Hello everyone,
I've decided to start a blogger instead, because the layout is nicer and it's easier to upload pictures and etc. :) here's the address: http://photojumble.blogspot.com/

Have a wonderful day everyone!! :D

Hey guys,
well, I'm writing this on 5/12/08, but I'm not sure when we'll have internet to post it;) But I thought I would update while I have time;) and I put links at the bottom of some of the 1,579 pics we have from Kruger;)

First off, Grandma wasn't able to come, and we were all very sad about that=( We were looking so forward to seeing her again, we all love and miss her SO much! But hopefully in less than a year we will get to see her!!=D I can't wait!

Kruger was amazing! God is SO creative! Lets see here if I can remember all the animals we got to see. SIX lionesses walking right behind our car and then walking around in the grass next to us, tons of elephant herds...haha...mom was so freaked out about them...I have lots of stories to put on here;) millions of impala....they got boring after a while, but they were still pretty cool to take pics of, especially the male impala with their horns. lots of giraffe...they're my favorite african animal...they're so majestic and petite! well, except when they pick their nose with their tongue:P haha! But it was pretty neat to watch them eat and swallow, and run :) we also saw a couple hyenas and their pups, two or three white rhinos, which were pretty awesome (oh, tey're not really white, that's just their name;) we saw lots of elephants both in water and a couple on land :) and some crocs...one was eating an impala, which was pretty neat to see how he eats it. and then we saw cape buffalo, wart hogs (those are pretty gross animals:P), some other types of antelope type animals, turtles, ostriches, random birds...there were huge birds...like half of andrew's size...they were amazing! oh, and how could I forget all the zebra! they're so awesome! and we saw baboons, and another type of monkey...those were pretty funny to watch. and I know I missing some, but I can't think of them right now;) But we didn't get to see a leopard or cheetah, but I'm thankful we got to see the lions!

It was pretty cool how we saw the lions...on the 4th day that we were in the park, we were kinda bummed that we hadn't seen any lions or any other big cats. So before we left the park we just prayed that God would show us something really cool that He created, and about a half an hour after we prayed, there was a car that was pulled over to the side, and the people said there were SIX lionesses right next to them in the grass, so we shut off the car, and looked, and they all got up, and circled the other person's car, and went around the back of our car, and then just stood on the road for a couple minutes, so that we could get some pics, and then we saw one kinda creeping up on one of the cape buffalo that were next to it, but then gave up, so that was pretty cool. So after that we thanked God in showing us those lions. it was amazing! Another cool story was that on the 5th day we had been driving around, and not really seeing much, so dad asked us to pray for what we would like to see, so we prayed that we could see some baby animals, and dad wanted to see a kill, or at least an animal eating another animal, and lo' and behold, God answered both prayers. We saw 2 baby hyenas, baby hippos, baby elephant, a baby giraffe lying down in the grass, and baby zebra. it was amazing! and then we stopped on a bridge that you could get out on, and dad got to see a croc eating an impala. God is just amazing!

So I'm sure you are all curious about the elephants...haha...right before we went to Kruger, Grandma Stolk...(people who we were staying with in Pretoria before we went to Kruger...they're REALLY sweet people!) she was telling us that we need to really careful about the elephants, because they could crush your car with just one step, and she told us the signs were that they would have some liquid running down their face, and they would shake their heads, so she told us we should never shut off our car around them, and be ready to race out of there if they came charging at us. so when mom heard this she was freaked out. Well, while we were at Kruger, we went on a sunset drive, and a night drive with a safari guide. On the sunset drive, we were coming back to the camp, and it was dark, and we were driving along, and there are two spotlights on the side of the bus, and as we were driving by there was this HUGE elephant right by the side of the road..now that was a scary sight to see! Elephants are humungo! well, we just sat there and watched it for a bit, and then it turned around, shook its head and started jogging toward us, so the safari guy backed up the truck pretty fast, but the elephant wasn't that far from the bus...maybe about 5 feet....so we were all shaking a bit, but we figured it would make a pretty good story to tell;) Another elephant story was when mom and dad went out one afternoon, and there was an elephant in the road. So dad pulled up and shut off the car, and he filmed a movie, and it walked right past the car about 2 or 3 feet away...it was hillarious, cause we watched the movie and mom is like freaking out, and dad is just sitting there filming. So we had a good laugh watching it;) Then another time was when we were all at this watering hole, and there were tons of giraffe and zebra, so we were watching them, and then all of a sudden and elephant came running out of the bush, shaking it's head about 20 feet to the right of us and all the zebra went running and it looked like it was coming right at us, so dad quickly pulled forward, and it turned out that it just wanted to cross the street and get to the watering hole :P and it was pretty funny to watch it drink. The park put in these water tanks for the elephants and maybe the giraffes, so they like cisterns, so the elephant put his two front feet on the top of the wall, and stuck his trunk down in there and got water. it was cute!

ok, now for the camps and the other fun stuff we did :) As I think all of you know, the Woodrow family got to come with us. It was SOOOO much fun! I wish it would've never ended. I'll have to post a pic of a map on here so that you can get an idea of where we were when I tell you the names of the camps we stayed at;) So the first night we got there we stayed at Skukuzu, then the next day we left there and went north and stayed at Letaba for two nights. After that we then went a little south and stayed at Satara for a night, then the next day we went north east and stayed at Olifants for two nights.
So I'll start with Skukuzu...that was probably the most boring camp, and we didn't have much time to explore around there, cause we got there in the late afternoon, and then left at 6am. But all the nights that we were in Kruger us girls and one set of parents got one house, and then the boys and the other set of parents got another house, so all of us girls had an awesome time together!
Letaba-that was the most fun camp. the first night we all went on the sunset safari, and the sunset was amazing! and when the sun had set the sky was this dark orange at the bottom, then dark blue on the top, and with all those african looking trees, it really looked like those pics of Africa...it was so awesome! Then the next day all of us Woodbulls except for Kent cause he went with Uncle Charles to go look at animals. so all of us who stayed at the camp went to the elephant museum. And outside the museum there was a big statue of an elephant, so of course we couldn't miss the opportunity to pose in front of it, so we pretended it was chasing us, and took about 10 pics of that=) oh, and earlier that day us girls had also gone on a bridge that was there and I took some pics of them on it. it was a cute lil' bridge=) oh, and all of us Woodbulls (except Kent) had gone swimming in the pool there=)
Satara-when we got there all of us Woodbulls (except Kent again, cause he was looking at animals again) went swimming in the pool, and then played on the playground...it didn't seem like the playground was made for little kids...it was pretty dnagerous! But we had a lot of fun! Then we all went to the store there and looked around, and then Aunt Julie bought all of kids M&Ms...she's so sweet! so we all split those up, and they were GOOD! I love M&Ms! :) then that night both our families went to the deli there and got really good sandwiches!
Olifants- this place definitly had the best view. It was breathtaking! I'll have to show you a pic of it, but it was hard to capture the scenery in a picture! God is such an amazing Creator! so the first day we were there was Gracie's 13th birthday, so that night we gave her our presents, and then hung out. then the next day (which was our last day together :( ) but yah, that was pretty boring, cause there wasn't much to do, but I did laundry and us girls played estimation, then we tried to find something to do, but it was just Andrew W, Ian, and us girls at the camp, cause everyone else went out to look at animals. but then Andrew W, Gracie, Bethy, Hannah and I played the cup game, and it was so cool! we came up with a new way to do it. it sounded awesome! we have a movie of it, but I don't think I can post it cause our internet is to slow;) so yes, that entertained us for about an hour till everyone else came back, then we showed them what we did, and they were impressed :P then that night we all had a bbq together and took of family pic, and it actually turned out good on the second try :) then I went around and took pics and movies of people doing random stuff just to remember the fun stuff that we did. And one movie I got was all of us woodbulls talking, and you can't really hear anything cause we're all talking at once and to different people, so that was hillarious to watch! and then later that night we were talking about how when we first met each other in MA we (Hannah, Sarah and I) were so shy and hardly ever talked, and then we watched that movie and now you can't even hear over the other person talking, so that was pretty funny! anywho, so then the next morn we both went on our seperate ways, and we were both really sad that our time together had come to an end :( But I'm just thanking God for the 3 awesome weeks he gave us and the Woodrows together! it was an awesome time, and probably the most fun I've had in the past 2 years! :D

Well, I guess I should close now;) It's pretty long :P haha! oh, before I forget I wanted to thank everyone who was praying for Hannah , Kent and I while we were taking our SAT...it REALLY helped! the SAT seemed so much easier than the practice tests, so I'm praying I got a good score;) so thanks everyone for your prayers...I couldn't have done it without your prayers and God answering them! :D

Here's some pics :)

Kruger Pics 1

Kruger Pics 2

Kruger Pics 3

We're finally ready to start on our journey down south tomorrow early in the morning :) I'm SOOOOO excited!!! Hannah and I have been in need of a vacation for a VERY long time! so I think we're the most excited about it :) and just to make things better we're meeting up with the woodrows and spending about a week with them at some beach place that we get to stay at for free. And then we head to Jo'burg to take our SATs..please be praying for that...we've been studying, but the math part just doesn't seem to stick in our head, so we're pretty discouraged about that. While we're in Jo'burg Grandma is flying out to meet us...and we were all SO surprised when dad invited her and she said yes. So we're all SOOOOOOOOO VERY happy!!!! :D that makes our trip SOOOOOOOO AWESOME!! God has definitely blessed us in letting us go to SA with the Woodrows and then having Grandma fly down and spend 2 weeks with us!! :D What an awesome God we serve!!! :D So we spend a couple days in Jo'burg, then we, the woodrows, and Grandma head to Kruger, which I am thrilled about, cause I get to use dad's camera to take pics...I'm sooo happy!! :) haha! so yes, hopefully we will get to see all the cool african animals :D Then after that we head back to the beach (just our family and Grandma) and we spend a couple days there :D oh yes, and how could I miss one of the greatest parts...WE GET TO GO SHOPPING IN A REAL MALL!!!! haha...I'm thrilled! :D oh and we get to drink MILK!!! I'm SOOO happy...I've been craving REAL milk...haha :) so yup, we're all very excited! please just keep us in your prayers, especially as we're driving down and back up, cause our car has been having some problems, so we're just praying we make it down there without any problems. oh, and another family is driving down with us, which is really an answer to prayer, cause in case something happens to our car we're not stranded there, we have somebody to help us :) so I'm very thankful for that!
well, I hope you all have a wonderful month!!! I'll update you when we get back :) thanks for all your prayers!!!