Fun in the Sun

So what do you do when you have no yard and no pool? You make the best of it! Here are the girls playing and having a good time even when it's in the 120's outside (or 40's if you think in Celcius). This didn't really need it's own post, but I loved the way the pool pics turned out- you can tell how much fun they/we had.

Daddy set up the pool in the carport so they could have shade. He was washing the car (*gasp* no one washes their own car here) and Audrey pulled him in.

Catching the water

Probably the only "rain" she'll see for a while

Posing for her close-up

Playing beauty shop

Bubbles in the front yard

Blowing bubbles

Catching them

Got it!

This is our back yard, or as they call it "garden." Umm...it's far from a garden to me, but the girls love their giant sandbox. I laugh now b/c I really wanted to buy a sandbox when we lived in Utah. We plan to have the yard landscaped with grass and some small trees soon.

Dubai Aquarium

We drove to Dubai to take the girls to the aquarium in the Dubai mall. It has the world's largest single glass panel for an aquarium- it's 3 stories tall in the middle of a huge mall. Pretty cool. It has a big tunnel that you walk through and look at sharks, etc. The actual aquarium exhibits were really good and the girls were fascinated seeing the giant crabs, piranhas, and penguins (or as Gracelyn argued with me "ducks.") As an added bonus, the tallest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa is located right next to the Dubai mall, so we got to see it in all of its enormity as well (from the outside). You can pay to go up to the top, but they say the structure is so tall that it has to sway a bit to keep the wind from knocking it over. Somehow paying money to be rocked by the wind as you stand on the observation deck of the TALLEST building in the world is not very high on my list of priorities. So, the Dubai Mall held plenty of interest for me. The food court was enormous with about 40 restaurants and a neat play area that the kids burnt some energy on before we headed home.

Burj Khalifa in Dubai. It dwarfs all the nearby buildings.

The Burj Kahlifa in all its sun-drenched glory.

Beginning of Aquarium

Love this pic with her "twin"

Sisters under the dome

Had to get one with Daddy in there; he's often behind the cam.

The giant crabs were huge! They can get as large as a Volkswagen Beetle!

In front of largest aquarium panel in the world

Sharks swimming overhead *photography compliments of Audrey*

Another shot Audrey took of the stingray

In case you were wondering what the inside of a mall in the UAE looks like. Much like an American one, yet this is only a small portion of this mall. They are huge, and literally everywhere.

Daddy was a sucker for Audrey and bought her a blue stuffed seal since Lilly had been missing for 3 days and she "needed a snuggle partner."

Daddy also gave in the wiles of Gracie's "peeease" for the "duck." We named him Duck the penguin. She didn't believe me that those were penguins in the aquarium; she kept saying, "Nooooo, duck" and pointing like I was the crazy one.

The highlight of our weekend! When we got home, the neighbors had found Lilly 2 km away! They were so happy to be reunited after 3 miserable days apart.