I have talked about Courtney on here before...we met shortly after we both started working for Extension in College Station. She came to us from Michigan and the two of us hit it off instantly. We have spent the last 4 out of 5 thanksgivings together...which means something because the first two we were both in texas, we skipped a year then she came in from grad school in Seattle last year and now, she works and lives in Sweden with her boyfriend Blake. They both came to Qatar for Thanksgiving this year ( my first time to meet Blake who Clifton and I really really liked) and we had a blast (videos included)! They arrived Tuesday night and Wednesday I took them up to campus and to my favorite Turkish place followed by a trip to Vellagio with Jacob for ice cream.
Wednesday night the boys hung out together and I took Courtney to my favorite Saloon (hehe salon...) where Men's Not Allowed (read the sign people) for henna on our arms and legs. Fun until we had to drive to dinner with Heather and Michelle.
Thursday was Thanksgiving (no really you say) we fixed Thanksgiving lunch for a few friends and grad students (19 folks, but who is counting) and then Thursday night we had a fancy smancy hanksgiving across the street with about 30 folks.
Courtney said she was only coming if we fried a turkey...we think this may have been the first fried turley ever in Doha. Thanks to my parents and Justin and Jordan for making this happen for us and thanks to our friends here in Doha that helped as well (including Duffee and Franklin who thought it might be a good idea to build a contraption to lower and lift the turkey!) 
I'm not even going to go into how hard it is to make a real Thanksgiving dinner here...it requires sevral visits to several different grocery stores and good friends like Jen who apparently can make celery appear from thin air!
Getting ready to go to Thanksgiving dinner in her tutu
A little nicer than my paper plate set up
Friday we went on a desert safari which was amazing. We also went dune bashing which involves a crazy Palestinian driver, a nissan patrol and alot of screaming....it was FANTASTIC, after we bash dunes, we went to the companies camp site for a bbq lunch prepared there for us, sand boarding (you will have to read Courtney's blog), camel riding (videos) and swimming. By the way, it finally rained on Friday...I took Maddie out in it before we left her and Jacob with Josie.
Oh yea....we drove up this at 80 miles an hour!
This camel was PISSED!!!!
In front of Saudi...literally
Saturday was a blast as well, we went to Souq Waqif to do some shopping and then we had lunch at this fabulous Iranian place that was shiny....the whole place was very very shiny...which is a good thing because Courtney loves shiny things!
SO here is a bunch of pictures of the kiddos that a combination of us took! I love my babies! Blake and Courtney definently got to spend some quality time playing trucks and such!
Oh yea....we drove up this at 80 miles an hour!
This camel was PISSED!!!!
In front of Saudi...literally
Saturday was a blast as well, we went to Souq Waqif to do some shopping and then we had lunch at this fabulous Iranian place that was shiny....the whole place was very very shiny...which is a good thing because Courtney loves shiny things!
SO here is a bunch of pictures of the kiddos that a combination of us took! I love my babies! Blake and Courtney definently got to spend some quality time playing trucks and such!
So here are the promised hilarious videos of Courtney and I mastering riding a camel....actually the second time I have been on a camel, but the last time was 26 years ago...so it's been awhile!
Sadly, I drove Blake and Courtney to the airport on Saturday afternoon. It was heartbreaking in a way, but I didn't cry this time...we had such a great time, we are going to try to meet up with them closer to their side of the world next year. When you get a chance, read Courtney's blog...it will be funnier than mine.
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