The Road Less Traveled

Especially by ladies in spandex.

If felt quite liberating being out of camp in such a fashion considering where we are.

We went on one last Social Pace (meaning the guys didn't hammer it so the ladies could keep up) ride of the season. Everyone is packing up for the summer and some of us for good so we celebrated in Udhailiyah Cycling Club Style.

Our camp is surrounded by oil field roads. Some in excellent condition and others a bit pitted and ruddy and after 6 days of shamals the dunes have crept across parts of the road.

We rose before the sun and set out at 4:30AM. The wind was minimal, the dust low, and a commencing heat of 90 degrees for the 50 mile ride. Other than a camel crossing and a few photo stops we rode on an on passed nice garbage free dunes. There was the occasional dead goat dumping ground but thankfully the stinky microbe phase had passed.

By the end, even after drafting Chris most of the way home my legs were shot. I'm so glad the pack of wild puppies we passed decided not to charge because I'm not sure I could have out run them. Sad I know.

1600 calories later we ended with celebratory Krispy Kreme and some mango milk.

I was pretty much a waste of space the rest of the day but am so glad our hubbies took us out for one last ride.

Taking It To The Next Level

To take it to the next level you need:

To get up at 3:30AM before the real heat sets in.

You need to pack water....bottles and bottles of ice cold water.

You need to endure 120 degree heat over the pavement.

You need to keep the paceline.

You need to take the roads less traveled.

You need a lot of testosterone... natural not synthetic.

You need some of the smoothest legs in the Eastern Provence.

You need to know when to kick back in the shade.

You need to be just a wee bit INSANE!

You need to be on a first name bases of the proprietor of the local Bedouin-11.

You need a Sag Wag with a driver, A/C, and cooler of extra water.

You need 2 liters of fluid to replace the 13 lbs you left behind in the desert.

When you take it to the next level you start out a 105 mile ride as friends but you end as brothers.

Father's Dusty Day

Father's Day was also Day 6 of a Summer Shamal. Not only is the air hot like a blow dryer it is also full of grit which burns the eyes, nose, and throat.

The weather sure is making it easy to Adios it outta here.....for good.

After Chris received an extremely thoughtful card from Zach and book from Ethan depicting things they enjoy doing together we met up with the Hasiuks for dinner at the golf club.

After dinner there was a friendly Father's Day putting competition.

Out of the 5 putters Chris, the non golfer, surprised us all by taking first place followed by Dan. Chris could be into golf but cycling, his first love (after me of course), takes precedence as both sports in UDH are generally scheduled at the same time.

Chris won an Udhailiyah golf shirt and hat while second place won some golf balls. Who knew all that mini golf on the cruise would pay off!

Hello and Goodbye Shawarma Man

After 2.5 years I finally met the Shawarma Man all my DHA friends talk about, while out for one last night of shopping and eating in Khobar with the Reynolds and Dillies.

I'm sorry we met just as my Exit Visa is being processed for my departure. Shawarmas are the fast food of the Middle East. The ones I've eaten on camp have not been Blog worthy.

But this stacked chicken meat on a skewer grilled all day to perfection was DIFFERENT. Honestly this was not a place I would have stopped if my friends had not sworn they were some of the best in Khobar. Just looking at the place made me wonder how much time I would be spending in the bathroom the next day. They promised they've eaten here regularly without consequence so we went for it.

I love and will miss this Chicken Shawarma wrapped in flat bread with tomatoes, lettuce, pickles, and garlic sauce (they also add soggy fries which I tossed) almost as much as Graham will miss his little buddy O* from nursery. For the last several months it has just been these two cutie pies.

The next afternoon we gathered with 60+ of our closest friends in Dhahran to eat Sourdough Waffles with oodles of toppings like homemade buttermilk and apple cinnamon syrups and say our goodbyes.

Moving on is so bitter sweet. We love the friends we have made and the community we've lived in but we do feel it is a good time to move on. It isn't all that unlikely to cross paths with many of these people again as church and oil connections make this world seem so very small.

One person Ethan is sure to miss will be his special buddy Rusty M. They first bonded when Rusty would sub Ethan's class in Primary for his wife.

Ethan really loves Rusty and was showing him his homemade kites on Friday. Unbeknownst to Ethan Rusty just happens to be a kite enthusiast and went home to gather everything they needed to make REAL miniature kites.

They spent the entire afternoon teaching Ethan and perfecting the method. I am not sure who was more delighted with the out come.

I just want to make one more huge shout out to say THANK YOU to all those that have hosted and fed our family every Friday before our two hour journey home.

As If

This kid needs any more attention!

He insisted on wearing this warm winter fleece frog suit to get an ice cream treat.

While Dad was away I wanted to do something a little different as part of Family Home Evening.

We drove up to the Golf Club to redeem some free ice cream cone coupons the boys received at a birthday party.

Ethan didn't just wear the suit and drip ice cream all over it. He also spent a good amount of time running around with friends outside in it. I wasn't too sure that the small ice cream cone would have enough cooling power to keep him from passing out in this Alaska weather appropriate costume. But he didn't complain once nor did he suffer any ill effects.

Graham on the other hand decided to do a belly flop off a ledge and bruised up his noggin pretty good. He was more upset about losing his ice cream on the dust covered ground then being concussed.

Chef Play & Soapy Soccer

Last week time got away from me and we arrived so late for story time we completely missed the story.

But we didn't miss the fun.

We got there just in time to decorate our own chef hats.

Then sit, dip, and lick away at some chocolaty goodness.

It was a delightful way to spend the morning.

They indulged so much they hardly touched their lunch. It wasn't a very impressive meal anyway. With Dad out of town I've cooked very little.

After we dropped Ethan off at school Graham and I went over to his buddy C's house to hold his brand new baby brother little C. This meant Graham missed his nap playing away while I got some newborn cuddle time. Chris asked if it made me baby hungry and while we would gladly welcome another baby in our home no I was not in any way distraught that we don't have a new addition on the way.

Once school let out we met up with many, many of our friends to pass the 115-120 degree heat, with me sitting in the shade, and the boys playing in the splash fountain and on some awesome new playgroup equipment.

Recreation also started setting up Soapy Soccer for the older kids in the afternoon adjacent to where we were. Zach liked it until he took a hard ball to the chest knocking the wind out of him. Ethan just likes to go in and get in the way. Really only half the kids are playing soccer and the other half are just playing around and literally bouncing off the air filled walls.

These afternoon outings are about all we can do to just pass the darn last 2.5 weeks in this horrible heat.

Book Week

Book Week at school just had to fall the same time Zach has become obsessed with the Captain Underpants Series. It's all he and his little buddies can talk about. I've had to discourage the potty humor that came along after he began reading these books. I know it's just a phase that will pass but this is what he wanted to wear to school for "Dress up as your favorite book character day."

After a lot of convincing (people will laugh especially the older kids, you might get in trouble, you think its funny now but won't later). Or worse, in my mind, everyone will love it and he'll be hailed as the coolest kid ever for attempting it and it will cause him to continue down a path of attention seeking behavior. We already have one of those in our house and that's enough thank you very much. He chose instead to be the less offensively but not quite as funny dressed Harold.

Book week is the brain child of our good friend and school librarian Mr. Peterson.

During the week the kids are asked to bring in books their families no longer want.

In return they are given book bucks.

The night of the event families were separated into 5 groups and then assigned to a room.

In each room we were read an interesting and often exotic tale by some of the fathers from our community.

After rotating through each room we gathered in the gym.

Here all the donated books were laid out so the families could get new books (at least new to them) with their book bucks.

I love this idea! It's brilliant because in our small community of limited access to new books this was a great way to get rid of something we had enjoyed but no longer needed in exchange for new reading material for all 3 boys.

Zach is a voracious reader. I love books but I don't want to own as many as he wants to read. This boy needs his own library card and fast. That will be one of the first things we do once home. He's already hijacked my Kindle on more than one occasion.

Also Ethan has been surprising of late in that when I read to him he has started picking out words. I know we have another excellent reader in the making here. His teacher's comments about his letter & word recognition are similar to what I remember Zach's teachers saying in the past.