News from the Jacobs family in Saudi Arabia
Kai recently started participating in a weekend Flag Football group here in Dhahran. He’s really enjoying it and has super coaches. I feel really fortunate that we have a vibrant social fabric here supported by people who get involved. Thank you coach Brad, coach Gary and all the rest.
This last weekend was the annual Cub Scout campout for Pack 3253. Even though the campout was right on camp a lot of work and planning goes into it – especially from Den Leader Crystal. The kids had a wonderful time though and I know that it is an event that Kai really looks forward to. Siblings were allowed to join starting at 4pm so Nora was there playing flashlight tag and sleeping in the tent overnight as well.
This year Den 14 was in charge of the opening flag ceremony and Kai’s name was drawn to be the US flag bearer. He took his role very seriously and it was one of the best executed flag ceremony I’ve ever seen 3rd graders do.
Enjoy the photos!
We weren’t expecting a very busy Halloween night given that so many people were still away on holiday. However, we were still well-stocked with 600 pieces of candy which we figured would be more than enough. Lance and Deb Riley brough pizza and joined us for a very pleasant evening of sitting in the driveway and handing out treats. There were a lot of Saudi visitors and most even had some sort of costume. All of the trick-or-treaters were fun and courteous with only one exception – a young boy who was really set on getting a double helping of candy.
Things started out slow a little before 5pm and by the time the sun was down we were mobbed. The candy we had on hand gave out around 6:30pm and Ben ended up doing a run to the Quicky Mart in his “Reneaisance Man” costume for more. By 8pm the trick or treaters had slowed to a crawl and we packed it in. I didn’t keep count but clearly we had more than 600 stop by.
Kai and Nora ended up doing some local loops on their own and then made an far loop to the other side of the school with some friends. I was glad that they showed some independence and I’m also struck by how lucky we are to live in a place where I can let my 3rd grade and KG kids run around trick or treating on thier own. Security was out in force with foot patrols at major intersections and cars driving by every 30 minutes. I can only speak for the area of camp we were in but I think they did a great job of ensuring a safe and kid-friendly evening.
Enjoy the pictures…
The Eid Holidays are our major chance for travel during the school year and because they align with the Hijra lunar calendar they move up about 11 days each year. This year the break fell at the end of October which made the time right for a tropical island trip to Koh Samui, Thailand. We stayed at Rocky’s Boutique Resort which was just perfect – small and private with a great staff and a wonderful beach. For the most part we simply alternated between beach, pool, massage and food in various combinations each day. One interesting side trip was dinner at the Tree Tops restaurant – only 7 tables and nestled in the branches of a huge tree and overlooking Chaewing Bay. Amazing dining experience complete with a “salt guru” who visited our table to recommend the correct type of salt to use with the various dishes. The other highlight was hiring a boat for the day to take us out for some “snorgling” as Nora calls it, fishing and some time on a tiny island that was all beach.
Enjoy the pictures ((Some of these pictures were also posted on facebook during the trip itself but I’m didn’t take the time to weed out duplicates))! Note that I’m still fiddling around with the new gallery format on the site since I upgraded – hopefully everything is working. Drop me a line if things don’t seem to work or you have a suggestion for improvement. I’m keeping my web photos on Flickr now and just linking a gallery onto the blog. You can use the “view in Flickr” link to just to my photostream and view even more images.
