Friday Night @ the Dunes - Part I

Last Friday, Richelle took the kids (minus Brendan... who was still doing the "young bachelor guy thing" up at Galmi) out to the dunes with a group of 35-40 other friends from the expat and missionary community. Tim had to stay in town to facilitate the IBBS (Evening Bible School) class taking place, so he wasn't with us... and he missed a great evening.

Two major surprises right off... a huge chunk of the road out to the dunes has been paved since the last time we went (well over a year ago), and Richelle threw the Landcruiser into 4 wheel drive and successfully climbed up the dunes, much to her surprise!

Once there, the doors opened, kids spilled out exploding in all directions to begin exploring, and playing, and rolling and sliding and stalking and, of course, jumping!

Tori really took M&M under wing, shepherding her around, up and down, the dunes.

Photo by my friend Shannon Maxwell.

Photo by my friend Shannon Maxwell.

Jonathan and his little friend, Moise, more commonly known as Mo-mo.
Photo by my friend Shannon Maxwell.

West African sunsets are typically spectacular (how's that for an oxymoron) - something about being so close to the equator and the large, wide open expanses and the contrasts between the orange and green landscape, as well as the oranges, blues and other hues in the sky. This evening, the thunderstorms all around and the clouds made the sunset extra-ordinarily spectacular. (I'll be sharing more of those photos in subsequent posts - otherwise this one would have 70+ photos.)

THAT was one of the thunderstorms... and I'm the middle shadow of the five separate ones off on the right.

Look at those clouds!



Photo by my friend Shannon Maxwell.



Elsie Mae enjoyed sliding down the dunes. I was amazed at the speed the little tykes actually attained descending in this manner.

Of course, at least in this context... what goes down must climb, crawl and scramble back up!



 She looks so big and tall, at least from this perspective!

We did, of course, take lots of the almost obligatory running-and-jumping-over-the-edge-of-the-dune-so-you-have-a-mild-sensation-of-flying-while-falling photos.

I just love this one of my three big girls!

...and look at M&M! Do we call that assisted flying?

Talk about a photographer's dream!

This rainbow appeared, we were at the right place on the dunes and it was still light enough for me to digitally capture it as the backdrop for Anna's jumps!



That night, we certainly found the proverbial pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, at least as far as fun goes.

Stay tuned for more - 'cause very soon, there will more photos to come!