Christmas Day - 25 December, 2009

It was very exciting to wake up Christmas morning to see that Santa had found us in Abu Dhabi. The night before we had to leave glittery reindeer food on the roof and the glitter on the number 14 button in the elevator and all down the hall to our door. This way all our bases were covered that Santa would find us. Find below the wonderful gifts that Santa left us. Mine is the picture on the left and the kids follow!! :)





Christmas afternoon we had to test out the bikes in the park. Samantha did very well the first time without training wheels. Now she is zooming. We are working on using brakes and not getting too far ahead of Mom - but she starts by herself and is having fewer and fewer spills. Patrick picked it up right away. He was a bit nervous I think because it was bigger than his old one - but doing well and he is now full of confidence.


Below is a picture of Nana and Grandad taking it easy in the park while the kids have a break on the playground. After a while we headed back to the apartment and then went for a swim.




I have another picture to add but will have to wait till Wayne can help because it is on his phone. We went shopping for Christmas dinner fixings, and came across a turkey. We thought that would be nice - a little touch of home- until Wayne noticed the price. For almost $100 Canadian we all decided that the turkey could stay on the shelf and we went looking for a pot roast instead. :)

Geocaching - 21-24 December, 2009

We did seven geocaches on our trip to Oman. The pictures below are of the first one we did, which also happened to be Nana and Grandad's first one. We had a lot of fun finding it. The coordinates were off and as it turns out Nana had pegged where it was as we passed it. Oh well, we had fun exploring, and climbing the rocks looking for it. :)

There was a small one (film canister) for one of them which was neat because it was far into the rock wall and Patrick pulled it out with the attached wire (below). I also got to find one because the final part of the climb was tricky. Patrick was disappointed because he couldn't do it. It was on a small ledge and tucked into one of the holes behind a goat's skull. I wasn't too keen on touching the skull but hey I did it for the kids. :)

We also found our first nano-cache (below). That was a hard find, it took a while to find it. The find went to Wayne that time. Now we know what a nano looks like which made it a lot easier for Samantha to find the last one of the trip.

Our plans are to keep on finding them. There are lots here in the UAE and Oman as well as bunch in Dubai - maybe we will make a day of just geocaching in the New Year.

Tour of Oman II - 21-24 December, 2009

The next morning after our Oman tour, we headed to Al Ain- YES once again we piled into the truck for MORE driving! :) We saw the country side - sand and more sand. There was a geocache stop at Fossil Rock. Then we made it to Al Ain, for another windy drive up the mountain side. We stayed at our favourite hotel on Jebel Hafeet.

Once checked in, we had a little lunch and got our bathing suits on. The kids wanted to take Nana and Grandad down the waterslides. I caught them on video! :) So I have one picture for you of Nana, Grandad and Wayne chill-laxing at the swim up bar. Then there is one video of the waterslides. ENJOY!

Tour of Oman - December 21-24,2009

We decided to go for a little tour of the Northern Emiraites. So we headed off on the morning of the 21st, got lost in Sharjah, but managed to make it to our hotel in the early afternoon without too many hic-ups. Once we dropped our stuff off, we headed out for a geocache find and an explore. We went up this wadi (dried river bed) 'til we came to the Oman border. It was really cool to see, because of the recent rains. You see these trees growing on this mound of gravel and everything around it has been washed away. The wadis were quite wide. The wild life we found were GOATS. Hundreds of them all over the place, eating whatever they can find. We found one in the garge bins, on top of vechiles, side of mountains with a very steep incline. Below are a few pictures of the first day. Once we got back to the hotel for the evening, we had a swim in the ocean, saw a crab and collected some shells.

The next morning we got ready fairly early (cause we didn't have any hot water- so showers were very quick :) ) and headed out for more exploring. We did all the boring border stuff - fairly easily and then we were in Oman. The border town was neat. There were cows and goats walking the streets holding up traffic. We thought we better be careful and not hit one of the cows or we would be in big trouble.

We stopped at an ancient fort. Unfortunately the fort was locked up. We were able to peek in a few of the barred windows. Once we checked out the fort we started looking for our geocache. While looking we found all kinds of fossils and neat layered rocks. The view from the fort was quite something. Nana and Grandad are checking it out (left picture) and then the right picture is the view.

We continued on our drive, admiring the views. It was a twisty, windy road right between the ocean and the mountains. At some points the rock looked like it was going to slip off and crash on the road. We decided to stop at a beach for a little leg stretch and some lunch. The beach was cool. It was a shell beach - not much sand but mostly crushed sea shells. It was a nice break.

After lunch we headed into the mountains, through the wadi. They were doing some major construction on the road, so maybe by next year there will be a paved road for some of it. Considering the roads were in the wadi they were really quite good. We were expecting to have to do some 4x4ing. We climbed up and up and up. In about an hour's time we went from 0 ft elevation to 2900 ft elevation. It was quite the climb, with some awesome views. At one point in our climb we came across a place where there were a few houses/shacks with some terraced land for crops and more goats.

We found some rock formations that kind of formed little shelters. I guess they are for the herders when they are rounding up the goats. We would find them through the mountains. Sometimes you really had to look for them.

The next stop was to stretch our legs and was the turning around point for us. You could tell that it was the waterfall course for when it rained (picture on the right). All the rocks were well rounded and it was a different type of bedrock. There were some kettles forming as well. You could follow the course all the way to the top. The final picture below (bottom left) is on our way down again. You can just see the little village at the base of the mountains (little white blob) and the windy road down. I think when we got the bottom Wayne got out and kissed the ground. :)

On our way back out of the wadi we took one more detour. Up the mountain and then down a bit to look at the fjord. Wow what a sight! We didn't stay long because we wanted to get out of the mountains and to drive some of the windy road before dark. So we will have to go back again for further exploring and to go higher up the mountain, and maybe even d0 some camping! :)

GOOD NIGHT!!!

Merry Christmas - December 20, 2009

We have put up our Charlie Brown Christmas Tree. It actually doesn't look that bad once you have the lights on and you squint to get them to sparkle :) The kids have loved it. Every day they check it out and want to close the curtains so that they can put the lights on.

We would like to wish everyone a very MERRY CHRISTMAS from Abu Dhabi.

Tourists in Abu Dhabi- December 20, 2009

Well our visitors have been here a week and where has the time gone? Nana and Grandad did some exploring of the downtown while everyone else was at work/school. Patrick and Samantha took them in to show their classes and for the winter concert. Thank goodness the concert is over- Samantha will maybe stop singing "Jingle Bells". Ha! Fat chance!! :)

We went to the Grand Mosque on Thursday. Once again, it was awe inspiring. Don't we look lovely in our togs.
On Saturday, we went to the Heritage Village; what a neat place. They had set up a sample of homes in a fishing village, homes in a farming community, museum - with jewerly, clothes, photos, dishes, swords, buildings with some samples of the crafts - leather, shell inlay, swords, perfumes, pottery, camels, Arabian horses. Nana and Grandad found the dhow boats. Go figure! :) Patrick got to try out his hand at making a vase (Sophie, you would've been proud!)
This next week we are headed out for a little tour of the northern Emirates and into Oman. It should be a pretty awesome drive (if a bit nerve wracking). Checking out Google Earth there are a lot of switch-backs with the edge of the ocean on one side and the mountain face on the other. We will post photos when we come back.

13 December - A Flood in Abu Dhabi?

It poured, and poured, and poured... There is nothing like 12 hours of solid driving rain in a desert city with little to no stormwater infrastructure to make a mess of things.

Check out these YouTube videos (Video1, Video2), both of which were taken right outside of our Apt. building. All and all it was an exciting day of driving - Beastor needs a bath!

We picked up Nana & Grandad at the airport. The kids made a banner and ran to them giving flying hugs as they came out the doors as a surprise. It was a late night for everyone but well worth it - even if they were cranky today [uh - the kids I mean :) ].

It's "raining" in Abu Dhabi - 11 December, 2009

Just a short note today. This morning it was spitting a bit, so the kids and Wayne went up to the roof to go swimming in the rain. They came back down after a very short swim shivering and with their teeth chattering away. I guess it was very windy and cold on the roof since it was so dark out due to the clouds. The rain also didn't last very long this morning.

So we spent the day getting ready for our first visitors to Abu Dhabi. The kids were great through the shopping and cleaning, so we decided to go out for supper. On our way there it started to spit again. So it rained twice today! The kids were very excited about the whole thing and wanted me to post it on the blog to let everyone know that it does rain here. :)

We are all excited about Nana and Grandad coming for a visit in 2 days! We got a little Charlie Brown fake tree (a measly 5 feet tall), and some decorations for it. We will probably put that up when Nana and Grandad get here.

First Camping Trip in the UAE - December 3/4, 2009

We didn't think we were going to be able to go camping- But we made it. Wayne had sprained his ankle early in the week - really badly. It was the size of a grapefruit and this lovely purple colour. He took it easy all week - a.k.a. I did everything for him! :) The decision was made that we would try it and Wayne would bring a good book and read at the base camp. I started out driving, with Wayne doing the navigating (which is usually the other way around)- that lasted for maybe half an hour. Wayne couldn't figure out the GPS, so he decided his ankle was well enough to drive while I figured it out. :)

We took the scenic route out, all back roads. We saw a lot of camels everywhere. One was even causing a traffic jam! It was great (we took lots of pictures just for Justin).

So after many tries with the GPS we finally get out to Fossil Rock and I finally know how to put in some points on the GPS. It was well worth it! We set up camp first, because once it starts to get dark it goes very quickly. Once that was done and out of the way, the kids and I thought we would try to find our first geocache on our own (without Dad to help!). So we headed off and inevitably we ended up at the wrong rock outcrop. Oh well, we climbed to the top and had a wonderful view, and saw many neat fossils on the way. Below is a picture of the kids sitting at the top of the wrong outcrop (on the left) and us on our way to the right rock outcrop (on the right). We did a lot of hiking up and down some pretty huge dunes this day.






Here are a few of the better fossils that we found. It was abosultely amazing the number that were there.

The kids and I were gone for over two hours and it was getting close to supper when we finally arrived back at the camp. We had bought a throw away BBQ (basically a tin bake pan with a rack on top and the brickettes and starter all ready to go) to cook our hot dogs on. Yes we should have just thrown it away because in like 5-10 minutes it was done and our hot dogs were still cold. So we started our camp fire early and then put the pan over that. Oh the challenges you have when camping. We had a wonderful fire with our friend Ewan (from Wayne's work), who did the stoking (we missed you Kristen).

The next morning we were up and at it fairly early (6:20 am) so we took a little hike on the sand dunes to watch the sunrise. The pictures below are of: Samantha playing follow the leader (top left), our camp site (top right), the kids following bug tracks - Samantha: "Is this how they did it Dad?"(bottom left), and finally the sunrise (bottom right). It was so calm you could hear the quad bikes coming out to the dunes from the neighbouring town. I wonder when they actually sleep because the night before they were still going at it until about 2 am!

Once we packed up camp we decided to head out and explore. We were about 1 km from the rocks where we found the geocache so we drove out to them (more like the boys wanted to play). We did some driving in the dunes and then had a break, so the kids and I did some more climbing and exploring. On our way out we decided to try to go down the huge dune that went over the rock outcrop (on the left). It was both scarey and fun; remind me to show you the video later (it is too large to put here). Once the boys were done playing for a bit we headed out for a different way home - through the wadi (dry river bed). Wayne got stuck cresting a dune and had to be pulled out (on the right).

Below are pictures of Patrick and Samantha at the highest point that we could climb on Fossil rock (on the left), a cool shot of the rock with the sand dunes in the background (middle) and finally on the right, Patrick and Samantha finding our third geocache. Here we found a "travel bug" and will have to find a cool place to leave it. We had a picnic here and then headed into the wadi.
It was an awesome weekend, and definitly a place we would return to. Especially when Wayne's ankle is better since he missed out on all the cool fossils.

UAE Day at GEMS - November 25,2009

This day was a very exciting day at school. First off it was the last day of school before our week off, and it ended up being this huge party at school. We dressed up in the traditional dress (dish dash for the boys and abiya for the girls). I had to get help for my head scarf.

There was an assembly first thing in the morning. Every grade had a part to play. Patrick's grade sang a song in Arabic. Samantha's kindergarden classes each wore a different colour of the UAE flag and then they sat in the right order. Some of the older classes performed a tradional dance, a wedding and a fashion show. My grade 2's talked about the 7 Emirates and then did a little cheer.


Afterwards each grade got a chance outside to visit all the different stations. They had falcon's there (I got to hold one- they are so beautiful), horse rides, face painting (Patrick got the flag on his cheek), tradional pancake making, henna painting and someone was writing out your name in Arabic. I got the kids names done, I am hoping I can get the teacher to do Wayne's and mine later.

This is Samantha getting her henna on her hand, middle one is of Samantha and her friend Zeena, and the final one is both Samantha and I with our hands done with the heena. It was really neat to do. The longer you leave it on to dry the darker it becomes. At first it is very orange in colour but eventually goes to a brown colour.

They had a huge lunch for everyone, with all the traditional foods - hummos, falafels, tahini, grilled meat, rice, wraps, salads with tomatoe and cucumbers, looked like some kind of cabbage roll, and many other things I didn't know about. The deserts were like a trifle served in a chocolate bowl. Everything was very good, and there was so much of it.

Crazy Hair Day at GEMS - November 22, 2009

This past couple of weeks at school we have been raising funds for a special needs school here in Abu Dhabi. The kids had a few fun days- dress as a teacher day/ teachers dress as a student, PJ day and crazy hair day. Check out the hair-dos on these two. :)

Yes we shaved Patrick's initials into the back of his head.
On the way to school, Wayne had some harder music on and Samantha was bobbing her head. I looked back and had visions of her in about 10 years with baggy black jeans with the chains hanging off of them, baggy shirt and holding a skate board. Still gives me shudders!

First Dune Bashing Excursion - November 20,2009

We joined a 4X4 group here in Abu Dhabi. Our first outing with "Beastor" didn't start out the greatest. We couldn't find the meeting point. Good job we left really early so we had time to finally find it. We were all excited (secret- I was a bit nervous). So we all get our tires deflated and head out to the point where will start to go running the dunes. We go about 15ft and get stuck! Not a very good begining. The rest of the day was a lot better. We only got stuck twice the whole trip. The kids loved when Wayne had the sand spraying up to their windows. It was a beautiful trip with some awesome views. We went all afternoon and had supper in the dunes. The sunset was amazing!

As you can see from the pictures, the kids had a fun filled day and are out for the count!

New Park - November 6,2009

We didn't do much this weekend. But we did find a new park that looks like it will be a fun one to go to for a bike ride. This one was huge and had lots of wide paved paths, leading from one garden to the next. There were also play areas for the kids, a small aquarium, a museum (closed at the moment for maintence) and a train. We went in the afternoon and there was hardly anyone there. As we were leaving at around 4:30ish, everyone was arriving with their picnic baskets and blankets. Looks like we will need to go back for a supper picnic!

One of the off shoot gardens that we did explore and play around in was the fountain one. The entrance had this huge golden ball where the fountain came out of and there were several ways into and out of the garden. Within the garden there were several smaller pools with fountains in them.

Once finished there we headed out to try and find the aquarium. We found a dow boat that the kids clamered on, and the aquarium. It was a pretty neat one to see. Not as big as the Dubai one but big enough for the kids to wander around and see the fish. The train wasn't running yet because we were too early. So we will just have to go back with a picnic.

Here is our little model or is she the next class clown?

October 30, 2009 - Our third visa run!

Hopefully this is the last one. Wayne has his residence visa already and our paperwork is in the process. We headed to the Oman boarder at Al Ain, once again. This time we stayed at a different hotel. The crossing was a bit different from last time, but it seems things change here quite regularly and quickly.

We were able to get things done fairly quickly in the morning and we enjoyed the afternoon at the zoo. We saw a lot of cool animals. This time we even got to see the giraffes!! There is enough there that we will probably go back, as we didn't see everything. And the really cool part as a parent was it was CHEAP. For the four of us to go, it was 35 dirhams (about $10).

We saw some Arabian animals (Ibex, Oryx...), African animals (zebras, giraffes, rhinos..), an ostrich, flamingos, monkeys, peligans, some wierd bird with Samantha hair. It is a neat place to take a picnic, lots of green space and picnic areas, lots of animals to see and there is even a train. We didn't go on the train, so we will definitly have to go back. :)

Once finished we headed back to the hotel for a swim before supper. This hotel had a water slide that was super fast. They also had a water fountain that was strong. The kids (all three of them) had fun in the strong current it made.

October 29,2009 - Character Parade

It was our first Hallowe'en in Abu Dhabi. The school had a character parade. Samantha's class decorated their t-shirts and Patrick's class made costumes from fairy tales. Patrick took his from "Jack and the Beanstalk". Patrick was the beanstalk. It actually turned out really well.

We weren't sure if they did Hallowe'en here in Abu Dhabi. I found out the next day that they do in certain places. Our apartment buildings are two blocks (Block A and Block B), and in Block B they had put up a sign up sheet for the trick and treating. That is not our Block, so next year we now know to check the other block as well for a sign up sheet, and put one up in our building. Oh well, the kids were pretty zonked anyways from the week end. There is always next year. :)

October 24, 2009 - Patrick's trip to the Falcon Hospital

Patrick went on his first class trip, here in Abu Dhabi. They went to the falcon hospital. By the sounds of it, it was a really cool place to go. There was an information part, where they learned about the falcons. (Getting information from Patrick, is really painful :) ) The really awesome part was that they got to hold them. They wore this leather glove, and then held them. Patrick said he even got to feed one of them.

October 17, 2009 - The beach is open BUT only for Formula 1 :(

Sorry it has taken so long to post a new posting. I don't know where the time has gone!

They have finally finished all the work at the beach BUT it is now all set up with stuff for the Formula one race that is happening on Nov. 1st. This weekend we just kind of hung around. We checked out a new park and had a picnic; did some scootering, and rollerblading. We also went down to the beach to check out what was happening. We went Friday night but it was CRAZY, so we decided to head back Saturday as soon as it opened. There were some cool things to see. Patrick and Samantha got to do a drive test. We also watched 3 people from the audience take on one pit crew member to see who could change the tire faster. That was fun to watch. Man they move fast. In another part there were race tracks that the kids could compete against each other. It was a fun afternoon to wonder around. It was a bit of a tease though because we couldn't actually go on the beach yet.

For the next two weeks, there were all kinds of things going on to do with the big race.

We went to see a couple of movies that they were playing. We watched the new Herbie movie, where he gets to drive in a NASCAR race. The kids enjoyed that (we have since seen a Herbie car with a trailer, here in Abu Dhabi- Samantha spotted it and said "I want one of those"). We also got to watch CARS. Yes I know we have seen the movie how many hundred times BUT it was on the beach. It was really cool to watch the movies on the beach. They had bean bag chairs to sit in, and popcorn. The rumbling parts you could feel through your feet in the sand. It was late nights for the kids but what a neat thing to do.

Visa Run Again - October 2, 2009

We made our second visa run this past weekend. It wasn't as stressful as the first time. We went to a different crossing, one where you could see the Oman building from the UAE side. So we didn't have to drive 30-45 minutes in Oman to get our stamp. It was easier this time, but coming up to the crossing and seeing the barb wire fence with the roll of barb wire on the top is a bit daunting. The guards were so helpful, and friendly, one guy saw our kids playing the game boys and had to show us that he was playing a DS.

We went off the highway for a photo-op to get a family picture in front of a dune. The second photo is at a gas station just before the border. I thought it was kinda neat to see this mosque in the middle of no-where with the mountains in the background. The third is the other side of Jebel Hafeet. It was neat to see that some of the rocks were so sharp yet these were rounded and made you think you were on the moon or Mars.

Since the border was less stressful we had a wonderful afternoon at the water slides. They had all of them up and running this time. We were also able to squeeze in some mini-putt before supper. What a hoot! We got closer to some camels this time around. Oh speaking of camels- we didn't get a photo but we saw how they transport those poor beasts. In the back of a pick-up! They get them to kneel down and then they strap them in. We saw two different trucks- one had two in with them facing the back and the other had one in sideways. It was funny to see. The second photo is the view from our room. It was neat to see the ridge off in the distance. We also found a look out point at the hotel with binoculars, and were able to see the sand dunes, and many other neat things. The final picture is of the boys flaking out, waiting for the pool to open on Saturday morning before we had to leave.

Happy Birthday Patrick - September 30, 2009

Today our little boy turned the big "6". He had a fun day at school. They wear this birthday hat throughout the day that is a cake with candles on it. Patrick took in cup cakes and juice for snack time. They sang Happy Birthday to him in Arabic, in the Arabic class. He then came home to cake, presents and play time. Oh to be six again, and that is your day. :)

Here are a few shots of his birthday. The first is of him playing with some cool metallic silly putty tha Samantha found for him, the next is him opening police lego (which by the way he has some of it made already- and he says "I'm not going to mix this in with my other lego"), and finally the cake. Check out the candles I found. :)

Misc. Pictures - September 26,2009

Some fun days at the park: Getting wet, spinning, climbing, watching the fire show (very cool), watching the kids (NOT). The bottom two are: a night out on the town and one of the many neat shaped buildings (Aldar HQ).

I think we have some budding photographers. The final batch of pictures are the kid's. They have been taking pictures like crazy. Some of them are quite good. :)

Dubai Mall Aquarium - September 19, 2009

After we finished at the Mosque we headed to Dubai for the afternoon. On the way to Dubai we saw wild camels (at least we think they were wild). I got Wayne to stop so that we could get some pictures. :)

I know this sounds silly but we headed to the Dubai Mall. At the mall they have this huge aquarium. One of the largest aquariums in the world, housed in the world's largest mall right next to the world's largest building. Hmmmm- do you see a pattern here?

This aquarium was COOL. They had all kinds of fish: big, little, huge, colourful, plain, silver, etc. They had sharks, rays, eels, again in different sizes and shapes. Once you look at the outside and have paid your ticket you get to walk up closer to them and then get to go in a glass tunnel, where you can see them swimming at you, around you and over you. Way, Way cool. It is long enough but not really long in the grand scheme of things but we spent over an hour just walking through the tunnel and watching everything swim by. There were so many different fish that everytime you looked you found a new one.

We finally made it through the tunnel and headed up to the underwater zoo. Yes we are still in the mall. Here they had otters, turtles, pirhanas, jelly fish, sea horses, dragon fish, razor fish, seals, penguins, alot of different rays, small sharks, poison dart frogs, crocs, Nemo, Dory, Puffer from Finding Nemo. The kids had a blast. So did Wayne and I. The kids even got to feed the fish that were in the huge aquarium. It was an amazing day.

The kids and I have seven more days to our holiday. I don't know how we are going to even come close to today in the wow factor.

Grand Mosque - September 19, 2009

We visited the Grand Mosque today, with Stephanne (the teacher I'm TAing for). WOW!! It was breathtaking. All the pillars made of marble with inlay of different stones, was amazing. The floors were also marble with inlay of different stones making lovely floral patterns. There were pools of water with the Mosque reflecting in them. Part of the floor, if you looked closely, were tiny tiles of marble in a pattern all joined together to make larger tiles. There were painted mosaics on different tiles through out. It was all just amazing to walk around and look at the workmanship that went into making it - and this was just the outside.

To go into the actual Mosque you have to take off your shoes and make sure you are dressed properly: Men/boys in long pants, long shirts; Women in long skirts so you can't see your ancles, long sleeve shirts and then we were given our own abaya to wear when we got there. We also had to have our heads covered inside. It was very bright outside with all the white marble and the sun, so we were happy to go inside for a while.

The inside of the Mosque was absolutely beautiful. Again the workmanship of the stone work, the huge crystal chandalairs were staggering. The largest hand-woven Persian carpet in the world. The glass work on the windows, the stone work with lights shining through on the walls and floors, just made it one of those places that you are constantly gauking at everything trying to take it all in and still only seeing part of it. It is definately one of those places that anyone coming over will want to see, and we would be more than happy to go again and again, to try and take it all in.

The kids were awesome in the Mosque because they were also trying to see everything and taking pictures of everything. Take a look at our pictures, but you should also check out this site: http://www.visitabudhabi.ae/en/what.to.do/mosques.and.other.places.of.worship/sh.zayed.mosque.aspx

The first part is of information for times open and stuff, but go the bottom and it gives some stats about the Mosque. It really is impressive to see and read about. We had a wonderful time exploring it.