS of Rhino there, it's awesome.


Look at this wart hog. It's the daddy. But look at the sides of his cheeks under his eyes! WEIRD! Does Pumba have these?


There are only 2 cheetahs in the park, making it impossible to see them. But we saw one!! It was so awesome.


It's also almost impossible to see the lions here but we saw this male from far off! He was just standing there and walking around forever! Really cool. For our...like 10th safari, we really don't get tired of seeing these animals.


That afternoon we went back to the Lion Park. Couldn't resist. Since it was so close and we get special privileges because the worker dude loved us:)










We were going to do swimming at Sun City Saturday afternoon, but when we got there it was all closed. So we decided to head home a day early.

On the way home JON BUNGEE JUMPED!!!! He rocks. We had our turn in Zimbabwe, so we didn't need to do it again. He did both the bungee jump and the swing. What a stud.


This 'camera-straped-to-the-hand' idea worked really well. Videos below. Hilarious.











The swing:




Then when we came back to Joburg, we decided we were just having so much fun running from one thing to another so we went and got tickets to Star Trek for the showing later in the evening, then went to dinner at one of our favorite restaurants The Meat Co.

We really liked this movie! It's great! We all agreed though, that we still liked Wolverine better. I'm sure it would've been a lot more fun had we had some background of the series, but we didn't. Awesome movie though!

Jon and Ben went to the Lion Rhino Park (the one we all went to a week ago) again this morning. Those boys just can't get enough holes, scratches, and wrestle time. I put those pictures in the Lion Park album in Picasa (starting at picture 166, the last 30 pictures of the album): Click HERE.

We'll be sad to see Jon leave this Wednesday!


ALSO--

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO GRANDPA BERT!

I dug up this old picture of him from my dad. This is when he was a pilot. What a stud.
We wanted to say Happy Birthday to you Grandpa! You're great! I love and miss you and hope Grandma spoils you, maybe with a new tattoo??? :)



At our wedding:

I loved...

WOLVERINE

Have you seen it?? Ben, Jon, and I saw it last night. We loved it!! Especially me since I was the only one that remembered everything in the other movies so I could make all the connections. I thought it was awesome.

Ya know what else I loved?? That it was only $2 each!!

Now...should we see Star Trek?

Lion Park with Jon

Jon came in on Thursday the 14th and we've been having a ball with him here! Over the weekend we went to the Lion Rhino Park, just an hour away from us. It's where Ben and I played with the baby lions and tigers before. Jon was super excited to wrestle with them.

Here is a link to the Picasa Album that has all the photos from the day, lots more there, but go to it after the post:

Lion Park

We got there an hour before they actually opened at 9am (a little eager)...and got to see all the animals up and lively. This was a huge 700 lb Tiger we had fun watching:

Love it when they yawn:


This was an UGLY pigme Hippo that was doing some good yawns for us too:


Then they finally let us in, we played with the 4 month old lions first. There were 8 of them, both white and brown lions:


They were so rowdy!


Their bites really hurt. (P.S. I gave myself bangs...it was raining that day, but what do you think?)




OUCH!


Ok so this story is hilarious. These birds are HIDEOUS. Look at the hair on the back of their head. Talk about ugly. So they're really scary looking right? When they'd come up to you, that beak looks like it'd pierce right through you!

So Ben was next to one that was looking at him and walking towards him slowly, so he asked the guy, "Hey are these birds dangerous?" And RIGHT THEN, this ugly bird raised both wings and CHARGED right at Ben! I wish I had a video of it. I can't even describe how funny it was. I'm laughing my head off right now. Ben immediately backed up really fast and ran into the electric fence! It gave him quite the shock, but his adrenaline was pumping so much, he was just hurting all over and didn't know what happened. This is after it happened, this is his 'embarrassed and shocked' face. Hilarious.


Then the 2 month old Tigers (this one looks a little...strange at the moment):


Love this picture of the little Tiger:


Then we got to pet the full-grown Cheetah named Eddie:


After the park, we went on a short game drive and found these amazing White Lions again. The white is supposed to be from a recessive gene or something. The 2 males wrestling:




Jon's goal was to see the Black Rhinos. But we drove all over and couldn't find any. On our way out, RIGHT by the exit, there they were. With a little baby! Adorable:


We had a great time. Jon wants to go back this week. Ben got a major scratch on his side, his ear, and a couple on his hands and arms. Jon got two on each bicep in the same spot and a couple on his bum:) We have some fun things planned this week and this weekend we're going to Pilanesberg. Should be fun! Stay tuned!

You guys are lucky...

Because it's turning into

for ya'll...and it's turning into

for us. Not fair.

Good thing it doesn't snow or rain. It just gets FREEZING COLD!

P.S. Jon Garrison gets here today. We're pretty excited.
P.P.S. Our power has been out for...going on 22 hours now.

Happy Mother's Day

“If you were a Broadway musical, people would be humming your face.”

Today I wanted to write a special post dedicated to a special woman. My mother.

Mom, I love you so much. You are my best friend. When I look back at my life, it is filled with so many wonderful, fun, goofy, hysterical, magical moments with you. From walking around in your high heels when I could barely walk, to kicking it with you doing Jane Fonda when I could barely talk. You video taping our homemade Sleeping Beauty play, me as the evil witch Maleficent, Raquel as Sleeping Beauty and Anna as Prince Phillip, teaching me to play the piano at age 7, teaching us to love and care for animals, learning to hold my bladder, caring for my many black eyes, school shopping, staying up late after dates, giving me a flower/plant in a pot with a card that said, "The sun will shine again" when someone broke my heart, writing letters back and forth during church, and emails during college. The many phone calls, late night talks, playing with my hair, playing duets on the piano, cross-country skiing, hiking, biking, walking. And most recently, your obsession with the alien glasses (picture below), you and Brooke's crazy music video via Skype. Crying when I left for South Africa (picture below). Taking me to the airport early in the morning:

And all of our wonderful fun family trips. Especially this one:

We all decided, "Let's look asleep for this picture," on the elevator drop of the Tower of Terror. When we looked at the picture after, we all busted out laughing. She must have missed the memo....or just taken the moment to shine since she knew we were all going to be asleep. Classic.

My mom is so goofy, so funny, so wild and crazy. So genuine, so loving, so perfect and pretty. She's caring, she's a giver, she's strong and ambitious. She makes the perfect mother to me because she loves me with all her heart. And I hope I can be a fraction as good of a mother some day, as she has been to us.

Thank you Mom for all you do. For who you are and who you have taught me to be.




This post wouldn't be complete without dedicating it to another mother.
The mother of the man of my dreams.




Thank you Lisa for all that you are. And for making such a fantastic quilt for us (above). You are an amazing and talented and loving woman and I couldn't have asked for a better mother-in-law. I am so blessed to have you in my life! Thank you for being such an incredible mom to Ben and raising him to be the man he is. It's all because of you!

From Ben:
"Thanks for being the best mother EVER! Thank you for raising Jon and me the way you did and for all of your love, support, and involvement. We grew up with so many blessings and opportunities because you dedicated yourself to raising us the best you possibly could. We will never be able to thank you enough. I love you!"

Thank you to all the other Mothers out there:
Grandma Gooney, Grandma Johansen, Sitty, and Nan. All our wonderful Aunts and cousins. My Young Women leaders, our teachers. All our dear friends who are mothers and all the other women who have influenced our lives and made us who we are today. The list is endless. Thank you.