Ben Archives - Page 3 of 8 - The Jacobs Family Website

October 15, 2014

Disney 2014

With a week off from school and work thanks to the Eid Holiday we packed up and headed to the Magic Kingdom in Orlando. It was a long series of flights to get there from Saudi Arabia but all of our connections went smoothly. We all had a blast spending 6 full days in the Disney parks and even managed to spend some time with Lea Ann, Nina and Sara Post who happened to be there at the same time. Enjoy the photos.

Nora with her Mickey Mug

Kai and Nora at the Grand Floridian Lobby.

Family shot at Epcot

Nora at Epcot

Kai at Epcot

Crystal and Lea Ann hoist thier liters.

Ricola and the Cough Drops perform at the Epcot Biergarten.

On main street USA

At the haunted mansion

Nora with her Jasmine costume

Jacobs and Posts at the entrace to Tomorrowland

Nora getting ready to go into dinner in the castle

Family picture with Cinderella.

Dinner at Cinderella's Royal Table in the castle.

Nora with her wishing wand.

Kai nervous that the next pricess to sweep through will give him another kiss on the cheek.

Nora and Kai with Aurora.

Nora with Princess Jasmine at dinner in the castle.

Waiting for the parade

With our obligatory Disney balloons at the Magic Kingdom.

Kai and Nora in jail with Zurg.

A family shot from the Rose Garden

Kai and Nora check out the Magic Kingdom ducks.

Kai and Nora waiting for our table at the Liberty Bell Tavern.

Family shot at the Magic Kingdom.

Nora all tuckered out outside Expedition Everest.

Family picture at Animal Kingdom.

Nora all tuckered out at Animal Kingdom.

Kai and Nora with glowing mouse ears at Fantasmic

With Pigglet at the Crystal Palace.

Nora sees Piglet headed our way.

With Tigger at the Crystal Palace.

Kai and Nora with Eeyore

Dinner at the Crystal Palace with Pooh Bear

Nora on the carosel

Kai and Nora squabble in the Dammam airport at passport control on our way home.

Kai with Jimminy Cricket at Animal Kingdom.

Nora with Tinkerbell

Dancing with Olaf

October 2, 2014

Swimming with dolphins at the Atlantis

The Atlantis resort boasts a dolphin habitat called, creatively, Dolphin Bay. It offers the opportunity for a variety of experinces ranging from watching dolphins to swimming with them in shallow water all the way up to deep water encounters. We opted for the shallow water since Kai and Nora were too young for the deep water.

We were a little bit hesitant about the dolphin program with memories of depressing and exploitive “tiger zoos” in Asia where poorly kept animals are made to do silly tricks. This program, in contrast, was very well run and professionally managed. Based on how much we paid for the professionally taken photos below the only people being exploited were the visitors – so that was good. Sort of.

Anyway, we had a great time with the dolphins; enjoy the pics!

Ben and Central the Dolphin

We had plenty of chances to feel the dolphin's skin as he would swim past.

Crystal and the Dolphin

Family shot with "Central"

Kai gets his turn with Central

Nora gives Central a kiss

Crystal dancing with Central.

Nora pets our dolphin, Central.

Kai gives Central a congradulatory pet.

Kai lifts the ring that Central retrieved.

Central bringing back a ring.

He was more rubbery and less slippery that I was expecting.a

The trainer has some fun getting the dolphin to splash us. Of course it was over 100 degrees and humid but the water was chilled so, other than the salt in the eyes, it was very welcome.

Ben trains the dolphin to retrieve a ring. It was almost as if Central had practiced this move.

September 30, 2014

Fall 2014 Random Pics

Here are a few random pictures from the start of the school year.

Crystal and Nora making Waffles.

Nora finds a nook to read her book in privacy.

Crystal and Kai at the family section of Latif bakery.

Nora and Ben make a year's worth of wontons for the freezer.

Never had one lesson. Really.

He hasn't started learning to play yet but likes to put it together.

Kai got clarinet for grade 5 band.

Nora with Kai's old pirate costume.

Aye aye skipper, Nora gets ready for the grade 2 pirate day.

Though Nora's party will be later due to the holidays we still celebrated her "actually" birthday on the 24th.

Kai forgets the "don't ride your bike inside" rule

September 29, 2014

The Atlantis – Dubai

An abnormally long Saudi National Day holiday gave us the opportunity to travel to the tip of the Palm Jumeirah artificial island in Dubai to stay at the Atlantis resort. Complete with its own aquarium and water park it is a pleasant place to spend a few days. It was, of course, about has hot and humid as it can get on the planet earth and any visit to Dubai is a bit surreal given that is it a caricature of unsustainable excess.

Kai and Nora at the Dubai baggage claim. With zen-like patience they didn't start complaining about the wait for at least 5 minutes.

A panorama of the gulf from our room.

Tourist that flocked to take pictures of the hotel.

Kai, Nora and Ben at the aquarium

Making friends with a Ray.

Kai reads the paper while we wait for our room

Nora at the aquarium

Kai, Nora and Crystal at the lobby aquarium.

Kai shows a friend the starfish in the petting pool.

Nora and a queensland grouper.

A view of the arch at the Atlantis Palm

August 2, 2014

Charlotte’s Baptism

Earlier this week was neice Charlotte’s Baptism on the Shattuck-St. Mary’s campus where Crystal and I met, began our teaching careers and were married. We hadn’t been back there in over a decade and it was great to see the campus and the positive trajectory the school is on. Enjoy the pictures!

Nora and Crystal at the Faribault Monument

Chapel of the Good Shepard on Shattuck Campus

Filing in for the Baptism

An HDR shot of people entering the chapel for the baptism

Julie, Eric, Evelyn and Charlotte at the Baptism

Ben, Crystal, Kai and Nora in front of the altar where Ben and Crytal were married 17 years ago

An HDR shot of the interior of the Chapel of the Good Shepard

The whole group at Charlotte's Baptism. Not pictured is Father Doyle who performed the ceremony.

Nora outside the chapel. Dress by Grandma, boots selected by Nora.

Art Jacobs and Ron Miller outside the chapel.

Ellen Jacobs and Karen Jacobs outside the Chapel.

Crystal, Kai and Nora at the monument outside the Chapel

Nora and Charlotte either dancing or playing golf on the parade field. Can't tell which.

Eric and Cathleen in front of Shumway.

Kai coaches Evelyn.

July 19, 2014

More Danbury

Here are a few pictures from earlier in vacation. Kai and Ben pooled their money to buy a quad-copter with an HD camera that they’ve had fun piloting around.

Kai pilots the drone on its maiden launch.

Using a wide open field was a good call to start.

The drone ascends to 7 meters and comences surveillance.

Kai waiting for lunch at the drive in.

Kai, Nora and Crystal

Nora at the Drive in

Kai and Nora set out in the dinghy

Sunset on tranquil Bass Lake

Crystal on the boat for sundowners

June 8, 2014

More Jacobs Family Pictures

Still clearing out the picture backlog. This set has the vacation countdown chains, Robin’s Run, Cub Scout building activities and some other end-of-school-year activities. Enjoy!

More countdown chain silliness.

Vacation countdown chains with silly faces.

Nora with Webster

Kai during his Arabic presentation. Mumtaz!

Ben and Kai walk back home from the Hills Art Show.

The release of balloons at Robin's Run.

Nora zones out while eating a boiled egg.

Wolverine den making stuff for the craftsman badge

April 23, 2014

The Sandy Shores of Bass Lake and other Random Pictures

Here are a few random pictures as I clear out the memory on our phones and cameras. I especially like the picture of Kai and Nora searching for frogs in Bass Lake. Can’t wait to spend some summertime there!

Longing for Bass Lake

Kai and Nora can't wait to get back to the sandy shores of Bass Lake.

Kai and classmates take on the parents in a marshmallow tower building competition. They lost.

A snowman taller than Dad

Nora bet she could draw a snowman taller than Dad. Here is the offical measurement.

Dapper Kai at the mail center after a haircut.

March 18, 2014

Some Random pictures from March

I haven’t done a good job of keeping fresh content on the website. Here are a few pictures to keep the site from getting stale.

One of Crystal recent creations. I don't think this one has made the website yet

Another recent knitting project. This one is a snufflelump

Kai has room to grow in those PJ's

At the Boy Scout Pancake breakfast

Nora tries on Dad's coat. Wants to keep it. Promises to eat extra veggies so she'll grow into it.

Posing with a coat and tie

Tie day at the Hills school

The bathroom in Danbury is coming along nicely!

Kai earns his webelo rank.

Ben earns his three year service pin as pack webmaster.

Nora's hundredth day of school project

Kai at flag football.

Kai at flag football. Right place, wrong time.

Nora at a Girl Scout event

Where Nora sees herself when she is 17. Party girl.

February 10, 2014

A Few More Random Pictures

Here are a few more recent pictures including shots from an evening where Nora honed her face painting skills. She came up with a “menu” of designs she was confident with and then set about painting every cheek (and some foreheads) in the house. The menu entry for the cat nose and whiskers was especially cute since it came with optional “angry eyebrows”