BelliSafari: April 2019

The big event this month was our annual trip to Washington, DC....

We still had some fun things to do before our long journey, like a sleepover with Gio's best friend.

And our first wet day in nearly a year. The rainy season has been much delayed (it should have started in early April but really did not start until the end of the month).

On Thursdays I volunteer at the school store (selling local crafts) so we skip the bus and drive together to school for breakfast at the cafe, complete with homemade cinnamon buns.

Quddus and Caleb asked if they could take care of Bruno while we are in the USA so we dropped him off the night before our flight. These three are going to have a blast together!

Last night with Jagger (who ALWAYS sleeps with a ball in close proximity). While we are away he will stay in our house with Paolo's driver and his family.

Early evening departure for the airport. Two long flights ahead of us, but at least this first flight is 4 hours shorter than what we used to take from Johannesburg!

Lounging.

No need to document the nightmare that was our arrival at Dulles Airport. As usual this was the worst part of our 32 hour journey. Instead here is Gio the next morning on a three-way call with Kenya and Brazil. International kid life!

Each child had homework assigned for these two weeks since they were missing school. Maria was asked to document each day in a journal. Day 1- our trip to CVS. Translation: "I went to the shop. The shop had everything." Yes, we spent $400 our first trip into CVS. The variety and availability of things in the USA is always overwhelming to us.

This "overwhelming variety of things" option is one we did not repeat after our first visit. Edible cookie dough. Got an underwhelming grade from the kids.

Lots of laughs during our first visit with my parents.

If you know this book AND my dad then you can imagine how funny it was to hear him try to read this aloud.

First evening out with my parents. Jet lag hit hard.

My mother got her first smart phone recently. We were busy adding apps we thought she would enjoy including Audible and Podcasts. Uber was a big hit. Here they are on their first ride.

Gio was thrilled that I had found these t-shirts (rhino conservation- "save the chubby unicorn"). Every single day these two scootered all over the city. I had to power walk behind them. Luckily they are careful and with Gio in charge they could cross most streets (I set some limits so no crossing Wisconsin or M Streets without me!).

Oh, and the cherry blossoms! After 4 years of visiting DC in April we finally got to see them.

We visited all of our favorites including Baked & Wired (sooo much better than Georgetown Cupcakes!).

An outing Gio did NOT enjoy. Shopping for an outfit for the wedding in Italy we are attending next month.

Dinner out with one of our very favorite people- Gio's godfather Jay. His husband Tim (Godfather #2) was too sick to attend but we got to see him later that week.

We never skip our trip to see the Pandas. They kids scootered all the way from Georgetown to the National Zoo (mostly uphill).

Snoozing.

An outing to The Building Museum...

...and then to The Portrait Gallery.

Some (very) modern art.

This sculpture startled all of us!

Playground and pizza date with our cousins.

Always fun to visit my friend Michelle who seems to be a Mardi Gras bead hoarder, much to Maria's sheer delight.

Heading to Godfather Tim & Jay's for a fancy dinner.

Jay discovered that Gio has recently become fascinated with the Titanic, an obsession Jay has had most of his life.

So Jay invited us over to re-enact the final 1st Class dinner. So we had to dress up, of course!

On our way we stopped by to visit cousins John & Alex.

Arriving at Tim & Jays. Hard to believe it but they actually live on Unicorn Lane!

Titanic Dinner table.

Tim & Jay gave their godson this replica of the Titanic that actually contains a piece of coal from the ship. It has become Gio's favorite possession.

We had such a good time- Maria declared the salmon course her favorite.

Jay even assigned us names of actual passengers on the ship. Guess who did NOT survive??

Luckily we never actually hit an iceberg so we could pose for a post-dinner portrait.

About as close as we wanted to get to The White House...

Roar!

After a morning of touring the National Mall (on scooters) and lunch with Paolo at The World Bank the kids needed some time for swinging...

...and ice cream at our favorite spot- Thomas Sweet.

!!!!

I got to see one of my very best friends from Pretoria who now lives in Arlington. Nicola and I raised puppies at Guide Dogs together, and we each got to keep our first puppies. Here is Isaac who was Jagger's best buddy all through puppyhood and training (born a week apart).

Favorite place in all of DC? Yup.

Visiting my dear friend Micki and her adorable dogs. This is her new one, Zeke. He is a mix of a Bernese Mountain Dog and Great Pyrenees.

And her Bernese Mountain Dog Bocce.

The owner of their favorite 7-11 (P and 27th). Girma left Ethiopia over 30 years ago and made his way to the USA through Russia and East Germany. He tried to employ only new immigrants at his store. He is motivated to vote in 2020 for the first time in his life!