Dubai Part 2

We were so curious about the indoor ski thingy at the Mall of the Emirates, so as soon as it opened, we were there and ready to go! I was soooo bummed that they didn’t allow kids under 3 years old in – I knew he’d just LOVE it.  Charles was a champ and stayed behind with Will…they went to a fun play area in the mall and afterwards had lunch.  I really wanted us all to go together, but I’m learning here that not much goes as planned here so we rolled with it.  I appreciate him staying back with Will - I know he could tell I was so excited to go {after all, I did have both of them all day before while he was golfing}.. so the boys hung out together.. next time Espy will come.  :0)

Meanwhile, the girls were enjoying THIS:

we were just hanging out at the base..  the large slope is up towards the left.. they charge separately for everything.. if you want to go to the top and ski down you had to pay a separate fee.. since this was Audrey’s first experience with all of this we played it safe. When you check in, you’re given a jacket, pants, snow boots and a new pair of socks.  You’re required to buy gloves if you want them and you need to rent a locker to put all your stuff in. I walked in there with shorts on, you just put the pants, jacket over your own clothes and voila! You’re ready to ski. (or play like us)

Audrey begged me to go to ski school, but the next one didn’t start until 2:00 pm… it was only 11:00 at this point – so it was a no go, but next time for sure!  She did AWESOME in the snow and didn’t complain one time.  It was –4 degrees Celcius (25 Fahrenheit). {We have memorized the formula: multiply by 9, divide by 5 then add 32}

the people were lined up watching like we were in a fish tank!

She had SO MUCH FUN!! I cannot wait to take her back and teach her how to ski!  She loved it!

** a total side note and irrelevant to the posting.. but I wanted to let y’all know that I have not had to flat iron my hair one single time since we’ve moved here.  If you are even considering doing a Keratin Treatment DO IT. you won’t regret it.. it is plastic surgery for your hair. All I do is blowdry, seriously.  If you don’t know my pre-keratin hair, it is the type that inflates with humidity and has bumpy waves in the back.. puffy, unattractive.. unhealthy looking. I got mine done this last time (I’ve done it twice now) at Crystal’s Salon on College Street in Lake Charles.. the guy’s name is Craig Guillory and the price will be ($125-150 depending on the length and thickness of your hair).  Ok. sorry, I just have been meaning to write about how I haven’t had to flat iron my hair in over 10 weeks. Important stuff here.  Ok, back to the trip:

She and I tubed down together.. it was a blast. the guy would twist it so that we were spinning the whole way down.

We had an emergency exit as I heard Audrey yelling she needed to go potty.. of course she had too much fun, was totally preoccupied and waited until it was too late. oh. yes. she. did. Peed on herself. We were only there barely an hour. UGH.

just outside the Ski Dubai was a Gold ATM/vending machine

I took a close up if you want to see the screen.. to see the dollar amts. you jus divide the AED price by 3.67.. Having to do some serious math all the time.. y’all know I hate math!

After the Pee incident.. I capitalized it because of it’s significance in our day… we got her cleaned up and met back up with daddy and Will (who was napping in the stroller) YESS! time to shop, but we didn’t buy anything, LOL..  just had fun browsing around.  You wouldn’t believe the stores they have here.. it is nuts.  Only celebrities and very rich Emiraties can afford this couture.  We had a great time and spent another couple hours just window shopping then hopped in the car and did a bit more site seeing.

We saw the 7 star hotel…

We drove onto the Palm Islands…

We drove by the Dubai Atlantis

and then we were headed home.

so many boats. We had a great time and look forward to going back to spend some time at the Atlantis resort as well as more time snow skiing. ;)  It only takes us about an hour and 15 minutes to get from door to door (the places we went to anyway).  So we look forward to more visits in the future.  I am thankful they are going to be just visits though.  My overall (very short) impression of Dubai is that the city is slammed with traffic, has a very tricky layout and is swarming with singles and night life.  Everything there was ultra modern and ultra busy….  Abu Dhabi is much more family friendly but less polished than Dubai.  It is a better fit for us and we are so excited to live so close to even more fun, exciting things!  I’m dying to go to Atlantis!!