The Colours of Fall

We are enjoying the beauty of the autumn here. It seems that every tree is losing its leaves and there is such a range of beautiful colours. As you can see from the last photo Halloween is very big here and there is a street near us where nearly every house is decorated. I took quite a few photos but most of them are just too gross to put on this blog. It is hard to understand why you would celebrate and decorate in such a way. We are looking forward to celebrating our first Thanksgiving though, which celebrates God's provision in the harvest.

Louisville Half Marathon

This weekend Mark ran in the Louisville Half Marathon (21 km). It was a good opportunity for us to wear our New Zealand gear and support. He did really well and completed it in 1:37:33. He came 28th out of over 200. Matthew loved showing off the New Zealand flag. As you can see it is pretty cold here already. We had a high of only 9 oC today.

Kentucky Drivers License

Yah, we passed our driving exam today and are both now proud owners of a Kentucky License.

Kentucky State Horse Park

We have just had Mid Term break because we are half way through the semester already. It is hard to believe in some ways that we have been here 9 weeks already but it also seems like such a long time since we last saw you all. The children and I had a nice break from school and even had the opportunity to go to the Louisville Science museum. I managed to drive into town safely and make it home, thanks to Yahoo Driving Directions!
Mark did not really have a break with work, study, papers to write and two midterms to do on the web at home before the break ended. We did spend the usual Friday together and went on a day trip to this horse park in Lexington. We had a beautiful day, although quite cold. Matthew was able to have his first pony ride but the others had to settle on a plastic horse. It was another good day though, we even just enjoyed the drive through the countryside which was very picturesque.
We are all back into school now. Mark is managing to pick up a few more hours at the recreation center which is a blessing. The children continue to be settled, slowly making more new friends and learning to speak the lingo. I get corrected all the time now, even at home, when I speak "Kiwi" and not "American" and tell them that tea is ready and not dinner. We are trying to make the most of the last of the warm autumn days as winter is fast approaching.

Air Balloon Festival

We spent Friday night with the Tieman family at this Air Balloon Festival held just down the road from where we live. Early in the day they had a race so we jumped in the car and went air balloon chasing and even made it back home without getting lost-quite a feat for me.
The cow is a mascot for a fast food chain called 'Chick Fillet'. It is a Christian company that we have already visited that only sells chicken and has a very good reputation with its employees and customers. Something that really impressed us it that it is never open on a Sunday.
With our family is Mike Withers the international advisor from the seminary wearing his New Zealand jacket that Mark brought him earlier in March. Mike and Patti have been very good to us in many ways.
The children had a great time and as you can see were able to get into a basket and experience the flame above.
I have to confess that I have cheated and the last photo is from the web of last years glow. As all the balloons set up and began to glow it also began to rain. Our photos did not come out and we had to pack up and head home. It was still a great evening.

Ohio River Trip

When we first got to Louisville we had a visit from two lovely ladies, Vicky and Carol, who represented a group of women who wish to sponsor us as an international family at the seminary. They blessed us with gifts and Target gift cards for the children. We had mentioned to them how surprised the children had been at the size of the river and the bridges so Carol and her husband, Bill, organized this trip on their boat. Vicky and her husband Dick, Vicky's mother Ruth and another couple Charles and Dianne also came.
It was a wonderful evening. The children had such a good time sitting up the front of the boat, helping pass out snacks and eating dinner on the boat. The river is huge compared to anything we have in New Zealand and we saw the Bell of Louisville pass, which is an old paddle boat that we hope to go on in the future. The other piece of history that we passed was the crest line of the 1937 flood.
God blessed us with a beautiful evening and with these lovely, giving families who gave of their time and resources for our enjoyment.

The Louisville Zoo

On Sunday afternoon we took advantage of a $1 entry fee at the Zoo. It was a one day special that only seems to happen once a year so we couldn't resist. We went with the Smith family, who we have met through seminary. Brian and Amy have four lovely children; Grace, Ferris, Daniel and Joshua. They are also a home schooling family and this is also their first semester. We love going to the Zoo and being reminded of the vastness of God's creation. There were several animals there that we had not seen before. We were amazed at some of the native animals like the horned owl, bald eagle and the mountain lion. They were all much larger than we had imagined. It was a really hot day, as you may tell from Matthew's pose in the photo. All of our family were there but some escaped the photos.



"It was a great afternoon. I really liked seeing the mountain lion and the tapir. It was the first time I had seen a tapir and they were kind of weird."Anna-Marie

We had a really good time at the Zoo and my favourite animal was the big, huge gorilla. I also liked the tapir, it is related to the horse and the rhinoceros."Rachel

"I liked all the cat species. The lions, tigers, mountain lions, lynxs, snow leopard, and the jaguar. I also liked being with the Smith family."Joel

"I liked the seals and the sea lions. The funniest was the orangutan and the coolest was the gorilla."Matthew

The Bass Pro Shop

For our Friday Family night this week we went to this three story sports store, the 'Bass Pro Shop'. We went with a family who are our neighbor's at Village Manor, the 'Manly Family'. It was a lovely evening just looking around this amazing store. It even had a restaurant in it where you could eat wild game. There were taxidermy bears, raccoons, deer, wolves and a pond with many different live fish. We had some shooting competitions and Dad will be proud to hear that his daughter cleaned up. We really enjoyed being with T-Ray, Dawn, Anne-Marie, Victoria and Madison.