Scotland part 1

After the craziness at the end of the school year, we are finally done. It was a great year that Jamie and I will both look back on fondly. It's nice to reflect back on what we've learned. It has been a busy, yet satisfying year. Here's a quick list of what we accomplished:

• finished one year of our master's program
• had a great trip to Dubai
• had a baby!
• finished our 2nd year of teaching
• visited Wisconsin over spring break
• saw the largest oasis in the world (Hofuf)
  
• made some great new friends

On another note, we made it safe and sound to Edinburgh Tuesday morning. Aden did a great job again on the plane rides. He is going to be a pro flyer in no time. We spent Tuesday and Wednesday in Edinburgh. Edinburgh Castle is supposed to be pretty neat, but that was dampened (no pun intended) a bit by the downpour of rain that soaked us while we were there. Let's just say the next morning we found a Mothercare store and bought a rain cover for Aden's stroller. Since then, it hasn't done anything but sprinkle a bit. I'd rather be safe than sorry though. The funny part was that Aden laughed when the wind and rain hit his face. He has been such a trooper this whole trip. The weather has been much better the past few days. Wednesday we hung out on Princes Steet which has some beautiful parks. We just absorbed as much greenery as we could. We also toured HM the queen's residence in Edinburgh, Holyrood Palace. She will be coming to visit in about a week and will be throwing a huge garden party for 8,000 people. If we have a chance, we're hoping to make it back to Holyrood Park which has some wonderful walking and views.

After a great time in Edinburgh, we headed north. One of Jamie's goals for the trip was to visit a scotch whiskey distillery. We went to the Dewar's Distillery in Aberfeldy. It was really interesting to see/smell how they make the whiskey and compare it to the brewery tours we've taken. Then we drove a bit farther north to Newtonmore where the MacPherson Clan Museum is located. My side of the family has lineage that goes back to the MacPherson clan. The museum was small, but gave a lot of interesting information about the clan and its history. One more trip in the car took us to Braemar, a small town in the Cairngorn National Park. That brings us to today. Jamie and I like to take a day and do some scenic hiking when we go traveling. We ended up doing 2 hikes, both about 4 miles long. We had wonderful views of the mountains, the town, rivers, pastureland, and even a castle. Aden tried out his new backpack carrier and loved it!

Here are some pictures for you to enjoy!

Tara

 outside Edinburgh Castle

 Daddy and Aden posing

 Aden's new aspiration, to be a bagpiper

 We got a sweet deal on upgrading to an Alfa Romero, so we took it.

 Aden enjoying the Romero

 Daddy, Aden, and the Dewar's Whiskey Highlander

 Gillaspie's, you would have loved the curator unfortunatly I didn't get a picture of him. 

Picture crazy long grey hair and a kilt.... pure awesome.

 Unplanned pit stop on the side of the road to change a blown out diaper.

Aden thought it was a lot of fun.

 Hiking in Cairngorn National Park

 One tuckered out little man.

Settled in and Leaving

We are pretty much settled into our new house now.  Our goal was to have everything all ready so when we came back in the fall we wouldn't have a whole bunch of work to do.  We are leaving in 5 short days and only have two days of school left.  The end of the year is extra crazy this year with the move and we are just finishing our last masters class of the year on top of it all.  We are looking forward to our week in Scotland and then coming back to visit our friends and family.

Enjoy the pictures.

Jamie

Aden's room all put together

Aden playing at Mommy's desk.

Our tenth graders at their graduation dinner

Yep, a baby in a dump truck.

In the New House!

Sorry about the delay between posts, but we have been super busy.  We moved out of our old house and into our new house this Wednesday and Thursday.  It was/is exhausting.  Third period on Wednesday I was asked to leave school and move all the big items a day early because the truck was available now.  So I did, and after the movers and I finished I found out the temperature was around 120 degrees.  Yesterday we loaded up the smaller stuff in a school van and we finished off the move.  It was probably only 110 degrees yesterday though, piece of cake.

On the new house end, all the workers were trying to finish up the last minute cleaning and preparations.  It seemed like there was a time management problem on their end, but they sort of finished and we are in!  Our first night in the new house will be tonight.  Our principal  and his wife offered us a room at their house if the paint fumes were too bad.  Needless to say, the painting was finished the day before and the place reeked, so we took them up on their offer.  After a night of open windows and air purifiers running, we should be good to go.

We'll post more pictures as things progress.  Compare these pics to the ones from a few weeks ago.

Jamie

Aden hanging out (literally) in our new house.

What?

Living Room

Living Room from the other side

Spare bedroom.

Aden's room.

Master bedroom, minus closet doors.

Dinning Room

Kitchen.

This was supposed to be a picture of the beach, but it was a little humid outside.

It's Getting Hot . . . time to go home.

Well, we know it is time to come home for the summer when the weekly lows are in the mid 80's and all the highs are over 100 degrees.  We have four weeks and two days of school left.  In one way it is nice to think we are going to Scotland and get a good long visit in the Midwest and Canada with everyone soon, but at the same time there is so much to do until then.  We are going to be very busy trying to get our students where we want them in four weeks and we get to move houses in two weeks!  Packing will start today.

In Aden news, he has been a little rolling machine.  He started rolling over this week and hasn't stopped since.  I put a video of him rolling on Facebook, but wasn't able to upload it to the blog.  I suppose we shouldn't lay him on the edge of the kitchen counter anymore . . . just kidding, we never did that.  However, he isn't so safe laying on the bed while we are brushing our teeth in the bathroom anymore.  I'm glad God designed babies to hit one milestone at a time so we can adjust to one new thing before another starts.

Well, that's all for now.  Enjoy the pictures.

Jamie

Who's feet are those?

Aden, Mommy, Joumana, and baby Kamila

Family pic.  Aden is looking quite relaxed.

Doctor Appointment and . . . A New House!

Aden went in for his four month vaccinations and his check-up.  The doctor said he is 90 percentile for weight and 95 percentile for height now.  He seems to be slowing down a little, which is ok with us because he isn't so easy to haul around everywhere anymore.

Our big news is our new house!  We are moving off of Red Sea Desert Palms compound, which is a little drab and has older prefabricated housing.  Our school secured a home on Pearl Beach compound, which is on the beach.  We have some families there now, but houses there are expensive and don't become available all that often.  We were fifth in line for this house and never thought people would pass it up, but for different reasons they all said no.  We said a pretty quick yes.  It will be a little sad moving away from our neighbors, but we will still see them.  Our new house is a very open three bedroom with porches on the front and back, plants and trees all around, and a little grass yard!  Oh yeah, and the beach is just a couple minute walk from our house!

Here are a few pictures of what it looks like now.  It will be very different when we move in a few weeks.

New Kitchen

Outside 

Living Room

I think I will get at least twice as many tomatoes as last year.  They are great eating too.

Aden enjoying his little chair.

Swimming trip on Murjan compound.  He is definitely a water baby.

Hofuf

Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter.  This was our first Easter in Saudi (last year we were in Thailand for spring break) and it was a bit weird.  We had our "church service" on Good Friday and Sunday was a normal work day.  I don't think it's something that I can get used to.  The nice thing about this year was the fact that we could get together with other believers and celebrate Christ's resurrection.  We couldn't have done that last year if we were here.  That community of believers is something I will never take for granted anymore.  

This weekend we headed out at 4:30 am for an adventure to Hofuf!  Hofuf is the major city in the Al-Ahsa Oasis which claims to be the largest oasis in the world.  It was a three hour drive south of Jubail, but completely worth it.  The reason we had to leave so early was to get to the camel market in time.  Shortly after dawn, people congregate at the camel market to buy camels.  I'm not sure what makes a good camel, but it was neat to watch guys inspecting them.  We watched one man buy a mother and baby for 6,000 SAR ($1600).  The most interesting part of the market is watching the camels being loaded into their new owners' trucks.  The camels' legs get tied and then they are hoisted by a crane into the back of the truck.  This is quite the process and the camels don't like it at all.  After listening to an unhappy camel, I think I know where the producers of Jurassic Park got the sound for their dinosaurs.  

After the camel market we went to an old fort in town.  The fort is only open by appointment (which we didn't make), but we happened to get there just about 10 minutes before a school group showed up so we were allowed to tour with them.  The fort was neat, but very similar to the one we went to in Dubai.  The Qarah caves were much more interesting.  They were fun to explore and had many great photo ops.  A 4-year old boy who was with us had the best quote of the day while at the caves.  There was a sewage smell in one part of the caves and he said "it smells like dragon poop!" completely believing that dragons lived there.  Ah, the mouths of the innocent.  

The oasis itself made it feel like a much nicer area of Saudi although we didn't spend much time there.  It has trees, water, and even the desert is beautiful. 

The whole trip was a lot of fun and a great opportunity to see a different part of Saudi. 

Tara

Camel crossing!

Jamie and Aden checking out the camel market. 

Posing in the caves

Is that water and green?  This can't be Saudi, but it is! 

Dressing up for Easter Sunday

My new favorite picture!  What a couple of goofballs!

Back in the Swing of Things

Sorry for the delayed post and I apologize for its briefness in advance.  We are back on our feet in Saudi.  Aden ended up having a rough time of things until a few nights ago.  I tried explaining jet lag to him, but he just blew spit bubbles at me.  Someday he'll learn.

Speaking of Aden, he is becoming quite the water baby.  We took him swimming last week and he seemed to somewhat enjoy himself.  I even dunked him under the water for a split second.  He was a bit shocked, but didn't choke or cry.  I'd call that a success.  He even started kicking in the bathtub last night.  That adds a whole new dynamic to cleaning between his toes.

As for Tara and I, we had standardized testing at school this week for grades eight and ten in the mornings.  Since the morning classes are multi grade level we canceled them and alternated administering tests and taking the grade seven and nine kids to our compound to play tennis and go swimming.  We are also winding down on our fourth masters class with one more to go this year.  In our spare time we have started to plan our trip to Scotland at the beginning of this summer.  The only thing decided for certain is that our one week won't be enough time and we'll have to go back.

That's all for now.

 All that baby fat really makes Aden float well.

Uncle Billy spending some time with Aden while we were back in WI. 

Brad and Katie hanging out with Aden.  Brad, you totally wrecked my candid shot by the way.

We saw labels like this on all the tobacco products in the Frankfurt airport.  Makes our Surgeon General's warning seem pretty insignificant.