We’re having such a wonderful time here in New Jersey!  It’s pretty amazing to be living in a house for a little while again, speaking a language we know well, and getting to spend a lot of time with family.  We’ve even managed to have some adventures, a haircut, and a bit of new clothing!

A few days ago we went down to Cape May, a nice town in the far south of New Jersey.  It is one of the best birdwatching places in the US and since my dad was with us we got to see a lot of different birds – 80 species in the same day!  We had a guest photographer, my mom, since she is looking at cameras for when she meets up with us in Africa, so all of the photos in this post were taken by her.

Hundreds of birds at Cape May

She got some great bird shots

The beach was pretty, but very different from Brazil!

Beach at Cape May

We saw an ENORMOUS snake in a tree.  This was so cool since we didn’t happen to see any snakes in the jungle.

Giant snake

We celebrated Justin’s birthday with a trip to REI for some replacement clothes and an awesome lobster dinner.  Had a little too much fun playing with the lobsters though…

Clawd the gentleman lobster

Clawd the pirate lobster

Justin’s mom was kind enough to let me have a ride on her sweet horse and it was a real treat!

Horse!

We also had a wonderful party to celebrate Justin’s sister’s graduation from veterinary school and had so much fun partying it up with family and friends!

Family!

We’re really appreciating this time with family and it is working out so well to have a little break in the middle of our travels.  Gives us a chance to catch up on sleep, get reorganized, and eat all of the foods we’ve missed.