With Puff gone and life back to normal we have had some fun times over the last two weeks! First let me say, can it be possible that tomorrow is AUGUST?? Where has this summer gone? Why does it seem that every summer gets faster… my “babies” will be six and eight in the next month! Everyone with older kids says how quickly the time goes. However, no one can really understand the speed til the baby you held what seems like yesterday is saying, “You are SO missing my point!!!” and stomping out of the room, lol! Also on the subject of age, my godson will be 21 tomorrow… so def feeling a little old these days!!!
John and I headed out to Dubai last weekend for our 10th wedding anniversary! It was SO much fun! We had a great weekend… enjoyed a nice Italian dinner the first night, took a city tour on Friday and then a dinner cruise on Friday night. Saturday morning we hung out at the ginormous Mall of Dubai. There are really no words to describe Dubai Mall~ there’s an aquarium within the mall. Here’s an extract from the website (www.thedubaimall.com):“A key centerpiece is Dubai Aquarium, one of the of the largest tanks in the world at 51m x 20m x 11m and featuring the world’s largest viewing panel at 32.8m wide and 8.3m high. Over time, Dubai Aquarium will have more than 33,000 living animals, representing more than 85 species including over 400 sharks and rays combined.”
There is something about being the tallest/largest/biggest that apparently really appeals to Dubai. It’s like middle child syndrome I think.
Saturday afternoon was the best part of the weekend… we went Dune Bashing! I have never even so much as ridden a four wheeler in a flat dirt field so needless to say, this was out of my comfort zone, lol! As a control freak I was a little unnerved at the up/down/pretty-sure-this-thing-is- going-to-flip over-ness of the trip! We were with a family of four in the car so I was trying to not be … myself, haha! At one point I wanted to ask the driver fifty different questions ranging from “Does this thing ever go end over end?” to “Exactly how many deaths a year are dune bashing related?” Since I was sitting behind little kids and did not care to traumatize them, I finally found it acceptable to spit out, “UHHHH do you ever get stuck?” The kids were yelling “Faster Faster” in their not so adorable in the moment British accents. I did get a little car sick… the driver warned us the back seat was the roughest ride… but then we stopped for a photo break. I was able to catch a breath, regroup and felt way better after that. We got some cool pictures in the desert with my anniversary present… a new 150-500mm lens! All summer long UAE has kind of a haze that hangs in the air so I have to Photoshop it out in my pics. I am looking forward to getting better with the new lens and taking some clearer shots after October/ November.
After the dune bashing part of the excursion, we headed to a camp set up with tables and lots of fun Middle Eastern activities. There was a station to have your picture taken in traditional dress, an area set up with the shisha smokers, a woman doing henna tattoos, camel riding and more. We loved it! John is thinking it would be a great activity for the work team to do one night. I got a henna tattoo which is the closest to the real thing I will probably ever get! It’s not actually fading at all so I am kind of curious as to how “semi-permanent” this thing is! I have been swimming almost every day and still as bright as ever!!! The night was capped off with a belly dancing show which was quite impressive! They also have an over night version of the dune bashing so we will take the kids back when it gets cooler and camp out in the desert.
We rushed home on Sunday to pick up the kids from camp. As much fun as we had in Dubai we missed seeing them so we headed out straight to lunch. We got loads of info about their weekend… Allyson broke a bottle, Allyson fed us junk all weekend, Allyson let us stay up and watch movies all night!! Allyson told the kids, if you want to have ice cream for dinner ever again you better not tell your Mom about this. Of course it was *the* first thing out of Zach’s mouth 
Abby announced the only healthy food came to them at the Price’s house… our friends who moved here from MD as well. In all fairness to Allyson, she really did take excellent care of them, and with the exception of the formation of a cavity or two they were in fine shape when we returned! Needless to say, I think she is quickly moving up the favorite family member list in the kiddo’s eyes!
Abby announced the only healthy food came to them at the Price’s house… our friends who moved here from MD as well. In all fairness to Allyson, she really did take excellent care of them, and with the exception of the formation of a cavity or two they were in fine shape when we returned! Needless to say, I think she is quickly moving up the favorite family member list in the kiddo’s eyes!This week I discovered the fish and veggie markets at the Port with two of the other SRA wives out here, Angie and Jessica. The fish market was wet and smelly but also interesting in that every single vendor had basically the same product offering but was hustling you in like they had the only shrimp left on the planet! The vegetable market had lots of great stuff and very, very cheap. Angie went back and bought the world’s largest watermelon! Seriously, I should take a picture of it b/c it’s taking up the majority of my hall way into the kitchen right now, lol!
Last night we had the people from John’s work over for dinner. We enjoyed having everyone over and I am looking forward to many more gatherings in the future. I take comfort in being over here with such a nice group of people. Meeting new people from all over the world has been fun but also having friends from the US is great too. I can not wait for family and friends to start visiting. When we first came out here in April, I thought there is no way this is a long term undertaking. I could not imagine us ever liking living in this country but I have to admit this place grows on a girl! Hopefully we will continue to discover new things to do in UAE and get in as much travel abroad as we can. I can not express how much I am excited for Paris in September! My Paris diet starts tomorrow, LOL!
That’s all for now… missing everyone
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