Thanks all, These are great starting points, and I'm sure we'll learn more as we go.

I am shocked by the prices of tix to just get out of SA, but I was excited that I could fly RTW for about the same price...got a hypothetical itinary from Air Brokers yesterday for 2900 to go from JED through SE asia, across to SFO-DEN-IAD-FRA-JED...If I can imagine flying 29000 miles with 3 kids, that's quite a way to spend my travel allowance to get home and back.