Green and Gold Gala

In November, Joe and I went to the Green and Gold Gala. It's a formal dinner and dancing event held every year. In June I want to go to the one held at the pyramids! Here we are with some friends before driving to the hotel.

Papa Noel

We saw Santa Claus at a Christmas bizarre last week. Henry and Nathan each asked for a present. I was surprised that there were no other kids in line to see Santa, and I found out why. He was a dud Santa! Oh, well. I don't think the boys noticed.

Lyn

Here are some pictures of Lyn taken at Al-Azhar Park. We took the boys there after school one day as a reward for having good behavior all week. Lyn cleans, cooks, babysits, bargains, shops, etc. for us. I couldn't imagine being here with out her.

Cute picture of Nay Nay:

Malta and Gozo

Here are some long overdue photos from our trip to Malta in September. We spent most of our time on the island of Gozo which we really liked.

H&N making "coffee" out of water:

Cliffs near Xlendi where we stayed:

Xlendi:

Old watchtower:

Xlendi from farther away:

Joe and Nathan playing at the beach:

N&H playing in carved out water pools on the cliffs:

Coating each other in mud:

The Azure Window:

Me:

A reminder to you all about who I'm dealing with on a daily basis:

Henry swimming at the blue lagoon:

Nathan swimming at the blue lagoon:

The blue lagoon:

Me:

Henry:

Nathan:

Sunset:

Canons, we watched one get fired at high noon:

Patchy part 2

Patchy came home with Henry Chmielowski on November 10, 2010.


Patchy sat next to Henry as he ate snacks and meals at the table.

Henry played soccer outside with Patchy.

At bedtime, Henry read a story about polar bears to Patchy.

We like having Patchy at our house!

Mega Desert Camping Trip Adventure

While I sort through lots of photos from our camping trip in late November, here is a map that I made of our route. I downloaded our GPS data and uploaded it into Google Earth. Pretty cool! For reference, on the left you can see the yellow line of the Libyan border, on the right is the top of the Gulf of Suez and on the top is the Mediterranean coast. Click on the picture for a larger view.

Bouncy castle movie

Baking a cake

Henry and Nathan love to help cook in the kitchen. So we enlisted their services while baking Joe's birthday cake last month.

Nathan helped prepare the pans:

And mix the batter:

Henry helped with the batter too:

Then we cracked eggs together:

And they helped clean up (eat up) afterward:

The finished product:

Desert videos: dune bustin'!

Video of car driving down sand dune. I had just done this, and you can see my car in the distance at the end.

Video of sand blowing in the desert. It looks like snow blowing on the north slope, only a different color and temperature. :)

Desert driving course

As you read this, we will be on a mega desert off-road camping adventure! This week is a Muslim holiday for an Eid in which livestock are slaughtered, or so I hear. With 5 other families, a guide and a military escort, we will drive for three days to Siwa Oasis via the Qattara Depression and Qaret Um el-Saghir oasis. After one night in Siwa we go dune driving through the great sand sea to the Western White Desert. Then we head to Baharia oasis and back to Cairo. In all it should take 7 to 8 days. Wish us luck!

In preparation for this trip, I took a desert driving course. Joe stayed at home with the kiddos. We practiced driving on the hard ground as well as on the sandy dunes. It was scary and fun at the same time. I must say that I have natural sand dune driving abilities that were previously unknown to me.

Here are the vehicles just off the road:

Sand, and lots of it:

My trusty steed:

Dunes:

Pool

Our pool is really just a huge sack of water, but it works great! It is 12 feet in diameter and 3 feet deep. We had fun playing in it during September and October. The winter will be too chilly for the pool so we have put it away.

Joe on the alligator:

Boys playing and having fun:

Fallen tree

In late September a sand storm blew through Cairo. The next day as we were outside playing in the pool, a huge tree fell down in our yard and on the villa. It was quite a shock to see and hear it fall. Luckily there was only a small amount of damage to the railing on the upper balcony and concrete near the front door.

View out of the front door. We couldn't get out of the house this way:

Egyptian men in dresses (galabeya) cutting down the tree:

Man walking on fence in sandals, wearing a dress and using a chainsaw Egypt style: