Here are the last few images of Shaybah to post–a handful of landscapes that turned out better than most.

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Earlier this week several dresses that Grandma Ellen had been working on for Nora arrived.  She was eager to try them on so we did a photo shoot that evening.  Nora has been wearing them all week.

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Seats on the plane to Shaybah were limited so the rule was scouts and leaders only with others being strictly space available.  However, in the case where both parents were  leaders on the trip scouts’  siblings were allowed to attend as well so Nora didn’t even have to go on the wait list.  She had a blast despite being a little bit apart from the scouting activities.  She had no problem generating her own entertainment and we had lots of fun scrambling across the dunes.

Here are a few pictures of Nora on the trip.  Enjoy!

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Last weekend was the Cub Scout trip to Shaybah located in the very empty Rub Al Khali desert.  It would have been an unworkable trip by car but was only an hour flight in a comfortable Saudi Aramco aircraft.  I’ve seen pictures of the dunes at Shaybah before and always thought that camera angles were used to make them seem extra impressive.  If anything, the lack of reference points and monocolor of the sand  make it very difficult to capture the size of the dunes.  They are as or more impressive than the pictures make them seem.

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Here are a few random pictures mostly taken last weekend when we had a small bit of rain come through.  I’m afraid it may have been the last rain for the year.

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Here are a few pictures from the recent Easter celebration.  We colored eggs using just food coloring this year and it worked out well.   The kids left our unpeeled carrots (the Easter Bunny prefers these -  it is known), cabbage leaves and carrot juice.  The Easter Bunny hid eggs for the kids and left them a clue hunt that led them to their Easter baskets.

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Here are a few pictures of random events and happenings from the last week.

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This past 3-day weekend we decided it was high-time we took the kids out for a movie so it was over the causeway on Friday morning to Bahrain to see the Lorax at the City Center Mall.  We attended a few more errands such as stocking up on Dachshund Chow at Pet Arabia and trolling the aisles at Jawad where Nora found dinosaur oatmeal she’s been craving for a year now.  The highlight though was the Lorax.  A great movie that we all really enjoyed.

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This last weekend we’ve had some very occasional sprinkles but not much to write home about.  Pretty much just to make the windshields muddy.  Kain and Nora were playing outside with the Borns all afternoon and when the rain came through they didn’t miss a beat.

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Last Thursday was the annual Cub Scout Soap Box derby.  After a mild (even cold) winter it was probably our first taste of what summer will have in store.  A hot, dry, dusty, windy day.  Still, it wasn’t unbearable and the event went well.  Kai won two of his three races which he was pretty excited about.

You can also check out the event and photo gallery on the Pack 3253 webpage http://pack3253.org.

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