Double Anniversary

July 15th was a day of 2 anniversaries.  It was our wedding anniversary, and it was the 25th anniversary that Gary has been on staff with Campus Crusade for Christ.  We didn’t really do anything to ‘celebrate’ the 25th anniversary, but we did celebrate our wedding anniversary a typical Gary and Kim way-- cheap. :-)

We already knew that we were going to go into the city and attend a classical concert that was free.  We figured that we would eat beforehand.  A friend of ours, Jeong Lim, called the week before and invited us to her Hungarian restaurant for a meal.  She started having a small Korean section on the menu and wanted us to come try it out.  Her restaurant is one block from the church where the concert was, so we thought it would be ideal to eat with her before going to the concert.  The last time we ate there we ate inside, so it was nice to be able to eat outside.  The restaurant is by the Danube river, just across from the Parliament building.  You can see some of the Parliament in the picture below (to the left of the tree that is behind us). I was so excited to have Korean food!  Since I’m not at the school anymore, I don’t have Korean students or parents giving me Gimbap, and I’m not there to take part when the Korean moms make lunch for the staff.  I definitely miss that part of being at school.  The food was really good, so I thought it was the perfect meal for our anniversary.

For those of you in Budapest reading this, I encourage you to go to the restaurant sometime.  It’s in a nice location (at Batthyany ter beside St. Anna church) and has reasonable prices (those who know us, know that I won’t encourage an expensive restaurant).  It’s called Angelika.

Ethan Helps Daddy Mow

Ethan wanted to help Gary mow the yard, so he held on to the mower and helped push for awhile.   Then he got his own little mower and followed along side of Daddy.Finally he grew weary and decided it was easier to just carry his mower to where he wanted.

Summer Fun with Friends

Some friends came over for a salad lunch one day.  We had Ethan, Seth, Tosha, and Evan all sit at this little table to eat their lunch, and of course, not one of them touched their food.  They all were too distracted and wanted to play as you see in the picture below. 

My mom bought this water wheel for Ethan before he was even born.  It said on the box that it was for children one year and up, so we just pulled it out this summer.Seth got the point of it a little more than Ethan.  Ethan thinks the point is to put all of the water from the container everywhere else, one little bit at a time.  Well, at least they enjoyed getting wet.I think this picture is adorable!  The water hose has a leak, so as long as the water is on, a little always comes out.  The boys noticed that, and as soon as the water was getting low in the container, they worked together to try to get some more.

Ethan and Zsuzsi enjoying an apricot.  This was the first time that they really ‘played’ together.  They were chasing each other around the house and ‘hiding’ from one another.Well, this is a different kind of friend.  Ethan is carrying a kitten around at a Hungarian friend’s birthday party.  Poor little cat- being carried upside down.  I actually don’t know if he’s been around kittens before this.

July 4th

I am so thankful for the freedom that I have as an American and as a Christian.  Even though my government has decreased the public freedoms of being a Christian, they can’t take the true freedom away.  Living in a former communist country and working with people who lived without freedom much of their lives has been eye opening for me-- who always grew up with freedom and knowing nothing different.  The Christian freedoms that I have lost in the States are nothing in comparison to what these people have gone through.  It’s been 20 years since the fall of communism.  Communism was awful, and yet so much darkness entered these countries when it died.  The difference is that the people could see the darkness of communism; the darkness that entered afterward was a darkness that most of the people are blind to.  I pray that their eyes will be opened and they will be able to experience true freedom that only Jesus can give.

We went to the same place as last year for a 4th of July party.  There were about 40 adults and 20 children who came.  It was nice to have hamburgers, salads, and homemade ice cream.  We actually only took pictures of Ethan (surprise, surprise).

Nikki, I hope you had a great July 4th birthday!   It looks like Ethan is contemplating his next move or trying to figure out if he can get the ball through both wickets in the picture above. Fun with bubbles!

Ethan’s 1st Pool Experience

I guess most people probably take their child to the pool before they are 16 months old, but we just weren’t aware of places that had baby pools and a decent price.  Some friends told us about a place that has 8 or 9 different pools including 2 baby pools where one is for babies and one is for toddlers.  And, the price is a little over $4 for an adult and free for children under 3.  We went with our friends one afternoon.  I’ve never seen so many little ones in diapers at a pool… and out of diapers.  Many toddlers and young children often swim naked over here, though I saw more kids running around the grass that way than actually in the pool.  There must have been a rule that the kids had to wear bottoms because they all had them on while in the pool.Ethan loved it, but he just stayed in the water near Gary at the beginning.  He didn’t stand up and walk around or anything.  Then I realized that he’s trained not to stand in the tub, so to him it was like he was in a big tub.He loved splashing around in the pool and finally got to where he would stand up and walk around some.He and Evan didn’t really play together in the pool.  Ethan loved splashing his hands in the water a lot, and Evan doesn’t like splashing at all.  This is the closest picture that I could get of the 2 of them together.Ethan enjoyed the slide, but would climb up it and then want to go down head first.  It wasn’t steep or wet enough for him to actually make it all the way into the water.Toddlers were allowed in the bigger pool if they were in some sort of float type thing, so we borrowed this one from the Beattys.  Ethan enjoyed being in the big pool.  We took him out of the float and dunked him under at one point.  After he got over the shock, he pointed to the float that he wanted to be in it again.  Guess we’ll have to work on going under water another time.

Team Retreat

We had our yearly team retreat at the beginning of June.  Our team leader suggested that if we have the retreat be in the summer time that we do it somewhere in the mountains (since the summers tend to get hot and there’s not usually air conditioning).  Sadly, Hungary is a very flat country, but it is surrounded by 7 countries that have mountains.  Gary recommended Hallstatt, Austria.  He and I have both been there (at different times as singles), but none of the others on our team had been there.  It is a small, quaint village in the mountains of Austria, just a 5 hour drive from here.  So, that is what we did.

In past our retreats were working retreats.  The other women on the team wanted to have more free time, what many would call a ‘real’ retreat.  I, personally, liked working a lot on the retreats, but I am a person that likes church business meetings.  However, having a chance to hike in the mountains outweighs day long meetings any day in my book.  So, I was thankful that our team leader decided to do 1/2 working days and 1/2 free days.  Of course, Gary and I would have loved to have hiked on all of our 1/2 free days, but we were the only ones on the team who would have felt that way.  We did get to go hiking twice, so that was nice.  And, the weather ended up being wonderful. You can’t really tell well by this picture, but the village is right on a lake, and mountains shoot up out of the lake all around it.Here is a little bit of a view as we are walking to the top of the town for one of the hikes up the mountain behind the town.The owner of the pension where we stayed offered to take us on a free boat ride on the lake.  It was a long boat that held 4-6 people and he stood in the back and rowed it.  Our teammates let us borrow their little life jacket for Ethan.  There is a Protestant church and Catholic church in the background.One of the days we hiked through part of a valley and up to a waterfall.  There was no way to get the splendor of God’s creation in a picture.  Even where we were standing in the picture above, we were getting wet from the spray coming off of the fall.  One of the girls on our team said that it was the prettiest thing that she has ever seen.  This picture does NOT do it justice at all.This is part of the same waterfall.Nap time!

Water Hose Fun

Ethan loves playing in the water.  The water was so cold, but he didn’t care one bit.  He just wanted to be in it. He was trying so hard to push the handle down to make the water come out, but it just wouldn’t work.

1st Family Bike Ride

Ethan wasn’t old enough last summer for us to use the bike seat that we bought from someone.  This year he was finally big enough to use it!  We didn’t realize that we would have other issues with size… his helmet.  We bought the smallest helmet the store had, and the salesman said it would work for a one year old.  It was too big.  We even borrowed one from some friends who have a boy 3 months older than Ethan, and it was too big.  So, we tried going anyway.  Sadly, the helmet kept falling over Ethan’s eyes even though he continually tried pushing it back.  Needless to say, it was a short bike ride.

We used a helmet that fit a little better on our next bike outing and after not being gone long, Gary’s tire went flat.  He pumped it up just before we left, so it needed a new tube.  Once again, our bike ride was cut short.

Little Friends

Seth and Ethan enjoyed their time at the park.  Of course, Ethan ate sand.  The thought grosses me out.  Who knows how many dogs and cats have used the bathroom in the sand.  One huge kitty litter box!  Yuk!  Even though Seth is over a year and a half older than Ethan, he plays so well with him.

We watched Evan one night while his parents went to the school musical.  It was funny to watch the 2 boys.  Evan sat mostly in one place and played quietly while Ethan was loud and all over the place.  I think that Ethan is much more like Evan’s older brother in that way. 

Ethan absolutely loved playing with this toy that blows the balls up in the air.  He laughed and laughed so hard.  We’ve never seen him have so much fun with any other toy except for maybe a Winnie the Pooh musical card my aunt and uncle sent him for his birthday.  Of course, toys here are about 3 times more expensive than in the States.  Ethan does have toys, and I’m sure if I were in the US, I’d think that he needed a lot more than he really does by the advertisements.  Whatever happened to pots, pans, wooden spoons, and Tupperware?  Great toys!  Actually, we don’t do the pots and pans, but Ethan loves the wooden spoon, measuring spoons, and Tupperware. We had some friends whose children are older give us their swing set this year.  It is being put to good use!  Zsuzsa was the first to come over (or maybe Seth, I can’t remember).  Her and Ethan kept wanting to switch swings.

Dogs, Dad, and Dirt

So, I’m majorly behind on updating our blog.  I’m sure I’ll be skipping quite a lot that I wouldn’t have done had I kept up with it.  I’m also trying something different that Julie showed me with updating it.  (Thanks Julie!) So, we’ll see how this turns out.  She showed me months ago, and I haven’t done anything since then to our blog, so I hope I remember.

I think that I will just try to post some pictures from April and May and make comments under them, and then try to write a little more for June and July.  I’m sure the family cares more about seeing the pictures, right?!  Neil, thanks for reminding Gary that it needs to be updated. :-)

Ethan loves dogs.  There are lots of dogs around Diosd, but mostly behind fences and not all nice.  Blackie is our neighbor’s dog, so Ethan likes to go next door to pet him.  Course, sometimes Ethan intimidates Blackie.

 Our tulips only bloomed for April, so I was glad to get a picture with them.  Ethan is wearing a shirt that says, “My Dad is my Hero”, which is so true.  He’s very much a Daddy’s boy.

So, what does Mommy do when Ethan starts eating dirt?  She pulls out the camera to take a picture.  Here is a picture of him eating dirt and then his face afterward.  Don’t think he liked it too well.