Returning (for the summer at least)

We are making a summer long visit to the states. We are going to be in a few places so we wanted to list them out so that if any our friends and family are in those same places we can see you. We are going to be in Washington D.C., Charleston SC, SLC Utah, Idaho, and Mesa AZ. Carl will be with us everywhere except for Arizona. We look forward to seeing as many of you as we can.

I guess it is apparent from the above that Carl's work wants him in Bahrain for a while longer, at least that is the plan for right now. It gives us the opportunity to travel to be with him and see other areas of the Middle East that we have not yet explored. We are also thrilled to stay in our branch, we have the best branch. We are even getting a new family from Kuwait with six kids, our primary will almost double.

It seems everything in life is constantly changing, I pray everyday that our changes will be to our benefit and to those arround us. There is a childrens book about chameleons and the chameleon is sad because he keeps changing color so he sets out to find somewhere to stay that will keep him the same color. He then finds another chameleon and expresses his sadness about always changing and they decide that they could stay together and change together and then at least they will have a companion in their change. I look at our little family that way. Our situation is always in flux but we are in flux together which makes it great. Finding wisdom in childrens stories, very motherly but childrens book are my main source of reading these days.

Khor Rori, Last day in Salalah

In the morning April was treated to the spa and Carl took the kids to the room. Of course a morning with dad intales cartoons, funny faces and lots of tickling.

We then went to Khor Rori and had an awesome experience seeing the likely place Lehi and his family came to and showed great faith by setting off accross the ocean to follow the Lords commandments. On some of the walls they had ancient script that had no translation there. I was curious to know what it said.

On the way back to the Hotel we drove up to Wadi Durbat and again we were in awe seeing what they saw when entering the land through the mountains.

Afterwards we went to the hotel and swam for the last time and sadly prepared to leave.

Carl and I went out to dinner at one of the Chineese restraunts we had seen in the area and no, the pluthera of Chinese restraunts did not indicate that there was actually good Chinese food in the area. At least not at that place, we miss good Chinese food.

Mirbat Oman (north of Salalah) Diving

We decided to leave the kids at the hotel for this dive (they were really tired out) and we went to Mirbat to do some shore diving. The view was incredible and we felt like we were in pareadise, probably because we were. We went to one called the Aquarium reef and it was just as it's name states, fish were everywhere and we even spotted the critically endangered Hawksbill sea turtle and swam with it for a while.

The second dive was fun but we did not see as many fish. We did get to see a lion fish and a scorpion fish, Carl thankfully kept his distance as he has a tendency to get close to the aquatic life. He did not stay as far away from the spiny lobster we saw later.

This day's dive was our best to date. Lets see if Musandam can compare next week.

Ancient ruins and fruit stands

One of the kids favorate things about the trip was the hotel. They especially liked the breakfast at the hotel, all you can eat is a favorate for them, especially lil Carl. On this day we went to the Frankincense museum and saw the Maritime museum (there were no pictures allowed but you will have to take our word for it that it was awesome). The ruins of Al-Baleed are there on the shore. It correlates with the time of the brother of Jared's group.

We then went by one of the fruit stands. There were all kinds of varietys of coconuts and bannanas. We all tried the coconut juice (no one liked it) and then we really loved the small coconuts they had, they were really sweet. The kids especially like the mini bananas and the green ones (they are ripe, really, I was shocked).

Snorkeling and Diving

We brought the kids to the beach on the next day and set them up to snorkel while we went diving. Our pictures were quite green that day but we saw some really cool eels. After we took them to get some grilled camel which they gobbled up.

A day in the water

We spent a whole day in the water. We hung out at the hotel during the morning and afternoon having a great time at the beach and in the pool. Carl loves body surfing and the girls had a great time finding snails in the sand.

Carl and I then did a late dive from a boat. It was a great dive although the visibility was not the best. We really loved seeing the octopus. After the dive we enjoyed some grilled camel meat from a vendor by the boats.

Camels camels everywhere

We decided to drive up the mountains to see Job's tomb and thought a good way to entertain the kids was to offer a prize for the first person to spot a camel. Carl ended up being the first one. We then went on to see many, many camels. For the rest of the trip we continued to see camels everywhere. They put on their hazards when the camels are on the road and stop traffic. It happens a lot.

On the way up to Jobs tomb we saw some baby camels on the side of the road and of course not realizing we would be seeing many, many more had to get pictures. There were some guys in a car and I could not figure out what they were doing on the side of the road watching the camels since they were locals. We then realized they were herding the camels from their car, just sitting there talking on their cell phone and drinking sodas. I'm not kidding they were following the camels in their car and if the camels got into the road they would get out and urge them off with a stick.

We then saw more camels off the side later and wanted pictures with them. As we were posing the kids for pictures some women in the distance started yelling at us so I figure they were the camels keepers and we were bothering them so off we went again.

We finally made it to Job's tomb. Inside the mausoleum is a big square on the ground covered by cloth which is where he lies. On the wall were different pages from the koran. Through a window we could see his praying grounds. At the entrance was a box where you took off the top and inside are the impressions of his footprint. He had very large feet.

We had to do a car switch (our rental decided that it did not need to go into any specific gear) and then we were on our way again. The blowholes are by caves that aren't really caves but an over hang, it was fun and we saw a sea turtle swimming in the bay. Since we were not in the Karif season (which is in the summer) it was dry and there was just a little mist coming out the blowholes. The best part was the beach in that area. It was really beautiful We had fun body surfing since there were better waves than at the hotel beach. Carl and I kept going out a little further to get the best rush on the wave. We got caught up by a big wave which flipped me arround and I hit my head and shoulder (the skin on my shoulder is just now starting to look a little normal and is still a little painful to touch. The first thing I thought was "Crap I better not be hurt and mess up diving." I was fine, just banged up and we went back to the hotel soon after.