We are home... with a special announcement!!!

Hello from Genoa...

:)

We made it home safe and sound! Our flights were great, no problems at all!! When we got to Chicago we were welcomed by Zayne's parents and my mom!! We then went to see my dad at work and had some lunch. As soon as we got home we unpacked our bags and organized all the gifts! We also went to visit my granny and also some of my cousins!! We are very happy to be home safe!

We wanted to wait till we got home to share this, but on February 18th, Zayne asked me to marry him!! Of course, I said yes!! 

It was after our awesome night safari and bush braai, we got back to our chalet at the lodge and he wanted to do a video blog on our balcony (because it was so beautiful out there) so I quickly showered while he set everything up and at the very end of our "blog" I said... "Okay, that's a wrap!" and he replied with "or maybe it isn't," he then got down on one knee and asked me to marry him! It was so perfect, we are both very excited for this next chapter in our life!!

Alright, we are off to bed now... trying to get use to the time difference! 

Goodnight!

xoxo... the newly engaged couple... Britni & Zayne

South Africa, Day 15- Feb. 24th

Our last hello from South Africa...

Well today is the day we leave. First thing this morning, we ran to the airport to get some things with our tickets sorted out then we went to the store and grabbed a few last minute things. We had a great lunch with Ouma & Oupa at House of Ribs and then headed to the airport!

Lunch Time

Zayne's Plate

It was great having so many people there with us at the airport, thanks to Ouma, Oupa, Vanessa, Toby, Sammy, Brad and David for all coming to see us off! 

Everyone at the airport

We would really like to thank everyone one last time for everything they did for us! You are all amazing people! We miss you already...

xoxo... Britni & Zayne

South Africa, Day 14- Feb. 23rd...

Hello from across the world!!!

What a wonderful day we had today!!

We woke up pretty early, ate breakfast and headed to Pretoria to pick up one of Zayne's good friends, Tom! Then we headed to Hartbeespoort Dam, went to an awesome shopping market! We got a few more gifts and also a fabulous painting for our house! We even placed a custom order for two more paintings that we will receive in a few weeks!!

Coffee with Tom

Peter (the painter) & Zayne

Just after our little shopping trip we went across to dam to have some lunch! It was so great spending the morning with Tom! Crazy thinking we saw him today and then in 4 days we will see him again, but in Chicago!!

Lunch Time!

We headed over to Vanessa's house for one last swim before we have to leave! It was great spending some more time with the kids and of course in this warm weather... not looking forward to the weather in Illinois!! After our swim we ran to get some food from Ocean Basket and Mimmos! Also- got to check out Sammy's work!! We had a great dinner with Vanessa, Toby and the kids, then we headed back to Ouma & Oupa's house to pack up our bags!

Sammy & Zayne  

Zayne's dinner from Ocean Basket

Britni's American Pizza from Mimmos

Everything is packed, just a few things to get tomorrow before we leave!!

Goodnight Everyone!

xoxo.. Britni & Zayne

South Africa, Day 13- Feb. 22nd...

Hello!!

So today we woke up pretty early because we had to be in Randburg at 9am to return a lens we rented for our trip to Kruger! So we made it there on time and then headed over to Monte Casino, again! We walked around at Monte and then did a little bit of gambling! I more than doubled my money, so we took the cash and ran! Granny taught me well! ;)

Outside at Monte Casino

Theatre at Monte Casino

Britni, winning!!!

Monte Casino

Us at Monte Casino

After we won a little bit of money, we decided to head to Pretoria for lunch! We went to Menlyn Park Mall and watched around for a little bit and then stopped at Parrot's for lunch! We ordered pizza, which were very delicious!

Menlyn Park Mall

When we left the mall, we headed to Pretoria North to go check out Aunt Belinda's shop! We got to see Belinda, Charne, Ursula & Hayden!! She showed us her shop quick and then we headed to Charne & Pikie's house to see everyone else!

 When we got there, we were just visiting with everyone and then we had dinner there at Charne's house! Pikie made a great "potjie" and there was also great sides to go with it! We had a great visit will everyone there and enjoyed some South African sports! 

"Potjie"

Rice

Dinner!

Swiss Roll for dessert

Aunt Belinda & Family

Ouma, Oupa, Aunt Belinda & Family

Zayne, Aunt Belinda & Uncle Johan

Zayne, Charne and Pikie

Zayne, Ursula & Hayden

 

When we left Charne's house, we went to go see Belinda's house quick to just pick up some things and then we headed back to Ouma & Oupa's for the night!

We are exhausted so we are off to bed early tonight!!

Goodnight from South Africa!!

xoxo... Britni & Zayne

South Africa, Day 12- Feb. 21st...

Hello everyone!

Short blog today... we didn't really do much!

Our day started out by sleeping in a little bit, then we checked out of Crystal Springs. We were going to head to a couple more viewpoints but when we woke up it was very foggy and rainy, so we decided we would just head back to Boksburg and we will go see those sites the next time we are there!! 

So we started on the road at about 9:30am and stopped at the first town to grab a little breakfast, Zayne was so excited to have his first South African Pancake (nothing like our American pancakes), he bought them some some cute old people that were selling them from their wheelchairs outside one of the stores! He couldn't say no to them! 

After our little stop, we got back on the road and made it to Ouma & Oupa's by 2pm! We unpacked the car and then headed over to Aunt Vanessa's house for a quick visit! 

We made our way back to Ouma & Oupa's for dinner, we had chicken, roast potatoes, rice, corn, sweet potatoes and green beans! Wonderful meal that was, it sure is nice to enjoy home cooked meals! 

Our dinner- prepared by Ouma!

After dinner we wrote a few blogs since we were behind because of the AWESOME internet they have here :) and then headed off to bed!!

xoxo... Britni & Zayne

P.S... so sorry for the lack of photos! There was not much to photograph today! I'll do better tomorrow ;)

South Africa, Day 11- Feb. 20th...

Hello!

We had a great day today, we got up at about 8am and went straight to breakfast! We had eggs, bacon, sausage and toast! It was a very good start to our morning… we then packed up our bags and checked out of the La Kruger Lodge! While we were leaving they gave us a map of Kruger National Park and suggested on our way back to Crystal Springs, we drive through the park rather than on the regular roads, and we thought that was a great idea! We first stopped at the little gift shop to grab a few snacks and a some gifts to take home! We then just drove through the park! On our way, we saw many animals, a lot of babies! It was a nice peaceful drive! It only took us about 4 hours to drive from the Crocodile Bridge Gate to the Phabeni Gate, but on our way we saw so many different things! We stayed on the paved road the whole way, so we were not really expecting to see anything to amazing, but we did! We were about an hour and a half into our drive and Zayne saw a tail moving in the bush in front and to the left of our car, so he stopped. We were the only vehicle around at this point, so we stopped and just waited to see what it was. It wasn't even 30 seconds after we stopped our car that it walked out into the road where we could see it! It was a leopard! We were both so excited, it walked up the left side of the road and then crossed into the middle of the road and was actually walking straight toward us! It then made it’s way to the right side of the road and got so close to our car, Zayne could have rolled the window down and touched it! It was such an amazing site to see, Zayne freaking out in the seat next to me and this beautiful creature walking toward me! Wonderful! It then made it’s way in the bush and off we went to finish our drive! When we left the park, we made our way toward Pilgrim’s Rest, which is where we are staying tonight at Crystal Springs Mountain Resort! On our way, we stopped at The Mac Mac Pools and The Mac Mac Falls!

Zayne at breakfast

Our breakfast at La Kruger Lifestyle Lodge

Our room with private balcony at La Kruger

The pool at La Kruger

Checking out :(

Crocodile Bridge Gate

Rhino at Kruger National Park

Giraffe at Kruger National Park

Hippo at Kruger National Park

Leopard!

Walking toward us

He got so close to our car!

Our first stop on our way to Crystal Springs

Zayne at Mac Mac Pools

Zayne in the Mac Mac Pools

View from Mac Mac Pools

View from Mac Mac Pools

Our second stop!

Mac Mac Falls

Little delay in our trip back to Crystal Springs

It was around 5:30pm when we made it to our lodge, we unpacked our stuff and relaxed on our balcony till the sun went down! We were going to go swimming before we went to dinner but it started to storm, so we watched a little bit of TV and then headed up the the restaurant they have here at the resort and had a great dinner there! We both had steak, potato and salad!

Sunset from our balcony at Crystal Springs

… and now we are back at our lodge and it is still storming so I decided to write the blog and I am going to be heading to bed real soon, since we have been on the move all day!

Hopefully the storm calms down a little so we can get a good nights sleep!

Goodnight everyone! <3

xoxo… Britni & Zayne

South Africa, Day 10- Feb. 19th...

Hello from us at the beautiful Kruger National Park!!!

Well, we didn’t have much sleep last night but we were up very early this morning for our whole day safari! We left the lodge at 5:30am and headed out to see some animals! We were so excited when we found out it was only going to be us on the drive, so we had a fantastic private safari with a great guide! She told us we could do whatever we wanted to, since it was just us!

Early morning, elephant in the mist at Kruger National Park

 

We started off seeing elephants, giraffe, kudu and gnu! Shortly after our drive started, we got word that there was a cheetah just up the road, so of course we went to go find it! We got there just after a kill and we got to see it eating! After watching for a little bit, we decided to head out and go find some more animals! It was about 9am and we saw a few lion in the distance, so we parked and watched them! They were laying down under some bush and would occasionally get up and move to another spot. All the other vehicles got bored sitting and waiting for them to move but we decided to stay and watch them since we knew they were there! We sat in the same spot for about 3 hours, but let me tell you… it was so worth it! We were sitting there and we decided we were going to have a snack while we waited for them to move! Just as I was taking a bite of my sandwich I saw one of the female lions get up, and I nearly choked! ;)

Cheetah at Kruger National Park

Cheetah sitting up at Kruger National Park

Lion under the bush at Kruger National Park

 At first, she was just watching around by the bush that she was laying under, but then she started making her way toward the road! She walked almost all the way to our vehicle! She even posed for a few photos! She then went to lay under one of the trees right by the road! It was probably one of the most exciting moments ever! Since we knew she was close by, we waited just a little bit longer to see if she would come out again, but she was fast asleep and we decided to keep going on our drive!

Lion at Kruger National Park

We drove around for a while seeing a bunch of different animals! We stopped for a little bit for a bathroom break and for a snack, then headed back out for a few hours! After our awesome drive we made our way back to the lodge, where we had an AMAZING private dinner for two on our balcony! We had salad, chicken, rice, carrots and baby marrow! After dinner- we tried to post our blog from the previous day but our internet just wasn’t fast enough.

Elephant at Kruger National Park

Kruger National Park

Hippo at Kruger National Park

Giraffe at Kruger National Park

Momma & Baby Elephant at Kruger National Park

Back at the lodge!

Salad at dinner

Dinner

Dessert

 

So now, we are off to sleep… we are both exhausted since we have been going to bed so late and having to wake up so early! But tomorrow- we don’t have to wake so early :)

Good night!!

xoxo… Britni & Zayne