It's no secret -- November was full. I won't say it was a blur, because I distinctly remember all that we did. And maybe life is a blur when we get in routine and the days seem to repeat themselves, but November was certainly not that way for us this year!
Picking up on where my last 'November Rewind' post ended, we actually checked the McGrady's in at the Austrian Air counter and met the Andersons at arrivals. The two couples exchanged greetings and hugs (Bonnie and the McGradys met in Kenya a few years ago), then it was time to wave goodbye to the McGradys as they went through security.
In spite of a long journey and the stress of no luggage, the Andersons sure look chipper here for their obligatory 'welcome to Albania' photograph!
Who can forget the election of 2016? It seems we are STILL talking about it. On the way to church in Tirana the Sunday morning before the election we caught sight of this taxi cab who made his preferences known! (I was told his was known as the Kim Kard@shian cab prior to this).
The first full week we had with the Andersons the weather was abysmal. I do not exaggerate. It rained. And it rained. And it rained some more. We had flash flooding and the damage in places was significant, as we discovered more than a week later when we wanted to go hiking.
All that cold, damp weather, it shouldn't have been a surprise that Ellie got an ear infection. How nice to have a nurse practitioner in the house who kept an eye on it! It cleared up on its own, yay!
No real story for this photo. I just thought Reni looked good. :-) (Actually, we were visiting a project in another village and the kids got squirrely, so I took them out).
The night Ellie borrowed Ambra's hat and looked like a hipster. So proud of her playing in church!
One sunny, Sunday afternoon we ended up in Durres and the kids were begging to ride the bumper cars and jump on the trampoline on the Volga (b. We settled on this suspiciously bright pink cotton candy. Apparently it gives you a sugar high before you even eat it!
Later that night we drove up to King Zog's old palace for a view of the sunset.
Thanksgiving Day we were down to our last guest, Joy, and she was totally gracious and allowed us to cop out on a special Thanksgiving day dinner at the Stephen Center.
Yeah, we had a lot of leftovers to take home.
And because life was so busy to squeeze it in earlier, but it was just a regular day in Tirana, we used the holiday time to get Ellie's hair cut. The bob cut makes her look so grown up!
Finally, the bonus to November rains in the plains is snow in the mountains. It's ten times as amazing to gaze upon in person...
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