Seychelles pics

I finally got the disposable cameras developed that we had to buy since our camera decided to jam on the first day of the vacation. I don't know if all the fancy cameras make us worse photographers or if the disposable cameras are just that hard to use. Most of the pictures were blurry with bad lighting but we got a few good ones that I've added in below. My favorite is the one above of Jaydon and Steve in the sunset. Steve and Jaydon enjoying the ocean before dinner time. The island is full of gigantic fruit bats with wing spans wider than your arms. Jaydon got very good at spotting them and would spend most of the late afternoon with his eyes to the sky to spot the next one. The resort had golf carts to get from the beach to the restaurants to the villas perch up in the cliff. Jaydon loves tractors and to him the carts were a perfect replacement for the tractors he usually sees at home. He loved to ride in them and by then end of the week when all the drivers knew him he usually sat on their lap and helped drive. Here's a couple of good beach shots, it was only after I saw this one on the big computer screen when I realized why Steve might have been taking it :) Jaydon and Steve made a great team building and destroying sand castles. Jaydon loved the water and got pretty brave about going into it even with the waves crashing (it meant Steve and I had to be on high alert and ready to grab him before they swallowed him up). He had fun playing with the ice and ate about as much sand as he did ice. We also spent a lot of time in the pool. The ocean was a bit to rough too swim in with Jaydon and by the end of the week only the body surfers were venturing out into the waves. On the last day Steve decided that he had enough relaxing and needed to go out fishing. As I mentioned the ocean was getting very rough so he ended up feeding as many fish as he caught but he did catch some beautiful ones. His very first sailfish which ended up spearing the deck hand in the knee (that's why his spear is missing). He took the tuna home and had the chef at the restaurant cook it up for us. The rest of the fish he left with the captain to hand out to all his buddies.

swimming lessons

It's summer time which means all the schools are closing and they've opened up their pools for swimming lessons. Jaydon has always liked the water but lately he's getting more cautious about getting his head wet. Bath time is fun only until it's hair washing time - then it's a battle usually ending with tears. In addition to having something to do I was hoping swim lessons would help Jaydon get used to water on his head. He loves the fact that the pool is full of other kids - or be-be's as he says. When ever they sing activity songs he always signs and asks for more when they're finished. The time of morning is a little tough since its 8:30 am which is right when he usually goes for his morning nap. It usually means the ride home is a little tough but I think the fun he has a t the lessons makes up for it. He's also taking the lessons with 2 of his friends from the compound Jacob and Clarissa. They're much younger than Jaydon but seem to enjoy the swim lessons just as much.

Seychelles

We spent the week at the Seychelles relaxing in the beautiful 4-seasons resort. Steve hadn't been able to join us on any of the recent adventures so he was due for a little pampering and relaxing. We definitely went to the right place. The resort was beautiful. Each room it's own separate villa with a private infinity pool. The beach was gorgeous the sand was white and as fine as baby powder. The staff was excellent and were all Jaydon's buddies by the end of the trip. I did yoga every morning at the spa perched at the top of the cliff with an amazing view of the sea. The only problem is our camera broke within hours of arriving. It didn't even have time to get equilibrated with the temperature so the lens would stop fogging up before it jammed. This meant that we only have these few foggy pictures. We ended spending about 70 euros 2 disposable camera which now each have about 5 pictures remaining before I can get it processed the old fashioned way. We also have a short video so you can see the view from our pool. This will have to suffice until the pictures come back of Jaydon having fun in the sand and Steve catching his first sailfish.

It was bound to happen...

...we've lived in Doha for over four years now and it has one of the highest auto accident rate per capita of any country in the world. I think a few other middle east countries beat it in the rankings. The day before we left on vacation Steve got hit by a Qatari entering a frontage road by going the wrong way on an off ramp. Fortunately Steve saw him coming and accelerated so he hit the passenger door rather than the driver door. Nobody was hurt, the guy who hit Steve had his wife with their kid on her lap in the front passenger seat with him. Overall everyone was very lucky - except for Steve's car. Now we get to figure out how to be a one car family for awhile while we navigate through the bureaucracy of getting a car fixed by insurance. We're hoping it will only take 2 weeks but who knows...