What's Going On?

Hi all! We are well and keeping busy. At the moment we are preparing for the arrival of friends from Macedonia who will be staying with us in the US for an extended visit. Here is a picture from a meal they had lovingly prepared for us while visiting Macedonia.

McDonald's with Baba and Dedo!

While in Macedonia we visited an American tradition...good ol' McDonalds in Skopje. There is only a mini-McDonalds in Ohrid, open just through the summer months but it lacks a full menu. So while in Skopje, Baba and Dedo wanted to try McDonalds and Pavle was very happy to agree to that lunch! Here is a photo after our meal...we are "kicking" ourselves for not getting pics inside during our meal. It was a big and very clean, friendly McDonalds.

Back to Macedonia...in pictures at least!

While I posted a few things during our trip to MK, I wasn't keeping up with posting as much as I would have liked. Here are a few more photos from our recent trip to visit family, work and do some ministry work.

Picture 1: Dedo (Vanco) and Pavle with Blage in the "nylon" looking at the cucumber plants.

Picture 2: Dedo (Vanco), Zoran, Ang, & Pavle on the way back to Ohrid from the Strumica region.
Picture 3: Pavle looking down with much interest at the Indoor Strumica Pazar ("Open Air" Market). Lots of activity! And we had delicious fruits and veggies for dinner that evening!

Home School on "the road"

Yesterday we had a day of "errands," sort-of, so Pavle and I did some home school "on the road." We had to get our car serived and a factory recall taken care of so we headed over to the car dealership and watched the mechanics work a bit and in the kids play area they had a 200+ piece wooden architecture blocks set which Pavle delightfully played with. After about 2 hours, we were out the door. On the way to the dealership we stopped by the post office for about a month's worth of mail so I was occupied while Pavle was playing with blocks.

Then it was home for lunch and a show...the show was that our driveway and other houses on our block were being paved. So we watched the workers. Here's the process in case you were curious:

1. Dump the hot asphalt on the road
2. Use a skid steer loader to dump 3-4 buckets-full of hot asphalt into each driveway
3. Workers quickly spread the hot asphalt with shovels, rakes and other tools
4. Roller. This was one of Pavle's favorites, watching the roller move back and forth over the driveways.
5. Some-kind of hand-paver thing that was very loud and smotthed out the asphalt over the driveway even more.
6. Clean up. The workers had to quickly work to make sure the hot asphalt pieces didn't stick to the sidewalks.

Needless to say, after the paving crew left, we played this scenario a few times on our living room floor!

No pictures of this day's adventures...sorry! Maybe we'll post pics of our indoor play recreation!

More Macedonia Photos

This is such a cute photo of Pavle and his friend Mihail. We went on a family walk with good friends in Ohrid, enjoying the weather and time together.




This is a picture of Pavle with one of his favorite Macedonian meals! Kebabchinja and Zelka Salata! He loves beef!

Some Pictures from our recent MK trip

So...we've been home for just about 1 month! Amazing how fast time has flown. I thought it'd be nice to shares some of our Macedonia Trip Photos!

Zoran, Pavle & Angela Zaev at Svete Kaneo on the Ohrid Lake.














This is a photo of Pavle with some wildflowers somewhere along a path/ trail by Lake Ohrid in Ohrid, Macedonia.
Zoran, Angela and Pavle Zaev in a park in Skopje, Macedonia.

A Walk in the Woods...

When we went to Catoctin Mountain, where Camp David happens to be located, we talked about the nature all around us, took a quick tour of the Visitor's Center which had a nice little bookstore and stuffed wildlife that one may encounter there. There was also a large section of an old tree which detailed the rings and subsequent age of the tree. We didn't observe any wildlife on our 2.8 mile round trip walk to Cunningham Falls, but we did see mushrooms, downed trees and their roots, moss, rocks, millipedes (er....does that count as wildlife?), and simply enjoyed the time together as family hiking on a trail listening to the sounds of nature.

Big Machines

So, we live in an area that is seeing a bit of construction at the moment and Pavle gets the opportunity to observe some Big Machines at work. And since we have plenty of books, he is also able to identify many of these machines and describe a bit about what they do. Here are a couple of family shots close to some of the big machines on a Sunday afternoon walk...slightly before the nearly 100 degree F weather we are expecting in the next few days!

Strawberry Pickin' Pics!

Here are a couple of great pictures of Farmer Pavle at the Orr's Farm Market Berry Patch in Martinsburg, WV.

As you can see in the 1st image, this is after we had been picking for a bit. We filled up 2 of those flats which hold 6 qts each. In total, the first time we went to the strawberry fields we picked nearly 15 pounds. That was all 3 of us together.

A little while later, Pavle and I went again during the week and picked about 13 pounds by ourselves!

Although Pavle is not a big "fan" of "bugs," we did observe the bees, moths and other little "guys" as we worked in the fields. The sunny day was nice and in the early AM it was pleasant.

Pavle liked learning about the strawberry blossoms and how those little flowers turn into the "yummy" fruit we so enjoy in our cereal!

He was also good about being gentle with the plants and choosing fruit that was ready for picking. He also said that we should make sure to leave enough strawberries for other guests at the farm. Needless to say, strawberry picking in an enjoyable outing for us.