The girls going to the dance '08

Here are Anna and her very best friends. They clean up well!

Anna's Homecoming '08

Anna's 1st high school dance!

I thought I would put up a couple of pictures from Anna's dance last weekend. We were lucky to have very nice weather for Chicago in September. She had a very nice time and all of her friends looked great. You will be able to spot Tarah since everyone knows her.

Jaime's friends

Look how happy she looks! Did everyone check out Jaime's new pictures? She says she can Skype on occasion, so I hope everyone can keep trying to Skype until they get a hold of her. I think she is back in Jidr for the week though. Maybe next weekend.

She sells seashells by the seashore

Gma and Gpa are here for a visit...so our first full day was spent at the Sawdust Festival in Laguna Beach, then down to "Main Beach" to walk on the sand and go to the tidepools. The weather was typical for our summers...."June Gloom" in the morning (even though it's July), but then it cleared for a picture perfect California coastal day. The kids had a blast. Olivia collected shells and rocks while Jordan enjoyed climbing on the rocks along the cliffs! We wish you all were here!

Disney Cruise

Hi everyone,

I haven't had much time to blog...or do anything else for that matter...but I'm finally trying to get caught up (heck, it only took me 5 months to mail you all a CD of our trip to Colorado.) So, here is a photo of all of us on the Disney Cruise. I know Pat posted some scenic shots, but I thought I'd prove to all of you that we clean up pretty darn good for dinner!!

Jaime's whereabouts

I just talked to Jaime. She doing her first family stay. She will be there for about 2 months. She will have a weekly visit to Rosso, and she will update her blog when she is there. The little village she is in does not have any electricity and therefore no computers. She has taken a lot of pictures and says it is beautiful. She has not had an opportunity to put them up yet, and she does not know when she will. She said the connections are so slow that her friend took 3 hours to load 20 pictures on his computer. Anyway, she is with a family of 3, mom, dad, and a daughter who is 22. She cannot communicate with them at all. They do not speak either French or English. It is a dialect of Arabic. They live in the middle of the desert a little north of Rosso but not near the ocean. She is doing 7 hours a day of language training. She has her own bedroom. It has 4 walls and a roof but no furniture at all. She has her own bathroom, but it is just 4 walls, no roof, and a hole in the middle of the floor. She played with her family in the sand dunes last night and then needed a shower. They emptied the dish/kitchen water that they had used to cook with during the day into a bucket and gave that to her to wash in. She said it was brown. She does not know what she is eating, but she says it is not bad. This is a very conservative Muslim area. She cannot wear American clothes at all. They made her a "moolafa"(phonetic) which is about 6 yards of fabric. She is supposed to wrap herself in it, but she does not have that much height so she cannot master it and it falls off of her. She met some young boys who live nearby. When they state their age they say the year they were born and then you do the math, they were '93, so they were Anna's age. Jaime was sharing her pictures with them and learning how to say all the different family members. They offered her a camel in exchange for her sister. She did not tell me if she accepted. Two other volunteers are fairly close to where she is.Anyway, I just thought I would share with everyone! Jaime sounds very happy!! She said she will try to post something Wednesday. By the way, her cell phone did work from where she is!

The Arch

OK. I put Jaime's blog link on the right. The Arch pic is in Cabo. It is the famous Arch. The beach in front is lovers beach. Behind it is divorce beach. We got in a water taxi and did a little tour of the area. It was a blast. We were bobbing around quite a bit. Jordan and Olivia loved that part.
Yes we are done with cruising for a while. Hopefully next one will be when my teeth are in a glass next to the bed. We do have Jaime's number but don;t think we want to bother. We will watch the blog and communicate that way for a while.

Nice pictures

Nice pictures, but we need to see more of the kids! The arch one looks like where I did some snorkeling a few years back with Sam, Jaime, and Anna. Was that in PVR? Why are you done with cruising for a while? I love it. It is easier for a mom with kids traveling alone, and it is cheaper than other trips.
Hi Jordan and Olivia, keep up the good work in school! We are proud of you! You are true Hemstreet kids!
Are you guys checking out Jaime's blog too? It is interesting. She is not posting on this blog. Too many of her friends want to blog with her too, and we needed to keep it separate because of that. We have been able to talk to her a few times. She has a cell phone and it is working well from Rosso, but she is not expecting it to work as well when she gets to her village. For now it has been nice. Anna talked to her for a long time yesterday, from the train! The ticket taker on the train was overhearing her conversation. She was talking about monkeys, and goats, and eating eyes. He just had to ask! It is weird. If you want her number, just ask! I found a long distance calling card for .19 a minute. Anyway, check out the blog. Can we put a link on here right to her blog?

Happy to see Jaime In Africa!

We look forward to seeing what Jamie see's. Should be fun. A short update and some pics. The kids are out of school. They both were recipients of many awards at school. I think Olivia got around 8 of them and Jordan around 4. (I may have to edit the numbers later when the kids see this)

We just got back from a Disney cruise yesterday to Cabo, Puerta Vallarta, and Mazatlan. We are still tired. Done with cruises for a while.

Jordan played his first "drinking game" at the pool at El Cid. There was a big pool volleyball game going on and Jordan joined. In typical Mexican fashion, 3 people, 2 in weird costumes came to the game with a bottle of tequila and whomever missed the ball had to drink. Of course he did not really drink but adults did. We had a blast.