Ok, this is my 6th and final post about our summer! WOO WHOO! what a summer it was! It only took me a month to catch up, but I did it! (Can you believe we left the USA exactly 1 month ago today?!)
See below to find out how we felt after two days of Disney:
We were exhausted! I failed to mention before that our hotel had no air conditioning. Thankfully it was pretty cool, highs around 80 each day, but without that cool air blowing on you at night.. not even a fan, we just weren’t getting a great nights sleep. The kids played musical beds all night and kept changing who they were going to sleep by which made for restless nights. BUT, we were on vacation and we were pressing on. It was Charles’ and My day to see the city – in a time crunched-drive-past-it-quickly sort-of-way. We explored our options at the front desk for tours.. they had the regular, bunch of people on a bus type – but also offered a personal guide that takes you around by yourself. It wasn’t that much more expensive, and with Audrey and Will and all their unpredictability at this point, we played it safe – we also had much more flexibility with our personal tour since he would go where we wanted, not where we didn’t and would stop for however long we wished for eating, walking around etc. Super. Lets Go!
Our first stop, Notre Dame Cathedral – I also found a cute souvenir shop right where our guide dropped us off – and bought a Christmas ornament (that is what we do on every trip.. collect an ornament from the place we visited).
The nuns leaving the Cathedral
Me and the kids, Charles and the kids.. It was a beautiful day! We could have gone inside, but you should have seen the line!.. next stop the Eiffel Tower! Wow!
It was amazing to see in person.. So huge and so much attention to detail.. absolutely stunning.
We hung out around here for a while and grabbed an early lunch at a café nearby
my Quiche Lorraine and salad. Delicious!
Will eating his favorite food: French Fries in France!
such a cute ice cream trailer!
We grabbed an ice cream cone for the kids afterwards – Ariel was with Audrey the whole day – in the Eiffel tower pictures, at the lunch table, getting ice cream… too. cute. Off we go again..
Audrey took this picture of me. I was taking many many pictures out of the car window.. she wanted a turn
Jean Claude took us all around and barely spoke english – I kept getting the giggles b/c we just couldn’t understand him.
sweet girl dozed off for a bit… notice the small toy kitty cat in her dress pocket. LOL. she cracks me up.
similar to Italy, they have public bikes for everyone’s use ^^
he wanted Chaups: “CHIPS”
sweet sleeping boy! I am thinking I need to collage all the sleeping pictures from the summer!
We finished up sight seeing, got back to the hotel and had dinner, let the kids play a bit and then packed up since we had to leave first thing in the morning to catch our flight back to Abu Dhabi.
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Leaving Paris….
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7 hours later Landed in Abu Dhabi…(of course this day neither kids slept for a minute)
We flew Etihad Airways and man oh man was it NICE!. we were in coach, but not your average coach! The plane was brand new with nice big screen headrest tv’s, huge blankets, constant food (GOOD food) and free flowing wine/ adult beverages.. yes free. they provided activity bags for the kids and the service was second to none. Fly Etihad! you won’t be sorry!
I was a bit nervous to arrive back in Abu Dhabi – not sure how I’d feel after being away for 2 full months.. In a way I was dreading it and in a way I was looking forward to it. When we got home the feeling of ‘oh I’m not sure I want to go back’ disappeared totally. It was wonderful to be back. My emotion caught me off guard, because it isn’t what I expected to feel at all. It felt good, it was exciting… and we are really happy.
Now that I’m totally caught up with our summer, I can focus on catching up on what has happened in the past few weeks. The first two weeks we were here it was during the Muslim holidays: Ramadan and Eid. Ramadan is a time of fasting and since this is a Muslim country, you are not allowed to eat or drink in public (Children can though). We don’t eat out much, so I didn’t really think we would notice, but many businesses are closed as well and there just isn’t much to do since it is so hot. We were looking forward to the week of Eid since it is a time of celebration, but I found many frustrating moments where I tried to go and do things and everything was closed. We got creative and played at home, went swimming and even got a lot of bouncy balls and brought them to the squash courts (similar to raquet ball court). I was getting a bit stir crazy not having anywhere to ‘go’. But I tried to remind myself that it is the same way during Christmas season in the states.. businesses have different hours, places shut down.. etc. just deal with it.
The next week, Audrey started school and has been LOVING it! She is making friends and having a lot of fun. She is the teacher’s pet kind of kid so I have nothing to worry about…it’s a good thing too b/c I think her teacher is excessively strict for a Kindergarten teacher…lets just say she runs a TIGHT ship. I have already gotten fussed at twice. Once for sending a PB &J sandwich (*I was unaware of the nut-free policy, I promise!). I’m sure it was in one of the billions of piles of papers we have gotten this week from the school… and the other no-no was that I forgot to pack her a hat, so she had to sit out of recess.. sheesh.
Meanwhile, I have been meeting lots of the other moms at the school, which I am enjoying so MUCH. Many of them know each other from last year and have strong friendships already, which is a bit intimidating at first, but now that the momentum is picking up with school I’m finding it easier and easier to connect. I SWORE to myself I wouldn’t over commit to extracurriculars (the school offers soooo much)– I just really don’t like the feeling of being stretched too thin, so I was really hesitant to get involved. But now that Will is in preschool 2 mornings a week, I am finding that I need something to do with my time. So I signed up to be the “assistant” Room Mom – I didn’t want to have all the pressure of being the Room Mom (*all the planning, coordinating and correspondence with teacher and parents.. boo!), just wanted to help out with holiday parties etc..
I also signed Audrey up for Daisy Scouts (younger girl scouts) since a couple of the moms said it is a great way for the girls to make deeper friendships outside of the classroom, and since it is all classes are mixed up for the whole grade, it helps for future school years: they will know people outside of their current class that might be in future classrooms – Also when they move back to the USA they have an immediate connection with other girls and can join the local girl scouts to help the transition go more smoothly. Ok. sounds perfect. Apparently all the other moms also thought this would be a good thing for their girls since 17 Kindergarteners signed up. It was double what they expected and now will have to divide into 2 groups. The group leader sent an email out asking for mom’s to step up to lead the second group… so guess who is a troop leader.? ha ha.. yes, you guessed it. Me. And I have since put myself on volunteering probation. LOL no really, It will be so much fun. I am looking forward to it!!
I always did love this movie:
Abu Dhabi Time
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