The rest of the party

To round out our day of birthday-that-had-never-occurred-to-us celebration/day off from school (potayto, potahto), Monday evening we went with the Penrods again to have a bonfire in the desert. There's a park/recreational area of sorts just outside of our neighborhood called Wadi Degla. We've been hiking there before (again, another great opportunity to link you to a witty post full of beautiful pictures...that I never wrote), but this was our first time both getting pretty deep into the area and eating s'mores there. That's the only reason I believe fire should exist--so that s'mores can be created. Kevan doesn't agree with me on that, but he's wrong.

Driving into the park:
One of the many neat rock formations:
A self-and-Jess-portrait:
The area where we built the s'mores-cooking contraption:
What did I tell you? Jessie's kind of a big deal. Here she is with Eliza:
And Mairyn (who, for the record, tried to stick her hip out, but couldn't do it and keep her balance):
All of the mountain goats, er, children started climbing up the hill:
But only the oldest four made it all the way up (I promise you they're up there; look closely):
A close(r) up:
More climbing, different area:
Wanna take a guess on what's in Sam's hand here?
Or what just left his hand here?
At one point we noticed that Megan and Mairyn had gone off mountain-goating on their own and had almost made it to the top:
So Jess and Jake were dispatched to help them get back down (wasn't it helpful of them to wear bright colors?):
Jake had a lot of fun with the kites:
I'm not sure what Emma and Eliza had the most fun doing: climbing, flying kites, or giggling. I'm going to guess it was a toss-up.
Sam had a lot of fun watching the fire.
The last of the daylight over our s'mores-site:
And from where Kevan, Spencer, and some of the children were flying kites:
And then we saw the thisclose-to-full moon rise.

Kevan's view:
And mine:

Saqqara

On Monday, the kids had the day off of school for the Prophet Mohammed's birthday. This is not a holiday I ever thought would be relevant to my life, but there you have it. We had planned to go camping during the weekend, but a lovely case of the stomach flu that hit the whole family ruled that out (sorry, Heisses)(also, you're welcome), but we were feeling well enough by Monday to follow through with our plans to go see the Step Pyramid at Saqqara with the Penrods. Feel free to consult that handy link I provided for you, as I am too lazy to recount the history and significance of said pyramid (or the Penrods, for that matter). Or, better yet, my friend's son can do a report on it and get back to you! (No need to thank me, Julie; I'm here to help!) (For all but the two of you who know what I'm talking about, she is saintly and homeschools her 8th grader, and sometimes she has him do research on things we post about. I can't decide if that makes me want to post more, or just post pictures and leave all the information for him to provide :)

Anyway. I am for Egyptian holidays--traffic there was great! On the way we saw a glimpse of the Giza pyramids:
And this awesome lady:
And this awesomer sign:
This was our first glimpse of the pyramid:
Once you get onto the complex, you walk through a corridor of columns, and the kids all had a great time pretending to be statues. I promise we didn't coordinate the matching shirts that both Megan and Mairyn and Emma and Eliza were wearing. I also promise we didn't coordinate their similar names.

The pink-shirted, M-named 6-year olds:
The white-shirted, E-named, 9- (and almost 9-) year olds (and Grant):
Did you know that Rodin stole The Thinker from ancient Egypt? I didn't. But then, I also get told a lot that Sara is an Egyptian name. Apparently everything originated in Egypt.
Jessica tried to be a statue, too, but, well, all the kiddies love them the Jessie. Once she was down at their height, they mauled her.
Along with the statue-ing, there was also much leaping. Eliza's got her some mad hops, yo.
In the courtyard of the pyramid:
The pink girlies:
Something that I love about Mairyn is that if she is aware of the camera, the girl just does not take an un-posed picture--and the pose usually involves jutting her hip out in some way. Clearly this has rubbed off on Meg. Cracks me up.

The pink posers:
Cute friends:
I think the posing must be genetic. From both families.
See?
This posing, however, was forced. Basically, I told her she could stand there nicely and smile, or I could sneak an, er, unflattering picture and post that. Parenting through threats and coercion! I should write a book! And people say teenagers are difficult. Actually, I think I just lucked out with this one. And she's cute, too.
Sam, doing what Sam does everywhere we go--throwing rocks (you can see it up on the second-from-the-top tier of the pyramid).
More use of force to get a good picture of a child (notice that with Sam it requires full-body control):
All of us:
Getting my artsy on:
On the way out of the courtyard, there was more leaping:
This was Sam's version of it. He would sit on the edge of one of the walls, scoot himself off, and then walk to the side, plop down on the ground, and say, "I did it!" Daredevil.
At this point in the post it would be really cool if I were to link you to a post about the visit we made to the pyramids at the Dashur complex in October, but since I never actually wrote that post, you'll have to use your imaginations (and Wikipedia). This shot is from another section of the Saqqara complex, looking south. On the right is the Step Pyramid, and straight ahead in the distance is the Red Pyramid and to the left of that is the Bent Pyramid.
Zoomed in as far as my camera would go:
When I get around to writing about our visit in October (hey! I believe in the power of positive thinking!), I'll show you the corresponding pictures I took of Saqqara from that perspective. I'm sure you can't wait! (Clearly, I can.)

The rest of these pictures are more shots from the road as we were driving home.
Lydia taking a picture of me taking a picture of her. And Spencer? He's just smiling. Smiling's his favorite.