Camel Riding!

Cameron's Point of View: Today we went to the beach.  We went on the water trampoline. There was a camel and pony ride.  There were two ponies and one camel.  Carter and I rode the camel.  The camel was growling.  It had a net around its mouth.  It was a bumpy ride.  Carter and I rode two ponies at the same time.  Carter got the wild pony because his pony liked to run.  The first time I went on the pony without Carter I got the wild one.  The camel had fancy stuff around him.  A lot of people can fit on the camel.  

 This is the grumpy, growling camel!  Do you like his hat?

 Carter's Point of View: I rode the pony 2 times.  I rode the camel 4 times.  I like the camel riding best. 

 We also played on kyaks and paddle boards today.  It was great fun!

Rebecca's Point of View:  Tomorrow will be my first day back to work after a 12 day vacation.  We have had a fantastic week of acclimating to our new community.  We have left twice on the bus to go to IKEA and then the next day we went to the mall.  The mall had many of the stores that I am used to seeing at home: H&M, Bath & Body, Esprit, Jusitce, and Krispy Kreme Donuts!  We were so excited about the donuts!  The malls in Saudi Arabia are quite interesting.  Only men seem to work in the stores.  It was quite cute to see these tall men in the Bath & Body aprons.  Also, there are no fitting rooms in the stores.  You have to buy your clothes and take them home to see if they fit.  The reasoning is that they do not ever want women to be put in a situation where they are unclothed in public.  The malls are also quite large.  They have ice rinks, roller coasters, and water slides. We arrived too early to play on these things, and learned that they stay open late and families usually come at night.  Prayer time happened about 12:30.  We were inside a store and everyone left and the doors were closed.  We were able to get out, but unable to purchase the items we wanted to buy.  The entire mall closed down for about 40 minutes.  Our bus left at 1:00, so we never did get to make the purchase.

I have spent the rest of my vacation next to the pool.  I love the pool!  It has to be one of my favorite places, and I just discovered a path that leads from my school to the pool!  I will be doing this after school most days of the week!

Life here is quite nice.  However, I woke up last night feeling a little sad because I miss my friends, family, and pets.  I especially miss my cat!  He was already to travel, but Saudi Arabia is having a cat food shortage.  All cat food has been pulled because it contains pork products.  Hopefully this issue can be resolved and then he can make the journey.  For now he is living with Steve, Alexa, Hayes, and Noah (Bryan's Brother's Family).  It seems he is having a grand time exploring their gigantic house!  We miss you Sylvester! 

Stay tuned for Bryan's update on playing golf!