News from the Jacobs family in Saudi Arabia
Last week was the book character parade at Nora’s school. Everyone picked a favorite character from a book and got dressed up for the big parade. Sometimes refered to as “second Halloween”. Nora was mouse adventurer Geronimo Stilton.
Here are a few random pictures from the last few weeks. Nora ended up convining us that she needs a phone to be able to call us when she when she needs transportation to dance or gymnastics. We got a low-end samsung with a basic plan and she is over the moon. We also had some slow drains in the house so they went to flush the main house drain and, not realizing that the pool was connected, ended up spewing water from the pipes all over the patio. It is likely some got in the pool and, not knowing what was in the pipes, we opted to drain and clean the whole pool. Check out the pictures below.
Suki has now been a member of our household for over two months and is fully adjusted. Her and Webster are not part of the same pack and, though Suki often wants to engage in play that Webster isn’t interested in, they spend a lot of time together especially during naps. Enjoy the pictures.
Here are a few random pictures pulled off of the phones and cameras in January. Enjoy!
The 3D printer build has been completed and after several hours spent dialing in variables in the firmware, tweaking alignment of the pieces, tightening drive belts (and in one case printing two supplemental pieces to keep the z-axis rods aligned) we are getting some pretty good prints. Here are some pictures of the build. Later I’ll post some of the things that we printed.
Kai and Nora keep us busy in the evenings between Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Volleyball, Band and the range of dance, gymnastics, trampoline and other events. Here are a few pictures from Fall 2015.
Here is an older gallery that included pictures from Nora’s birthday party back in October along with some Halloween pictures that never got posted. Enjoy!
The first full day at Mara Bushtops we had booked a balloon ride in the Masai Mara. We were woken up with coffee and cookies well before dawn and then whisked in a land cruiser into the park. We arrived at the launch site just as dawn was beginning to break. There was not much for us to do as we stood out of the way as the crews scrambled to get the balloon laid out and filled with hot air. Once it started to become bouyant, however, then things moved fast and the had to scramble into the basket while the balloon struggled to fly away and a dozen ground crew members struggled to keep us on the ground.
Once we were airborne the most striking thing is the total silence (if you don’t count the occasional roar of the gas jets as the pilot put more hot air in the balloon). We drifted over the Mara for about an hour and then, after a controlled crash landing, the chase vehicle whisked us away to another omlete station that had sprung up out of the bush.
Each year the capstone of vacation is to spend the last evening at Jacobs’ Jebel – the house my parents built in the early 80’s and the closest thing I’ve ever thought of as home in the USA as a child. This year the weather was great and I took Kai and Nora on a 4 wheeler drive around the local fields and forests. We capped it off with a great meal that Grandma Ellen put together and then the next day were off to the airport. So long summer…
On our last full day Nora agreed to get up early with me for a sunrise kayak around the lake. A dawn storm rolled through just before we left so we had a calm lake but a great view of the towering thunderheads between us and the rising sun. Enjoy the pictures!
