Meda'in Saleh

While (Uncle) Michael & (Auntie) Blair where here visiting us we all took a 3 day road trip to Meda'in Saleh. According to Google it was a 7 hour trip, we made it there in 6 1/2 and on the way home only 6. What awesome road trippers our children are! That and their Daddy may have a led foot...

I have oodles of pictures to share, but I'll first tell you some tidbits about the trip and then all the pictures will make a bit more sense, that and you should click on the Meda'in Saleh link above it will explain a few things and then I wont have to. :)

• We saw many, many camels. There were lots of "watch for camel signs" just like we have watch for deer ones in Canada.
• Jeriah was very impressed by the trucks we saw, and many times exclaimed (loudly) "Look at the truck! Mommy take a picture of the truck!"
• We booked 3 rooms at the hotel, one for Jem, one for Michael & Blair and one for the 5 of us, we weren't totally sure what to expect, but figured we could make it work whatever we ended up with. Our room had 2 chairs and two single beds, and a door that we asked to be unlocked that went into Michael & Blair's room so... we pushed the 2 single beds together and into the corner and Jeriah slept against the wall and Ian and I in the bed with him. We then took the 2 chairs from our room and the 2 chairs from Michael & Blair's room and made them into beds for Marin and Corban. They loved and and called them their "nest beds".
• The sandstone mountains are gorgeous and along with the blue sky and perfect temperatures it was refreshing and beautiful place to be. 
• The drive up there was also through some really neat dessert mountains.
• The palm trees that are in Al Ulah, the town that is near Meda'in Saleh, are like "date orchards". Underneath them they grown many other things one of which is oranges. While filling up our SUV with gas we bought some from the man working there. Appox 40 fresh pick mandarin oranges, for 15 SAR ($4 USD)! They were tasty! We later learned that at this time of year the oranges and other fruit like that is in such abundance that they have a hard time giving it away. Guy who sold them to us probably thought "white people, they are not from around here, lets see if I can make a couple bucks" and then laughed at us as he stuck the money in his pocket. Ha ha! Oh well, they tasted great and $4 is nothing for that many oranges.
• We where "mobbed" in a positive way by a group of local tourists wanting to have their picture taken with me, I was not wearing an abaya, and the women wanted their picture taken with me. Ian had his picture taken with one of their husbands as well. There were loads of kids too and they followed us around for a bit calling out the English phrases they knew. "Thank you very much", "I love you". They followed us around for a while taking pictures of us especially Michael and I (it's the blond hair and blue eyes) until the men called them all away from us. There was also a separate group of young men who asked for a picture with Michael. 
• Corban loved hiking up the sandstone hills/mountains. Ian and him where hiking buddies, it was to keep him safe! When it came time to listen to the history about the tombs Corban was not at all interested and played in the sand near our feet as we stood and listened.
• Marin enjoyed seeing the small rocks embedded in the sandstone. At school her class was in the middle of a unit on the environment and geology type things so it was great for her to see things like erosion effect and the different rocks. 
• Jeriah was Uncle Michael's hiking buddy. You'll see a cute picture of Jeriah trying to copy Uncle Michael.
• We drove up a crazy switch-back road to the top of a mountain plateau. (I may or may not have expressed concern about the craziness of the road and caused my daughter to almost cry... bad mommy...)While at the top we got to see a 180 degree view of the valley and a really pretty sunset glow.
• We got to check out the (unfinished) reconstruction of the railway station that was there during WW1 and the whole Lawrence of Arabia thing.
• We got to see old Al Ulah. Some of the houses have been built over top or turned into 'date orchards" but before they were all destroyed they were declared a historical sight and they are now protected.
• We had a dessert roadside picnic on the way home, we tried to find shade by one of the shrubby trees but when we did it was full of camel poo. We opted to hang out in the shade of the SUV stand, and eat.
• We also get to go see the elephant rock which is very neat. The English translation of the description below it is really good for a laugh. I took a picture don't worry. :)

I have many pictures to share, here are 4 favorites.

Corban's happy face always makes me smile. :)

 Jeriah ran up to this tomb stood in front and said "Take a pictures of me mom!"

 Gorgeous girl, gorgeous scenery.

 Family picture at the elephant rock, what is not to like?!

 I have divided the rest of the pictures up into 4 slide shows. You can pause the slide show to read the sign at the elephant rock.

These are pictures that Blair & Michael took with their camera.

Anniversary Greetings

Happy 1st Anniversary to (Uncle) Michael & (Auntie) Blair!

Happy (belated) Birthday to Marin!

Our girl is 6! Pretty exciting stuff. :)
We love you our Marin girl! We are very proud of you and how you are growing up, riding bikes, loosing teeth, reading, writing, and lately wanting to type and send emails! You are growing up so fast it is amazing to think and wonder about all the things that you will be doing by the time you have your next birthday. I feel the need to make a little list...
how about 6 things Marin loves (in no particular order).
1. Oliebollen
2. Playing with her friends
3. Stuffys
4. Going for breakfast dates with her Daddy
5. Going on adventures with her family
6. School
Here she is showing how old she is using her fingers/thumbs, see the thumb on her left hand, it is technically standing up.

We all had a really fun time celebrating her birthday. On the 18th, the day before her birthday we had a party with her friends from school. There were twelve 5/6 years olds in total, but with the help of Michael, Blair, Jemhalyn and of course Ian it went really well. We had mini pizzas, that they made themselves, and carrot sticks and apples slices for a snack. Then it was time for birthday cake, and after that straight out into the back yard for some games. Marin had loads of fun with her friends, the game they enjoyed the most was red-rover-red-rover.
On Thursday, the 19th, her actual birthday we gave her her gifts in the morning and she was very pleased. She loves gifts, giving and receiving, and when there are gifts to open she dosen't like to wait. :) (Any guesses where she get that from? ;) )


Then in the afternoon we hit the road and headed to Jeddah for dinner and to play in one of the many mini amusement "parks", there is one in pretty much every mall. (Auntie) Blair snapped this picture of the birthday girl and I at dinner. :)

The amusement park was lots of fun. The best part was seeing the kids have so much fun.

Marin loved the mini roller-coaster, the river tube and the log flume rides the best. The funniest part of the night was when we all piled into the log flume ride, Ian, Marin, Corban and Jemhalyn went in the log in front and Blair, Michael, Jeriah and I (the 4 of us seated in that order) went in the one behind them. As we climbed the hill to go down the big drop we could see Ian and crew looking back at us with big grins on the faces and a look of anticipation. Once we got to the bottom we knew why. They were laughing and laughing at us, our log weighed more then theirs (due to the size of the people in it) and so Blair being the one in front received a hugs splash of water, and apparently the look on her face was awesome. It also needs to be mentioned that since she was wearing an abaya all the water pooled in her lap as it was like she had a big bowl on her lap.
Fun times and good memories. It was a great day hanging out as a family celebrating our special girls birthday!

Happy 6th Birthday Marin!

Ian the Instagramer ~Part 28

Beautiful flower I found at a friend's house.Not sure how I got such a clean shot with my iPhone.

 Through my eyes. 

 My gorgeous little girl enjoying a beautiful sunset. 

The flowers on our front porch.

Corban painted his own face at Victoria's birthday party. He is a salamander.

 

Ian the Instagrammer ~Part 27

Gazebo ceiling in old Cairo.

Merry Christmas! Kids are in bed, the turkey is deboned, Santa (aka me) brought the presents out and my little elf ( aka the tooth fairy, aka Kristin) arraigned them under the tree. We'll se how late the kids let us sleep.

  The kiddos hamming it up in their Christmas PJs. We had a good day.

Happy New Year!

Ahmed during the festivities at his engagement party.

Rainbow Toast

Yesterday the kids went back to school, they had from the 22nd of Dec to the 6th of Jan off. During their break from school we had lots of fun playing at home and doing special fun things. We went for bus rides (which they think are fun) to go get Popsicles, we went to the library to check out a couple DVDs, and we had a few playdates.

We also had rainbow toast for lunch. Marin had done this in her class at school and had wanted to show Corban and Jeriah. They liked it so much we did it 2 days in a row, one day I took pictures while they painted, and the other while they ate it.
This is Marin's rainbow toast Canadian flag.

I also enjoyed some time to play with my new camera. :)

This little sunflower is growing in our garden.

Also growing in our garden are beans, and Jeriah likes to eat them, he prefers them raw. He was helping me the other day, by holding the bowl, I looked down to see him sitting there with his mouth full, so I ran to get the camera.

I am sure you have noticed that he has a bandage on his hand. Right after Christmas he and Corban got bad coughs so we had the humidifiers in their bedroom. On about the 3rd night he got a steam burn on the back of his hand below his ring and pinky finger knuckles. We ran cold water over it right away, and he settled down and didn't seem bothered by it anymore. We all woke up the next morning though to see that it had blistered badly and he and rubbed part of it open in his sleep. It is healing well now though and it hasn't slowed him down. He has been really good about getting the bandages put on, during one of the first time I was putting on a bandage, he asked me "what are you tempting (attempting) to do?" He has also learned a lesson and knows now that steam can hurt you. He talks often about how you need to be careful by "seam", how "I got a seam burn on my hand". Cute kid.

On Thursday we took a trip into Jeddah and bought Marin a new bike. She had outgrown her first one, and even though the training wheels are on it still she can ride without them. Her new bike is cute and I think suits her very well. She has the training wheels on it too, she wanted to keep them on, it is giving her confidence, she'll want them off when she is ready.

We also got Corban a bike, he had gone back and forth on wanting one, but without one he can't learn to ride so... On Friday afternoon we took the bikes down to a big empty parking lot so Corban could start learning. He was having a hard time with it, but also wasn't that into it. We got him to ride a bit, but he really just wanted to run around and explore. Oh well eventually he will want to learn.

Pictures were taken though. :)

Happy 2012!

Happy New Year Everyone! 

This post is brought to you by pictures from Christmas Day and Boxing Day. :)

Ian took 3 days off, the 24th, 25th, and 26th, and with the way our week works here the weekend was on the 22nd and 23rd so we had a wonderful 5 days together. We relaxed, played, went for bike rides, listened to Christmas music and enjoyed the Christmas feel. On the 24th there was an evening "candle lit" service on the beach. There ended up being no candles though it was so windy, those of us who attended though still enjoyed the time to sing carols and read the Christmas story together. We also had our traditional sweet and sour meat balls dinner.
On Christmas morning we had fresh cinnamon buns for breakfast and then we dug into our presents. Before that though I had the kids sit on the couch to take pictures of them in their festive pj's (which were purchased here in Jeddah).
Darn cutes kids! And looking so grown up!

I took about 10 pictures the rest all looked pretty much like this. :)

We then moved on to opening our gifts. The kids were all very pleased with their presents, they got quite a few books and wanted to read them all as they opened them, so we did. :) Well except for Marin's chapter book, last year she got the Rainbow Fairies, and this year she got the Weather Fairies. We are reading through that together she reads 2 pages, then I read 3. She is very pleased with herself, that she can read it, we are of course very proud of her!
Here she is with her new Barbie, and looking more like she is going to be 16 not 6 soon!

After lunch, and putting the turkey in the oven, we opened the stockings. We had kind of forgotten about them, but Marin reminded us.
Corban was pleased with his magnifying glass.

Here is Jeriah with Ian's peppermint sticks.

My dear husband also bought for me a new camera! The picture of Corban and Jeriah(above) were taken with it. I am excited to learn to use it! :)
The afternoon was spent relaxing and enjoying our new gifts. We then had a very tasty turkey dinner together. It was a really nice Christmas, just the 5 of us.
On Boxing day (the 26th), which when we call it Boxing day we get funny looks from most people as it is not something celebrated in all countries, we headed to the beach. Jeriah had been asking to go, he wanted to play with trucks in the sand and water. While we were there we walked out to the little island that is off the shore of our beach, on the way out there we saw a small stingray. Jeriah is still talking about it. " You have to be careful not to step on the tiny stingray" he will tell you as he points his little finger at you.
See how happy he was to be at the beach.

Corban always loves a trip to the beach, and never really pauses to look at the camera...

Marin of course had fun at the beach too, it is where they have her favorite slushy drinks. :)

We got back from the beach at about 2pm, and after a shower and a snack we watched a movie. Beach days are always fun relaxing days. :)

Here are some more pictures. I have plans to post about the rest of our "winter break", so more pictures are on the way.

Ian the Instagramer ~Part 26

The Foulds clan making cookies at a "seasonal party".

The wall and ceiling that I stared at while waiting for the graduation ceremony to start. Can you believe this was the only picture I took all day? 

Pyramid between pillars at sunset. From my trip to Khaled's wedding. 

Silhouette of a pyramid at sunset - got this shot last summer when I went to Cairo for Khaled's wedding.

Arabic coffee and Dates at Ahmed Alfadhel's engagement party.