Bluebonnets

We went to Salado with Bill and family and had a little Easter (as Lydia likes to say every Sunday is a little Easter just without the egg part). We went by the lake and got cousin bluebonnet pictures!

Camping - Buescher

We spent the end of Spring Break at Buescher State park, woke up that morning and called, they had one spot so we packed up and headed out (with a quick stop at the Bastrop HEB) we drove through the fire area but the park was just after it.

We got our site and rented a kayak which fit all four of us, we paddled around with tons of other people and enjoyed the ducks.
The girls stood on the edge of the lake and threw rocks in for about an hour with two other boys. Gloria started whining that she wanted to go camping-she thought being in the tent was the only thing that was actually camping.
We did their nature trail and stopped to threw things into a creek.
then back to our campsite for dinner, a fire with marshmallows and bedtime. The girls played, then fought, then cried when we separated them. I laid down with Lydia and she threw herself around saying she couldn't sleep but finally did around 11, but it was cloudy and the sun wasn't up until after 7 so they slept late, then breakfast, little walk to the playground, pack up and back home. We say it was fun except from 9:30 to 11pm :)

Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center

Caleb was off doing some fishing education thing so Mom, the girls and I spent St. Patrick's Day morning at the LBJWC. We wore green, spent lots of time playing and coloring in the children's room..
got cute bluebonnet pics (it was sprinkling when we got out of the car but never rained on us in)
climbed the tour and did the nature walk...
I got on the local news with my flower language (actually it was the long hair and cute three year old-same thing that got us on the front page of the paper when Lydia was 3 for Ash Wed)...
Gloria had a hard time not touching and picking the flowers but Nana took lots for her to remember them by...
Photo spot with the bluebonnets!

Cameron Park Zoo

Over spring break while the guys were fishing, my mom took a day off and went to the zoo in Waco. The weather was perfect and we had such a nice time-looking at animals (they really have a nice set up) eating expensive park type food and Cherry Lime-aids, though our overlook was the African Savannah! The flowers were pretty, and they had a nice playground too. Lydia took 'Flat Stanley' a school project so he showed up in a lot of the pictures. The girls were really good (except for Gloria and the last five minutes...) and we were there for a long time and saw everything.

Train!

Caleb went hunting so we went to visit Nana & Grandpa for the weekend. We went to the Train Museum in Temple.
As we waited for our turn on the barrel train ride we got to watch real people get on a real train (Amtrax) which was neat.

February Fun

(I've been back from Oman for a long time and its not that we haven't been busy, I'm just behind on blogging, Caleb is doing fishing education this Saturday morning so I put on Mr. Rogers for the girls and will do some catch up!)

We had girls for the D-Now weekend again, this time 10th grade, Caleb did the driving and our girls loved having the big girls in our home.
Valentine's day-sparkling juice and chocolate covered strawberries-fun family night of LOVE.
A ladies Great Destination Event, I was the emcee and love any reason to wear international clothes (I included it in what I shared). Gloria has one too (they are from Rachida) but she didn't want to wear it. Cathleen who we meet in Oman came too and we had chocolate chip pancakes and went to Whole Foods/Book People
Planting our garden, we have lots of little plants growing but no veggies yet
We went to St. David's noon Ash Wednesday service again this year, it was Gloria's first and she was a little wiggly, she also cried when she didn't get a cracker-oops we had talked about it...but then we came home and played in the backyard with Flower!

Oman - Day 1 & 2

I am going to attempt to blog my trip to Oman by day! MOST but not all of my Omani girl friends don't want their picture on the internet so this won't fully reflect all I saw...

After my mom and the girls dropped me off at the airport, I had a very long but uneventful flight to Muscat with interesting people on each leg! From Austin to Detroit, I sat by a young professional woman who I found out was first generation Serbian and married to a fellow Serbian Orthodox but not arranged marriage. I arrived, went through a cool music and sound tunnel and discovered that Detroit is EST so it was time to get on the plane. My boss Don King was there as well. On the huge plane the only empty seat on the entire flight was beside me!! I invited Don to join me for dinner and we caught up and planned some then he went back to his seat and I got some good sleep! Short lay-over in Amsterdam where they have a quiet museum and Starbucks. Next flight, I was next to an Omani man, we chatted about family, work, his time in the UK, our time in Oman and his views on lots of subject. We had to sit at the airport in Abu Dhabi (which Stitchy Bear and the girls said all week long) and we chatted in a group: a 20s German man, 30s US lady (me), 40s Omani man, and 50s jolly British lady-such a nice international time. Then we finally arrived in Oman!!

Badriya picked me up and took me to her home in Seeb to get changed for a wedding. It was her sister-in-law Muneera's sister so many but not all of the family members were there. We followed the bride in, said Hi, listened to some music, pushed our way through the buffet line, watched the guys come in (see above) then left to Khalsa's house, which is a new huge home close to Seeb. She and her husband were on Ummrah so Badriya was helping with the kids. When we arrived the housemaid went to her own room and we slept. I actually got great sleep that night and didn't even hear the morning call to prayer.

We woke up and ate breakfast and got the kids ready. Mohamed, Julan, Rahma's daughter, Maryam and Waseem (Mouza's youngest), then we stopped by several family's homes getting and dropping off children, as well as sending the boys into a corner store (dukan) for chips and waters. We stopped at the chicken shop to buy part of lunch and then finally to Seeb. I got to meet Ahmed's wife (who is sweet and quiet) and two daughters (see Fatima below and Ahmed in the mirror). We ate a great lunch of chicken & rice, then Badriya drove me around Seeb some and showed me the in process house she is having built!
We went to the Royal Hospital (right by my old home) where grandmother Aisha was with several family members, then finally made it to Ghala to see Sabriya and her new baby who was just a few days old. Sabriya was up and around and looking great but a little tired. We had coffee with several family members. One little neighbor girl asked if I spoke English, Badriya replied yes and then was asked if I was the housemaid! She didn't know what to think of a foreigner in her village! Almost everyone has a housemaid now.
From there we stopped briefly in Ghubrah to drop a sister off and though they had painted the walls, it felt like home. At 10pm Badriya brought me back to the airport where I waited for Don, got a rental car and picked up the rest of the US group. The cars were great for getting around but not a ton of trunk space so they had to have their carryons in their laps! We were off to check into the Al Marooj Hotel and get a good nights sleep!