Apples and Oranges

It's hard to compare Dubai and Texas - it's like apples and oranges.  There are some really great things about both places that we call home, but our hometown of Fairfield, Texas and Dubai could not be more different.  Fairfield is a suburb of Dallas and is about 90 miles south of Big D!  Our town has approximately 3,000 people and there is one public school that the kids attend.  Dubai on the other hand, has more than 2 million people and there nearly 100 public schools and 150 private schools!  Mason attends a public school in Fairfield and a private one in Dubai.  The size of the two schools is very similar, except the Dubai school has grades PreK - 12 on one campus, while our school back home is divided into 4 campuses.  There are approximately 120 kids in each grade in both places.

Fairfield is a rural town, and we live on a ranch that is approximately 10 minutes from town.  Our home is located about 1/2 mile off the main road, and our nearest neighbor would be Rod's dad, and he is about 500 yards away!  Part of ranch life includes cattle, chickens, horses, a several ponds and a creek.  We also have wild hogs, a lot of deer and lots of other wildlife.  It's a boy's paradise!! We do have a local grocery store in town, but we don't have a Wal-Mart, Target, Costco, etc.  You have to drive anywhere from 30 minutes to 1.5 hrs to reach one of those.

In Dubai, we live in a hotel apartment and use an elevator to get to our room each day.  We have all the amenities of a hotel including a concierge, room service, swimming pool, gym, restaurants, grocery store, cleaners, key card system to access our rooms, etc.  We live across the street from the world's largest mall and are within minutes of the beach, restaurants, movie theaters, and a whole lot more!

Home is where the heart is!  Here is where our heart resides:

 Mason and Rod playing a game of catch in the backyard

 Has anyone seen the twins?  Oh, there they are down by the fence!

 Front part of our house

 View from our back porch

 Sunrise!

 One of the ponds filled with water after much needed rain!

Double rainbow :)

We leave behind our amazing dog, Levi

 Cash gets friendly with a calf

 Tractor rides in the afternoon with GranBobs

 Fishing in our pond after school

Mason and cousin Emmie riding around with their daddies after school

 Mason gets to go dove hunting with the guys

 We have an annual father/son campout

We go for rides in the Kubota

 Mason and his 2nd grade class

We love to have everyone over to swim during the summer

 We especially love having our cousins over for swim parties (yep, that's an elk mounted above our mantle!)

One of our favorites times of year is the County Fair every June!  Mason with his cousins, Calame, Emmie and Charlie!

We have a parade at the start of the County Fair, and here is a caravan of TX tow trucks going through the square in downtown Fairfield!

Levi and I take the boys for a jog in the double stroller, right in our backyard

 In the fall, our lives revolve around football; especially the Texas A&M Aggies and our high school football team, the Fairfield Eagles

Mason shot his first buck this past fall

And occasionally we get snow!