Back from Egypt!

Well, we made it to Egypt and back again already! What a fabulous vacation we just had. It was such a fun, exciting time, seeing so many things I've only seen in pictures. The various photos we took will hardly do it justice, but hey -- at least they prove we were actually there, right? I'll take a few days to finish this entry, but here's a start...
THE PYRAMIDS

This first shot (above) is in front of the Sphinx and the pyramids. It's kind of an optical illusion, because the Sphinx is nowhere near the size of the pyramids, but it looks like it's almost as large, when taken from this viewpoint. And below, you can see how MASSIVE the pyramids are up close! Each layer of stone is nearly 6 feet tall. Apparently they used to let people climb the pyramids, but they're steep enough that one or two people died each year so they stopped letting tourists climb. Smart move, I think.

Here we are, all of us in front of the pyramids. My brother, Blaine, and his wife, Lisa, joined us for the trip. They ventured inside one of the pyramids to see the inner chambers. I started to follow, but it was tight and dark and hot and I experienced my first case of claustrophobia and high-tailed it out of there in a hurry!
In this one (below), I paid 5 egyptian pounds (about $1) to sit on this camel and get my picture taken. The camel was named Moses. His owner pestered me for about an hour before I finally caved and got my photo. Thanks, Moses.
This security guard came up and picked Samantha up out of her stroller, sitting her on his knee. he then patted places beside him for me and Blaine to come have a seat, and mimed that we should take a picture. I thought it was cute of him to want a picture with us, so I had Brian take one. Immediately he mimed that he would liked payment for the picture, saying "baksheesh" which means, "I'd like a tip." I reached in my jeans and pulled out a bill I thought was 1 egyptian pound. Handed it to him and watched him smile as he pocketed it quickly. Then Brian started talking to him, and he pulled the bill out again, handing it back to me. I had accidentally handed him 100 egyptian pounds instead of 1 pound! Oops! Some kind of tip. Good thing Brian was around to help me find my way around, eh?

LUXOR

After a day in Cairo seeing the pyramids, we took the night train to Luxor. The train was nice enough, with private cabins and bunks -- dinner included. Samantha slept on the floor in her pack-n-play. We awoke as the train arrive, about 7 a.m., just in time for a full day of site-seeing in Luxor. First, the Luxor temple, pictured below. It was amazing! I'm not good at remembering which Ramses did which bit of the temples and such. So, no names or dates on these picts. Sorry. Just know, they were VERY old, and VERY well preserved, and VERY intricately carved.
Blaine had some creative photo ideas that he enthusiastically insisted upon... copy the statues! It was a bit comical to see how many people stopped to watch us pose for this one below. I bet they were just jealous they hadn't thought of it first.
And this one, below, is another of Blaine's creations. Brian and I are acting out the scene carved on the column behind us. I bet no one ever thought of that before, in all the thousands of years that carving has been there, eh?
We visited Valley of the Kings (below), where all the ancient pharoahs' tombs were. That's where they found all the mummies, so well preserved. The mummies and most of the artifacts from the tombs are now in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo (which we saw later). But inside the tombs, the walls are intricately carved with heiroglyphics and paintings. It was incredible to see how colorful and beautiful they were. They wouldn't let us take pictures of the tombs, for preservation. But I bet you can imagine, eh?
Poor Lisa decided to investigate a small, abandonded tomb. Well, turns out it was full of animal poop of some variety, maybe camels? She was overwhelmed by the oder and didn't get past the entrance. We offered support by laughing and taking her picture in the dung-infested entrance.
This is in front of one of the tomb entrances. While we were standing in line to go in, something remarkable happened... it rained! Rain is a rarity in Egypt -- maybe once or twice every couple years! Yeah, so what if it was just a tiny shower?! We actually saw rain in Egypt.
We stopped at the temple of Hatshepsut, ancient queen of Egypt, on our way back to our hotel. We didn't go in, but it looked very fascinating the way it's built right out of the hillside.
I'm going to have to stop here for tonight... will pick up later tomorrow, I hope.

First Hair Cut

Samantha got her first haircut on Monday this week. I was debating whether she should have bangs (or fringe, as they say here), or whether we'd let it grow out. Those front pieces were just getting long enough to hang in her eyes or be clipped back. She settled the decision herself, by her successful attempts at pulling out ANYTHING and EVERYTHING I ever try to put in her hair... bows, barretts, ribbons, clips, ect. They all come out in a matter of minutes. So, she now has bangs, and we'll continue to work on leaving hair accessories in the hair. She wasn't too keen on modeling the new do, but I did get a couple of pictures just before putting her to bed Monday night...
I added a couple other cute shots from the last few weeks, just for show. Here she is trying on my Norwegian hat. She wore it around quite awhile last week.
Samatha's started doing a funny little grin when she thinks she's being especially clever and cute. She scrunches her cheeks and squints her eyes and giggles. Hard to catch on the camera, but here's the tail end of the scrunchy cheeks face...
Last night Sam bit her tongue trying to climb down from the table. It was bleeding and she was crying, so Mom fixed it all better by giving her an ice cream sandwich...

Weekend Road Trip!

Since we didn't have church meetings this weekend, and General Conference airs so late over here, Brian and I decided it would be a nice time to get away. We found a good hotel deal in Preston, near the west coast, and took a little road trip Saturday and Sunday. The place we stayed was this fabulous Marriott in an old restored house. They had a great pool and grounds so we let Samantha walk around, and we had family swim time before watching conference and putting Sam to bed (in the pack-n-play in the bathroom, ha!).

The next morning we went over to Blackpool on the coast and walked along the pier and boardwalk. Blackpool was designed as an amusement center town -- including its own Eiffel Tower, back in the early 1900s. It's since lost some of its charm and now seems to be a hangout for the uncouth youth of Britain. Brian was tempted to nickname it the white-trash capital of the country.

After that we picked some spots we wanted to visit for the afternoon, and set off for a place called Styal Mill and Quarry. It was an old cotton mill, still in operation with machines from way back when, charting the progress of the cotton industry. Brian really enjoyed all the machinery, but Samantha thought it was too loud. The part she liked best was the fact that strollers weren't allowed in the building so she basically got to "roam free" for an hour. Here she sits on a huge cotton bale, just like down in Dixie...
Our next destination was the grand finale for me. Yes, some of you Jane Austen fanatics may recognize the house in the picture below or the quote: "I don't think I've ever seen a place so happily situated. I like it very much indeed."

That's right, we went to Pemberly! For those not in-the-know, Pemberly is the fictitious estate of the celebrated Mr Darcy in Jane Austen's 'Pride and Prejudice.' Naturally, there's not a real Pemberly, but this house -- called Lyme Park -- was featured in the 5-hr A&E film version of Pride and Prejudice as Mr Darcy's home. Lovely place! Below, Samantha's dancing in front of the steps Darcy raced down when he went chasing after Elizabeth when they accidentally met at Pemberly.
Here's the front of the house, which isn't in the movie much. Sam loved that big grassy court in the front, and resisted getting back in her stroller after being free to roam about that big area! We visited the inside of the house, too, but no pictures allowed.
Here's my attempt to catch all three of us in front of the reflecting pool...
Brian's attempt was much better, don't you agree??
After our visit to Pemberly, we took a scenic bypass through the Peaks District on the way home, listening to a session of conference that we had downloaded onto the computer. (Sam screamed a lot during this portion of the trip, making us mildly concerned about our upcoming travel plans, hmmm...) We got home to listen in on the 9pm session and the end of conference. What a nice, fun weekend away!

La Alhambra, Grenada

The main reason for posting more pictures of Spain is to get to these most amazing photos of The Alahambra Palace in Grenada. We spent most of an entire day visiting this place, and found it so fascinating and beautiful. The oldest parts were built in the 9th century, and a grand palace was built in the 13th century as a home for the king and his family. It was the last stronghold of the Moorish people before the Spaniards conquered the region. The photos don't even begin to capture the intricate detail and creative architecture. Here are some highlights...
Brian is standing underneath a huge door, intricately carved in wood.
The whole palace complex had pools, fountains and streams running throughout. It all operated on a complex hydrolics system, bringing water to the entire royal family and the many servants. They've restored it as it was when the palace was in operation. None of the streams or ponds makes noise... designed to be silent, while constantly running.

For the picture below, we waited and waited for the people around this archway to move out so Brian could take one of just us (Sam's fast asleep under my coat in her stroller) and the cool engravings. Well, neither turned out very clear, so I'm not sure it was worth the wait. But let me tell ya, in person it was spectacular to see... orange trees out the window and everything.
A veiw of the city of Grenada, from one of the palace balconies.
If I look cold, it's because I was. They don't heat these old palaces from the 1300s, if you can imagine!?!? Ah, but look at the details on the wall!! Most of the palace had carvings that would have been painted like this way back when. It was gorgeous, the parts they've restored.

Sam was a very happy girl after taking a two hour nap in her stroller. She loved walking along the paths holding our hands. It was hard to take her stroller up the stairs in the towers, so with most of them we took turns going up to see the view, one of us staying on the ground with Samantha.
Views from the top...
Quite the watch tower, no?

Back to Spain... more picts

Remember back when we were moving, I said I had more pictures from our trip to Spain? Well, I still have them and I'm finally getting around to posting some of them, even though they're now VERY old news. That doesn't mean they're any less beautiful and interesting, right? So, here are some more memories from our trip to Grenada, Malaga, and Cordoba, with little commentary:

CORDOBA

Oranges in January!! I tasted an orange that I stole off a tree. It was extremely bitter... apparently they are not ripe in January, even if they are orange.

We toured a fabulous villa, set up as a family would have lived in the 1300s. It was gorgeous, with a waterfall courtyard right in the middle of the house! Brian loved this artsy shot of me reading papyrus poetry in the mirror.


RHONDA

Rhonda is a picturesque little village set at the top of a winding gorge. We drove up winding, cliffside roads for an hour to get there. Sam, of course, loved the park at the top of the overlook. The other children were so cute, helping her on the slides and taking turns with her. Rhonda has its own bullfighting arena and is said to be the bullfighting capital, who knows? Here's the bridge over the gorge, built sometime in the 1700s, I think. The picture doesn't do it justice for how deep that gorge is!
We ate at a little restaurant where the waiter took Sammie's bottle of baby food, warmed it on the stove, and brought it back in a china bowl! Posh!

MALAGA and SPANISH COUNTRYSIDE

I already showed you the gorgeous view from our hotel in Malaga, way back when. Did I mention how much Sam loved our balcony? She would step outside and yell whenever she got the chance. But she hated the beach and the water... cried the whole time we were there, both times.

This is an olive grove. They were everywhere, as we drove along. I got really curious about how they harvest olives and came home and looked it up online. They have a big machine that shakes all the olives from the trees and then they gather them off the tarps they spread on the ground to catch them. At least that's what I read. If you look close at the second shot, they're growing olives all the way up the steep hillsides!

This is Santa Clause. No joke. We saw several different Santas on the sides of people's houses, and some for sale in the stores too. I guess if you don't have lights to decorate, at least you can get a Santa. Also notice the blanket doors. We couldn't decide whether they hid the wooden doors underneath to keep the cold air out, or whether the blanket was the door??
How many of you have seen Nacho Libre? Well... Chancho?

In the meat section of the grocery store, you can buy your own smoked pig leg... hoof and all!

GRENADA

We happened into Grenada on yet another holiday weekend! They had lights and music and fireworks and a parade just at the end of the block from our hotel. We watched the parade for a few minutes... they were floating along to "Praise to the Lord the Almighty" sung by Mormon Tabernacle Choir, seriously! The Mack Wilberg rendition! It was on repeat. Sam hated the parade because of the confetti fireworks, so we didn't stay too long.

In conjuntion with the holiday, they were selling these round cakes with toys baked inside as a special treat for kids. Brian bought one, but it was very bland and we didn't eat much of it. The toy inside was soggy, if I remember right.