Will - Sports Day 2016

 I was at a conference in Oman (stories for another day - Nate on his own with 3 kids, blood, puke drama; me on my own...) and I missed Will's sports day this year, but his teacher, Miss Nicole scored some sweet pictures of him in action.

 Or not in action...

 One of the things we love about our school for Will is not only that he has had great teachers, but he gets to go to so many different "special" classes each week - library, PE, IT, Music, Art, Swimming, and this year Arabic.  He loves them, and is gaining so many great skills - his growth in confidence in the water is huge, he is becoming a good singer, his computer skills are impressive (aka scary), and he is getting in to sports - they have played soccer in his PE class and he might even be up for doing it outside school.  For a kid whose sole interest has been 4 legged creatures almost since birth, this venture to new things is great.

 Wish I could have been there, but looks like he had fun!

Another sunny Christmas in Dubai

Trying to take pictures of all three of my kids is such an exercise in frustration for me.  They were all excited about their Christmas jammies, and I changed up the tradition and got them out early this year so they could be enjoyed all month.

Christmas Eve - time for everyone to get to bed!

Christmas morning - Will woke up around 4 and was super excited, but Nate convinced him he had to go back to sleep for a few more hours - he put a pad on the floor by our bed to keep an eye on him.  We were worried about how it would go without our upstairs/downstairs, but we kept them contained until everyone was ready for the reveal.

Finley loves her Doc McStuffins bag - she does a great checkup for humans and stuffed animals.

Tyson went right for the animal crackers in his stocking - he was starving and happy to just eat those and watch the big kids open.

Our big surprise was that we are taking the kids to China for spring break to see the pandas, so we stuck panda stuff in everywhere we could think of - treats, books, shampoo with a panda on it, cereal. They don't really get it yet - they know we are going, and Will is more excited than anyone - his New Year's Resolution at school was to find ways to save the pandas so there will be lots when we go visit.

I love catching their faces during the openings.  Because Christmas fell on a Friday this year, we had church in the middle of the festivities - just Sacrament meeting, then home for more presents and brunch and naps.  It was so nice to have an hour of music and scriptures to remind us why we do all the rest of it.

Daddy scored this ball from school for Tyson - his expressions are priceless.  It won't inflate anymore, but he doesn't know or care, he just thinks its awesome to have a giant ball.

A Doc doll to go with her bag - thanks Grandma Webb.

So much fun - I love those quiet moments when they are completely absorbed in something new and exciting.

I know it's overdue, but Merry Christmas to all.  Someday we will get to spend it at home again...

Visitors from a far off land

 Nate's family finally made it over here thanks to a screaming deal on Emirates and some serious persuasion on his part.  Rodney and Lisa, and Brad and Lisa came for Thanksgiving and UAE's National day - which mostly meant that we got to spend 10 days with them, and only had to work 2 of them.  Our list of adventures was long and started first thing on Thanksgiving morning with a trip to the top of the world - the Burj Khalifa.

 Everyone was suitably impressed.  Then, Will had been waiting and waiting to take them to his favorite place, the Dubai aquarium and Underwater Zoo.

 Pretty sure Will had the most fun there - but everyone else enjoyed it too.

 Then it was on to the fountain show.  We had a Thanksgiving lunch at Texas Roadhouse, then cooked our real dinner after church on Friday.  The kids got to have a cheering section at their Tball game on Saturday, then we stopped at the flamingo reserve to show them Dubai's "nature":)

 Nate's basketball team had a game in Abu Dhabi on Sunday after school, so after they explored Lulu Hypermarket and the Mall of the Emirates while we were at school, we caravanned down to the game.  Nate was happy to have a cheering section of his own there, and his team won - they are having a great season - undefeated so far and just a couple of games to go.  Tyson was having a rough night, for no visible reason, but we carried on with dinner and a visit to the Grand Mosque.  It is spectacular all the time, but especially so lit up at night.

 We got to do the full abaya experience - Brad was the biggest fan.  But then poor Aunt Lisa (Halversen) took one for the team - while I took Finley on a potty run, Tyson threw up allll over her.  The abaya took a big hit, and we were all set to apologize or pay for cleaning or something, but when we got downstairs to return them, no one was around, so we just dropped it and ran - almost literally!  It was kind of a long, smelly ride home, for no one as much as Lisa, whose clothes also took a big hit.

One of our favorite tourist things is dhow cruises, and the Marina is also spectacular.  We did a slow cruise around, then went out for Indian food one evening.

 They got to see two tball games, and Uncle Rod stepped in for Daddy.  Finley was pretty pleased about his help - you can see she was a quick study for the "baseball ready" position.

Is this picture to die for or what?  Nate said we would probably get our money's worth with pictures from the first few games, and he was totally right.

 We tried to alternate between new Dubai - i.e. Burj Khalifa, and Dubai Mall, and old Dubai, so we ventured down to Deira to the Dubai Museum and the souqs after the tball game.

 We took the requisite 2 dhs abra ride across the creek, and saw the spice souq and the gold souq, as well as did a little shopping at the touristy one on the other side of the creek.  It was eye opening for all!

 Hide and seek with Aunt Lisa (Moffett), before the basketball game in Abu Dhabi.

 Shopping at Global Village.

 Going on a camel hunt - lots of success and great pics.

 Beach afternoon.

 More shots of our abra ride.

 After all the adventuring, we were all exhausted - but it was so worth it.

The boys did a desert driving trip one afternoon, and I took the Lisas' for some foot reflexology - a first, but hopefully not a last experience for them.  Countless games of hide and seek, bubbles, stories, tickles and love and attention abounded with the kids, and they were so sad to see everyone go.  We are pretty content a lot of the time here in Dubai, but getting to spend Thanksgiving with family, and seeing the kids interacting with aunts and uncles made us all pretty lonely for family after they left.