The Move

We made it! We've been here in Saudi Arabia for a few weeks, and we really like it so far. Most people refer to it as KSA in writing (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia), or just "the Kingdom," when talking.

We went to this little spot a few weeks ago outside of the city to feed baboons, but we didn't get to feed any because they were being chased away by wild dogs. The baboons lived in the caves down below us in the picture. Apparently when you whistle, these particular baboons come up to get the food. Oh, and see the date farm below us? It was also really, really, windy up there, and colder than I expected. I ended up wearing Nathan's jacket, since all I had to cover my short-sleeves was my abaya. And there was no way I was going to walk across rugged terrain in a robe that dragged on the ground!

At one point, Sam was trying to kick some rocks, and his sandal flew off over the edge and landed on a ledge about 15-20 feet down. Luckily, one of our friends found a way to climb down and get it. Thank goodness, because that was our only pair of sandals that we brought, and we hadn't found a kid's shoe store yet. (Navigating malls and finding stores is kind of difficult here, but that's a whole other topic for another post!)

So I figured it's now time to play catch up on what I should've blogged about when I got here!

The Flight

After 20 hours of traveling with three and a half kids, including two flights, we made it. I flew while 34 weeks pregnant. I don't recommend it, but we didn't really have much of a choice. I wish I had gotten a picture of my amazing cankles by the time we reached our new home in Riyadh (prounounced REE-odd), the capital city of Saudi Arabia. They. Were. Intense. (Quick tip for my pregnant friends: if you're late in your pregnancy, Delta/Air France, doesn't currently require any medical clearance or doctor's note from a doctor to fly.)

The flight was kinda crazy, and here's why. The morning we were to leave from the airport, Sam, 3, was complaining of a headache, which we didn't really think much of. Then on the way to the airport, Maren, 19 months, was crying incessantly and chewing on her fingers. We decided to stop real quick and buy some infant Tylenol and teething gel to help Maren out on the flight. When we got to the airport, it took us an hour to get all of our luggage checked. We only had to check 16 items (not including a bunch of car seats and a stroller). The kids started going crazy just waiting at the counter after about ten minutes. They started jumping on the luggage scales and running behind the ticket counters, etc. Then Nathan came to the rescue and kept them busy for 45 minutes by taking them over to an empty ticket counter line and playing some creative make-believe games with all three of them.

Here's a video of him and his creativity. Wish I could hear what he was saying!

Tips for traveling/moving overseas: 

-If you are checking a bunch of your stuff, and you plan on using cardboard boxes, make sure the boxes are wrapped in that moving-grade plastic wrap. You can get it from Uhaul, I know. Our boxes were falling apart after being thrown around. In fact, things were falling out of the torn seams and corners when we finally got them in the airport in Saudi Arabia.
-Print out labels and stick them on all (or in all) your luggage, including boxes. That way if they get lost, they know who it belongs to.
-Bring suckers to help your kids' ears deal with the plane cabin's pressure change.
-Don't bring a sucker for a 19-month old. That resulted in a sticky mess, though she didn't mind. Find some other snack to give them. Fruit snacks and her sippy cup worked much better for her (i.e. for us) during the second flight.
-Bring a carseat on the plane so your littlest one(s) can be restrained.
 -Let your kids carry some carry-ons to help you out with of some of those bags. Our three- and five-year old were able to manage their own little one with wheels through the airports and planes.
-Don't just rely on in-flight entertainment to entertain your kids. The "Kids Movies" options on the built-in back-of-the-chair flight screens were a little too intense for our kids (our oldest is five), and they didn't really understand how to work the little controller/remote for the games either. Though we didn't have too much room, we brought Crayola crayons that came in this little case (to prevent them from rolling around). Each crayon snapped into it's own place, and the crayons were attached to a little notebook. That was a saving grace.
-Bring meds, even if you don't think you'll need them: Children's Tylenol, teething gel, and some children's anti-diarrhea medicine. Two of our kids had diarrhea on the plane, and that was extrememly stressful, especially when both ailes to the bathroom were being blocked by stewardesses passing out food, who told us to wait until they were done before going to the bathroom. And both kids HAD to go. Right then. I really, really wish we had brought diarrhea medicine.
-Bring a bib for the little one(s). They will somehow manage to make a mess out of non-messy foods. We love the Baby Bjorn stiff, catch-all bibs because if they get gross, they just rinse/wipe off.
-Bring extra wet wipes. They were handy for wiping hands, noses, and sticky surfaces.

Baggage

 Here are our carry-ons! See my violin? :) Hooray for violin cases with backpack straps!

Here's some of the baggage we checked after they threw it behind the counter. Yay for Lowe's medium and large moving boxes, whose dimensions were under Delta's/Air France's size limit!

Take-Off, Entertainment, and Airports

The kids were excited to be flying and to be getting little suckers. And my apologies for not being able to figure out how to rotate the video 90 degrees.

These awesome Crayola crayons and containers were a lifesaver.

The tram in the Paris airport was really exciting for the kids. I got to practice tram surfing, which was fun.

This is when we landed in Riyadh, only to discover that there were no elevators--only escalators and stairs (behind us). Luckily our flight crew helped us out down the stairs (whew!).

There was this beautiful fountain in the middle of the airport.

It was really difficult for the kids to stay off of the the conveyor belt. They kept trying to sneak a ride on it when we weren't looking.

This little seat that Maren is in is the "Ride-On-Carry-On" from the show Shark Tank. This also was a lifesaver. The only annoying thing was having to take the seat off (and Maren out) twice so that we could send it through the security scanner.

The Airport Restroom Guessing Game

The kids had to go potty while we were waiting at the airport. We found the restrooms, but the signs were in Arabic only.

So do we take the left door propped open by a mop bucket... Or the right door, that is closed? I opted for the left door,

Here's what we found behind stall door #1:

And this was behind stall door #2. We decided to just wait until we got to our place.

Riyadh: Home Sweet Home

This was the view from the outside of the airport. See the big lit up mosque in the background? While I was in the airport, I only saw a handful of women in the entire airport, and I was the only woman outside of the airport. I did feel a little self-conscious, especially because I didn't have my abaya (black robe that women wear) on yet, though I did try to wear loose clothing.

See the random man waving at me?

The kids liked the house -- especially the balcony! This was day two after our arrival. This might have been filmed at 3 a.m. when the kids woke up wired and ready to eat. The jet lag took about five days to wear off.

Did you know camels come in black and brown? This was our first close-up camel sighting outside of the city:

There are cranes all over the city. I tried to get a picture here which is kind of blurry, but you get the idea. Lots of building (and road) construction that seems to be never-ending. But I guess that's expected in a city of 5 million, right? All the cranes kind of reminded me of Brussels, Belgium.

And I love seeing things like this in the stores. It reminded me of all those hilarious Chinese translated phrases you see on packaging. Here's a backpack (that Avery wanted, of course) we came across in one of the stores here. I wonder if the foreign marketing employers think, "What words do Americans like? They seem to be obsessed with princesses. They like money. And they're always singing and talking about 'love.' Oh, I know! How about we put the phrase 'Gold Princess of Love' on it?"

I couldn't resist taking a picture of Lulu Caty. Avery asked me why I was taking a picture of it, and I told her it was because I liked it so much. :) Just not enough to buy it.

Here we are driving through a typical neighborhood. All the houses/villas here are walled and gated. And you'll have fancy-looking villas next to dumpy-looking ones. And across the street might be a city-block-sized lot full of garbage. And some of these places seem like they are under construction, but I have almost never seen them being worked on, and many look like they were abandoned during the construction process.

As for things I plan to write more about: Navigating restrooms, driving and riding, shopping, men/women separation, and prayer time.

Baby is due in a few days, so we'll see if I end up posting before then. But we're glad to be together as a family again. And it has definitely been an adventure so far that we've loved. I think more things happen each day than I could ever blog about, so I won't have the time to be as detailed as I want. But, I'll do my best to post about the things that I think are semi-interesting!

Until next time!