Proper Attire

Jeddah

We ventured out in the heat this afternoon

to see the city in the daylight for a change!

Jeddah is a city of 3 million people.

The streets are full of people - in cars, on bikes,

pulling carts, and pedestrians walking in all directions.

Rana is rather enjoying her freedom in the car without a carseat!

Old buildings and random walls to the

city are still standing in some parts of the

city, but much of the city is pretty modern.

The coast of the Red Sea is lined with little

amusement parks for kids and picnic areas...

...which people really only take advantage

of at night when the temp drops a bit.

Mosques, Saudi royal palaces, shopping malls, and
sculptures like the ones below line the shore, too.

The View

This is the view from our window. The family lives in a nice neighborhood in central Jeddah. There are office buildings, shopping centers, lots of apartment buildings with stores on the ground floor, and a mosque on just about every corner! As you can see, there is one pretty much next door. The call for prayer and the prayers themselves echo through the air five times a day.

Ramadan in Jeddah

It is Ramadan. We're really enjoying the time with the family and

the wonderful, traditional meals at the end of our day of fasting.

This is Najeeb's father, Ahmed

Wahib, Najeeb and their cousin, Nabeel

Two of Nabeel's four kids, Abdullah and Ahmed

Rana really loves her cousins and second cousins!

She gave Baby Razan and Abdullah lots of kisses!

The kids were playing with empty boxes in the kitchen

after our big pre-Ramadan trip to the grocery store.

Look carefully at the box Rana discovered!

She must have known it was meant for her! :)

Rana is very good with Aziz - and he is full of smiles!

Happy Birthday, Najeeb!

Although they don't usually do much to celebrate

birthdays around here, we had a little birthday party

for Najeeb yesterday, complete with brownies, fun
birthday hats, balloons, and crazy string!

Our First Trip to Saudi Arabia!

We are having a wonderful time visiting Najeeb's family in Saudi Arabia. Everyone is thrilled to meet Annie and Rana in person - and we're very happy to be here, too!

Najeeb with his brother Hamoodi, sisters Nedaa and Layal and niece Yara (3.5).

Nedaa, Najeeb, Layal and Wahib

Najeeb and Rana with Abdullah and his sons Faisal (2) and Abdul Aziz (7 mo).

Faisal and Abdul Aziz

Annie with Nedaa and Layal

Yara

Najeeb reading "Goodnight Moon" to Rana, Faisal and Yara.

They love it!

The Park

Rana is really starting to like the park.

She plays in the sandbox and on the swings,

but most of all, she loves being around the other kids!

Playing Around at Fourteen Months

Rana found this little crate, climbed

in and made herself comfortable.

She even managed to get in and out on her own.

Eating spinach is fun!

Talking on the phone, too!

Keeping a one-year-old entertained...

A few unusual delays and missed trains added several hours to our journey to the Rhine (in both directions!). Rana was a great sport, and I think she entertained us as much as we entertained her! ;)

Along the Rhine River

We took a trip yesterday with Uncle David

and Aunt Nancy to the beautiful Rhine region.

We rode the tourboat on the river,

wandered through the towns of Bacharach and St. Goar,

including the Rheinfels Castle, which was once the

biggest castle in the region and dates back to 1245.

It was fun to explore everything!

So big!

Rana loves walking and is pretty fast these days.

She took some time to stop and

smell the roses in the castle gardens.

So big!

Aunt Nancy and Uncle David

Annie's Aunt Nancy and Uncle David

came to visit us in Marburg this week.

We were glad to see them and give them

a chance to get to know Najeeb and Rana.