A day at Legoland

Located in Bavaria is a park just for young kids called Legoland. I had never heard of it but evidently there are more Legolands in other parts of Europe. Anyway, I took Lydia and some German friends we were staying with to Legoland. Jill decided to stay home with Kinzy and Alia. Next time she'll go. :(

The Bavarian Alps and Countryside

Ahhhh...What beauty! One of our days there we were able to go to the Alps. We went up a cable car to the top of a peak close to Salzburg, Austria. In the same day, we went to a nice mountain lake and the girls even got to swim a little. Of course we didn't have swimsuits with us so they just swam the German way.....no clothes. :) However, we didn't have to go the Alps to see pretty sites. There were plenty of days of hiking to small villages and beautiful scenery around where we stayed.

Enjoy the pictures!

Around the Bavarian Farm

We spent most of our time just hanging out at the farm. The girls loved it and we enjoyed the quiet and fresh air. The weather was perfect. The hottest day was maybe 88 degrees F and we only had two or three days of rain. The rain was actually fun....since we only see it once or twice a year.

Trip to Bavaria

We just got back from a family vacation to Bavaria, Germany. We had such a wonderful time. We stayed with a family who opened their farm up to us. It was a great blessing! We have lots of pictures and stories to share so I'm going to put most of them in a slide show format over the next few posts. Here is a couple of shots of us and the family we stayed with.

The weather was very mild every day...especially compared to temps in Egypt.

This is the German family we stayed with. The two boys are adopted. They also have another adopted girl and three kids of their own.

Cutie!!

We just had to share some of these cute pictures!! We think she should be on some advertisement. Whatever is being sold I'd buy it with that cutie smiling at me!

Ice in the desert

Disney on Ice has come to Cairo! Of course it was all indoors, since our temperatures lately have been in the high 90s or 100s. Jill and Lydia went on a girls night out last Wednesday and saw Princesses on Ice. Lydia dressed up like Cinderella , ate her first snow cone in a princess cup, and sat with awe as her favorite characters danced on the ice. Jill said it was an amazing show. It was a reenactment of 7 princess movies. They had a wonderful time and Lydia is still talking about it.

Alladin and princess Jasmine

Lydia's first snow cone!

Egyptian Breakfast

Nearly every morning I go out and get some breakfast for us. The Egyptian breakfast is quite delicious and really quite healthy. The bowl you see at the top is called "fool", which is fava beans cooked overnight with chopped tomatoes, onions, tahina, salt and pepper. Very tasty! The bowl at the bottom is called Tamaya. It is also beans made into a paste with spices and then deep fried to a crunchy patty. Other parts of the middle east call it fallafal. The bread to the left is made from whole wheat and comes freshly baked...nice and hot from a fire oven. The bread is cooked and made in the same way as the ancient Egytians made it. I guess after 7000 years they should have gotten it right by now...it's very good. To eat it correctly, you don't use silverware. Instead you tear off pieces of bread and use it to grab the foul or tamaya. This whole meal can feed our family for 23 cents. Beat that McDonald's!

Happy 4th of July

We hope everyone had a wonderful 4th of July. The embassy here puts on a great party for those of us living overseas. It was a great time for us and the kids. Every year different companies donate prizes for those attending. This year we won a free massage at the four seasons spa. I think Jill is going to take that one. She deserves it.

Potty Training

As you can see from the picture we are starting to potty train Alia. Actually, if you can't tell from the picture, you might need to get your eyes checked. Egyptians start potty training their children a little before they are two and expect them to be out of diapers a couple months after their second birthday. Their method is sitting the child on the potty and keeping them there until they go. This can be hours of sitting on the potty. We've been at friends' homes where the parents are feeding the child on the potty because he hasn't gone yet. Of course, our method is a little less harsh. Alia hasn't caught on quite yet but she enjoys doing what big sister does so we usually have bathroom parties with both of them.

WaterPark in Egypt??

Hard to believe, I know but Egypt does have a water park. A few weeks ago we went to our friends birthday party at "AquaPark, Egypt". There are a few waterslides and even a small wave pool. The girls had a great time!

This is actually a shot of Jill and Lydia coming out on an innertube on the black hole waterslide.