It was that kindof day

We went to meet my parents for lunch today, so we loaded in the car and headed off to Stephenville, TX the halfway point between us and them.  We are pulling into town and Nate looks up at us and spews, I mean spews, in a projectile kindof way, bright green vomit all over him, the carseat, and the floorboard.  Did we bring an extra set of clothes?  Of course not, because we never need them anymore!  So we headed to Wal-Mart to get him new clothes so we could take him in to eat. We had lunch and got back in the vomit-reaking car to drive home.

On the way home we pass by some bluebonnets, and yes we are THAT family and we got out to take pictures.  And seriously, Noah asked to.  It has been a rainy week, so we had to trapse through the mud to get up to the flowers and what happens?  Noah and Nate both flip out and won't take pictures.  Nate smells like throw up and the rest of us are covered in mud and all we have to show for our outing is this one picture of Noah.  Click here to see it.

Cross Countries Tour, UAE

After we cleared Saudi we headed into the United Arab Emirates to head up to Abu Dhabi and then hang a right until we crossed into Oman. We were glad to get to see more of the Emirates than just Dubai. Dubai for all the hype is okay....but seriously, if I wanted to live in a "modern city" and be surrounded by Westerners, why did I leave America??? However we did manage to drive up there and go through IKEA one day....which is awesome.

Sidenote: When you cross over the UAE border by car, they make you get your eyes scanned which can take forever when there are tons of people there.....trust us. AND your entry visa is free, BUT they charge you an exit fee........bummer.

On our way back through we cleared Emirati passport control and we at the last checkpoint before going into Saudi and the officer went through my passport and apparently the general that I waited and hour to see and get "stamped" out stamped out my family and my car but forgot to put a stamp in mine, so we had to drive back up to passport control and I had to get stamped out.....we were not happy, no sir. not happy at all.

But in the end, its not really the place as much as the people you get to hang out with while you are there, so it was good to get to hang out with our friends there and it was worth the long drive and the stupid eye scan

Welcome Y'all....or the Emirati Equivalent

Noah sitting on the bridge overlooking the river walk at Festival City in Dubai

Noah playing in a fountain at a really nice park close to Oman. Seriously, when you've got money, you can make it green if you want to.

Aww... the fam.

Cross Countries Tour, KSA

The past two weeks we as a family took a trip to Muscat, Oman......by car. 1,700 miles over 3 countries. It was incredible! Noah did a great job. Our first country to enter was Saudi Arabia.

We were a little nervous to go into the this place that we've heard so much about and is so closed off. We stopped at a mall in Al Khobar to grab some lunch and it was the first time that we actually had to "engage" life in KSA. Every resturaunt there has two seperate sections, one for families and one for men only. They have two separate entrances and are divided by walls. It was a new experience for us.

We were able to spend the night in Al Hofuf on our way through and on our way back. B and I both went into some culture shock there. Nothing in English, crazy traffic, mixed in with everything being closed down for the call to prayer and B having to cover her head caused some stress! Oh, and we got lost in Hofuf going to the hotel, going to eat, on the way back to the hotel, and on the way out of town! We now know 800 different ways to not get where you need to be!

The driving there on the highway is AWESOME!!! No speed limits and nothing to slow you down!!! However, no matter how fast you drive (100 mph) Saudis still drive faster and they don't have any problems with double or even triple passing people...or passing you on the shoulder. It is like a game of "anything goes" at 100+ mph!! It was truly fun for me and stressful for everyone else in the car!!
Here are the pictures as we went through Saudi Arabia. I will try to post each country separately.

The first thing we saw in Saudi!! This place must not be that bad, right?

This is my hot wife!!!



Al Hofuf at sunrise

Camels roam along the highways in herds. It was just like driving through Texas and seeing the herds of cattle....well sort of.

The last thing we saw as we passed into the United Arab Emirates (it says the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia)
I will try to get pics of the UAE up soon.

While Traveling in the Arab World....

I’ve been traveling without Noah and B this week trying to work out all the paperwork details of our move in August. Got some of them done, some of them are still up in the air.
I don’t like traveling without my family. I loved it in college, but now that I’ve got B and Noah, I’m a homing pigeon. Home is where I want to be….
Anyways, this week in traveling I’ve noticed several things that are normal in traveling inside the Arab World by plane.

1. The flight attendant will get on and talk for 20 minutes in Arabic and then after a long pause will say in broken English, “we are now serving dinner….” and that’s it….

2. During the flight you will hear people’s mobiles go off and, better yet, people will actually answer them.

3. As soon as the plane has stopped shaking from the bouncing of landing, they are up out of their seats, way before the seat belt light is turned off and way before even the flight attendants are even up, getting their luggage from overhead.

Noah in Petra

These are pics we got of Noah on my phone while in Petra. We realize that we didn't get any of him with anything interesting. After you've seen Petra a couple of times you forgot that it is one of the 7 wonders of the world.

Noah in his backpack carrier.

Noah and his beautiful mother.

And this is how Noah spent most of the trip. He didn't even see Petra.

and this is a baby donkey. proof that even baby donkeys are still ugly.

All Drinks for a Dinaar!

We took Noah to Petra this week for a couple of days. I'll post some pics as soon as we get them, but I wanted to let you hear a little story.

We are walking through Petra and we here a guy standing outside of his shop hollarin', "all drinks for a dinaar, all drinks for a dinaar! Tea! Coffee! Pepsi! All drinks for a dinaar!" Then immediately after that, he switches to Arabic and says, "ربع دينار للعرب" which means, quarter dinaar for the Arabs.

So I walk up to him and say, in English, "I want a Pepsi."
"Okay, 1 dinaar please."
"But I want to pay a quarter like the Arabs," I said in Arabic

that's when it got interesting.......
here's what followed. This is me speaking in Arabic and him speaking in English. His grammar mistakes aren't me not typing correctly, it's what he said.

me: "but I want to pay a quarter"
him: "uh...uh....no, that price for arab students only:
"okay, I am a student"
"no you no student, you have baby on you back!" (I did. Noah was chillin' in the baby backpack)
"so? he [Noah] is a student too! he is learning both English and Arabic!"
"no you too old."
"but you didn't say that. you said a quarter dinaar for drinks!"
"but you no arab!"
"but then you said it was for arab students and I study Arabic, so i'm an arab student and so is my son, and so is my wife!"
"okay, okay" (he is shaking his head and my hand at this point. its the Arab thing to do after a well fought bargaining battle)

then he calls out to the boy by the drinks "hey boy, get a pepsi for Ahmed!!!" I guess, he felt like he had to give me an Arab name to give me the Arab price. Oh well, I gave the kid a quarter, and put the pepsi in my bag and forgot about it. The pepsi is still sitting in the bag on the floor in our house right now. I don't know if I'll ever get around to drinking it.

It wasn't about the pepsi, it was about being Arab....

Dubai Video

I apologize for the month delay on this video. I finished the Kenya video and then forgot about us in Dubai.
I apologize for the video as well. It's a bit long, so I had to drop the bandwidth down, so it may be a bit blurry.
That's it for the apologizing. The mall you will see in the video is huge, not to mention that the ski slopes you will see are in the mall!

Enjoy.

Dubai Video

Kenya Trip Video and Pics

Well, it's here! We arrived home early this morning. I was able to throw together this video of our Kenya trip. I've also uploaded a digiatal photo album to your right under my photos. I apologize though, because some of the pics aren't very good quality. I had to take them from the video. Our digital camera seems to have a 10 minute battery life.

We were able to take a half-day safari, which was awesome! The little girl you will see in the video is adorable and I have already secured marrying rights to her for our son when he gets old enough.

Africa is a great place. Very little compares to the feeling of running across the plains in a Safari car watching the rain clouds coming in from the North. I understand why the earlier explorers say that they hearts stayed in Africa.

Enjoy the video. Click on the picture to see it.

Quick Glimpse of Kenya

We are still in Kenya. I apologize for the lack of blogging. I've been fighting the African electricity trying to get online long enough to post. I will do my best to post everything when we get back to a more steady and constant connection on Monday.

Here is a pic of the sign at the beginning of the game park. I will upload the album when we get back home. Until then.... enjoy life and talk to y'all on Monday.

Kenya for Easter

We are leaving in a week for a conference in Kenya! Yah! Be jealous, if you want. Be happy for us if you want, no skin off my back. Either way, we are in Kenya.

Because of the baby we won't be able to do any of the really cool stuff though. No safari's, lion-hunting, or hiking up Mt. Kilimanjaro, will be on the agenda. Mostly meetings, so we will be in Kenya, but not "in" Kenya, if you know what I mean.

But we can all dream together. If you could go to Kenya, what would you do? Tell me. You can use some from this list or something else.

1. Safari
2. Eat at the Carnivore (an all meat buffet! yummy!)
3. Climb Mt. Kilimanjaro
4. Ride through the Serengeti Plains
5. Ride an elephant
6. Tour a tea plantation
7. Visit the Java House (famous coffee shop in Nairobi)
8. [insert your own crazy thing here]

Leave a comment and let us know.

Christmas in Egypt Video

You guys know I wouldn't go on vacation and not take the video camera. Here are the highlights of our trip through Jordan and Egypt this past week.


Christmas Highlight Video

Happy Holidays

We wanted to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas. B and I spent our Christmas holiday running around Egypt. Egypt is a good country..... Its really busy. Its a good place to visit, but I am very happy that we live where we live. It is so much more simple. It was a great test on how well we understand Arabic. Egyptians don't speak our dialect of Arabic. Best I can tell they speak Arabic like the Cajuns speak English.
We spent most taxi rides arguing over prices, dodging jaywalkers, and inhailing large amounts of smoke.
But with all that said, it was a wonderful trip. We hope you guys had a wonderful time with family and friends. We love all of you.
Dasha, we are soooo sorry. We got to Cairo and realized we didn't have your number. We are sooooooo sorry. We are horrible people.

The Umayyad Palace Ruins Video

This is a video of our search for the Dead Sea Scrolls. We found them. The musuem is in the midst of the ruins from the Romans, and early Islamic Period ancestors in this region. It is on the hill in the midst of the city. Great place to see the city.


Umayyad Palace Ruins Video

Video Blog Try

This is our first attempt at a the "blog cam" so if it works then great.
We don't have any cool videos at this point, so here is a video of the zoo.

CLICK HERE!

Change of Address Notice

Be Advised! We are no longer living in the United States. We and all our luggage made it to our new home almost a week ago. You would not believe how hard it is to set up internet and get it all running smoothly in another language. We are still without internet, but limping along with a substitute. Hopefully this will allow us to keep the blog up and kickin' though. Inshallah (if God wills)

The Giant Panda

Hello to all you animal lovers! To the right we have YeYe and to the left we have NaNa. These guys are two of the remaining 1000 giant pandas alive today in the world. These guys eat 40 lbs. of bamboo a day. No wonder they are a dying breed. Have you ever seen 40lbs. of bamboo in the same spot? They are really cute though. Just wanted to make all the PETA people happy and say, "Save the Giant Panda!"

Williamsburg, VA

If you seek the historic, go to Williamsbug, VA. A word of wise to you: if you plan on seeing Colonial Williamsburg you'd better sell the farm or the extra car, because it ain't cheap! $34 bucks a person. That is for all you math minded folk: almost 70 bucks for B and I to go see it. Because of this tragedy you will not see any pictures from there, for we counted the costs and decided that eating the next couple weeks was more of an urgent need.
Jamestown, however is a short drive down the Colonial Parkway and gives you two options for 20 bucks a person.

OPTION A) HISTORIC JAMESTOWN: This is good for all you history buffs that want to see where it was, the original rocks, the actual location. It is in fact a bunch of rocks and mostly an archelogical dig site, but it is a site to see.

OPTION B) JAMESTOWN SETTLEMENT: They rebuilT what the fort at Jamestown looked like. You can run around on it, look at the tools, people will show you how life was. You can look at the Powatah Indian villages and huts as they were in the 1600s. You can even get on the replica ships in the harbor that they sailed on. If you want to see pictures of these check out our gnome, Ibrahim's, site with the hyperlink to your right over there. Overall this was a pretty cool experience.

This is the map of the Jamestown Settlement.

Great Grandma

Our journey to our roots. This is a statue of my Great(x12) Grandmother, Pocahontas, at Jamestown Island.