Happy Birthday Erin - by Charlene

This year, Erin's birthday fell on Easter Sunday so we celebrated it by waking her at 4:45 a.m. to head out to an Easter Sunrise Service. Unfortunately, after we made the half hour drive to our destination, the drizzle and fog had rolled in so we were moved indoors and missed the sunrise altogether but enjoyed a very nice service.

We celebrated Erin's birthday at lunch where she got her favorite meal: Oma's borscht followed by chocolate cake. She received her gifts and then we celebrated Easter with an evening dinner followed by an Easter egg hunt. As part of Erin's birthday gift we promised to take her on a 2 hour horseback trail ride this weekend up at Kaapsehoop (I'd spell it phonetically if I could put the Afrikaans pronounciation on paper but I can't).

Once again, we woke up to drizzly wet weather. Erin's eyes brimmed with tears as we talked about postponing it to another day so off we went. The sun came out just before we left so we were all very positive however when we arrived at our destination about 45 minutes away, the thunder and rain started. We were given big hooded capes to help keep us dry and about half of our ride was in the pouring rain but Erin had a smile on her face the whole time. John commented that we looked like a scene out of Lord of The Rings with our horses and capes in the mist. The sun broke through and was very dramatic as we came out of the woods and were faced with a beautiful canyon. Erin claimed the trip to be a huge success and was very happy about the ride but my bottom hasn't quite recovered yet!











The other big event of this week was that we said goodbye to Mom and Dad Wieler after a month long visit. We had a great time with them and took advantage of every opportunity to see some local sights. Our next booking at the Wieler guesthouse is not until my parents are scheduled to arrive in December so we have lots of openings if anyone is considering a visit.