Ready, Set, Go!

We finally went to our first camel races, something I've been wanting to see since we moved here. They were the last camel races of the season, and we watched the races right before the finals, the sheiks' camels. We stayed to watch about 6 races. It was funny watching them line all the camels up.

Then, there is this brief moment right at the beginning where they are starting to move, and it always seems like a few of them are heading the wrong way!

They sure move though!

Here you can see that instead of human jockeys, they use tiny little robots. Tyler kept referring to them as "droids."

Here you can see some of the owners driving alongside the camels on the outside of the track.

We'd watch them start and run off a ways, then run over to the finish line to watch them finish their race.

Here they come!

As we were leaving, some guards let us in to see the camel pens in the back. I think they could tell how absolutely fascinated Owen was with the camels.

Here he is, cheering on the camels as they line up for their races. He kept trying to count them, but since he can only count to ten he kept having to start over...

I stopped and took a picture of the prizes for the races - 80 million dirhams (approx 20 million dollars) worth of brand new cars. And a sword as the grand prize for first place (no picture of that though :)

Ken and I have decided on an exciting new business plan - camel breeding and racing! Who's in??

Mother's Day

Holidays can be kind of a funny thing over here, especially the ones that always fall on a Sunday in the U.S. We end up half celebrating the on Friday, our "Sunday" and then again on Sunday - actually, its not too bad :) Anyways, what I'm trying to say is Happy Mother's Day, whether you celebrated yesterday or will do so tomorrow :) 

From my amazing mom, who continues to support me from far away and gives the BEST advice,

To my sweet mother in law who is one of the most thoughtful people I know,

To my grandma who I don't get to see very often but who always shows me she loves me,

To my grandma who always sends the best notes and cards, even from all the way around the world,

To Ken's grandma who immediately accepted me and always made me feel comfortable,

 and to the beautiful ladies I've known throughout the years or who I interact with every day - thanks for teaching me how to be a better mom through your awesome examples :) This past week in particular I've watched my kids as they are playing together, or playing with me, and felt just how extremely blessed and lucky I am to be a mom. I'm grateful this week for squishy hugs and drooly smiles,

for the chance to watch them grow in their relationships as siblings and friends,

to see them express their individualism,

and to be the "date" that my little boy most wants to go out with.

See, in my head they still look like this, when in reality, there are two more than this and Tyler is way too big to sit in even the Costco cart :) I've thought about how fast these years are going (even with some long days) and I guess I just want to offer a word of encouragement for all you moms - you are amazing! It doesn't last forever, whether or not you want it to. So love the parts you can, and hold on through those rough patches!

Colby 7 months

Owen 7 months

Hailey 7 months

Will 7 months

Tyler 7 months

Sri Lanka Part III

Probably my most favorite day of the trip was the day we spent with the elephants. First, we went somewhere we could ride them, a dream come true for Ken. 

I was most surprised at how bristly and tough their hair is. At some point on our ride, Hailey made me stop holding her waist so she could say she "rode an elephant all by herself with no one holding on!"

Then, we got to give this elephant a bath. Coolest thing ever. We used coconut shells to scrape the dirt off him and put the water on him. His response was to spray water at us - not sure if it was because he was happy or because he wanted us to stop, but in any case it was enough to convince Owen to stop :) 

As we left this elephant spot, we heard the sound of a snake charmer beckoning to us. Not one to miss out on an opportunity like this, we went to watch him work his magic. The cobra was irritable, because of the heat, and when the charmer stopped playing the music, it started to come towards us. I got a little excited and may or may not have pulled the kids away and asked him to control his snake. Apparently though, they defang these cobras, so nothing to worry about. Who knew?! 

To make up for it, I held the big snake to show the kids that not all snakes are scary. Just the slithery ones. With the flickering tongues. OK, maybe they are all scary :)

Next stop, the elephant orphanage. All kinds of elephants just waiting to be fed and petted.

This one really liked Hailey - I think it actually wanted the flower in her hair. It gave her a big old sloppy kiss and left quite a few elephant boogies behind...

One of the reasons we were so excited to go was because we knew we could feed the baby elephants their bottles. When we got there though, they informed us they were all out of tickets to feed the babies. I haven't mentioned our new guide yet, but I really should - Dinesh became quite the life saver in any number of situations, and the kids absolutely adored him. He was so considerate of us all, stopping whenever we needed to, buying the kids different foods and treats to try, always carrying someone up a mountain and just being all around amazing. He took one look at Hailey's sad face and told us not to worry. Whatever he did worked - he somehow procured 4 tickets and managed to make sure the kids were the very first people to feed them, even though there was already a huge crowd of people lined up!

Tyler was a pro - hey, he's already helped bottle feed 4 human babies, a baby elephant - no problem!

Will wasn't too sure how close he wanted to get.

Hailey held onto the bottle for dear life, then decided the elephant was sucking too hard and just let go of the bottle :) Good thing there were other people helping.

Owen took one look at that vicious baby elephant and would have nothing to do with it, so Ken got to feed it. It was amazing - the elephant would down the entire bottle in about 15 seconds!

Elephants everywhere!

Feeding them some bananas.

At different points during the day, the elephants go from the orphanage, down a little side street, and cross the river. Here they are starting their walk down the street.

They play in the river for a bit, then go sleep and rest on the other side.

That night we watched a cultural dance presentation that was super entertaining for both the kids and the adults. They did some pretty neat things! I was holding a rather wiggly baby, so none of my pictures really turned out.

They also did a fire breathing part out in the rain - AWESOME!

The fire walking was the boys' favorite. They are now convinced they should try it. This coming from the same people who would whine over how hot their feet were on the pavement anytime we went to a temple and had to take our shoes off!

Another day - Sigiriya rock. But first, a picture in front of an extremely cool looking tree! 

Colby was happiest in his portable throne, able to see over the heads of his servants and free to beam his smile at any and all who looked at him.

The walk up to Sigiriya rock was long and HOT - it was almost 100 degrees Fahrenheit that day. The whole area is a ancient palace complex.

The  palace is built on the rock. We didn't actually make it to the top, but it was impressive nonetheless.

It was here we saw our first wild monkeys - they were running around all over the place

I stopped to change Owen's diaper, and this apparently excited one monkey. It wasn't until I turned around and saw him right next to me that I realized I might have a problem. Fortunately Ken, ever my knight in shining armor, was right there. Taking his empty water bottle, he proceeded to bop the monkey square on the head. I don't know who was more surprised - the monkey, who just sat there staring at him in shocked disbelief before running off, or Ken, who had expected the monkey to move :) Poor Owen just lay there shouting "no monkey! no diaper" I guess he didn't want the monkey to make off with his diaper!

There were hundreds of school kids there on a field trip. Most of them would walk by smiling and pointing at the kids, but these girls got extra brave and asked if they could take a picture with Hailey and Owen.

Ken said he attracted all the attention, but I'm pretty sure it was Colby they were after...

We started the hike because the kids were excited about it, but we knew that excitement would wane somewhere around the 100th step out of 600 and that they would then all want to be carried, so we only went up a little way.

My monkeys.

There are a lot of similarities - Colby is particularly adept at this trick!

Don't let these innocent little faces deceive you - they are carefully watching us to see if we will drop some food. And Colby's hat disappeared right after this - pretty sure some monkey took it in revenge for the water bottle "incident."

Long but fun day :)

The day we visited this temple, the storm clouds were gathering. It sure made us hike faster :)

Owen was particularly chatty with these girls.

This mountain had a series of caves full of different Buddhas.

Hailey is my flower collector - she wasn't about to leave her lily as an offering because she wanted to bring it back home. Between her flower collecting and Owen's rock collecting, the adults (including Grandpa and Dinesh) all ended up with very full pockets :)

Owen, running off to start the hike down the mountain. He too was reluctant to give up his lily.

We got to stop at a Batik factory and watch these women make the material. It was fascinating, and they produced some beautiful work!

Can I just buy one of each?!

Ice cream was always a hit. Even Colby was anxious to try some!

We stopped at one of the local Hindu temples and Dinesh (who is Hindu) told us all about it.

We also went to the ancient capital city of Polonnaruwa and saw more amazing ruins.

Grandpa tried his hand at snake charming - with 3 cobras!

Holding a little monkey!

On our way back from Polonnaruwa, we drove through elephant country. We saw this guy taking a dip in the lake.

Then, much to our excitement, we saw this guy right next to the road. Soon after we passed him however, he got tired of people stopping to take pictures and proceeded to step into the road, then take out the next vehicle that came by, which happened to be a city bus. He totaled the bus and managed to shut down the road for 3 hours. We were grateful for small miracles, because our van broke down right after we passed him. We could have been stuck there!

Instead, we were stuck in front of this cute family's house. They invited us to sit with them, had me come in and feed Colby and chatted with us (through our guide). The kids all played tag together. 

Our last full day there was Easter, and being very far from church meant we had a slightly different Easter. We did a service project that hopefully our kids will remember in years to come. I know I will. I had never been exposed to poverty like some of the things I saw in that little mountain village. The trip gave us the chance to see some amazing sights, and meet some amazing people. 

Here are the kids at the airport with Dinesh, holding the goodbye gifts he got for them. They are already planning what we will do "next time" we go back :)