San Juan Island, WA

We had planned on going on a little adventure to San Juan Island and to Victoria Island, B.C. But since I forgot our passports at Grandpa Epi's house, we cut our trip to only San Juan Island. A bit of a bummer, but that just means we will have something to do the next time we visit Grandpa Epi.

Here's daddy and Sahara looking at the many forested islands while on the Washington Ferry.

Sahara and Maya found a wind tunnel at the front of the boat and could not resist playing in it.

Upon arrival to Friday Harbor and after our initial shock of forgetting our passports. We went to Lime Kiln Park to see if we could view Orcas. We didn't see any whales, but we got to see this cool eagle. I've never seen one in the wild before, and I'm sure it was a first for the girls.

The island is pretty small, so we went back to Friday Harbor for lunch, then checked into the Lakedale Resort. We didn't know what to expect since we learned about this place from a tourist book, but we were pleasantly surprised with our accommodations.

Here's our room. Well, it's actually a tent/cabin. And because it's a little before peak season, there were hardly any people around, giving us a lot of freedom to ruin all the peace and quiet. They just build these tents so everything was new and clean.

It was kinda like camping, except we had a bed. There was no running water or electricity. Sort of like glam camping.

Here's another view of our room before the girls rearranged everything. Beyond the bed you can see a futon couch that folded open to a bed. That's where the girls slept.

Here's the view from our tent. We were right on the lake. At sunset we could watch geese flying just inches above the water honking.

I was making the girls bed and they wanted to help by jumping on the bed. And yes, they are naked. We have a hard time keeping their clothes on.

Here's our little table outside our tent. The girls are in the pajamas and brushing their teeth before bed. After they fell asleep, which took a while because the sun was up until after 9 p.m., Nader and I sat around the camp fire. It was really nice. So those were the highlights, the downside was that it felt like it got to 20 degrees that night and Maya was snoring like a chain saw. We planned on staying another night but it started raining, so we packed up the car and headed back to Papa Epi's house. It was a short trip but worth it.

Olympia Washington Childrens Museum

Although Washington State is a great place to be with nature and enjoy just about every outdoor activity, you have to always be prepared for rainy days. We luckily found an awesome children's museum where we can play when the weather is too cold and rainy to play outdoors. The cool thing I discovered is that all children's museums in the U.S. are linked. And since we have a membership to the Escondido Children's Museum, we were able to upgrade our membership to the national membership for a small fee. Yippee !!!

The girls loved playing with the lentils. Something I would never attempt recreating in my own house. There were lentils everywhere.


Here's Maya watering a garden of vegetables.

Here's Dr. Maya Khoury caring for a baby.

Here's our little dentist cleaning a hippo's teeth.

Here's Sahara driving the delivery truck.

Check out the great assortment of vegetables and fruit. The girls would collect basket after basket and take them to the kitchen and pretend to cook.

They had a great assortment of breads, meats and fish and dry goods.

Here's the fully loaded kitchen.

Even with all the pictures, you have seen only a small portion of this wonderful place. Needless to say we are thrilled we found this place.

Greetings From Washington State

We are visiting Papa Epi for a few weeks in Washington State. Although Spring is late this year we have luckily had nice weather. Thank goodness !!! Maya and Sahara have been having a great time tearing down Grandpa Epi's house. As much as possible I try to get the girls out of the house so they can enjoy nature and get their energy out. We visited Defiance Point in Tacoma, WA. This place is only 1/2 hour away and is a lush park which has a cool zoo and aquarium. Here's a few pictures from our visit there.

Maya and Sahara chasing geese in the park.

Sahara sneaking up on some unsuspecting ducks that are napping.

Maya met a friendly squirrel who is probably used to being fed. Can you see the squirrel to the left of Maya.

Here's the zoo/aquarium.

They had a petting zoo for the kids. Here you can brush the goats. Maya and Sahara enjoyed this for about a minute before they were running to the next thing.

We were the only ones in the petting zoo for a while which was pretty cool.

The kids area included the petting zoo, a play set, wallabies, snakes, a ray, lizards and these cool slides. Here's Papa Epi watching Maya slide down.

The aquarium had a cool shark exhibit. The girls have gotten good at making the animal sound for each animal. And when we ask them what a shark says, they say, "da da, da da." Nader taught them to say the sound effect from the movie JAWS. Nice daddy !!!

Strawberries, Friends and Fun

We had a fun filled day today. In the morning we met our friends Levi, Aaron and their mom, Cynthia at the U PICK strawberry fields in Carlsbad. The weather was perfect for strawberry picking. Not too cold and not too hot. Here are quite a few pictures from our day.

Cynthia, Levi and Aaron right before we attacked the strawberry fields. You buy a bucket or buckets, and proceed to pick until you and your buckets are full.

Here's a visual of a row of strawberries. You walk down a row and pick. We were told that it was better to pick from the bottom of the stem so the strawberry grows back and to pick the smaller ones because they are sweeter.

Here's Maya and Sahara hard at work.

Take a look at their buckets.

I think Maya is eating more than picking.

Here's our friend Aaron snacking in an ocean of strawberries.

After nap we met a few other friends to go to the new children's museum in downtown San Diego. To my disappointment it was closed today so we went to Balboa Park instead. Here's a picture of Klara, Khloe, Kimi and their mommy Alyssa.

We went to the science museum which has an area called Kid City for infants to 6 year old.

This place was perfect to spend the afternoon. It was indoors which was good because it was cold out and it was filled with age appropriate activities that were all science inspired.

Here's Maya enjoying time on the computer without her daddy chasing her off.

Here's a vacuum exhibit where you put balls in the tube and it spits out another tube. Maya really loved this one.

Here's Sahara making faces in the funky mirror.


These conveyors and the fake food was a huge hit with the kids.


And here's a close up of little Khloe. Cute as a button.

Happy Birthday Maya and Sahara !!!

It was the girl's 2nd birthday party this past Saturday. Luckily the sun decided to show up and we ended up with beautiful warm weather. Perfect conditions for swimming in the pool and playing with friends. Here are some of the pictures from our fun day.

A view of the back yard. People were laying out their blankets on the grass next to the pool. It felt like a park setting.

Tata Linda with two of her grandchildren, Domnic with a little mohawk going and Sahara. Sahara had just woken up from her nap and came out to a backyard full of birthday party goers. The party was at 2 p.m. and Sahara napped until around 2:20 p.m. and Maya until 3 p.m.. I was afraid Maya would sleep through her own party.

Mary and Novella enjoying some cupcakes.

Aaron showing off his tummy. Nice frosting mustache.

Sido and Azar enjoying some acoustic Arabic music.

Uncle Saba and Uncle Brian.

Two new friends.

Here's Kim and Austin enjoying some cupcakes that my friend Natalia made that morning. Yummy !!

Uncle Saba with Dominic and Milani in the jacuzzi.

Here are the birthday girls blowing out candles.

We limit the sugar we give the girls but on their special day they went to town. Sahara ate two cupcakes !!! Although half ended up on her face.

Maya could not believe her luck. "Mommy is actually letting me eat this thing !"

Our neighbors Anne Marie and Josie.


Laura and Olivia in their perfect pool party attire.

Auntie Christine enjoying a cupcake. She has four kids and looks great !


Eva and her two little munchkins, Natalie and Nicolas.


Austin could not resist playing in the little house. Nice Hawaiian shirt !!

Azar, Kamal, Sido and cousin Andre relaxing after lunch.

Tata Rose and Sahara in the bouncy house.

Maya and Dominic having fun.

Here are a few relatives, Kamal, Hiam, my mom Rose and Sido.

Baby Gianna was there to celebrate.


Sido and Dominic.

The next day, which is their actual birthday, we opened presents. It felt like Christmas morning. In the end the girls had an awesome birthday surrounded by friends and family. The best kind of birthday you can have.