Kuwait

The first week in June the kids and Allen had a long weekend so we decided to take a little road trip to Kuwait. It's only a few hours away and even though it was only a couple weeks before our big summer break, we decided we needed to get out of here for a few days.

This was right at the Saudi/Kuwait border. I'm pretty sure I wasn't supposed to take this picture but I had to get the funny translation of the sign.

 Kuwait is very modern and clean and was seriously a breath of fresh air. It was super hot the weekend we were in town so we didn't do very much outside but we have heard of some great things to do so we will definitely be going back soon. This is one of the two Kuwait towers. They are being renovated right now so we couldn't go inside but we'd love to go to the top when we go back.

 We went with two other families and had such a nice time. We ate at great restaurants and the kids played at the pool but the main attraction was the huge mall in the center of town. We spent three full days at the mall and did almost no shopping! It was once the biggest mall in the world but a mall in Dubai has recently taken that distinction. It was huge, and beautiful and there was so much to do.

Our kids loved this FROST ice cream store and insisted we get a picture.

 We spent an entire day at a children's museum in the mall called Kidzania. It was the coolest concept I've ever seen for a museum. The museum is set up like a town. Every business or career choice you can imagine is represented there. The kids are given some "money" that they can use in the museum. They can choose to pay for experiences or they can choose experiences that will pay them for their "work." Each station had about a 20 minute activity for the kids to do. It was so much fun. The older kids were able to go around by themselves and try everything out while the parents stayed with the younger kiddos. I took tons of pictures but you only get a small sprinkling of all the activities for the kids.
Carter and Makenna as Dentists:

Emery shopping in the super market. The younger kids shopped and the older kids were the checkers:

Addison driving around the track (basically bumper cars). Being allowed to drive the cars was quite a process. The kids had to pay to get a drivers license and buy insurance before they were allowed to drive. Then could earn money by pumping gas or working in the car repair shop (where they actually learned to change a tire).

Makenna in the art studio:

Addison and Emery in "jail"

Addison and Emery delivering packages for DHL:

The kids also had a chance to make hamburgers at Burger King, bottle water at the water plant, make donuts, make their own perfume, be police officers/detectives and fire fighters, participate in a play, do a fashion show, paint the walls of a house, sing karaoke, work as doctors and dentists, shop at the stores, be airplane pilots, do eye sight checks and a several other things I am forgetting. It was such a fun day. We had only planned to spend a half day in the museum but we were there for about 8 hours. We will definitely go back.

The next day we went to the grand mosque for a tour and almost melted in the heat. It was 115-118 degrees the three days we were there. It was insane. After the mosque we went back to the mall to watch another movie and eat at shake shack one more time before driving home. We headed home early on the third day because we didn't want drive in the dark because of the camels that roam close to the roads. It was a great weekend and super relaxing and we can't wait to go back soon! (West Elm, Cheesecake Factory and Shake Shack are calling my name!)

Easter 2014

I am back and making a desperate attempt to catch up on blogging. With summer quickly drawing to a close I'm planning to make time to get caught up this fall. I know hardly anyone blogs any more but I still love it as a way to document our life so I'm back to it!

It was really interesting to celebrate Easter this year. We were able to carry on most of our traditions but also made a few adjustments and started some new ones. Since the holy day in KSA is on Friday we decided to kick off our Easter festivities a few days early.

The kids got some new clothes. It was so bright the morning this picture was taken so everyone is a bit squinty. 

 The kids got treats and other fun things in their Easter baskets that afternoon:

We dyed a bunch of eggs that evening in our teeny tiny kitchen. No matter how many eggs I boil, there never seem to be enough for everyone to color as many as they want.

For the past few years we have prepared a semi-traditional passover feast for our family to enjoy. Since we now live in the region where the actual Easter events took place we decided to go with some friends to a very traditional middle Eastern restaurant for dinner on Saturday night. We were able to help make bread:

Dinner was served at a table on the floor with lots of cushions. The food was delicious and plentiful and it was fun for us to have an authentic experience.

There was also a museum in the restaurant that had hundreds of pieces of history in it from this region. It is still fascinating to me that this area was largely comprised of tribal Bedouins until about 70 years ago when oil was discovered. My favorite thing that I have found from this area are the gorgeous, intricate silver wedding beads that the Bedouin women were given for dowries that were then used to purchase items for her family over her lifetime. Amazing!

Easter was just another work and school day for us so it was a little strange to think of our family and friends celebrating on that day. We were invited to participate in a community dinner and egg hunt that evening that made it a more special day and rounded out our weekend wonderfully. It was hot but we had a great time!