Dubai

Recently Micah has been working A TON of hours and only getting every 14th day off of work.  Talk about not fun.  So recently when we were told that we could not only have a 2 day weekend but get a long weekend. We. Were. Excited!  On Saturday we were told it may be possible, on Sunday the flights and hotel was booked, and on Tuesday night we were on an airplane.  Talk about some speed planning.


Tuesday night, we picked up Micah from work and headed straight to the airport.  We were flying with Gulf Air which is a very discount airline.  Needless to say, both flights (layover in Bahrain) were late so of course we arrived in Duabai late. Then our luggage decided it wanted to hang out in Bahrain for the night and not arrive in Dubai until the next afternoon.  Ugh!! We finally made it to our hotel around 1:00am tired, hungry, and cranky. Not such a great start.


Wednesday morning I had booked us a desert dune buggy driving experience.  It was fun and Micah and I were their only customers for the morning.  This was nice since we didn't have to wait for any other possible "bad" drivers or people getting stuck. Plus, it worked out since this was the only activity I had planned that I was ok with wearing my clothes from the day before.

After our dune bashing drive we were taken back to our hotel where finally our luggage arrived!  Since we had our luggage we threw on the swimsuits and decided to spend some time at our hotel pool and beach.

Hotel pools

Hotel Pools

Once we were finished with some pool time we decided to head in to get cleaned up.  Once we were up in our room we realized a sand storm was blowing in.  Notice the difference in our view.  And yes, the white glaring stuff is sand.

Before 

During 

Anyway...We decided it was only fitting to spend the morning in the desert and the evening snow skiing so we headed for the Mall of the Emirates.  We bought a 2 hour ski lift pass but we only made it about an hour. Although it is very cool to be snow skiing in the middle of the desert, the single run gets a little boring plus it actually IS cold in there!

The malls in Dubai are incredible.  Nothing in the USA and I dare even say the world compares to these malls.  The Dubai Mall is the largest mall in the world.  It has a huge aquarium that you can actually scuba dive in, over 1,000 shops, ice rink, cinemas, etc.  The Mall of the Emirates has indoor snow skiing, 1,000 of shops, 3rd largest in the world, cinema, etc.  Again, the malls are crazy!  However, when you have nothing to shop for it's not all that exciting.


Attached to the Dubai Mall is the Burj Khalifa- the tallest building in the world.  It stands 2,217 feet tall costing about $1.5 billion to build.  However, the observation deck isn't nearly that high which I found a little disappointing.

View of another section of Dubai with the Burj Al Arab on the right

 Also next to the Dubai Mall are the Dubai fountains.  They were created by the same creators of the Bellagio Fountains in Vegas.

For the most part, we just wanted to spend our time in Dubai relaxing.  We spent lots of time by the pool, at the pool bar, or at the beach soaking up the sun.  It was a great relaxing trip and nice to finally get some quality time with my hubs.  

Babysitters club

Ok, so I'm the only member of the club but I get a lot of business :)  It feels a little strange to write a post about everyone else's children but since babysitting seems to be a big part of my life I guess it works.  Our dear friends Brent and Laura had a little girl in June and I was able to help out with Savannah as they packed and prepared to visit the US.  She is precious.

          

Gizmo checkin out the baby

The other afternoon/night I was blessed to babysit for our friends Tara & Jamie.  Their little boy Aden was born in January and is a boy on the move.  He was so much fun!  I really don't think he cried once...well maybe once when he tried to make a leap for Gizmo and fell but it wasn't so bad.  This was also the first time I've seen Gizmo really try to play with a baby.  It was really cute to watch Giz try to play tug-of-war with Aden.  

Isn't he a cutie?! 

Of course I always have random times of getting to be with Lindsey and Brooks' kids.  Miles is such a laid back easy going kid.  I just love that he will actually sit in my lap and let me hold him. He has also developed some fun new expressions.

(this picture was in June)

And there is the kid that started it all- Gavin.  When Gavin was born I was kinda terrified of babies and kids.  It's really funny to think about that now since none of that scares me anymore.  Well, Gavin recently turned 3!  It's hard to believe it was 3 years ago that Lindsey handed me that little bundle that made me so nervous ;)

Gavin at his birthday party 

Opening the present from Aunt Steph and Uncle Micah

It's a scooter!! 

Current sewing adventures

It had been a while since I posted anything about sewing but I have still been sewing whenever I get a chance.  So here's a recap of my sewing adventures since my first quilt:


Sadly this is the best picture I have of the quilt I made for baby Savannah.  In this picture it isn't finished yet so when Laura gets back I will have to get a better picture.  But, it is a really cute quilt.  

I also made another quilt for Gavin's 3rd birthday.  I worked on it sporadically for a long time but finished it up the day of his birthday.  I knew Gavin wouldn't care that much about it but I also knew Lindsey would be thrilled. The fabric for the cars is the exact same fabric of the curtains in Gavin's room.  It's from IKEA.  

I've also done a few random projects just testing out my skills. I made pillows and a book bag plus some other random things that I'm not going to take a picture of :)

After my projects and knowing that I really do enjoy sewing I decided to approach the topic of getting a new sewing machine with Micah.  My wonderful husband bought me a super cool new sewing machine.  Look at all my new stitch options!  It even has an automatic thread cutter which is amazing. 

Hopefully I will have more fun new projects in the future!

Summer in the USA part 2

Once Micah left me in the USA it was time to start my own vacation.  The difference without Micah is that I spend a lot more time doing girly stuff.  I did more shopping just for me, girl dinners, baby time, family time, etc.  Of course I continued to eat like there was no tomorrow.  The first weekend he was gone I went to a long time family friends baby shower with my Mom, and Traci.  Congrats Amanda! Traci and I drove straight from the shower to Dallas.  The shower was fun but the car ride was just as much fun.  I haven't been able to spend that much uninterrupted time with my sis-in-law in a long time (kids are always around). It was great to get to talk and hang out. 

Me, Amanda, and Mom

Traci and Amanda

Upon arriving in Dallas I was able to spend more time with Chad, Bailey, and Coleton.  Bailey and I always try to find a way to spend some time alone and have fun aunt-niece time so we snuck off one morning a did a little shopping. She is such a cool kid. 

When Bailey would let me, I spent a little time playing with her brother Coleton.  He is such a cutie as well.  It's hard to resist this kid. 

When I left Dallas, I headed farther north to Oklahoma City to spend time with Holly and her new baby Emily.  It was so great to get to spend time watching Holly become Mom and get to know Emily.  Holly was really wanting a girls night our without Emily so we met up with our college friends, Christina and Kendra, in Bricktown at "The Melting Pot".   I was so excited to get to eat at there and it was great but the company was even better.   Christina came out to Holly's one night for dinner and more fun time. I also spent one night at Kendra's and was able to meet her fiance and we spent more time together.   It was great to get to spend some quality time with these girls.

Baby Emily 

Holly, Me, and Emily

Me & Kendra 

Me & Christina

My vacation time was little "back and forth".  After spending half a week in OKC I headed once again back to Dallas to spend the weekend with my best friend from high school and college, Anna.  We booked a hotel room close to shopping that we wanted to do and spent 3 days reminiscing and having a blast!  Again, I didn't take any pictures while we were together so I thought it would be fun to be an old picture of us from high school.  This one is from Halloween our senior year with our other best friend Holly L. 

Me, Anna, and Holly L

At last I made my way back to Houston to spend my last week in the states with my parents.  We ate more good food, went to movies, and of course sat on the back porch some more.  What a great trip to the USA!

Summer in the USA part 1

Sorry for the long absence on the blog.  Micah and I have been really busy with all of our fun in the US.  Of course we are both back in Saudi now so I have time to sit down and try to remember our trip.  Micah was able to come to the USA with me for 3 weeks.  It was his first trip home in over a year!


Our first stop was Houston for almost a week.  My family was there to greet us in Houston when we arrived.  It is so much easier to get through jet lag when there is exciting stuff going on. During the first week home we were able to see my brother and his family and my sister and her family.  What a fun beginning to our trip! Sadly I wasn't in the picture taking mode yet so I only have a few.

Beau and Madasin

While in Houston we were also able to go to our old church a couple times and visit with our best friends from Clear Lake.  We miss getting to do life with these wonderful people.  We also feel so blessed that they welcome us back home every time and that it feels like there is no time lost.  That is what makes good friends.  Thanks Carpenter's and Harris's for being such wonderful friends. Again, I forgot my camera (so not like me) but I did get a couple pictures.  As usual, I don't really have pictures of the guys since they aren't quite as enthusiastic about posing. 

Addi C and Charlotte H at lunch

Meredith and Charlotte

Susie and Addi

Eventually, Micah and I started making our way up north to Oklahoma.  On the way we stopped by the Jackson's to see their precious new baby Emily.  Now, Holly and I have literally known each other our entire lives so Emily is more like a niece to me.  I was so excited to get to meet Emily even if it was just for a short time. 

Upon leaving Holly's we headed for Stillwater.  Micah had planned just enough time in Stillwater to eat at our favorite places: Eskimo Joes, Bad Brad's BBQ, and Red Rock Bakery.  We were able to spend some short time with my family and ride the "gator" on my dad's land.  It's nice to just be out in the country away from everything for a short time.  We could have stayed longer but there are just so many people to see in a limited amount of time. 

From Stillwater we headed to Tulsa to spend time with Micah's family.   We stayed a few days in Tulsa at Andy & Jackie's and then spent a few more days in Wagoner.  In Tulsa we were able to eat out more, go see a movie, church, shop, and more eating out.  One night we went to a Japanese steak house where they cook in front of you.  Kate thought it was really cool until he lit the onions on fire and then she cried. 

After a few days in Tulsa we made our way to Wagoner.  Our original thought was to go camping and ride jet-ski's but almost all of the Oklahoma lakes were suffering from a "Blue-green Algae" break-out.  Our camping plans were canceled but we were still able to float the river.  Micah eventually found a lake that wasn't having the algae problem so we packed up and went jet-skiing for an afternoon.  

When our time in Oklahoma was over we headed back to Houston to spend a little bit more time with my family and our Clear Lake friends.  At my parents house we spend a lot of our nights sitting on the back porch hanging out.  Well, my parents have new "neighbors" who like to pay a visit at night. This has given us new entertainment to add to sitting on the back porch....Coon huntin.  Yes, my parents live in a highly populated city in a really nice neighborhood but that don't scare no coons.  And since they live in this area we can't just pull out guns and shoot them so my dad decided to buy blow guns.  Are blow guns going to kill the coons?....No, but it is a lot of fun to scare them :)

Micah the brave hunter.

After 3 fun weeks together in the States it was time to put Micah on a plane and send him back to Saudi. Stories from the rest of my visit in the USA coming soon.