Celebrating Eid at the beach!

We have officially survived our first Ramadan, which ended last night!  For the most part, Ramadan didn't impact our life too much.  Since I didn't have a driver's license for most of the month, we didn't get out and about too much.  We thought Ramadan ended day before yesterday, so we took the boys to the mall and movies.  The theater was open, but the concession stand and all the restaurants and food court/stands in the mall were still closed.  Of course, we arrived at lunch time, so we were all hungry and no food!!  The grocery store in the mall sold prepared foods, so we picked up some food for the boys (they can eat in public, but adults can't during Ramadan).  For those that know me well, you know that I can't skip a meal ... headaches and the "west" temper comes out in full force when I don't get food.  How do Muslims go all day without any food or drink for an entire month??  I couldn't do it and keep my family.  I got so hungry, I actually hid in a bathroom stall and ate a snack!!!  So gross!!!  But you gotta do what you gotta do!

Today is the start of Eid - a holiday that celebrates the end of Ramadan.  I imagine Muslims are feasting all day long!  I would if I just fasted for 30 days!!

Ken has a few days off for Eid, we took the boys to the beach.  The water was amazingly clear and so calm!!!  It was a really nice beach!  Shallow forever, so the water was ridiculously warm!!!  Almost like a hot tub in some areas!!  The boys loved the warm water, but still not a huge fan of the salt.  I was impressed we stayed as long as we did ... even with the water and cooler breeze, it was crazy hot!!

 Al Wakra beach ... about 30 minutes from our house.

Nicholas looking for tiny little crabs in the shallow water.

Jaden holding some of the tiny crabs.



Working together...

The boys bucket of "loot" - lots of clams and tiny little hermit crabs.  We had to change the water in the bucket frequently so we didn't cook the little critters!  :-) 

I don't think I've posted any pictures from around Doha ... here's the turning circle right before the beach.  They often have statues in the middle ... this one looked like a giant shell.

This was the sand dune right before the beach ... sand dune or sand mountain??

Greece

Ahhh ....

A wonderfully relaxing vacation to Greece was just what our family needed.  I needed to get away, the boys needed a bit of fun, and Ken needed a break from work ... all was accomplished in one beautiful week on a cruise to Greece. 

We flew to Venice, Italy on Friday, August 10.  The boys thought it was so cool to take water taxis to the hotel and around town.  We had never been to Venice and were pleasantly surpised by how much we enjoyed it.  I had heard that it was dirty and the water canals were stinky, but we didn't find that to be the case.  Maybe it's seasonal and we got lucky, but we really had a good time.  I just love being able to walk a city ... the outdoor cafes, the Murano glass, San Marco cathedral and it's glorious mosiacs, the music, the life of the city ... all were fantastic!  The boys liked the views from San Marco Tower, the pigeons in the open squares, and the gelato!  Yummm!!  The gelato!!!  Made me remember our honeymoon (in Italy) where I fell in love with Pistachio and Tiramisu flavored ice cream!! 

Here are a few pics from our day in Venice:

Gondolas docked for the evening...

Typical water canal full of gondolas...

 Boys enjoying their first gelato!  Not sure if Jaden is holding Ken's ice cream, or if he ate two.  Jaden can easily polish off two ice cream cones, so no telling.

And I have to share this one ... so funny!!!  Jaden is really big into taking pictures with my phone, our camera, or even his DS.  Nicholas decided to get in on the action for vacation.  He took one picture, here it is:

This is the horse in front of San Marco Cathedral.  We were on a balcony that didn't allow us to take a clear shot of the front of the horse, so he took a picture of the horse's rear end.  He thought it was HILARIOUS!!  And so did we!  Nicholas is our little jokester!  I just love him (when I don't want to strangle him)!!

On Saturday, August 11, we got on board our cruise ship (Norwegian Jade).  It was our first cruise.  The food was excessive, the evening shows were fantastic, the kid's club was convenient, and the pool was surprisingly cold (but we're used to very warm pools in Houston and Doha).  All in all, we're glad we took a cruise, but not sure we will do another one too soon.  Ken thought it was too lazy.  I have to agree, after finishing my third book, I got a little bored too.

Here are the highlights in pictures ...

Our first stop was Corfu, Greece.  I took a lot of pictures, but can anything be more beautiful than this??  God is amazing!!!!  His creation is breathtaking!!

Next stop was volcano hiking in Santorini.  The city is high on the cliff in the background of the picture.  Our cruise ship is just behind Jaden too.

I was super proud of Jaden for hiking all the way up and back by himself.  He wasn't carried once!!!  Way to go Jaden!!  It wasn't a long or strenuous hike, but it was HOT!!

Of course the highlight for the boys in Santorini was getting to steer the tour boat!  The captain was so nice to let our boys "drive."

After Jaden took a turn, Nicholas had the courage to try as well! 

Next stop was the beach in Mykonos.  The water was amazing, but the boys thought it was cold.  (My kids are wimps when it comes to water temperature!)  I could have sat here with a cocktail all day!!



Ken rented a jet ski and took the boys out.  They had a blast!!! 

Last stop was Katakolo (ancient Olympia).  The boys love reading The Magic Tree House books and we had just finished reading about Jack and Annie's great adventure to Ancient Olympia right before our vacation - perfect timing!  Of course the next book in the series was about the Titanic, not so perfect timing right before boarding a cruise ship!!  Oops!!! 

Ken and I were surprised by the size of the site of the ruins.  It was very impressive and a wonderful experience to see the birthplace of the Olympics while the Olympics were taking place in London!

And finally, a few pictures from the cruise boat.  We all enjoyed the evening shows on the boat!!

Jaden acted like he met a celebrity when he saw the cruise director!  So cute!

The boys loved the few activities they attended in the kids club.  Face painting was definitely the biggest fan favorite.  The first time, they painted on super hero masks and made capes out of tissue paper.

The tiger face painting was far more impressive the next day!!  Roar!

And why is it that we never seem to remember to take any pictures of us??  We have tons of pictures of the boys and only one or two of us.  We need to get better about that!

Hope you enjoyed these handful or so of pictures. 

Going through vacation pictures and updating my blog was my treat after I finished unpacking...

All Unpacked!

I'm so excited to be done unpacking!!!  I think I did pretty well.  Everything arrived, unloaded, out of boxes and put away in less than 2 days!!!  I even set up the computer and the TV by myself (usually something I make Ken do.)  Yippee!!  The moving company just needs to come back to pick up the mountains of boxes and paper.  And then I have to decide on where to hang pictures. 

The boys were so excited to get their Geo Tracks trains set up, but they have actually played more with their musical instruments and the Foos Ball table.  So glad we decided to bring the foos ball table!  I almost left it in storage, but the boys are finally tall enough to play (standing on stools).  I'm hoping that I get better as we play more ... some day I want to actually challenge Ken in the game!!  As it stands, he KILLS me every time... and I even make him play with only his left hand!  :-( 

It's amazing the difference a few personal belongings make to a furnished house.  I'm especially happy to have my bed and some rugs to soften the tile floors.  I was not so happy to find two laundry baskets full of dirty laundry!!  Why didn't the laundry fairy wash those for me while at sea?? 

And it's rather amusing to see things I packed that make no sense - like lamps.  We were forewarned that our furnished townhouse didn't have any lamps, so we brought a few of our favorites.  Now we have fabulous lamps all over the house ... except we can't plug them in!!!  The voltage is different here and the lamps won't work without a converter.  I could probably buy a new lamp for the same price as a converter!  So for now, our lamps are decorative and maybe some day, I might get functional ones.  Oh well!  It does look nice with lamps.  :-)

Another silly thing I packed without thinking was roughly a year supply of the boys multi-vitamins.  They were gummies.  They clearly don't do well in the heat for ~11 weeks.  No longer are they individual little gummy vitamins, now they are a solid chunk.  Maybe I should have kept them -- I could have given the boys a spoonful of chewie goo every day?!  :-)  Clearly that should have gone in our suitcases!!!  Now I know for the future...

Videos!

Thanks Sarah for the tip on loading videos!  Loading to youtube first seemed like an unnecessary extra step, but it worked!!!  Now I can add pictures and videos!!!  Here are a few recent ones...

A typical day at the pool.  The boys can entertain themselves for hours going back and forth between the kiddie pool and the big pool.  Jumping, splashing, swimming, diving to the bottom, ...

Jaden and Nicholas are working on their handstands in this clip...

I'm not sure where these kids get their dance moves, but it's hilarious!!!  I love that Nicholas uses his sword as a guitar and Jaden's best moves occur about a minute in. 

 

Jaden videoed our little Nicholas "reading" his first book! 

He left out "EASY!" after every page for the camera. 

I was kind of hoping he would say it once ... so funny!! 

I love my boys!

I love that reading the Bible is an important part of our morning routine!  Even when I forget, the boys remind me when we miss "Bible time."  They were even willing to be late to their swimming lessons this morning to spend time in the Bible.  There's a lesson there for me.  How often do I put it off until later?  I too should be willing to be late in order to spend time with God.

While I'm still working on videos (thanks for the tip Sarah!), here are a few silly pictures of the boys this week ...

Who needs a pool when you can play with the pool toys in the living room?? 

 And Nicholas gets to wear his Spiderman costume to boot!

We went out for lunch after church last Friday and this was Jaden's immediate

reaction to the folded napkin sitting in front of him!  He was so excited to get a hat!! 

Who needs a happy meal when you can get a folded napkin?!

And of course, Nicholas has to do everything Jaden does ....

This was taken just 2 minutes after he insisted he wasn't tired and didn't need a nap! 

(I think his "lovey" is going to college with him some day.  Will he ever outgrow it?)

Poor kid's head is too big for shirt!  My little skinny mini!!  The only way our boys ever outgrow their shirts are when we can't get it over their big heads any more. 

Still no driver's license ... or sea shipment

I thought I was going to get my driver's license this morning, but again, the process wasn't fully explained.  I merely went to the driving school to make an appointment to take the test later in the week.  Just gives me more time to study the signs for the test.  Most of the signs are similar to those in the states, or you can figure out their meaning, but you have to say the name of the sign with their exact wording.  If not exact wording, you fail.  So instead of "No passing", it's "no overtaking," "yield" is "give way", "slippery road" is "slippery carriageway" and my personal favorite ... for "No U-turn," I have to say "Turning backwards is prohibited."  Love it!!  And who uses the word carriageway??? 

So my appointment is scheduled for Thursday morning at 5:30am.  We'll see...

And I just got a phone call that our sea shipment, scheduled to be delivered tomorrow, has also been delayed.  No surprise there.  I knew Ramadan would slow things down a bit.  Now we wait day by day until they get to our container.  No one really knows when it will be, so we'll wait and see how long it takes.  I'm still hopeful it will be this week, but that might just be wishful thinking.  Glad I never told the boys it was coming.  I had a feeling it was going to be delayed and I didn't want to disappoint them.

It will all come together eventually...

At least we have our RPs and passports so we can leave for vacation on Friday.  We decided to book our first cruise.  We're going on a 7 day cruise of Greece ... leaving from Venice, Italy on Saturday, August 3.  Super excited!! 

Baby sitter bliss ... or not.

I decided to spoil myself today and get a babysitter so I could grocery shop alone.  Sad isn't it?  My idea of fun is to grocery shop alone!  But come on moms, you know it's a rare and wonderful treat (especially in the summer) to go shopping solo!!!

I forget how much faster you can shop without kids, so I was finished long before my pre-arranged driver was coming for me.  What to do?  I called the car service and told them to send the driver now, but I still waited for over 30 minutes ... I just kept thinking my ice cream was going to melt and my milk was going to spoil.  Plus I was starving!!  Here I am staring at a cart full of groceries, starving, and not able to open something for a snack!!  Remember, it's Ramadan - no eating in public!!  GRRRR!!!  (That was my tummy talking.)  My driver finally arrives and he graciously helps me load the groceries in the trunk.  He finishes first and promptly closes the lid to the trunk ... ON MY HEAD!!!!  Ouch!!!  So much for a peaceful, enjoyable shopping trip sans kids! 

I can't wait to get my driver's license!!!!  Then I can go where I want, when I want, how ever fast (or slow) I want.  It's scheduled for Sunday morning ... pray I pass the first time around!  For those that know me, I'm not the greatest driver in the world, so I need all the prayers I can get!!  :-)  Thankfully, Ken has been a good influence the last several years, so I might stand a chance at passing.  I have NO idea how I passed when I was 16!  I got zero points for parallel parking and parking on a hill -- I even lost points leaving the parking lot!  It's no wonder I got in a car accident just 2 weeks later -- in a parking lot!