just in the courtyard

Although our weekends are mostly full of mountain fun we do spend a lot of time just hanging out in the courtyard between the apartment buildings.  The community this summer is definitely a highlight of our time here.  I love green grass full of running children and adults lingering at the grill, talking at dusk, waving from one porch to another.

These boys, looking tough...

and our Luke, who attached himself to this family and hasn't looked back.  He picked their 12 year old Luke and 14 year old Emma as his "first best friend" and "second best friend" early in the summer.

and, lucky Luke, he has endeared himself to them and gets more snuggles and laughter and fun than any four year old boy I know.

We all dressed up as cows one evening and headed out for free dinner at Chic-fil-A.  This is a big deal in the south and something that we have never been a part of (because no one gives you free dinner if you dress like a cow in Asia!)

It was pretty much crazy fun.

[Please note that John Paul is moo-ing for the picture.]

And I have a pic of Grandma dressed like a cow too!

And one last "around the courtyard" scene.....

John Paul watching the mailman.  If this photo had sound you would hear the mailman patiently explaining his actions and John Paul asking "why?" about 75 thousand times.  I don't think the mailman gets too many opportunities to explain his job, and he was remarkably patient with Mr. Why (aka John Paul).

and part of the mail fascination... our pile of boxes!  I've done quite a bit of home school curriculum ordering and friends have shipped stuff to our place by the box-load, so we had a big 'ole pile of cardboard in our bedroom!

Our luggage allowance is large, we didn't bring much home, and this weekend I started loading (at least for our friends - I haven't dug into our stuff yet).

A big part of our visa paperwork is behind us and we are expecting to be able to leave on our originally scheduled flight (July 31) so there are more duffel bags in our near future!