Photos from Egypt

We were in Egypt from 22 October to 29 October during the Hajj holidays here in Saudi Arabia.  I'll take some time to talk more about it later but thought to share some of the photos.

You can check at this link for some photos:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/66095210@N07/sets/72157631845049374/detail/

Cockroaches in My Ice Cream?

 
So ... today Zachary turned 13 years old. I am so glad to be his father but humbled and scared at the same time.  We are in Egypt (more on that later) on R&R leave. For dinner, Jennifer & I ordered room service for the 4 youngest children, left Dallin in charge (weird, I know), got "dressed up", and took Zach to dinner at the steakhouse downstairs in the hotel. 

Check this out

I've been really quiet in this space. This is in part because there is so much to say ... and so much that cannot be said.

Jennifer is posting a bit about the family as well.  Check it out at:

http://aroundtheworldwith5kids.blogspot.com.

Walking the Compound

We go on a walk of the compound nearly every evening. On this night in September, we decided to bring a camera.

We were walking as the sun set on the horizon. This is the signal for the Maghrib call to prayer. Because of the timing, you can hear various towers in the area beginning the call to prayer. As we finished the walk, it was dark -- too dark to adequately photograph some of the gazelle on the golf course.

Birthday for James

We were able to be with family on Independence Day in Utah. That seemed as good a time as any to celebrate James' 1st Birthday. We loved his reaction to his first birthday cake. Here's to many, many more.

Celebrating 10 Years of Dallin

As we head off on a big journey, we are happy to celebrate 10 years of Dallin.  We are so glad to have him and for the good example that he is to his younger sisters and brother.

Just coming home after his first month in the hospital

We can still hear him squeaking that pacifier

A big grin after getting off of continuous feeds

Helping to plant a tree. Purple valve on the trach tube

Celebrating being able to go to a Phoenix Suns basketball game before moving to Australia. Love the ice cream stains.

Loving the sand on Whitehaven Beach, Great Barrier Reef, Australia

Climbing in the old fig tree at New Farm Park in Brisbane

Loving the Thai Pumpkin soup in Dubai

Mecca & on to Taif

K, H, and I with Mecca in the background

I've done some work that required visits to a University in Mecca (Makkah).  Yeah, that one.  While not coming into the areas restricted for only Muslims, I did get to see quite a bit.

It was 44*C in Mecca and 25*C in Taif

There are baboons in the hills and hanging out at a place to pull off by the side of the road

Baboon nursing a baby.

Switchbacks on this huge climb

Some people got too close to the baboons and they weren't happy

A Child's Prayer

Our B-Bop

Sweet Rebekah is growing in more ways than one. She's getting tall and communicating better every week. She has developed her own sense of style and likes to experiment with her hair.

The Mall of the Emirates

A high-end area of the mall called "Fashion Dome"

On our last full day in Dubai we went off the resort property to another mall.  This one is called The Mall of the Emirates. It's not as big as the Dubai Mall but perhaps more fancy.

That's right a skiing park within the mall.

The thing that this mall is most known for is Ski Dubai.  The structure itself is visible for miles away from the mall as it appears like a corkscrew-type shape sticking up from the rest of the mall.

James Trying to Heal

Traveling with an injured baby wasn't the easiest for him or for us. However, we are blessed with a good natured boy that wants to play and get along as much as he can. We all got extensive amounts of sleep on this trip which helped us fulfill the "Rest" part of the Rest and Recreation Leave. Jennifer and I slept in one room on a king-sized bed. James joined us in a crib in our room. Zach, Dallin, Autumn, and Rebekah had an adjoining room with two queen-sized beds. Nap time was a must.

James having a nap with me. Not sure who fell asleep first.

Pretty sure I woke up shortly after Jen took this photo. He can lean pretty hard.

One day at the waterpark, his bandages got wet and needed to be changed. He's quite tough and kept a stiff upper lip when the bandages came off. It was tough because his dead skin came off too. The human body is an amazing thing.

{warning to tender grandparents about photographs and hurt expressions below}

"The Lost Chambers"

As part of the Atlantis resort there is also a very large aquarium, it's so big and deep that they send SCUBA divers around in it.  To showcase the sea life, they've built a themed area around the Atlantis concept called The Lost Chambers.  The whole experience was very fun and it looked different at night than in the day.

Jellyfish illuminated by UV light

The Dubai Mall & Fountains

The Burj Khalifa -- By most standards, the current tallest building in the world.

On Tuesday, after our fun-filled day at the waterpark, Dad & kids all had tremendous naps while Jennifer had a half-day treatment package at the spa. She enjoyed it and we enjoyed that she enjoyed it. That night, we took a taxi from the Atlantis to go to the Dubai Mall. I don't care to know the specifics but it claims to be the world's biggest mall.

The "Leap of Faith"

We had fun on the "Leap of Faith" slide. Or, I guess I should say that Zach and I did. Dallin, though he did it twice, still isn't too sure.

A look from above to the 70ft drop

Dubai & Atlantis

Catching up on the blog after vacation and a very hectic week of work

One aspect of the spectacular lobby

We left for Dubai on a 'Rest & Recreation Leave' on 21 May.  It was nearly a month after our family arrived in Riyadh but because I'd been there much longer we were in a position where we had to use this leave benefit or lose it.  We'll have two of these 1-week leave benefits per year plus a week of 'home leave' to fly to the USA.

A Big Brother

Both Jennifer and I are 'oldest' children in more ways than one.  So, at times we feel a bit of sympathy for the responsibilities that Zachary shoulders in our family.

A weary James seeking comfort from Zachary after waking

First Trip to the ER

Getting a little TLC from Mom.

So, I arrived to begin my assignment in Riyadh one-year ago today.  In all of that time, I've never had any need for medical services.  That all changed tonight.  James found his way to our water cooler this evening.  It also has a hot water spigot.  He used his left hand to hit the lever and had very hot water come out onto his hand.

The result was a second degree burn.

James in the Cupboard

So Sunday night, Jennifer and I had sent the older kids to bed after a good evening swim. We were having a planning session at the computer in the office while James crawled around us.

Shopping

James resting on a pallet of sugar at a market. (We didn't buy any)

Shopping in Riyadh is a bit different than anywhere else we've lived.  The stores are not exactly planned with the same precision as in Australia, Europe, or the US.  Compounding the effort to shop is the various prayer times throughout the day.  At those times, the stores effectively close for everyone to go and pray. Some stores will clear out all of the customers. Others will let you remain in the store to fill your cart though the doors are locked and no staff are available to help. Those moments of shopping during the prayer can actually be appealing if you can plan correctly.

Another thing we have to remember is that any produce has to be bagged, then taken to a counter where it is weighed and tagged with a price label.  This doesn't happen at the checkout stand. We can find almost anything we want here to eat. There have been few exceptions like healthy nut butters and coconut milk.  Since Jennifer has arrived, she just makes that from the raw ingredient here in the home. I must say that I prefer it to anything we would have gotten in the store.  This last batch of cashew butter has been great on apples.

Local produce is quite good if you know what to buy. Local onions (red, white, and yellow), garlic, shallots, tomatoes, carrots, capsicum (bell pepper), spinach, watercress, herbs, and green beans are all grown within a 90-minute drive and without pesticides 'organically'. They will pick them in the morning and then have them at the market that afternoon -- dirt and all.  There is something about washing your vegetables free from dirt that makes it more appealing than buying something pre-treated that comes in a sterile plastic bag.  Fruits are very seasonal and not necessarily local. Some of the best stuff will come flown in from France or Italy though it's a bit pricy.  But hey, we can splurge for some blackberries or raspberries once in while when fuel is ~$0.45/gallon.

The Iqama!

Just one day after submitting the paperwork for the Iqama (residence permit) for Jen and the kids, we received the cards. The card is like a national ID card to show that you are a legal resident. It's hard to believe that after all of my struggles to get my card, that they now have theirs. I'm not complaining. It's a very good thing. We're glad to not have any more troubles in that area.

Now, we'll officially book our next mini-vacation. While this application was in process, the family couldn't leave the country. Tomorrow, the passports will come back with the exit/re-entry visas that we need to travel freely in and out of the country.

Rugrat!!!!

James is on the prowl. If there is anything within his reach, he will explore it and try to put it in his mouth. Recently, he's been 'walking' while holding onto a table or rail. We get nervous about the stairs because though he knows how to go up them, he's not attempted going down. We are exploring options for containment.

Twelve Days in Riyadh

On the twelfth day in Riyadh, my true love said to me ...

"Did we move to Riyadh or to Seattle?"

Seriously ... The weather here is wacky.  It has rained 6 of the 12 days my family has been together here.  That's on top of the rainy March and early April.  The deserts around Riyadh are truly blooming into the 'Gardens'.  That's what Riyadh means - garden.  You just don't see it much anymore because of the asphalt jungle and concrete structures.  The desert can be a beautiful place.

Moving In

We had our shipment of things arrive to our villa today. It's like a tornado hit what used to be my quiet little bachelor pad and turned it into a home. We love that we are being together again.

We stocked up on buying diapers, wipes, TP, and other sundries in the US to ship them here.

In the kitchen, we were going to reheat some leftovers for dinner tonight.

Autumn: "Where's the microwave?"
Me: "We don't have one."
A: "Well, how do we get it warm then?"
Me: "We'll use the oven, silly."

It's strange but we don't have a microwave yet. I haven't really needed one in the 6 months I've been here. We're not sure that we'll get one because there isn't much counter space. Let's see how long we can hold out before buying one.

We don't have much counter space at the moment, do we?

Arrived to Riyadh

Of course, some of us have more energy than others. The plane rides were about as good as you could hope. Although the 16 hour flight from LAX to Dubai is about as much flying with children as I'd ever do. The kids didn't sleep much on the first flight as there was just too much cool stuff to play with on the plane.

We got to our home and Zachary found his room with the new mattresses and beds that haven't been put together. We called for Zach to come help us with something and this is what we found.
I think that I feel about the same way. Good night all.

We're Off

I flew into LAX about 23 hours ago and came to my parents house. We're leaving now for the airport. We'll arrive in Riyadh about 24 hours from now.
I came back with an abaya for Jennifer. Doesn't she look great?

Together Again (soon)

Jen and the kids are still at my parents home in California but not for long. They've got their visas and passports returned to them. I'm getting on a plane in 20 hours to make a whirlwind journey to LA to fetch them. We're going to fly with Emirates on this trip rather than my usual use of British Airways because the schedules work better. I'll fly to Dubai (90 min) and then from Dubai to LAX on a flight of a whopping 16 hours and 15 minutes.

I'll be on the ground there for 26 hours before loading them on the plane with me to make the return trip.  That means ~17,500 miles in the air for me in a 72 hour window.

April General Conference

Loved getting to see Price Foulger and other veterans of the Australia Brisbane Mission.

Renae just glows after welcoming Nathan into the world.  Can't believe how big Ian is getting.

Keala had never been to the visitor center.  It was fun to go there when the weather was so nice.

Autumn wasn't old enough to attend in the main conference center so we saw the Sat AM session from the Tabernacle.  She's getting so big.

Zach and Grandpa Curtis after Priesthood session in the conference center.

Zachary and I in the conference center.  Definitely a highlight for Zach to be there with his father, both grandfathers, and Uncle Jeff.  Too bad we didn't all get to sit together.

We met up for dinner with James, Colby, and Connor Johnson.  It was at Texas De Brazil and was a lot of fun.

Oh Deer!

Waiting for my family to be all together in Riyadh has been a lonely experience for everyone.  Fortunately, this time apart appears to be at an end.  On Thursday 22 March, I was doing some chores and noticed some visitors to keep me company on the back patio.



There are deer and a herd of gazelle that live on our compound.  Obviously some of the deer are a bit brave and moochy.

Packing

On Wednesday 7 March, we had the last of our things taken away by the movers. We shipped clothes, books, games, kitchen items, and some personal electronics to Riyadh via air freight. The rest of the things went into storage. We were able to give away some furniture to people from church and also some old friends from high school via a Facebook announcement.

It's always a bit traumatic to move even though we are excited to be altogether again. I left on 8 March to return to Riyadh. We hope that the air shipment will come before the family. We believe that the plans to get the family to Riyadh the first week of April will hold. We just haven't booked the tickets yet.

"Thursday is a Special Day ..."

It's Friday morning in Riyadh.  Friday is the holy day here where I live.  Thursday is the Saturday.  Yesterday as I cooked, cleaned, shopped, and groomed.  I kept singing in my head.

Thursday is a special day it's the day we get ready for Friday.
We clean the house and we shop at the store, so we won't have to work until Saturday.
We brush our clothes, and we shine our shoes, and we call it our get the work done day.
Then we trim our nails, and we shampoo our hair, so we can be ready for Friday.

I've now lived in places where the holy day is Friday, Saturday, and or course Sunday.

Meeting the Prince (or My Time as an Illegal Immigrant)

In an effort to explain to others why I missed the birth of our son James by 28 hours, I am turning to this blog as a means of explaining it.  In this post, I'll focus on the facts and events while trying to keep many of my feelings and emotions separate.  After much deliberation and keeping this as a saved draft, I've decided to publish this post.

I arrived in Riyadh on the morning of 19 May 2011 on a one-way ticket.  (For more on the decision to move to Riyadh, see: The New Job, The Next Move, & The Winds of Change)  The plan from the beginning was to stay in Riyadh up until the birth of our son unless I would need to leave the country to advance my residency visa application process.  On 25 June, I'd been in the country for 37 days and was getting my cultural legs under me.  I was bemoaning the lack of progress in my residency visa process to one of my local colleagues and teammates.  I showed him my passport and he looked at my business visa affixed on one of the pages.  He told me that something was wrong with my visa.  Though my visa was a 5-year multiple entry visa, it said -- in Arabic only -- that each visit on the visa must be less than 30 days.  As Scooby-Doo says, "Ruh-roh!".  I immediately reported this to our company support staff.  The initial reaction was, "No problem.  This happens all the time.  We'll get it fixed." so I wasn't too fussed.  Uh -- big mistake.

These Are Days

I'm feeling pretty good about being back in Kingdom with my work visa and things moving quickly to get my family here.  Though there is so much darkness and garbage in the world, I choose to remain an optimist.  I said to myself, "These Are Days" and continued to say "to Remember".   I love this song from about 21 years ago and how it still captures my emotions and hopes.



Optimism can be contagious.   Let's remember that the future will be as bright as our faith and try to make both faith and optimism spread.

Snowbound?!?!?!

I left Saturday night (4 February 2012) to fly from Arizona back to Riyadh and enter on my work visa.  From Arizona, I prefer to fly through London Heathrow on British Airways because it's only one stop from Phoenix to Riyadh as opposed to two stops if I were to go through Frankfurt, Paris, Dubai, or Doha.  I've generally had good success with this strategy.  However, there was a winter snow storm that came through Britain.

Visa!!!!!

Some 9 months after leaving Australia, I finally have a full work permit for my assignment in Saudi Arabia.  This means that we are a big obstacle down in our journey to get all of our family together.  I'm so excited that I can hardly type.

Feeding 10 Missionaries ( Nostalgic for Australia )

We are enjoying about 13 days together here in Arizona as I sort through some more Saudi visa issues for the family.  It is good to be together although we don't enjoy the uncertainty about when we will have to manage only one home.  During this time, we found some photos and videos that I'd forgotten we'd had.

Here is a video of the night that we were able to host 10 missionaries in our home for dinner.

There are some very familiar faces in this video that we've been able to follow via Facebook since they've returned from the mission.  We were so blessed to get to know so many fine young men during our 2.5 years in Australia.  For the first year, we lived 5 houses down from the Mission President and enjoyed close proximity to the mission office.  We can't believe how much younger Dallin and Autumn look.

James Learning to Kiss

Our boy is over 6 months old now.  Time is going very fast.  He's sitting up well and also learning to express affection.  His 'kisses' are amusing in that he will try to open his whole mouth and try to swallow his target.  We hope that he gets better when he starts dating.