Wadi Rum with the Girls Scouts!

Last weekend we paid our first visit to Wadi Rum. We went as part of a Girl Scout trip with 80 people! What a place - it reminded me of Canyonlands in Utah set in a desert.

I traveled in a bus with Abi and the Girl Scouts and we managed to make a 3 and a 1/2 hour journey last over 5 hours with lots of discussions on where to stop. We arrived at Wadi Rum and eat lunch in the Visitor Centre before making our way to Rahayeb Desert Camp.

The afternoon was spent sorting out accommodation and making para-cord bracelets

before going out on a walk to see the sunset

We returned to have our dinner dug out of the ground (sorry no photograph) and we finished the evening with Smores on the campfire!

With a few hours sleep we were raring to go the next morning after a typical Jordanian breakfast of bread, dips and boiled eggs. We went on a jeep safari around Wadi Rum.

About to depart

Wall murals

Can you spot the face

Lawrence of Arabia's Canyon

The end of the trip was a cooking lesson and a camel ride

Abi is 12

Abi's 12th Birthday was last month and she had a fantastic time with a family meal on her actual day and then a party with a sleepover for 7 friends on the weekend!

We were surprised when she woke up at a normal time and there was only a few minutes to open cards and a few presents before school.

When she got back we went out for a meal to TGI Fridays so she could have her favourite Mac 'n' Cheese! The restaurant staff sang a funny version of Happy Birthday for her and we went home for cupcakes..

After school on Thursday she went climbing with 7 friends at ClimbAt. We all had pizza at home and the girls eat on our roof terrace so Jacob could have some peace,

but our living room was soon full of girls eating an amazing tie-die cake!

We decided that we could not face cooking for 11 people the next morning so went out for breakfast.

So, it was a busy 18 hours and a very full house....

Thank you everyone for all of her presents, :-)

USA Holiday

The end of March and early April has been busy as we left Amman on Friday the 18th of March for a holiday in Colorado and Utah. The travel there took a whole day flying to London, onto Philadelphia, then finally to Denver. We were traveling for more than 25 hours!

The weekend before that Allen ran the Dead Sea to Red Sea in a relay team. He said he will never do it again, just like when he ran his first marathon, but I think he might be telling the truth this time.

 Allen with the kids after running for 14 and 3/4 hours

The D2R Fat and Furious team

Back to the holiday - when we arrived, to snow, we spent the weekend with our friends catching up, eating lots and having one or two beverages...

We then went to Utah and explored Arches for 3 days and visited Canyonlands for the first time - an excellent experience with lots of walking that our two lovely children enjoyed.

Arches Day 1

We stopped at Balanced Rock Arches on our first day in Utah after a 6 hour drive

We made it to Delicate Arch after a 1 hour hike

Canyonlands Day 2

 We found another good arch

 and views of the canyons

plus a great selfie

 then visited a very strange site - could be a meteor strike

Arches Day 3

The start of the long hike in Arches

 enjoying the precipice holding onto the kids for safety (!)

to get to the Double Arch - the walk was more impressive...

 The end of the 7-mile hike

Arches Day 4

 Our final day in Utah

The Windows

A proper double Arch!

The whole family...

The next week was spent in Denver exploring old haunts and catching up with other friends.

The kids had an Easter Egg Hunt on our old Street finding eggs in the snow

It was great to see John and Sherri in their beautiful new home and meet their daughter Claire. We had some lovely meals with Mindy and met up with old neighbours Ken and Kelly. On our last day before heading to Breckenridge we took Jacob and Abi, Shawna, Will and Mallory from our old street to a trampoline centre.

After too much time following Abi around shops we headed up to Breckenridge for 6 days, skiing for 4 of them, walking around the town on our rest day, and tubing one morning.

 First day skiing

and the first beer in Breckenridge

 Recovering from the 2nd day in an outdoor pool and hot-tub!

 Happy Hour with a great view of the Mountains

 3rd day on the slopes

 enjoying beautiful runs with great views

 A day off to go tubing

 and our last day skiing was hampered by blizzards so we spent a lot of time drinking hot chocolate

but Abi went on a Black Run with Allen while the storm was approaching...

The trip back was quicker but no less exhausting. However, it was helped by having reclining seats on the flights...

and luckily we got to use BA's lounges as well.

A great trip - thank you to all our Denver friends for looking after us.

February 2016 Jordan

Hi all

So I have been busy working full time so we have not done anything out of Amman this past month. We did have a night at the Dead Sea which was extremely relaxing. Jacob has played two proper basketball games and Abi is now on the swim team. She's started practising for her grade two violin, the teacher has said she can skip grade 1. I am still impressed that it doesn't sound like a dying cat when she plays.

Allen is busy with rugby, he bent his finger back and I was worried he'd have to have his wedding ring cut off, he didn't, but his finger is still swollen two weeks on.

We're off to Denver in two weeks, can't wait to see friends, visit a few National Parks and go skiing in Breckenridge. We're there for nearly three weeks so hoping for a bit of a relax too.

School is going well, full on but I am enjoying it. The kids have been having photos done so one of the teachers took sibling ones, that wasn't offered by the photographer. I have included that one here. We also did a fun run at school last week, that's the other photo. The weather is mixed but generally blue skies and sun - very nice.

Cyprus, Allen's Birthday and a Happy New Year!

Hi All
We flew to Cyprus on the 27th December so that we could celebrate Allen's 45th Birthday there, show Jacob and Abi Nicosia - the last divided capital in Europe and to see our friends the Vara's.
We spent three nights and days in Nicosia, we had fun on segways - much better than in Prague and ate  loads of pork!

Abi went to the Vara's house at Akrotiri a day early which was great for everyone! Allen, Jacob and I went over to the Northern part, very different from when we lived in Cyprus 16 years ago as you could not just walk across the green line. There were lots of passport checks but we still could easily go through. Next time we would like to go to Kyrenia, we still loved it on the other side.

On Allen's actual birthday we went to Akrotiri to stay with Jay, Amber and Devina for 2 nights. We went out in Limossol for a great meze dinner and then celebrated Amber's birthday the next night! So Jay cooked us a lovely variety of curries for New Year's Eve/Amber's birthday. We had a snickers cake for the birthday people and played games.

We had a brilliant stay in Cyprus and, as it is only a 50 min flight, we will be going back again this year!