The Goodall Life: The Memories We'll Keep

Noah with a velvet monkey in the background

Although mosquitos were not really a problem while we were there because it was dry season, the kids thought the mosquito nets were fun anyway.

The kids really enjoyed making friends along the way and it was always sad to say goodbye

My little missing tooth 4 year old!

Boat safari ride

Julia is too cool for school. She stole my sunglasses and spent some time checking out her reflection.

Anna will be doing rock climbing this fall and thought she'd get an early start climbing some vine trees

Safari time

Buffalo skull - it was just laying on the side of the road because although hyenas will eat animal bones, they rarely eat the skull so you often find skulls around.

If it can be climbed someone is going to try

This is the edge of our yard at Tintswalo - the dark post marks the edge of the fence. You can see elephants right behind us at the watering hole - super cool!

Impala Lily

More safari time. Everyone thinks Africa and thinks hot, but they have reverse seasons from us and it's decently chilly in the morning and evening, hence the hats and layers.

How most of the animal pictures happened

It was hard to get an action safari shot of all of us because one of the kids was always sitting in the front seat

Breakfast in the bush

Sometimes two kids rode in the front seat on safari

Erick really was a special guide for our family. His love for our children was so obvious and even - usually you can tell that someone connects more with one of the children than the others, but not with Erick. We learned on our last night together that right before our visit had started Erick's sister had suddenly died leaving behind two children without a father in the picture. Because guides need special certifications, they weren't able to find a replacement guide on short notice so Erick had to delay his departure to time with ours. Never once did that personal sorrow show. Combining that love and professionalism with faith that Erick shared really did make him extra special to us.

Charlton let the kids drive the boat on our sunset safari

Morning coffee. We were introduced to ranger coffee which is coffee, hot chocolate powder and amarula. It's also a great way to start your morning!

Tracker Anna

Julia in the bush

Jonah in the bush

Soccer in the bush. We had better luck with soccer in Gootbos as the clumpy African grass was an added element of ball direction to contend with, but the kids had fun playing with Charlton and Bulgoni.

Cats Claw

We're in Botswana - the other side of the river is Namibia

Hippo carving!

Our first "small" plane

Our even smaller small plane

Anna in the front seat

Anna playing dentist on a hippo skull. That's a hippo tooth in her hand.

Jonah in the front seat

At Tintswola we had a bar and Anna really worked on her bartending skills. She's learning to make a nice gin & tonic and pour a generous amarula on ice. Stay tuned in 13 years for how this works out for us.

Riddle shirt photo in Africa

Here's looking at you......

Safari snacks in the bush one evening

On any given continent, my kids love to roast marshmallows

Erick with Jonah and then Anna

Anna loves to pose for the camera. She may sometimes act shy about it, but as you can see, she really does love it.

Bookend bonding (that's what we call these two as the biggest and littlest)

Noah is such a prolific reader, it would warm any librarian's heart. We had a little undirected downtime and Noah grabbed his kindle and was engrossed in a book.

The littles enlist Granny to read them a story

Anna protecting "her" bar, which was called the Big 5 Bar after the big 5 animals that people hope to see on safari.

Julia loved the vantage point she had from being on Foster's shoulders

Pre-evening safari with Erick and Foster

More of tracker Anna. We had a joke that Foster wasn't allowed to wear pants until he found a rhino so this is Anna's attempt at solidarity.

Jonah radioing back to the house to let them know we're almost home and ready for dinner.

Anna contemplating the zebra skin throw right behind her

Our last night on safari

Forster took the kids out and got them to do something I would have never thought - he got them to play the impala/giraffe poop spitting game. That's right, they put poop in their mouths, between their teeth, and then tried to spit in onto a target. Don't think that I have't already told them a few times that if they put poop in their mouths, they can certainly put broccoli in it.