Life is getting busier for us here now. We had a wonderful time with Steve's Mum visiting for a week. Luckily UB turned on all it's charm and even provided a few days with temperatures in the mid twenties. The warmth was appreciated by all, but especially by Jennie who had arrived direct from Jakarta. We took Jennie out to Terelj where we have spent a number of weekends now, it was really interesting to see the change from stark icy coldness to green grass and wild flowers. Mongolia really is a land of resilience (people, animals and plants).

We have just returned yesterday from a VSO conference held about 200km north of UB. We caught the train there and back and enjoyed taking in the scenery. The camp was situated in a lush valley with river nearby. We had a lovely afternoon when we arrived of sunbathing and playing in the river. Unfortunately the following few days were a lot chillier so we didn't manage as many adventures as we'd hoped. The conference was a great time away and the kids did really well hanging out with all the volunteers. Justus proudly recieved 'the most social camper' award at the end of camp.

Steve got up early this morning to catch the train down to Beijing for a week or so. He'll still be on the train now as the journey is a bit over 30 hours - hopefully he's enjoying it : )

It's less than 5 weeks now until we head back to N.Z. We'll be leaving UB on the 12th July and getting back into ChCh on the 14th. Not exactly sure what we'll be doing with ourselves when we're home but feeling like it's going to be  a pretty busy turnaround before heading out to Samoa mid August.

I'll attach a couple of pics including one or two of Justus in a del as part of a play he was in at camp.

Love to you all.