Back to November

Our dear Elena had kindly asked for a trip to Barcelona for her birthday present.
We had to kindly explain that a trip to Spain is not what we are willing to offer as a birthday present and we gave her other options, but since we are living in Saudi, a Kingdom.... well we offered a realistic present.

Dubai!!!

Not really for her birthday though, it just so happens that the Eid break was right after her birthday :-)
We pretty much imposed ourselves on our friend's -the Petersons- vacation. We planned together a whole week of just fun!
It was a while ago and my memory is not called a memory anymore so  bear with me ok.

The first Christmas decorations we spotted, a little tree at an Italian restaurant.

The first day we were all together we took the whole gang (4 adults and 7 kids) to the Dubai Mall. Our first stop, the Aquarium.
You get to go through a tunnel where sharks and rays welcome come you in...hehehe

This bubble was inside a display of some funny looking fish but it was too hard to get a picture of the whole thing.

The upstairs had "creepy creatures" David and Elena being attacked by a Tarantula!!

One of the fun attraction at the Mall, the carousel!
(the mall is so big, it took us about an hour to find the carousel)

The Ketchesons stayed at the mall a little later to watch the fountain show. We had to wait FOR E VER!! and this is how the girls spent their time.

Elena= reading, Victoria= playing on the iPhone.

It rained!!!

I hope I didn't traumatized you, yes, that is sweet Elena and she is holding a golden ticket to The Tallest building in the WWW!!!
We all went up the Burj Khalifa to me it was one of those experiences that you had to experience but I was so disappointed that we didn't go ALL the way to the top, but the view from the top was amazing. The coolest part was the set of "islands" that they are building out in the water, they all together form the shape of the world. Pretty cool.

We also visited the "Spice Souk" it wasn't as impressive as I thought it would be but it did make me wish I could have it next door while I cook. The blue rocks are Indigo and they turn jeans blue  :-)
My favorite part was to find fresh vanilla beans. Oh I've made some delicious home made vanilla ice cream.

We rode a little taxi boat, the girls LOVED it.

We also made it to this cool park that had pony rides,

bike rentals

Puddles to ride over,

where we raced the girls against us. Elena was REALLY good.

and a Dolphin show with Seals, it was super neat and I got to play volleyball with a Dolphin!!!

Saying good bye to Dubai, Arabic style ;-)

The only way you can go home from a vacation... Super Happy!

Of course we also visited a really cool water park Wild Wadi in which David was able to go with our friends and try the scariest rides (except for they weren't scary at all, the poor park was compared to Seven Peaks the WHOLE time) while the girls and I stayed at the    wave pool, the girls LOVED it more than the kids water park.

We shopped and walked a lot, we found a HUGE bookstore and Elena loved it more than the aquarium. WE almost went to Ferrari World, where they have the fastest roller coaster in the world, but the girls traded that for a relaxing day in the hotel and more shopping. We had some yummy food and doughnuts everyday for breakfast.

We had a super fun time..... until we arrived at the airport and they didn't want me to board the airplane because I didn't have a letter from my Dr that said I could return to my home and have my baby at the hospital I planned to have it with my Dr.
Thankfully in this part of the world you tell everyone what to do , and that is what we did,and we got our letter from the clinic at our compound.

Yey for vacations!!!