It's been a LOONG Time, but here's what we've been up to

We had family visit for Thanksgiving and Christmas, so we were out doing a lot of the touristy-type things. One place I'd recommend going if you can/have time is across the border to Oman. It's a totally different world over there. We have been to Muscat a couple of times, and really enjoy it. With the border crossing and stopping with the kids it can take 6-7 hours from Abu Dhabi, but it was worth the drive. We stayed at the Shangri-La Al Wahda (there's 3 parts of the hotel and this is the one that caters to families) and it is really nice. Their beach is amazing, with tidepools you can see hundreds of hermit crabs, sea slugs, fish, and the most beautiful seashells I've ever seen in my life. The snorkeling is absolutely amazing as well, and the girls were able to do it with us, so that was a great family experience.
Another aspect of Muscat that is a must-see is the Muttrah souq. It's a really old souq in the Muttrah area downtown and it has tons of alleyways with guys selling their wares, everything from "Pashminas" to Omani silver and belly-dancing outfits, Omani hats (cheap machine-made or pricey handmade).
The fish market (across from the souq down at the end of the street) is a working, breathing real life fish market that could have come straight from the Old Middle East. It's a neat sight to see the old fisherman pulling their days catch from their boats and hauling them up to sell.
What's really amazing about the city is that it's full of history on literally every corner. Where the cliffs overlook the mountains, there are old forts on every precipice. What a breathtaking combo the old forts and the blue sea make together! I could go on forever about Muscat, but the pictures tell more than I ever could.

Muttrah Souq at night- when it is really alive!

Sultan Qaboos old palace; now used for meetings

Rock formation Nathan and Audrey went through on snorkeling trip

Ramadan moon

Sultan Qaboos Mosque- no kids allowed :(

Gracie ready to snorkel with Dad's equipment

Vista from the road to the Shangri-La

Modern meets ancient- the yacht vs the dhow

Fish market

Nini and Gampi with girls by typical Muttrah shop selling trinkets, Omani silver

View of the city with just a few of the forts there

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.

Weekend in Al Ain

Nathan got his work visa, but we don't have our residence visas yet. In order to get our residence viasa, we have to have marriage certificates and birth certificates certified by their respective states and then by the US to show that we really are related to Nathan. So until we get our visas, we have to have our passports stamped every 30 days to renew our visit visas. This past weekend we went to another city in the Abu Dhabi emirate (Abu Dhabi is both the name of a city and an emirate) called Al Ain. It was about a 2-hour drive. We stayed on top of the 2nd largest mountain in the UAE called Jebel Al Hafeet in a beautiful hotel called the Mercure. We had fun playing miniature golf, doing all the awesome waterslides at the pool (and a swim-up bar!!) and visiting the zoo. We drove across the border to Oman to get our passports stamped and then came right back. I'm glad we are living in the UAE b/c apparently they don't believe in toilet paper in Oman :) Well, I guess none of the Emiratis do either; there's always a sprayer beside the toilet, but in just about every place in the UAE there's also toilet paper for we fussy Westerners. Oman doesn't provide that same courtesy.

Sand dunes on the drive to Al Ain

We enjoyed the change of pace we found in Al Ain. It's a much smaller town, and there are many less ex-pats. It also seemed a lot greener and not near as humid as Abu Dhabi.

Ready for her meal at Al Areesh (I found out later that's what they call the palm frond huts the Arabs used to live in).

This is the mosque downtown. It was worship time and there were thousands of shoes on the steps as we drove by, but we didn't take a pic since there were people outside.

The typical side for a Lebanese meal.

I think she liked the hummus.

Fabric store

Camel caravan in the dessert of Oman

As we As we slowed down and rolled down our window to take a pic, they waved and said "Hello! Welcome!"

Drive up Jebel Al Hafeet

Scenic overlook

Our balcony view of the miniature golf course, which we played right after we got there.

The napkin princess

Sitting on a traditional majlis

Gracelyn waking up her favorite playmate, and Audrey so excited to see her. The hotels in the UAE only have rooms with 1 queen bed or 2 twin beds, so if you're a family, you either have to purchase 2 adjoining rooms or get a child cot (foam mattress for the floor) and we brought a "baby cot" (pack n play).

Out front of the Mercure Jebel Al Hafeet

Our friend Carolyn. She and her husband met up with us there and we had the best day at the pool together.

We loved the waterslides. Audrey must have gone 100 times. There were no rules about taking a baby on your lap, either, so Gracie got a few joyous rides down as well.

Digging in a patch of sand together in the shade. It was such a nice temp at the top of the mountain and no humidity!

Daddy kissing the chockie ice cream monster

Wow- a tree to climb!

The Al Ain Wildlife Park was a really nice zoo I thought. We had been told it wasn't like a US zoo, so our expectations were low. They had mostly African animals, but the girls had a great time. We found out the hard way it didn't open til 4pm and is open til midnight in the summer. It's much cooler in the evening and the animals are all very active.

A cute monkey at the zoo. 

Truly Audrey's highlight of the entire trip- getting to hold a ball python. She loves snakes!

Quite possibly the creepiest, most evil animal on the planet- a hyena. It got really close to the glass at one point and was staring at Gracie licking its chops.

Audrey making a new friend. We had many people ask to take their children's pics with our kids. It was funny to us, but flattering.

Nighttime train ride. This was the last thing we did. Then loaded up the kiddos and they slept on the drive home. What a nice weekend it was!