India

We went to India the 1st weekend in November. No one was excited about going...except Brian. But Brian was determined to go see the Taj Mahal and wouldn't take no for an answer. So we packed up and went. We visited the Golden Triangle- Delhi, Jaipur, and Agra. Emily (Kaiya's friend) and her dad came with us. It was a lot of driving to each city (5 hrs) but actually, it ended up being ok and everyone had a good time. Also, this is nowhere near as comprehensive as I originally envisioned this blog post being. Too many photos, so little blog time. So this is just a little taste of our whirlwind trip...

Have you ever seen a Macca's receipt this expensive?! I did a double take and thankfully remembered we paid in rupees.

We ended up at a rug store where we got to see how they make rugs and how the lighting changes the look of the rugs. Also, we bought a rug and shipped it to our home in Utah. Talk about an expensive Indian souvenir...!

The rug store also had other textiles and Kaiya tried on a sari. It was pretty but we decided not to buy one. #sorrynotsari

Humayun's Tomb in Delhi

This snake charmer invited Emi to come sit by him. I love Emi's expression- she was NOT comfortable being that close to a cobra...!

Random street scene in Delhi

Qutub Minar (the tall tower in the background)- at this point in the day the kids were going to revolt if we forced them to see another monument...so we snapped a quick photo and moved on.

Mei with the hotel bell hop...just because.

The next day we went to Jantar Mantar observatory. We thought it was a lookout point...nope. It was an actual observatory- an astrological observatory. Behind us is the largest sundial in the world.

The kids couldn't have cared less for the observatory- they thought it was boring. See photo for proof.

More sundials and other astrological-type stuff...the girls didn't care about it but still managed to strike a pose.

We drove to Jaipur and went to Chokhi Dhani, an ethnic village that highlights the culture of all things India. It was probably one of our favorite parts of the whole trip. Lots of dancing, magic/circus acts, buffet dinner, camel rides, etc. The younger girls really wanted to ride a camel so Brian took them. We've done plenty of camel rides but Brian says this one was unique in that they got the camel to run (or gallop/trot??? not sure what the correct term is here...)

THe next morning was spent riding a painted elephant as you ascend the Amer Fort.

Amer Fort is massive and impressive- and yet, our kids...sigh...

We ended up spending the rest of the day driving to Agra so that we could wake up early the next morning and head straight to the Taj Mahal before it got too busy. Even though it was 7 am, I still thought it was pretty busy. I can only imagine how busy it gets by afternoon...or during the busy season.

Taj up close. It really is that impressive of a structure- especially up close.

And of course, the littles needed to do this pose!

And that wraps up India. And just in time too b/c I need a nap. Still recovering from the worst bout of flu ever!

Sept/Oct Recap

Oh, just playing catching up...like I normally do!

Swim season started up again. The girls are less than thrilled. They are both really great swimmers and keep showing improvement...but they hate practices. With such limited choices on sports/activities, we keep them on swim team. Here they are at the first meet of the season- not excited at all to have their photo taken:

Mei started kindergarten. She's struggled the most out of my kids with this new school year. New school, full days, new teacher, new routines, etc. She's always been my one child that takes the longest to adjust/transition. Luckily, after about a month of tears and worry, we've seen a lot of improvement. She loves school and enjoys all of her new activities. Despite not wanting to play soccer (this pic was taken after crying...b/c she didn't want to go to soccer), she's been a trooper. And for the last 3-4 weeks I haven't had to stand next to her on the field. She does the entire practice on her own and has fun!

The first few weeks of school, Mei hated PE. She said it was scary and she would cry and not participate. She would get anxious on the days she had PE. But after she learned how fun PE can be...she loves it. Her PE teacher sent us this photo of her and expressed how proud he was that Mei's changed so much and is doing great in PE. She now gets so excited for PE day.

And see, here's proof that she does have fun at soccer!

At the Dammam fruit/veg market looking for pumpkins. They import the nice orange pumpkins from the states but you pay a ton of money for it! I bought a couple of Saudi pumpkins, which kind of look like really ugly watermelons. In fact when Emi got home from school she asked "why do the watermelons look so weird?"

My sassy girl turned 9. Last year she was my child that struggled a bit to settle in to a new school and make friends. I was a little worried that she might have a rocky start this year...but her teacher raved about her at parent-teacher conference. Mina was also brave and ran for student council. She won and is just finishing up her term (each class rep serves for one trimester to give more kids an opportunity). So basically, she's pretty much rocking 3rd grade. I love her to pieces.

Chico's for b-day celebration...b/c who doesn't enjoy a 5 min long birthday serenade?!

I was recently called to be the YW Pres in our fellowship group. It keeps me really busy. A few weeks ago Brian and I drove a group of youth to Bahrain for a stake youth activity where they got to hang out and play games. I'm really looking forward to getting to know the youth better- I know Kaiya's friends...but there's about 30 girls in YW!

Belated 1/2 birthday celebrations. I now have a 14.5 year old and 11.5 year old!

Halloween 2017

Even Oscar got to wear a costume!

And that sums up our Fall so far...(side note: Fall is relative...it just cooled down to 80's for the high and it's mid-November)

Road trip to Kuwait

Over the Saudi National Day weekend we left the country to celebrate- haha. Seriously, never did I think I would one day write about road tripping to Kuwait. That just sounds crazy. But it happened. And it was so fun. Well, the drive itself was nothing to shout about (oh look, more desert...)- we did come across a few tires on fire...and a graveyard of cars:

Arriving at the Kuwaiti border

Waiting in the car at immigration while Brian fills out paperwork for our visas...a slow, slow process...it took us 90 minutes to get through immigration. (We have heard that some have waited 3 hours so we will count our blessings!)

Finally we made it through the border and after a quick drop off of our luggage at our hotel we went to the Scientific Center. There was a small aquarium and discovery/play area that was fun to explore:

Another country- another obligatory handstand photo!

The next day we went to Kidzania with a bunch of friends that had also road tripped up to Kuwait for the weekend. What is Kidzania? Basically, it's a kid-size city where kids get to do some "adult-ing"- the kids explore the city doing various jobs and then they get paid $ (Kidzania $) for doing those jobs. There are also places to spend your $. You can also go to university and get a degree to earn more. The kids were surgeons, pilots, flight attendants, police detectives, DHL delivery service, cell phone salesmen, house painter, vacuum repair specialist, pharmacist, etc. When they got hungry they had to work at the pizza shop or Burger King to make their own food (and they had to pay $ for it too). When they got thirsty they went to the water bottling plant to bottle their own water. Cool, right?! Even more cool is that parents aren't allowed into the job sites. You have to wait outside on the "street."

Mei's favorite was going to the Kinder chocolate factory to make chocolate.

Kaiya's friend Haley was the injured person that everyone else had to help as EMT's (Kaiya's just wearing the neck brace for fun).

Kaiya and Haley graduated with a hospitality degree. Funny story- it only ended up giving them a tiny bit extra money doing hospitality-related jobs. Emi went to university and studied health sciences. When she later did health-related jobs (surgeon, optometrist, etc) she got paid triple the normal amount. Lesson learned- get a health sciences degree!

Cutest police detectives out there!

Busy delivering packages to "businesses" around Kidzania as DHL employees.

Scrubbing up for a liver transplant surgery

Lastly, we stopped at some water towers- the Kuwaiti's have painted all of their water towers in a stripe pattern and it made for a cool photo backdrop. The two oldest kids were not impressed...so they're not pictured.

And that was our quick weekend getaway! I still think there's more to see in this tiny country. Some Gulf War sites, the souq...so maybe we'll take another road trip over there someday.

Last Cruise Post- I Promise!

Just one last post about the cruise ship itself- it was a big boat with a lot of fun things for the kids. There were water slides/pools but only the craziest went swimming (Kaiya and Emiko). It was way too cold for the rest of us! The kids loved seeing all of their friends in the kids club and around the ship. We rarely saw the 2 oldest. The big kids liked doing the ropes course. The grown ups liked eating meals with friends while the kids played at kids club together. It was a good time had by all. Here are some ropes course pics:

The view from the balcony in our room.

Mei was nervous in the beginning to try kids club. But by the end of the week she was having a lot of fun...and coming back every night with her face painted.

We attended a dinner/show one night on the cruise ship (sorry not a great pic)- it was fantastic. The food was yummy and the show was so entertaining- the kids were totally mesmerized by all of the acts. Brian said it was almost more entertaining watching Mei- her reactions and enthusiastic clapping...

Mina at the family circus workshop- she mastered plate spinning!

Ok this isn't really related but we took a photo of the girls sitting on the floor as we waited 1.5 hrs to get through immigration when arriving at the Saint Petersburg cruise port. They were tired of being in line but there was nowhere to sit...so they sat on the ground in protest.

So now I really am done blogging about the cruise. I just love traveling with my favorite people.