News from the Jacobs family in Saudi Arabia
A couple of weekends ago we cleaned out the garage and Kai and Nora had a water fight in the front yard while we were working. It really wasn’t much of a water fight, they took turns with the hose and neither one tried very hard to get away from the water.
I thought it would be a fun science-time experiment to grow some sugar crystals with Kai and Nora so I proceeded to whip up some supersaturated sugar solution and I hung some sticks in it. I suspect that I missed some crucial aspect of preparing the solution as no crystals formed (perhaps I wasn’t supposed to boil the water). As as good scientist I know that there is no success or failure, merely data to be analyzed. Still, next time I’ll read some directions.
Kai got into playing “barber” a little while ago. He’d have the subject sit on the couch and then he’d pretend to use the scissors and comb and occasionally threaten to use the dreaded “buzzer”.
We celebrated Nora’s second birthday a little early this year so that we could have some friends over before everyone left for the long Eid holidays (these pictures are from a couple weeks ago and her birthday was a couple days ago). Most of the pictures below are from the run up to the party since I didn’t get the camera out much during the gathering.
It is amazing to think that it has been two years that Nora has been in our lives.  In some ways it seems like she just came home from the hospital and on the other hand its hard to picture our family unit without her.
We’ve been back in the Kingdom for about two weeks now so we are fully adjusted to the time zone but not yet the heat. We’ve actually had a good run of weather for the last week–it was plenty warm but dry and with a breeze. Starting yesterday the humidity rolled in though; the heat index hit the mid 140’s with an actual high of only about 104. Today the high is supposed to get to 111 and the humidity is still here as the windows are already raining ((When it gets very humid the water condenses on the cool windows of the house and completely fogs them over. When it gets really humid rivulets of water will actually be running off of them. Kai calls this “raining windows.”))
Today’s gallery contains a few pictures of our last couple of days in Danbury, Wisconsin. Enjoy!
While Ben was in Portland this summer Crystal and the kids visited Grandma and Grandpa Jacobs where they took in the Washburn County Fair. Tractors, farm animals, and hot dogs are high on Kai’s “cool” list so it was a great time. A few days later as we were at Underwater World at the Mall of America looking up through the glass window at sharks and other large fish he asked if we could leave and go look at chickens. Lucky for him we were on our way to Aunt Lea Ann’s who has a clutch.
Kai and Nora are still too small to spend time down at the lake unsupervised but we did enjoy going down as a group to check out the frogs. Last year the lake was way down (leading to about 30 feet of sandy beach) but this year it came back up a bit. Still, the part that was exposed lake bottom that was sandy last year is now sprouted with weeds as tall as Nora.
I’m still working through the backlog of pictures taken during our trip to the US and this group is from a day trip up to Canal Park in Duluth. We couldn’t have picked a better day!
There is one historical point of interest in all of Burnett County and it happens to be just a couple of miles from our house. Forts Folle Avion provides a glimpse of what life was like back in the days of the fur trading Voyagers–especially during the big Rendezous weekend.
Last week we took the Great Northern Railway pizza train out of Spooner, Wisconsin with Lea Ann, Nina and Grandma. It was a real treat for the kids (except Nora who isn’t old enough to appreciate the awesomeness of a train) and a fun excursion for the adults as well.
In other news we are putting the final touches on our packing since we fly home tomorrow. This afternoon we’ll get one last hurrah as Grandma and Grandpa watch Nora and Kai while Crystal and I do a dinner and movie (courtesy of Julie and Eric).
