Day in the Desert

Last weekend we were invited by some friends to go to the desert to dig sand roses. It is a pretty popular thing to do but you have to know where to go to dig so we were excited to have someone show us. It was interesting that just driving for a few minutes we were out of the city and into some really desert countryside. We were all so excited on our drive when we started to pass hundreds of camels roaming around. We were even more excited when the camels walked right by the place where we were digging. The camel farmers were so friendly and brought their camels over to let us all take pictures with them. The camels were quite gentle and unafraid of us so we got lots of pictures and opportunities to interact with them. They are VERY stinky animals though and were very dirty so I tried to keep the kids from touching them too much.

 Allen and Carter even had the chance to ride a camel. By the time Allen had his ride the camel was pretty much done schlepping people around and would no kneel down for any more riders after that.

After playing with the camels Allen started to dig our hole for sand roses. To find the roses you have to dig down to the water level and then you begin to find them. Sand roses are unique to this area and for some reason the sand crystallizes and makes these beautiful flowers. 

Kiddos and friends in our hole:

This is just a small sampling of the roses we dug up. We let each of the kids choose one to bring home and now they are in our front flower beds. The roses are quite heavy and sharp but truly beautiful.

It was a fun and hot morning in the desert and we're excited to go out again soon!

Halloween in Saudi

It was fun to experience our first Halloween in Saudi Arabia! I had no idea what to expect but knew it is a big deal here. In all honesty it was exactly like Halloween in the US but more low key which was really refreshing. Over the years in the US I always felt like Halloween was a month long holiday with all the parties and activities surrounding it. Here we just celebrated on the actual day! 

I did a lot of prep the night before making food for all the kids' class parties. 8 dozen pumpkin chocolate cookies for Carter and Makenna, 4 batches of kettle corn and 3 dozen sugar cookies and frosting for Addison! Whew! It was a lot!

The 3 big kids on their way to school. Carter was a ninja, Makenna a vampire and Addison was Ariel. I'm so so grateful that a local friend had family visiting this fall who very graciously brought our costumes from the states. I will be shopping for costumes next summer to make sure we get what we need and bring it back with us.

The school has a big Halloween parade that was so fun. The teachers got way into dressing up which was a hoot!

I got asked to be room mom for Addie's class and had fun putting together the party! Her class:

Mummy roll game:

 Cookie decorating station (always the biggest hit!):

 Spider hat craft:

Cute photo booth that another mom put together:

I stopped by Makenna's class and it was significantly more low key. It's amazing how fast that changes when they get a bit older. And kind of sad! Carter didn't even want me coming to his class - even more sad.

In the afternoon we carved our one lonely pumpkin. I looked and looked for a pumpkin to buy and finally found this small guy at a local grocery store. It was imported from the US and cost me a whopping $32. It was worth it to keep the tradition alive!

We met up with some good friends in our compound for dinner and ToTing. Some of the kids together:

Miss Ems enjoying her dinner in her hand me down cupcake costume. She was not amused by the costume again this year but quickly learned to be excited over the candy she got while ToTing. I have no idea why I packed Emery a costume but no one else.

 After ToTing one of the moms set up some fun games for the kids. They all loved bobbing for apples:

 I loved seeing all the different kinds of candy my kiddos got. THere are a few US brands here but lots of British candy which was fun for them. My friend who brought me costumes also snuck in a bag of candy corn. I hid it from the kids until I could decide how to use it and stretch it out. I ended up making this YUMMY Halloween Chex mix. So easy and very yummy!

The aftermath of our expensive pumpkin! I got about 8 cups of pureed pumpkin plus the seeds out of it. I had to milk everything I could out of it.

Overall it was a great Halloween. It will be so fun to build some new traditions in the KSA over the next few years!

Sri Lanka - Day 6

When we checked into our hotel room in Kandy we thought these signs on the doors were so funny!

The next morning we definitely understood why the signs were posted all over the room. At about 5:30 a.m. we noticed a commotion on the balcony and as soon as we opened the curtains we were greeted by about 10 monkeys sitting on our patio. It was so awesome to be so close to them. There were lots of different ages of monkeys and they played and climbed and swung all over the patio for a couple hours. It was fascinating to watch them. They interacted with us a ton and would mimic some of our gestures. The kids had the best time watching them and we could barely tear them away to get onto the days activities.

Our favorites were the two nursing babies that rode on their moms backs and played and wrestled together. The kids thought it was funny to watch them nurse.

As we were walking to breakfast in the hotel we noticed a wedding party having their pictures taken. Their attire was so beautiful and intricate. I didn't want to seem weird taking pictures of them but now I wish I would have asked them to pose for me so we could see the dresses better. The little girls had exact replicas of the bridesmaids dresses.

The groom and men of the wedding party:

After breakfast we hopped into the car and headed to the elephant orphanage. This was the other thing I really wanted to see in Sri Lanka and even though it was a bit of a haul it was well worth the effort. The orphanage houses elephants whose parents have been killed for ivory. Once at the the orphanage they stay there for the duration of their lives. We especially LOVED watching the babies being fed. They are fed huge bottles of cows milk (about a 1.5 gallons per bottle) and can down the entire thing in about 30 seconds. We were so close to the babies and got to pet and touch them a lot. This little guy loved my big girls. He kept feeling Addie with his trunk and wrapping his trunk around Makenna's legs. It was so so amazing.

Right at the end of the feeding time our family was invited up to feed this little guy and I'm so thrilled we were able to get this picture. We were continually surprised at how hairy elephants are. The hair is very bristly and was uncomfortable to touch.

After the feeding we walked around to see the elephants in their habitats. They are able to roam freely and live close to how they would in the wild

We headed over to the river to watch the elephants be bathed. I though they would have a few elephants taking baths and that is what happened at first.

However, after a few minutes the workers come through and clear out the path to bring all 85 elephants down to the river. It was a breathtaking sight watch these magnificent creatures.

I took hundreds of pictures and every time I look through them I feel like I need to pinch myself that we were actually there and witnessed such an amazing thing. It was so fun to watch the elephants splash and play in the water and get their baths in something so close to their natural habitat!

I laugh when I see these pictures because it almost looks like we are standing in front of a fake mural or something but I assure you that it was real.

After several hours we very reluctantly left the elephant orphanage to head to the airport. We needed to stop somewhere for lunch and we were all kind of tired of Sri Lankan food and looked for an American chain to stop at. Since the country is predominantly Buddhist (who don't eat beef) there are no hamburger places but we did finally find a Pizza Hut. The kids were so excited and we got a big kick out the funny things on the menu (diced mutton pizza, anyone?) We played it safe with cheese and pepperoni and pizza has never tasted so good!

Our last day was a perfect way to wrap up our amazing trip. We saw and experienced so many things that I never imagined. I recently found this quote about traveling: 

“Travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living.” – Miriam Beard

This is how I feel about our trip to Sri Lanka. Our perceptions are changing as we experience more of the world and see the different ways that people live. Seeing the extreme poverty of some of the people was revealing to ourselves and our kids. Seeing how happy the Sri Lankans are with a much simpler and quieter life than we live was extremely humbling. I am so grateful every day for the opportunity to expand my own understanding of the world we live in and especially grateful that I am able to share it with my children.

Sri Lanka - Day 5

Our 5th day in Sri Lanka was a long day of traveling and stopping lots of places along the way. Sri Lanka is a pretty underdeveloped country so there is no good infrastructure in place and traveling anywhere takes a long time. They are building their first highway in the country but it isn't open yet so we spent a lot of time winding through little towns and villages to get where we needed to go. We opted to spend a couple of days in Kandy, which is near the center of the island. Luckily there were tons of interesting things to see along the way. 

Our first stop was at a spice farm. They grew tons of different spices and the air was so fragrant. We could spell many of the spices distinctly in air. Nutmeg and cinnamon were the most fragrant. It smelled so yummy!

Vanilla beans:

Carter and Makenna with a cacao bean. They couldn't believe that chocolate comes from this plant!

 In the grove:

Our next stop was a rubber plantation. These are rubber trees and the workers strip off little pieces of bark and the juice of the tree is collected in the little bowls that you see near the base. It would be tedious, hard work to work on the rubber plantation:

Next we stopped by a tea plantation and processing factory. When Sri Lanka was  a British colony, tea was introduced and many varieties are still produced there. Tea leaves in the drying process:

 Sri Lanka is REALLY hot and humid but we were astounded by the high temperatures of the tea factory. It was about 120 degrees inside where they were drying the leaves. We about died. It was fascinating to see how the tea was processed and separated after it was dry. The more refined the leaves, the more expensive the tea.

Tea plantation:

When we finally arrived in Kandy we drove straight to the temple of the tooth where we were met by a tour guide. There are vendors lined up outside of all the Buddhist temples selling flowers to be used as offerings. The flowers were so fragrant and beautiful. It is tradition to offer jasmine or lotus flowers.

Emery was hot and exhausted by the time we got to Kandy:

 Our family outside the temple. You can't tell in this picture but the temple required us to be completely covered. Luckily Allen had packed a pair of pants and I had to wear my abaya from the KSA because I had nothing else to wear. Makenna wrapped Emery's blanket around her waist and we were able to go in:

 The legend surrounding the temple of the tooth is that princess Hemamali and her husband smuggled Buddha's tooth from India to Sri Lanka in her hair. There was beautiful artwork all over the temple depicted the prince and princess with the tooth.

This was a huge, gorgeous sand painting of the prince and princess:

 Inside the temple is a shrine built to the tooth. The doors are only opened every 5-6 years and the tooth is removed, and the temple has a huge festival to celebrate. The flags outside the shrine represent Buddhism in Sri Lanka. Each of the different colors represent a different body part.

More beautiful paintings inside the temple:

The room that housed the Buddha statues was my favorite. There were about 20 different statues int eh room and all of them were gifts from other Buddhist countries. It was incredible to see the variety of materials and workmanship in the different statues.

After visiting the temple we headed to our hotel for the night. It was a long and hot day and we were so excited to eat and then go to bed.