Party Of Five in Dubai

Wednesday, January 6, 2016

Like sands through the hourglass...(April 2015)

I just came across this post that I wrote back in April 2015. We were in the midst of packing, when I came down with a bad case of pneumonia and never got around to posting. These were some good memories though, and so much fun to look back on...

Post from April 2015: Like sands through the hourglass, so are the Days of our Lives! It's hard to imagine that we are wrapping up another 20 week stint here in Dubai, which has completely flown by! I'm sitting in our apartment amongst partially packed suitcases and trunks trying to determine what stays in Dubai, what goes home, what gets donated and what goes in the trash. We spend approximately 40% of our year here, so we have acquired a lot of things over the last 7 years. Since we stay in a furnished apartment, we bring over mostly clothes from the US and leave things in Dubai such as toys, kitchen items, toiletries, Christmas decorations, kids scooters and the ever-important Apple TV in large metal trunks!

We have been blessed to experience another successful year in Dubai. Godolphin did extremely well in the Winter Carnival. They were the champion trainer, owner and World Cup winner (for the second year in a row!)

World Cup winner Prince Bishop was ridden by William Buick

Godolphin exhibit at the Dubai Mall with the World Cup trophy in the glass case

Rod and the boys at the Godolphin stables

Watching the horses on their evening walk

Mason remained busy with his school work and baseball. The school has been very accommodating with our schedule, and his second grade teacher moved up to third and was his teacher again this year! He worked with an awesome baseball instructor that really helped his confidence with pitching and hitting! He also managed to wiggle his way into the ASD Varsity baseball practices! I noticed him one day after school out on the practice field with the varsity team and was their bat boy for a few games and scrimmages! He was thrilled!! Mason is excited to get back to Fairfield and play with his league team and with the TX Knights traveling team!

Mason ran the final leg of his relay team during Field Day. Safe to say his team won!

Mason practicing out in left field with the Varsity team

Mason got to attend the Baseball Factory 3-day Training Camp

The twins seems to be happy wherever they are! Their preschool was a great experience for them, they learned to swim and their new favorite food is fish curry! Go figure! They love to play, wrestle and box with Mason! They love to dance and sing songs and know the words to more children's songs than I ever knew!

Successful swim lessons with Ms Rita

Jake with Ms Rita

Cash with Ms Rita

Playtime in the pool...

Usually turns into wrestling

Holidays in Dubai!

Our timing in Dubai is based on Rod's schedule and the horses. The horses fly over from the UK and race in Dubai during the best times of the year. It's called the Winter Carnival, but it feels more like early summer to us! The temps are in the 70's and 80's when we arrive in December, so it's not a bad place to spend the "winter!" It's hard to leave home during the holiday season, but the trade off is the weather here and the quality family time we spend together. The boys get here in time for a couple of weeks at school. It's a great way for them to ease back into things, it's a festive time of year, they have holiday parties and concerts, a light homework load and baseball season is just kicking off! Even though we are in the Middle East, there are ton of Christmas festivities around town and the December issue of the local magazine is dedicated to all the things for families to do!

The World Air Games were held here at the first of December, and we got to see fighter pilots perform an air show. We were celebrating Caroline's birthday with brunch on the beach, and we were treated to a spectacular show! We also sat across from Roberto Cavalli, who docked his yacht in the bay while brunching!

Here's a view of the hot air balloons while on our way to Mason's first day of school! They were taking off right across the street from his campus!

Both of the boys had winter concerts at school. Mason's 4th grade class dressed in Christmas colors and sang holidays songs from around the world. The twins' preschool celebrated cultures from around the world. Each class dressed as a different country, and the twins' class represented the UAE; however, they were not too thrilled about their attire ;)

We enjoyed the Dubai Dolphinarium with our Corsicana friends that recently moved to Dubai!

We visited The Chillout Ice Lounge with Caroline and Shyla, where we drank hot chocolate, visited Santa Claus and played in the snow pit!

We made lots of trips to the Dubai Mall, and they do a pretty good job to make us feel like it's Christmas time!

Swarovski Christmas tree at the Dubai Mall

Mason and Shyla and the aquarium

We visited the Dubai Glow Park, which was the next best thing to Christmas lights!

Wednesday, December 2, 2015

Thank You Technology!

It's hard to imagine that we are back in Dubai for the 8th year, and so much has changed since our first time here in Dec 2008. Mason was only 2.5, and Rod came two weeks before us to make sure this was going to work out. That year we stayed in a villa, unlike the serviced apartments where we stay now with the other Godolphin folks. We had very limited TV and this is when Mason found his love for Tom & Jerry. We could enjoy that in any language! We also had a DVD player, and the movie Cars was on repeat! I had a Nokia flip phone and email was the best way to communicate with people, and I don't believe we texted internationally back then. That was a rough year for us for multiple reasons, but we decided after that year it was better for us to stay in the serviced apartments.

The pictures on my home page were taken back in 2011. The twins were only 5 months, and Mason was 5 years old! I used an outside company to set up my blog, and they have since gone out of business. I was hoping to update the boys' pictures every year, but now those baby faces make me smile and remind me how far we've come! That was by far the hardest transition period for us. The twins were barely sleeping through the night back home, and then we decided to rock their world and move half way across the world! I didn't think we would ever get them sleeping through the night again, but after one month, they finally got back on schedule!

Fast forward to 2015 and our 8th year in Dubai! Now the twins are 4.5 and Mason is 9.5 years old! We are back in the same apartment from last year, and it's as if we never left! The gap between Dubai and home just gets smaller and with every year the transition gets easier. I realize I have technology to thank for a lot of that!!

Thank you Emirates airlines for having a touch screen TV on your flight! My kids are able to operate their own TV and ICE remote now, and can pick and choose their movies and TV shows. This makes the 14 hour flight manageable and now actually enjoyable since I'm able to watch a few movies myself. I'm not a big movie watcher back home, but I figure I have this flight to look forward to and can catch up on a years worth of movies!

Thank you iPads! You came in very handy on the flight, because if the twins were not able to find something from the 1000 ICE shows, they could always rely on their own programs and apps on their iPads.

Thank you iPhone! Over the last few years, I've managed to upgrade from the Nokia flip phone, to a Blackberry and last year I was able to get an iPhone! Yeah! I'm able to have access to all my apps, the camera feature and most importantly Google Maps! This comes in very handy here in Dubai, as roads and directions are changing all the time!

Thank you WhatsApp, FB messenger, iMessage, iBooks! It's so easy to communicate with friends and family, which makes leaving home a little bit easier :) I've done a lot of reading during my days (and currently nights) while in Dubai. I've read some of my favorite books like the Divergent series, Still Alice, Girl on the Train, The Husband's Secret, Gone Girl and Big Little Lies! I'm currently reading Jen Hatmaker's For the Love: Fighting for Grace in a World of Impossible Standards. It is a hilarious must-read for every woman trying to juggle it all!!

Thank you Apple TV for allowing us to watch our favorite programs and discover new ones. The boys have access to their cartoons (the kids programming in our hotel package leaves little to be desired. It's either the Cartoon Network with inappropriate shows for any child, or the Disney channel in Arabic!) I'm excited to see what shows Rod and I will watch this year. We've been able to watch full seasons of Downton Abbey, Breaking Bad, House of Cards, Sons of Anarchy, Homeland and Outlander. It also allows the kids to watch some of their favorite Christmas shows like Home Alone, A Charlie Brown Christmas, Elf on the Shelf and How the Grinch Stole Christmas. This especially comes in handy when we are up at 3:00 am, but our bodies are telling us it's 5:00 pm!

All of this technology is great, but at the end of the day, nothing replaces some good ol' toys! We just opened up our last trunk and it was an early Christmas for the boys! They discovered their balls, guns, dinosaurs, tractors, cranes, building blocks and books! This is just day 5 of our fun journey, and I think it's going to be another great one!