pictures from ghana

here are some pictures that jon sent me after a week long outreach at a rural village about 5 hours away from accra:

teaching children

eating local cuisine - fufu & grasscutter

watching the fisherman out at sea

he knows how much i love the beach. i miss him

memorial day weekend with j&a

we spent our memorial day weekend with two of our favorite people, jonathan & ashley!  friday night we enjoyed staying in, eating homemade pizza and catching up. saturday we made our way to new haven where we toured yale's campus, ate falafel at mamouns and enjoyed ashley's ice cream (it was only appropriate since ashley was with us!).  after the grand tour the boys golfed the course at yale, the best collegiate course in the nation, and ashley & i headed to the beach - where else?  it was the perfect holiday weekend.

he made it to ghana!

he made it! after a lot of goodbye tears, a 4 hour flight to atlanta and an 11 hour flight to accra, jonathan is settling into his home for the next two and a half months. that's right, months. luckily my sister is living with me until july, so she is keeping me busy and my mind preoccupied.

the ironic part of this whole thing is that jonathan's dad was recently called to the first quorum of the seventy, and his first assignment starting in august is west africa with headquarters in accra, ghana - the exact same location that jonathan is currently!  he and his parents will actually overlap for about 2 weeks, and then i will meet up with them mid-august. i'm counting down the days...only 70 more to go!!

jonathan is documenting his adventures on an old blog he used to sometimes update with funny teaching stories: http://levinsscythe.blogspot.com/. you should definitely check it out - if you don't know one thing about jonathan you should know that he is a very talented and entertaining writer.

ragnar relay: new haven to boston

this past friday to saturday jonathan and 11 friends ran the overnight ragnar relay race through 200 miles of new england.  they started in new haven, ct and ended in boston, ma with each member running three different legs of the race.  jonathan ran two legs on friday - 5 miles @ 1:30 pm and 6 miles @ 11:15 pm - and one leg on saturday - 6.5 miles @ 8:45 am.  although he didn't get much sleep and is feeling stiff today, jonathan had a blast.  way to go team "unconquerable soles"!

after leg 1

gearing up for leg 2

finished leg 3!!

the whole team - unconquerable soles

daniel & aubrey's wedding

last saturday we made our way to washington dc where jonathan's cousin was married to his beautiful bride in the washington dc lds temple.  it was a beautiful day, the couple was stunning and we loved spending time with family!

marie & ethan visit ct

the weekend before marie's orientation at georgetown she & her boyfriend came up pay us a quick visit in connecticut.  the poor girl flew into dc around midnight, ethan picked her up (he lives in dc) and they headed straight for the mega bus that arrived in nyc at 4:30am where we met them.  after catching up on some sleep, we enjoyed going to church, driving through scenic ct and of course eating yummy food.  sadly we were only able to spend about 15 hours together, but it was definitely worth it!  thanks for coming to see us you two!

crocs

two years ago i bought one of my very favorite pair of shoes.  they are a khaki colored canvas "santa cruz" style shoe - versatile, cute and comfortable.  and they are crocs (please don't judge).  unfortunately the design of the shoe is defective, and after about a year of wear, a hole formed in the toe.  because of the common defect, crocs no longer makes these shoes in women's, so i've kept this pair around hoping people overlook my toes popping out and thinking that crocs will someday bring them back.

for easter, my sweet husband performed a miracle.  in my easter basket were a pair of these exact shoes in light green!  he quickly explained how he had been searching and tracked down the manufacturer in china.  after my excitement in seeing they were the exact same as my old pair and not knock-offs, he later confessed that he didn't just buy 1 pair.  he bought 5 in total.  all in different colors.  at this rate, they should last me about 10 years.  maybe if i'm careful the will last even longer.

what a gem this man is.  does anyone wear a size 7?