Oh no! Our Dubai adventure is coming to an end…better stay at the Burj Al Arab!

The past 6 months have been great fun since I last reported, end of school activities, a great summer in the USA, and a new start to yet another school year. But late summer, we had a change of plans (good or bad news depending on how you look at it?) come our direction.  Wesley accepted a new job within Baker Hughes, and we’ll be moving back to Houston, Texas late December!    Wesley is very excited about his new job opportunity, and will be starting December 1.  The girls and I will pack up here, finish school on December 18, and then travel to meet him somewhere before heading to the states.   We’ll make it to Houston just in time for girls to start to school on January 6.  Our shipment will arrive sometime toward the end of January, so we’ll be living in and out of hotels and in-laws (much to their surprise!) from early December – end of January.

Wesley is actually in Houston right now closing on our house.  We are excited we were lucky enough to find a house in Bellaire that suited our needs, came on the market while I was in Houston in August, and is in the area we are excited about moving back to!

I can’t believe this adventure is coming to an end already! I realize it’s already been almost 2 1/2 years, but it has gone by soooooo fast!  We will miss our life here, but are looking forward to family and friends back home, seasonal weather, football, Target, and unlimited Mexican food!

In September, Wesley and I celebrated our 15th anniversary.  We thought we should A. check this off our bucket list, B. take advantage of the 50% off summer rates, and spend a night and 2 full days at the Burj Al Arab hotel here in Dubai.  Of course, we had to include our little girls, because I think we would have never heard the end of it! I’m so glad we did because I think they truly loved every minute of it.  Of course, it was as  ostentatious as you can imagine, but the service was impeccable, and the 2 story room was amazing.  The girls took 3 bubble baths in the huge jacuzzi tubs, and we had free access to Wild Wadi, the water park next door.  What a great memory we will always have of our 15th anniversary, as well as our goodbye to Dubai.

I’ll probably put in a few more posts before this adventure is behind us.   I truly hope for another opportunity in our lifetime where I might start another adventure blog.

Us standing in front of the “Burj.”

Looking up from the atrium. They say it’s real gold on those columns, but I’m skeptical.

On our way to the Wild Wadi water park.

A few from the front door – wish you could see the beautiful ocean view from the 15th floor!

A view from upstairs.

Wesley amused at this ridiculous place!  Oh, and this is the smallest room you can reserve!

The luxurious bathroom with bubbly jacuzzi tub!

The pool downstairs

Arrival of the CANDY TRAIN, with our ‘butler,’ Raj.

CANDY TRAIN! This candy train stopped by around 6pm filled with everything a little kid could imagine, from chocolate fondue to candy bars to marshmallows to caramel popcorn!

Look what they brought us – canapes, dozen red roses, wine, chocolate cake that says “Happy Anniversary”, and a cute little box filled with arabic sweets!

Lucy in the lobby

Molly in the lobby standing next to huge Arabic tea pot.

15 years!

 

Buergers’ 8 day Dubai Extravaganza!

My sister and her family came for a visit during their Spring Break from Pittsburgh, PA and spent 8 days with us in Dubai.  Wow. What a blast of a week we had.  As opposed to going in chronological order, I thought I would go in order of my favorite outings, although it is hard to choose!

Heritage village desert safari ‘authentic’ arabian night…

Camel riding in the desert

Rebecca and Molly bedouins

Bedouin sisters

Bedouin cousins

 

Falconry shows…with Will, Emma and Molly having an opportunity to hold the very beautiful falcons.

 

Fun riding in a jeep on the sand!

We surprised Will one day and celebrated his birthday (a few days early)

having lunch on the top floor of the  Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world.  Floor 123! YIKES.

Buergers in front of the Burj.

Having lunch at the top of tallest building in the world!

Wesley & Dan

Will’s 14th birthday candle and cake!

View from the top.

Buergers at the top of the Burj

Will, Rebecca and Emma directly in front of the Burj Khalifa.

Lucy & Will

Kayaking in the Mangroves in Abu Dhabi

The girls in our abayas at the Sheik Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi.

Caroline & Lucy

Rebecca & Molly

Twins with Emma.

At the beach…

 

 

Outside our apartment on “The Walk” area

Celebrating more birthdays – Rebecca turns 11!

Celebrating Rebecca’s Birthday at “It’s Sugar!”

Skiing at Ski Dubai

Thai food at Thiptara right in front of the Burj Khalifa.  Parents night out!

Date night out with just the adults.

 

Camel Selfies!!

Downtown in “old town” with the traditional souks and abra boat rides. And camels, camels everywhere!

 

Lucy reading with Uncle Dan outside on our terrace enjoying the ‘warm’ weather.

Our last dinner out on the Marina.

Will and his fans.

Emma and Molly.

Yay for sisters!

Thanks Laura & Dan for making the LONG trip to come see us! It meant the world to us, and we loved every single minute.  Can’t wait to see you in 2 months.  We can hardly wait for our summer break when we get to come home to the USA and spend 2 months with more family and friends!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Twinks turn 8, beautiful Oman, and other Dubai Shenanigans…

We can’t believe the girls have 17 days of school left! Only 1 month and we’ll be back in Texas, New Mexico, and Pennsylvania, and we can’t wait to see our family and friends.

We’ve been busy the past several months, but the highlight was my sister and her family’s visit to Dubai…but that requires an entire post in and of itself..in a few days. We enjoyed a spring break trip to beautiful Oman, celebrated the twinkies 8th birthday, and I finally visited the Burj Al Arab with friends! I’m not quite sure why it’s the only 7 star hotel. It’s nice but personally, I think it’s very outdated and rather tacky…but who am I to say!

The birthday girls (note several “costume changes” in forthcoming photos!)

Lucy blowing out her candles!

and Caroline!

Cotton candy maker!

Caroline with Jenna and Hana.

Family Birthday dinner at Shake Shack.

Caroline enjoying her birthday burger and “concrete!”

Lucy and birthday root Beer!

The way real Arabic coffee is served!

A sweet little note that I found taped to the girls wall.

Look what I saw while running at the park – so adorable!

Molly in a Girl Scout meeting with a few of her friends; I’m proud of our diverse and strong group of girls!

Lucy and Caroline with some friends at school one morning.

Finally went to the “over the top” Burj Al Arab for tea as a farewell to my dear friend Tiffany who is moving to the Woodlands.

Kind of tacky!

The awesome birthday cake Molly made for Lucy and Caroline’s birthday…Frozen themed face of Olaf, the snowman.

Our spring trip to Oman exceeded our expectations! What a warm and beautiful country. We stayed at a wonderful simple hotel nestled at the top of the mountains in Al Hamra, with breathtaking “El Paso-like” views and very fun rock climbing. The girls were very brave!

Then we drove to Muscat where we relaxed at Al Bandar Shangri-La for a few days. What amazing views and a great respite.

Next post: Buergers in Dubai!

Fun in London & Spring in Dubai!

We have just begun our spring break!  The girls have today (Thursday) and well as all next week off.  Today, we are just at home…there is a huge fort being built in our living room, and I’m happy to have the time to sit at my computer and get caught up on things like writing my blog.  They did not want to go anywhere today.  Lucy and Caroline have brought home 2 pets from school…one is a worm named “Ms. Squirmy” and the other is a beetle (who was born from a meal worm in class!) named “Mr. Wiggles.”  They have enjoyed making lego obstacle courses for their pets.  Poor bugs…I suspect their lives will be short.

We plan on going on a road trip to Oman on Sunday for 4 days. We are so excited about seeing this part of the Middle East.  We’ve heard nothing but wonderful things about this country, it’s people, beautiful mountains and surroundings.  I will be happy to report on it when we return.

I met 2 of my closest college friends (Lisa and Jane) in London at the end of February for a long weekend.  It was so wonderful to catch up with some of my favorite people from Texas!  I loved every minute of that weekend!  Needless to say, there was a lot of laughter and reminiscing!

The Tower Bridge of London

Lisa and I in front of Big Ben

Parliament!

Jane and I at Westminster Abbey.

Gorgeous London Hyde Park

I organized a very first annual Girl Scout overnight camp out in Dubai last weekend! We have about 60 people there including girls and parent volunteers! It was such a fun weekend, complete with crab catching, jelly fish catching (the harmless blue ones), ropes course, tents, cook out, s’mores, and sing song!  It was such a great success.  Some photos are below.

Lucy and her friend Ashley about to go on a boat to The Mangrove islands for catching crabs!

Some of the Brownies (Caroline on right) catching crabs.

Caroline and Jasmine.

Molly, the crab counter, trying to see how many crabs her troop caught.

Love touching those crabs!

We counted 8 different species.

Lunch! Love seeing the diversity of friends.

Caroline, Lucy and their Brownie friends.

Beach time!

Dinner

All the Scouts

Molly caught a fish!

A photo from Molly’s field day at school. Her friends (from left) Abigail, Molly, Selma, Emma & Eva.

Molly’s book report on “Call of the Wild” by Jack London.  On a box – how clever!

Caroline’s field trip on The Dubai Metro, and then lunch to eat Chinese food at The Noodle House.

Dubai Metro!

Just another average day on our beach.

I never get tired of taking photos of the girls on their beach.

Molly’s Girl Scout troop

My sister, Laura, and her family come to Dubai April 14th!  We are so excited for their visit.  We have all 7 days planned out. We will be sending them home exhausted, but full of wonderful memories.

Today is my dad’s 75th birthday! I am happy that my sister and brother in Santa Fe celebrating with him today, but I’m sad I’m not there with them.  We are all missing my mom especially because it was this time one year ago when she passed away on April 10.  I continue to think of her and miss her every single day.

Until next time….

 

Molly’s 10 Birthday! Field Trips and Field Days

We can’t believe that we have a 10 year old in our household!  Where did the time fly?  For Molly’s 10th, she invited 5 of her close Dubai friends over for a slumber party, complete with pizza, a movie and ‘ice cream’ cupcakes.  The highlight was having a limosine pick her and her sisters up at our apartment and then go around town picking her friends up.  Because we are in Dubai where renting fancy cars is not only common but affordable, we gently reminded the girls that this might be the only times in their lives they will have this opportunity!  HA.

Getting picked up by a limosine!

Drinking Fanta from champagne glasses!

Molly’s Birthday Crew: Emma, Selma, Eva, Abi, and Mary Claire!

We put 5 mattresses on the living room floor where all the action took place.

Craft table with photo bomb by Caroline

Birthday cupcakes

Ever seen a “braid train” before? yep, us either.

The girls and their nerd glasses.

A new area down the beach from us appropriately called “The Beach.” Such a cool, modern area just right on the beach with a beautiful view, good shopping, and fun open areas for the kids to play.  Also, really nice public restrooms complete with showers for rinsing off after having played in the sand!

This is a SAND castle. Nothing else, just sand.

And another one lit up with lights.

Another pretty area of The Beach.

Caroline and her teacher, Mrs. Legg for field day. Their team color was purple, if you couldn’t tell.

Noor, Rania, Caroline, Hannah, and Jennah

I didn’t get photos from Lucy or Molly’s field day, so hopefully will get those soon, and will upload those as well.  But I did join Molly and her class on her field trip to a place called Desert Ranch out in the boonies, where the kids learned about Arabian horses, date palm trees, and had the opportunity to pet horses, drink camel milk, and eat dates!

Molly’s 4th class after they visited Desert Ranch.

One of the tasks was for the class to run up the sand dune and retrieve the UAE flag. It’s much farther up than it looks!

There’s always a camel around to hug here in Dubai.

Molly petting an Arabian horse.

The class learned about Arabian horses, and got to see them run around. Did you know they are born to run with the legs and tail up? Not trained….

A moms on the move outing that I planned:  A visit to a rug shop for a lesson in learning to buy rugs, what to look for, how to differentiate qualities and the differences between handmade and machine made. Very fascinating!

Next up, a trip to London, UK to meet my friends Jane and Lisa from Houston!

January brings my Dad to Dubai!

We have had a great few months since December….Molly’s 10th birthday, a bunch of fun activities at the girls’ school, but we can all say that we enjoyed a two week visit from my Dad the most! We couldn’t have asked for better weather, and we actually had a few days where it was cold…by Dubai standards!  We enjoyed having him here so much!  Of course, I had to share with him the many sights of Dubai and surrounding area, so that kept us very busy, but we also enjoyed just going to our beach, walking around the marina, and enjoying the view from our terrace.  I think my dad was most impressed with the hundreds of buildings in our area, all with their own unique architectural design and construction!

Hangin’ on the beach.

Dad in his dishdash, and girls in their abayas. I love this photo!

Wesley and Dad enjoying our terrace, overlooking The Palm.

Al Hadeerah at Bab Al Shams, a desert resort and show.

The Sheik Mohammed Center for Cultural Understanding breakfast and talk.

Lucy and Dad reading.

The Marina.

The Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi

Dad and I at the Grand Mosque. I put my arm around him, and we were kindly told we were not allowed to ‘hug.’

Dad and Molly in Souk Madinet, right next to the Burj Al Arab.

Caroline and a falcon at Al Hadeerah.

The men and their Girl Scouts at the Father/Daughter Dance…beach theme.

I have added a few more photos from our Christmas break and some of the fun things we did while we stayed here in Dubai.

Kayaking in The Mangroves in Abu Dhabi – one of my most favorite things we’ve done here!

The Dubai Mirable Garden….absolutely beautiful, but also absolutely one of the largest eco-unfriendly places ever….how do they keep up with the water consumption?? Oh well, at least it’s employment as I’m sure it takes hundreds of gardeners to maintain these gorgeous displays!

Molly has become an expert surfing the waves! Even when the water is COLD!

Stay tuned for next post:  Molly’s 10th Birthday, Field Trips and Field Days!

 

Christmas in Dubai!

Happy Holidays from Dubai!  We have had busy and very fun month. The best news is Wesley will stay put in Dubai, no travels through at least the holidays and several weeks into the new year.  He will be taking a few weeks off work starting next week, so we are bound to have a a wonderfully relaxing family break.

Molly entered the 2 following photos she took at their school into this year’s photo contest.  The winners were selected to have their photos printed as school greeting cards. Although Molly’s photos weren’t selected, I think it’s great she has taken a fondness for photography, and was willing to compete against high school seniors!  She also had ‘experience’ day last weekend at Emirates Golf Course as part of her golf class this fall.  She really enjoyed driving the balls, and looks forward to more technical training this spring.

Molly driving it!

The girls had their holiday concert last week on stage in front of all the second and fourth grade parents!  It was a fun performance, and they sang and played their glockenspiels beautifully!

2nd grade winter concert

Caroline

and Lucy too!

4th grade winter concert – Molly in black/silver striped dress and black tights

Sorry her face is missing in this photo!

Molly also had the privelege to help lead the elementary school end of semester winter assembly.  She and the rest of the elementary student council members gave various parts of the presentation. Microphone & all!

Molly’s student council presentation in front of the ENTIRE elementary school!

This is a lego statue in the UAE!

We have discovered some many fun and festive Christmas goings on here in Dubai…believe it or not! It’s actually kind of funny every time I hear about another Christmas tree lighting, sing-a-long, musical, Santa appearance and holiday sales!  Even a few of our local friends put up a tree in their houses just for fun!   But for those of you who probably don’t already know this, the Islamic Quran does have the story of the Jesus, as well as his miraculous birth!  I also took the twins to see a musical called “Santa’s Wonderland Adventure” complete with snow in the theater, and we all went to a Christmas festival in the park.

Dubai Christmas Festival – you can see the snow coming down, and the sand on the ground! ha

Twins at the Mall of the Emirates

Snowing in the theater

I just snapped this photo after UAE day. This is what the preschoolers work on in our school.                        Aren’t they so cute!

One morning outside our window – and keep in mind we are on the 44th floor!

The children’s school had a Santa’s Workshop night with a delightful spread of ‘candyland’ treats, Santa Claus himself, ornament decorating and holiday music.

ASD Santa’s Workshop

ASD Santa’s Workshop

ASD Santa’s Workshop

This past weekend, we took a marine ferry downstairs near our high-rise, up the coast, around several land mark buildings to the Old Town Diera, where Dubai got started.  We toured the old textile souks, and after taking an abra across the waterway, ended up at a wonderful gingerbread house making event at a local hotel.  What fun the girls had!

Waiting for the ferry

Enjoying our ride!

This is a yacht we saw…not a cruise ship! Can you believe it???!!

Souks

Old Town Diera

Waiting to ride the abra across

Gingerbread houses!

Lucy about to start making hers

Caroline’s

Molly’s finished piece

Lucy’s

When we’re finished, they wrapped them up so beautifully.

A few weeks ago, we had a monthly Moms on the Move event for which I help to coordinate every month. This time we had a falconry show, which was really fun to watch.  We also got to hold a beautiful barn owl as well as a hawk!

The falcon before he flew and caught it’s dinner

and after!

We are missing our friends and family but wishing everyone a great holiday season!  I’ll be posting more in the next few weeks!  Merry Christmas!

Happy India, Happy Thanksgiving!

It’s been a busy few weeks, but loads of fun things to report!  First off, my trip to Delhi, Jaipur and Agra, India with my 4 friends from Dubai was amazing!  We saw beautiful colors and places. We also saw the other extreme; some of the worst poverty I’ve ever seen.  However, the Taj Mahal was all it was cracked up to be – it’s a huge and beautiful structure that took 22 years to build….all because the King wanted to pay tribute to his his beloved wife.  Seriously, the best love story ever.    A lot of people have said the Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi is as beautiful, but I do not agree.  The Grand Mosque is beautiful because of the pure white up against the blue sky, but I don’t think it compares in sheer size as well as history to the Taj Mahal.

The highlight of the trip was Jaipur.   It was a wonderful surprise to tour the Pink City and the fortress build along the mountain…all by elephant!  We were not expecting much in Jaipur, so it was a real treasure.  Not to mention that we learned 80% of the worlds precious stones (emeralds, sapphires, rubies, etc.) are mined and cut in India, so we got to do a little wholesale priced shopping on the side, which ended up being a surprise to me and my friends…as well as our husbands!

I can’t begin to describe all we saw.  Trashed streets with women wearing the most beautiful, colorful saris; children, women and fathers all riding on ONE motorcycle; men carrying their goats on their scooters; gorgeous and colorful fruit markets; smells of fresh coconuts and flowers following by smells of urine; cows, monkeys, children and goats all living within a few feet of eachother.  I’ve been told before, it was truly “An assault on the senses!”

Of the 600 photos I took, here is a small sampling of my favorites.  Hope you enjoy!

Me, Cristina (Brazilian), Rabah (Sudanese), Missy (Floridian), and Susan (Texas) after landing at the Delhi airport!

Beautiful Hindu Ganesha gods while shopping in Delhi.

Where Ghandi was cremated in Delhi.

Yes, that man is carrying a GOAT in his satchel.

Dilli Haat market in Delhi – GREAT and fun shopping!

Gorgeous colors everywhere!

Not an uncommon site – streets filled with trash and lots of cows (sacred in India.)

Also a common sight – beautiful saris on women riding on the backs of mopeds.

Susan and I checking in at hotel in Jaipur.

The pink city, walled fortress, of Jaipur.

Beautifully adorned elephants.

More of the fortress in Jaipur.

Rabah and I.

A cheezy photo of me amongst the beautiful mosaic walls of the fortress.

Yes, that is a cobra!

Gemstone capital of India, Jaipur. Each stone is hand polished and cut.

Surprise visit to the jewelry store! Merry Christmas to us!

One of the Grand Palace’s doorways, home to an emperor in Jaipur.

My favorite moment – a rickshaw ride through the streets of Jaipur.  Raban and Missy in front of us.

Happy and pretty locals.

Streets of Jaipur

Streets of Jaipur

Red Fort of Akbar The Great outside of Agra.

Red fort, home to Emperor Akbar, who was very progressive at the time and married 3 women – 1 Christian, 1 Hindu, and 1 Muslim. All the adornments and carvings display all 3 different styles of each religion.

The rose fort on our way to Agra.

Can you believe the beautiful colors these women aren’t scared to wear!

Real men wear pink.

Yes, not many toilets around town.

Oh…finally. Here it is. Simply breathtaking, seriously. It’s a white building, but with the sun setting, it looks yellowish.

The cheezy group shot.

Next morning, watching the sun rise over the Taj Mahal .

A little sleepy but happy to be seeing this gorgeous tribute.

Did you know there is a Baby Taj Mahal? Built before the actual Taj Mahal by Emperor Jahangir, who was the rebellious Mughal emperor before Shah Jahan (Taj Mahal), and son of Emperor Akbar. He built it for his wife too. Talk about “keeping up with Jones!”

Look how beautiful the inside of the Baby Taj is…handpainted with natural paint dyes.

The Oberoi Hotel in Agra. Simply a breathtaking view.

Look how cute the waitors looked! I wanted one of those outfits, but they didn’t sell them.

Oberoi Hotel in Agra.  I wished for my mom to be here with me in this beautiful hotel she would have loved!

Oberoi Gardens.

Me and Susan riding a horse drawn carriage…a little different than in NY Central Park.

My sari.

I’ll probably post a few more favorite photos over the next few weeks.  There are too many to choose from!

As for Thanksgiving, we sure missed our close USA friends and family this year, but we did host Thanksgiving dinner at our place with 17 people total, including 10 children.  We enjoyed delicious traditional roasted turkey, sweet potatoes, homemade rolls, green bean casserole, apple pies, and pumpkin pies!  I was also lucky enough to find a rather expensive, but worth it, fresh turkey to roast….turned out very yummy!

Adults.

the kiddos

Wesley trimming the turkey with Chris.

Caroline’s Thanksgiving feast (not) – note the pumpkin candy, not pumpkin squash.

Our Christmas tree!

Caroline, a few minutes after decorating our Christmas tree!  Only in Dubai!

Lucy

We are staying put for Christmas this year.  Although we will miss coming to America terribly, we will enjoy a quiet holiday with a non-traveling husband/daddy, and some down time as a family.  We look forward to hearing about everyone’s holidays this year.  We feel blessed this holiday season, and look upon this holiday season as a time of wonder with what this great world has to offer.  We are all missing my mom this time of year.  I know she was tickled seeing me galavanting around India, and would have loved sharing in all the funny stories.  I also enjoying cooking during this holiday season with her on my mind and in my heart, transferring all the great advice and tips she has given me over the years into the delicious, traditional meals.  I feel lucky I had a mom who taught me so much, and who inspired me to love adventure!

Until next time….XXOO

Happy Halloween and Camel Races

We hope everyone had a great Halloween!  The girls had great costumes this year as they all wanted to be scary. So Lucy and Caroline were voo doo dolls, and Molly dressed as a zombie princess.  It was a Halloween extravaganza with their Halloween parties at school, then trick or treating and fun at a friend’s Halloween party, and then the following night, “Trick or Treat” night at their school.  Families host their own decorated ‘tables’ for children to visit and ‘trick or treat.’ It was a really fun couple of days, however, I was very ready to check Halloween off the list when it was all said and done!

Yesterday afternoon, I took the kids out of school a bit early and headed to the camel races with some friends.  The camels are owned by only the wealthiest families in the region, primarily Sheiks.  There is no money involved, just the prestige of having the winning camel.     We think that the camels handlers and handlers’ handlers are the majority of the audience there, as we didn’t see but a few dressed up men.  The camels have little ‘jockey’ robots on their backs which are then controlled by the owners (or owners’ helpers) who drive along next to the track in the fancy SUVs, operating the remotes. The camels didn’t look like they were exerting themselves very much, but we did see one camel run off the track and fall over a fence.  Not sure if that was out of exhaustion, or just because I am pretty sure camels were not built for racing!

I’ve added a video clip for your viewing pleasure!  (note the red shirted children are our our kiddos!)

They are so sweet looking. I love their eye-lashes.

Molly was a little bit timid about getting too close – they are VERY friendly!

With my friends Tami and Cristina with photo bomb by one of the hundreds of camels we saw!

Trick or Treat!

Our scary girls!

Same girls, but not so scary!

Molly with her friend Eva at the 4th grade school party.

Lucy in her class with all her fellow Halloweeners!

In Caroline’s class, we played wrap the mummy (using parents!)

At the school’s trick or treat night, I hosted a table (Wes was in Dallas) with my friends Tiffany (witch) and Kristy (fellow Greek Goddess.)

Grossiest of the night! Only in Dubai can you actually find brains and hearts at the butcher – great Halloween and table decor! (and proud to say this was our table!)

This was the second grossest things we saw at one of the family’s table. A cat going ‘potty’…and the dad was serving up the cat poop to the kids. (It was chocolate rolled in graham crackers!)

Molly worked very hard on her heritage project, Italy – from the Lombardis on Wes’ side of the family. She created a PowerPoint presentation, presented to her class, and  then had to present to parents for 1.5 hours!

With her proud daddy!

We hope everyone is doing great! We miss our friends and family a whole bunch this fall season!  We will be sticking around for the holidays this year, but looking very forward to having my brother and his family here around Christmas. I also leave for Delhi, Jaipur, and Agra, India on Nov. 21st for 5 days with some friends. I will take many photos to share. I can’t believe I will get to see the Taj!

Eid Break – Greece or Bust!

Hello from Dubai!  I am going to start this entry talking about our ‘real’ life and what we do on a daily basis.  Then I’ll move onto the Greece part!  We have had a great few months with the start of school.  Molly is busy with golf lessons, yoga, and Girl Scouts, and she was elected to be on the Student Council for the elementary school.  She is very busy in 4th grade with many more projects than she has ever had.  She thinks she is a little ‘too’ busy!

Caroline is doing ballet again, enjoying second grade very much, especially math, and we are looking into piano lessons because has recently said that she thinks she would love it!

Lucy is in ballet as well, and enjoying Girl Scouts with her sister Caroline.  However, Lucy is happiest when she is at home playing with her sisters, and even better….by herself.  Ha!

Wesley was recently promoted and is currently traveling in London, and then again to Houston for several weeks.  He was excited he got to ride the London Eye!

I have volunteered too much this year! HA.  I am leading 2 Girl Scout troops, a co-leader of the Moms on the Move group at their school (which is scheduling very fun monthly outings for all of us), as well as helping teachers with Scholastic books.

Brownie Troop 54!

Dubai turns you into a hoarder. If you find an American food item you like, you had better buy them all, because chances are you will never again locate that product!

Play dates are a daily part of our lives – Caroline here with her bestie, Jude.

I arranged a date tasting, and presentation for Moms on the Move, at the largest date manufacturer in this region, Bateel. It was so fun! Can you believe there are over 2000 different varieties and they all taste different? AND their health benefits beat that of a banana!

My favorite volunteer job is acting as travel agent for my family!  We were lucky enough to travel to Greece during our week break celebrating the Islamic holiday of Eid Al-Adha “Feast of the Sacrifice.”

Molly has recently been very into the Percy Jackson novels, which are a modern twist on old Greek mythology.  So, needless to say, she was very into the fact that all of the history we saw in this country had something to do with the Greek Gods (the Olympians), especially her favorite God, Athena.

Upon arrival of our hotel, this is the terrace with an amazing view of the Acropolis (the hill) and the Parthenon on top.

We met up with some very good friends from Dubai one night for dinner before they left for their 10 day cruise.

Gorgeous view of The Acropolis from our hotel.  You can see the Parthenon on the hill, lit up, way back over Molly’s head.

The crew – with our friends The Ulmers and The Ristrophs out for a great dinner at Orizontes!

A view from the restaurant at night – stunning!

In Plaka, the charming shopping area on our way walking to the Acropolis.

Girls with Caroline Ristroph at the museum.

One of the copies of the Athena columns on Athena’s temple.

The theater

With Mary Claire and Caroline at the theater.

The rocky hill to the right is where Paul first preached about Christianity to the Greeks.

Temple of Hephaesteon, currently one of the most preserved temples of the Greek Gods.

On our way up to see the Parthenon, temple of Nike and Athen’s temple.

Molly in front of her very favorite Greek God’s temple, Athena.

See the amazing detail of the Parthenon.

Yay – we’re here!

We were so lucky to have traveled with Tiffany and Kevin Ristroph and their girls, Mary Claire and Caroline.

Athena’s Temple – you can see on the left side…those columns are shaped like the greek goddesses. In my opinion, the prettiest of the temples.

Another beautiful view of Athens on the other side.

In Plaka, listening to the sounds of a Greek street band.

Charming streets of Athens.

Caroline!

On our way to dinner – Hotel Central across the street is where we stayed.

Can’t get enough photos of the Acropolis lit up at night.

Our hotel in Santorini! One of the most amazing views we’ve ever seen.

Our villa looking up toward the main part of the hotel.  You can see Wesley reading his book where we ate breakfast every morning.

Our villa and a gorgeous view we could not get enough of.

Ia (one of the towns on Santorini where the blue cathedrals are) at night!

Typical Santorini!

Beautiful everywhere you look!

Watching the sun set before dinner.

Wesley and Lucy on their way down the steep sidewalks of Ia.

The black beach…we didn’t wear our suits because it was a bit too cold to swim. However, the girls didn’t care and got wet anyways.

One of our favorite days in Santorini at the black beach.

In Fira, about to ride the donkeys up to the top! Caroline & Molly

In Fira, another town after the donkey ride.  Caroline with Molly.

At the very tip of the island! Lucy and Molly.

Amazing sunsets – visiting a local winery in Santorini.

The wind was crazy the day we left! Hilarious photos.

Great photo, but mainly because you can see how incredibly windy it was.                              This was cracking us all up!

As you can see, we had a marvelous time.  From the small part of Greece we saw, we absolutely loved it.  The people are so warm and nice, and we did not see one ounce of downturn or economic struggle – the places we were we bustling with business and tourism (and this is the low season!)

We hope everyone is doing great.  We are missing Texas this time of year because of nice fall weather, football season (I never thought I would say that!) and pumpkins!  However, the girls do get to go trick or treating next week, have Halloween parties at their school, and we have plans for pumpkin carving and Halloween cookie making.  Lucy has been hard at work making decorations for our house, which of course are WAY better than store bought ones!

We look forward to our family visiting this year!  My brother Bill and his family come in December, my dad hopes to come early 2014, Wes’s parents also hope to come, and my sister plan on coming in April!   We can’t wait to show everyone the great things (and not so great things) about Dubai!

Until next time….with photos from Halloween (2 voo doo dolls, and 1 zombie princess), and my girl’s trip to India, Nov. 21-25.