Sunday, June 3, 2007

Hayden 5 Months and Jason's Jordan Trip

Hayden's in his new wetsuit that Grandpa Bob bought him.
Tossing him up in the air is a sure way to get a smile.

Little surfer boy.He's ready for the beach. It just needs to get a little warmer.
Hayden got tired after trying to scoot across his tummy time mat.

Five months old picture.

Here's a picture from Jason's Jordan trip. It's Petra. You can see the ancient carved buildings beyond the rock canyon.
Jason in a wide brimmed hat for sun protection with Petra in the background.

Here's the Dead Sea at sunset. Jason's firm just finished a project on this site. It's going to be the first development allowed on the Dead Sea. It's a very hilly site with homes and a golf resort. A Marriot has already been built and they are grading for the homes and golf course right now.
Here's the design team on the 600 acre site that the client want to make into an Equestrian Community (with Polo Fields, Horse Areas, Riding Trails, 1-acre home sites for 10,000 sq ft homes, and 1/4 acre home sites for 2,000 sq ft homes). The land owner's in the background with the yellow shirt. The guys in the straw hats are Austrailia Architects that specialize in Equestrian Facilities. The tall lady is the Jordanian Architect (for the homes) and she's also the Mayor's wife. The man on the left with the belly is the Developer's employee (he's from the US but is living in Jordan and working for the Middle Eastern developer- Emmar). The tall guy in the middle is a Simon, an associate at Jason's firm. The other's are either Emmar's or the lady Architect's assistants.
Currently a Jordanian Family owns the property and it's a working Olive Farm that are sold to Olive Oil companies. The client sees the need for an Olympic quality Equestrian Facility in Jordan. I guess quite a few wealthy Jordanians (and other Middle Eastern Families) love Polo and other horse sports but Jordan has no quality Equestrian Facilities. United Arab Emirates has facilities but it's so hot in the summer they have to ship their horses to England (or other more mild-climate countries). Jordan is more temperate climate than UAE's and families wouldn't need to ship the horses away in the summer.

The design workshop took place at the land owners country villa. Jason failed to take pictures of the villa but managed to get a picture of the food. The first night they served a traditional Jordanian meal, with hummus, lamb, kabobs, pitas, fresh vegetables, etc. Jason said the food was excellent.

Here's a picture of an ancient amplitheatre in Amman. You can see the city in the background. Jordan is very hilly. And Jason said the town is pretty run down (lots of unfinished buildings, etc.).

This is the view from Jason's hotel room. He said he felt very safe the whole time and the security was very tight- especially at the hotels. The hotel had an underground parking lot that wasn't being used and they wouldn't let cars pull up to the hotel lobby- there was a 100 feet setback. Jason also said the people of Jordan were VERY nice and hospitable.

One last picute of Hayden and Grandpa. This was on Jason's camara he took to Jordan- I had to put it in.

And here's a picture of Hayden at my work. I took him in this Saturday. They were trying to measure him with the height gage (you can see Hayden on his tippy toes!).

















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