~ Hip City Guide ~

For all my friends and readers in South Africa... click on THIS LINK and it will direct you there....

You can find the hot spots in Cape Town, Durban, Joburg and Pretoria... isn't that nice of me to give you new suggestions for eating, drinking, partying, shopping, chilling and sleeping!!

But don't forget to invite ME when you are going to PARTY!! You know where to find me ;-)

Have a lovely day,
Mireille

2010 in pictures!

I got this idea from Wendy, a friend of mine from Connecticut, she writes a blog as well. And she is a funny writer, so check out her blog here. Thank You Wendy for the idea!

Here comes our year in pictures, although these are many pictures, it is not even half of the activities we have done... there were still so many more moments which I could have shared, but it just gets too much for 1 blog posting....

JANUARY

The year 2010 started off with a BANG! My Bday is on the 31st and we had a WILD party!! With me dancing on the table, but I will not show you that picture...

Here the beginning of the evening, just the girls.



Then more towards the end of the evening, Dirk getting wild with the girls :-)



FEBRUARY

It's summer, so the girls are all the time in the pool.



Valentine's trip to the bush, we could bike here and just run into giraffes, kudus, ostriches... so much fun!







MARCH

Another trip: Mountains & Beaches









While we were lounging at the pool at a nearby restaurant, some friends joined us!! A new for us.. zebra's hanging out with us!



APRIL



The girls are 8!



Queen's Day celebration at the Ambassadors house in Pretoria.



A real wild Cheetah visiting school! His name is Byron



Cleaning cars for Byron the Cheetah, a good cause, so other children can also visit the wildlife center.



MAY

A camping trip for JJ & Jezz's Bday, with 11 girls sleeping over in the bush - so exciting!!







World Cup in South Africa, but also at school. Each class is another country and they play against each other!





JUNE

SA was in the ban of the World Cup Football, Dirk enjoyed 11 games AND the final! He had a blast, while we were soaking up the sun on Koh Samui.



6 weeks on Koh Samui, just me and the girls, while Dirk is enjoying all the football games in SA!



My father also stayed with us for a while.







JULY

The last 2,5 weeks Dirk joins us and we travel to Pattaya, Bangkok and Hua Hin. Here with Namphet our good friend!



AUGUST

A lot of our friends meet for a BBQ/Braai at the Lion & Rhino park to have some fun at a Sunday afternoon.



A big ugly bird joined us...



SEPTEMBER

A camping trip in Limpopo with 3 other families, we just LOVE the BUSH!!





14 years married!



OCTOBER

A school trip for the moms to Pretoria to see the blooming Jacarandas.



JJ and Jezz finally learned how to bike!



Mid-term break ~ A week to 3 of the 7 Emirates: Dubai, Ras al-Khaimah and Abu Dhabi, what a mysterious world!



Sheikh Zayed Mosque in Abu Dhabi, can hold up to 40.000 worshippers at one time! One of the largest mosques in the world.



Aquaventure waterpark in Dubai, the girls could have stayed there for the whole week :-)



NOVEMBER

Dirk, Luciano and Candice celebrated their Bday with a great party AND a Belly Dancer!



Our annual trip to the coast of Durban during the Thanksgiving break, this year we went to Zimbali.





The annual Parade of Nations at AISJ ~ the girls in their national dress.



Went to the wedding of our friends Lionel & Olimpia. A fun fest!



DECEMBER

A month later their first child was born, a handsome boy Gabriel!



Xmas eve: dinner by the pool.





While the adults are enjoying the 5-course meal the girls are unwrapping gifts in between bites.



Fire crackers for the kids at the New Year's Bash. We celebrated with 33 kids and adults, a fun fest again!



And a dip in the hot tub for the younger girls! FUN, FUN, FUN!



So many great moments, so many things to be thankful of, such a fun year! I am looking forward to 2011, already a lot of trips planned, Bdays to celebrate and other fun activities to look forward to. Can't wait to share them with you!

I hope your year will be fun filled, adventurous, and full of happy moments!
Mireille

Thanksgiving weekend at the South Coast

Just like last year we went to the beautiful coast of Durban. Last year we went to the North Coast, to Sheffield Beach, if you can't remember see here. This year we went to the South Coast, although not as popular by mass tourism, we like it much better. The beaches are endless and so beautiful. I mean even the North Coast is gorgeous, but more developed already, we like the places on the off beaten track and that is definitely the South Coast! We stayed at Leisure bay, one of the most unspoilt and the most picturesque beaches in this area.

Look at this, hardly a person on the beach, beautiful rock formations, great for the kids to play on and find little crabs and fishes. The water nice and warm and no 'hutje mutje' like in Holland on the beach. No we had it all to ourselves!!



And this is how the crowded beaches in Holland look like, 'hutje mutje' (means: like a sardine in a can) on the beach!



Juliet made a snow man from sand, so proud of herself :-)



One day it wasn't so sunny, so we decided to drive to Durban, one of the bigger cities here in SA. And we went to uShaka Marine World, it has a huge aquarium and it looks like you are walking in a replica of a sunken cargo steamer from 1920. Very cool!

Since we are in Kwa-Zulu Natal or Zulu land we also met some Zulu warriors, which was particular nice at this moment because the girls are learning everything about the Zulu's at school now.



They learned at school that if a Zulu guy wants to marry a girl they have to pay 20 cows to the parents of the girls. Jasmine and Juliet found that that was quite a steep price! Dirk told them that their future husband has to give at least a house on the beach in Thailand for 1 girl and a nice sports car convertible for the other... they were quite for a moment and had to think about this! LOL



The dolphin show was really great, JJ and Jezz really loved seeing the gentle animals!



The feeding of the turtles was another highlight of the day.



Much more pictures I don't have unfortunately since my camera was stolen, these were taken on Dirk's little camera. At least some memories left of our fabulous weekend! Although some bad luck we have a lot to be thankful for!

Hope you had a great Thanksgiving weekend as well!
Mireille