Homecoming 2008!

Bekah went to homecoming on Friday 17th and had a blast! That morning she went to the mall with her friend and picked out a dress. Then she went over to another friends house and got ready there. She was very happy everything went so well.

Eid al-Fitr holiday

Jonah and Nick sliding down the slide

The ocean you can see the coral

Jonah and nick with some of their friends

One of the many beautiful views

All the kids sliding

Bekah and Dad in the pool

Bekah and Nick in front of the sea

Dad playing water polo he was the champion goalie of the team

Right before the eid holiday started Jonah fractured his thumb! He was playing basketball at recess and reached for the ball and ended up breaking his thumb. Mom took him to the hospital and he got X-rays and a cast. He has to keep it on for 3 weeks and then get a splint and keep that on for another 3 weeks. Because of this we weren’t sure if we were going to do anything for the eid holiday but we finally got everything worked out the day before we left!!!

We went to Hurghada with a lady my mom works with, Hana’a, and her family. Hurghada is located on the Red Sea and a 5 hour-trip from Cairo. The place we stayed is a 4-star hotel, but the room happened to be very small! They provided breakfast and dinner and we really never had to leave the hotel. Inside the hotel there were 3 pools and a private beach. The pool had slides and a lot of activities that kept us busy throughout the day. There was also a huge waterslide but unfortunately the tide was too low and it didn’t open while we were there. It was also very windy on the first 2 days we were there.
Jonah was quite a sight to see. Mom wanted him to be able to swim and snorkel but he was not allowed to get his cast wet. Mom’s solution… Garbage bag wrapped with duct tape!!! It was hilarious to see! He looked like he had a club on his hand but he was happy he was able to do all the stuff everyone else did.
On the second day Bekah and Mom, along with Hana’a’s family, went snorkeling. Bekah liked it a lot because she had never been before but because of the wind the water was not clear and we didn’t see a lot of fish. Luckily, on the 3rd day the wind had died down and the whole family went snorkeling. Nick had some trouble with the saltiness of the water and didn’t use the tube to breath so he just swam and looked at the fish but everyone else was fine. We all saw millions of fish! We even saw one that was a foot and a half long! Bekah was really excited because she saw a ray! The fish were all so colorful and cool looking. The kids all though it was very weird to have the fish that close to them and Bekah was afraid she would hurt them haha.

The night before we left Mom decided to take games, Harry Potter Clue and Pit, out to the pool to share with Hana’a and her family. Dad and the kids all thought she was crazy and they would all think she was nuts but to our dismay the games were a huge hit! Everyone loved Pit! It would have been quite a sight to see 12 people gathered around yelling numbers for over an hour. One guy came over and started mocking us!

Bowling parties and Iftars

Some of the traditional food

one of the guards wifes made these they are stuffed potatoes!! there so much work!

Traditional rice

The annual festival of Ramadon, which is a month of fasting for the Muslims, was during September. During this month Muslims don’t eat from sunrise to sunset. The meal at sundown is called Iftar and is usually a huge celebration. People often celebrate it every night with family and friends. Our family decided to through an Iftar for our Guards. Our housekeeper and her sister spent the day making delicious, traditional Ramadon food. The guards really appreciated it and we all had a good experience.

Nick's wonderful cake

Nick bowling :P

Make a wish!!

Nick turned 10 on September 25, 2008!! There are no more Watkins’ kids who have a one-digit age! Nick had his party at a bowling alley in Maadi. Mom made him a wonderful bowling cake. Well of course, because this is Egypt, not everything went according to plan :P. One of our friends was nice enough to take us to the bowling alley, we are still waiting for our car to get here, but he misunderstood and took us almost 20 miles in the wrong direction!! Nick ended up arriving 30 min late for his own birthday party!! Next the place that mom was going to get the food from wasn’t open like they said they would be. She asked and they said they would open in 5 min, well 45 min later it still wasn’t open and people were getting hungry. Dad went to the Chilis next door and got chips and salsa and drinks to hold the kids over till we could get the pizza but they took 30 min to get the sodas to us!! We then had to order pizza but of course that took an hour and the pizza got there right when the parents came to pick up the kids.