Ian Bought Me Something Shiny & Blue.

Isn't it perddy? :) It is a brand new 2009 Toyota Sequoia.

Before we moved here we didn't know what we were going to want to do regarding a vehicle. Once moving here we decided that being vehicle-less was not going to work for us, we also know that many of the drivers here have sketchy driving methods so we wanted something large with good safety features. We also needed it to take 3 car seats and have extra space for when we have visitors or a big shopping trip we need to get back from Jeddah with. Other than those needs my only request was that it be blue (Marin had requested pink...). :)
After doing some online looking at the different options Ian went shopping. He went looking a couple times and on the 3rd time made the purchase, we had to wait a few days for it to arrive, blue is not a common vehicle color here so they didn't have a blue one on the lot.
Other than being blue, it has 3 universal anchorage systems in middle seat so all 3 kids can be reached from the front seat. It has side impact airbags, and sensors on all 4 corners telling us if we are within 1-2 feet of something, which makes parking such a large vehicle much easier. Also all 6 seats in the back fold down flat so there is lots of storage space, and it has many other nifty features.

We are at this point thinking that we will be bringing it back to Canada with us when the time comes. Paying for gas there will be shock to our systems I am sure, here it cost $15 to fill it up. I also really want to take it back so that I can drive it one some "real" roads. I can drive it here at KAUST, but not outside the compound. In here there are no traffic lights and the speed limit does not exceed 50 km/hour. I am going to be such a pathetic driver once I am done here...

New vehicles here are less expensive then in Canada, and there is no sales tax, bonus! Oh and "Objects in this mirror are closer then they appear" is written in Arabic on our side view mirrors, and it also came with a leather prayer mat. Ha!
So far we are really liking it, we went shopping to IKEA the other day and filled it up, I think we fit half the store in there. Marin and Corban are enjoying the fact that they are sitting up so high and can see so much out the windows (in our rental car they couldn't really see out the windows). Now they will hopefully be able to see the camels along the side of the road when we drive to Jeddah, they will be so pleased.
We still need to come up with a name for it, all our other vehicles have had names. Any ideas?