A few weeks ago, Brooks and I were talking about how it's really sad that come next August, we will have lived in the Middle East for 2 years, and will have yet to take a real vacation (because of having babies). Don't get me wrong, we've been going on "vacations", but they've always been to the USA. We were fortunate last Fall to make 2 trips to Bahrain before not being allowed to travel to that country, so at least we've been having SOME fun!
For some reason, Brooks' boss was willing to let him take a 3 day weekend so we jumped on it! Within 5 days, we booked a hotel, plane tickets, and a few attractions (more on that in the next post) and were on our way. Thankfully, flights to Dubai were NO BIG DEAL so we left KSA around 7pm and arrived in Dubai around 11pm! Easy Peasy! The kids did AWESOME--- okay so we DID get a glimpse of what to expect with Miles being a lap baby when we fly home in November, but he wasn't THAT bad. We heard from a lot of people that you could find taxi's that held car seats in them, so we opted to NOT bring ours, and rely on what's provided in Dubai. It worked out leaving the airport. Miles got to sit facing forward for the first time, but poor baby, he was asleep within 5 minutes of the car ride to our hotel so I'm not too sure what he actually enjoyed seeing. Gavin lasted 10 minutes. They were both exhausted. I'm thinking by now it was almost midnight in our taxi. Brooks and I were mesmerized with all the sights and lights and how big everything was! We got a lady taxi (which are the ones with car seats) and we had the sweetest driver. She told us about every single place we passed and explained what everything was, gave suggestions on places to eat at, places to see, etc.
This was in the entry way, lobby area of our hotel. AMAZING. GORGEOUS. BEAUTIFUL.
Our first day in Dubai, we decided to stay at our hotel and enjoy all it had to offer. We wanted to relax, not be rushed, and do whatever we wanted without the pressure of having to be somewhere at a specific time. We slept late, ordered room service for breakfast, put on our bathing suits and went out to the water park. Before we made it to the water park, we got to pass the HUGE walls of the aquarium that's in our hotel and see all the creatures-- sharks, stingrays, and lots of fish. Gavin was in awe!!!
At the water park, we found the kiddie area and Gavin went to town. He and Brooks ran up and down this huge tower playing with every piece of equipment, gadget, and toy. If it was there, they did it.
After a while, we went and checked out the rest of the park and had some fun as a family rafting in the lazy river and even went down several rapids-- with Miles, which we later found out we weren't allowed on them with an infant. Brooks got to have some fun and did grown up rides. One of his rides actually went through a tunnel through the aquarium. The boys and I waited outside this area to watch for Brooks. When he finally came through Gavin could not understand what his Daddy was doing and was VERY worried that the sharks were going to get him. Can you see Brooks on the tube in the background?
Here's Brooks going down the BIG slide they had. He's just as big of a kid himself!
We went back to the kiddie zone and let the boys play some more. It was HOT outside. We had to stay in the water a majority of the time. Gavin was such a big boy playing with everything and going down the slides by himself! Miles had fun crawling in the water.
After a long nap and showers, we got dinner at one of the restaurants inside the Atlantis. It was really cool. It was buffet style, but every section was a different nationality of food. You could choose ANYTHING. It made our dinner very easy and everyone was pleased! Gavin even found gummy bears on the dessert table. Brooks got to get a massage after our dinner, which he was ecstatic about. Too bad they didn't have anyone to do prenatal massages. Oh well.
The Atlantis had an aquarium called the Lost Chambers inside and we had unlimited, free access to it, anytime we wanted. We visited it several times and it was really neat watching ALL the different animals, even at different parts of the day. One time, there were divers cleaning the aquariums, so that fascinated Gavin to see people inside with the sharks. The aquarium had some cool architecture pieces throughout the exhibit and Gavin had to sit on them all. One of Gavin's favorite parts of the aquarium was seeing the jelly fish. He was so intrigued by them.
We had a blast at our hotel and were so thankful that we stayed at the Atlantis and took in the water park, aquarium, and restaurants. The next time we go, which, yes, we want to go back-- we're planning on doing the dolphin cove and the beach area.
So, I'm just putting these pictures in here to give you an idea of what our traveling was like day to day. Okay, so don't judge us, but when we couldn't find lady taxi's, which, sadly, was quite often, we had to let Gavin sit between us buckled in a seat belt, while Brooks always wore Miles strapped to him with the baby carrier. We simply said a prayer every time for the Lord to protect us and HE did!
For some reason, Brooks' boss was willing to let him take a 3 day weekend so we jumped on it! Within 5 days, we booked a hotel, plane tickets, and a few attractions (more on that in the next post) and were on our way. Thankfully, flights to Dubai were NO BIG DEAL so we left KSA around 7pm and arrived in Dubai around 11pm! Easy Peasy! The kids did AWESOME--- okay so we DID get a glimpse of what to expect with Miles being a lap baby when we fly home in November, but he wasn't THAT bad. We heard from a lot of people that you could find taxi's that held car seats in them, so we opted to NOT bring ours, and rely on what's provided in Dubai. It worked out leaving the airport. Miles got to sit facing forward for the first time, but poor baby, he was asleep within 5 minutes of the car ride to our hotel so I'm not too sure what he actually enjoyed seeing. Gavin lasted 10 minutes. They were both exhausted. I'm thinking by now it was almost midnight in our taxi. Brooks and I were mesmerized with all the sights and lights and how big everything was! We got a lady taxi (which are the ones with car seats) and we had the sweetest driver. She told us about every single place we passed and explained what everything was, gave suggestions on places to eat at, places to see, etc. We stayed here. At the Atlantis. It was breathe taking. Brooks and I were so glad we booked our stay at this hotel. It was VERY kid friendly, with water parks, indoor aquariums, shopping stores, restaurants and more. We basically could have stayed at the Atlantis the entire trip and would have been enjoyed every moment.
Although, by the time we made it to our hotel room, it was almost 1am and everyone felt like this... except for Miles (can you see his head peaking over the bed?) Gavin was passed out in the stroller- you know he's tired if he slept in the stroller. Pretty sure he hasn't done that since he was Miles age.
This was in the entry way, lobby area of our hotel. AMAZING. GORGEOUS. BEAUTIFUL.
Our first day in Dubai, we decided to stay at our hotel and enjoy all it had to offer. We wanted to relax, not be rushed, and do whatever we wanted without the pressure of having to be somewhere at a specific time. We slept late, ordered room service for breakfast, put on our bathing suits and went out to the water park. Before we made it to the water park, we got to pass the HUGE walls of the aquarium that's in our hotel and see all the creatures-- sharks, stingrays, and lots of fish. Gavin was in awe!!!At the water park, we found the kiddie area and Gavin went to town. He and Brooks ran up and down this huge tower playing with every piece of equipment, gadget, and toy. If it was there, they did it.
Here's Brooks going down the BIG slide they had. He's just as big of a kid himself!
We went back to the kiddie zone and let the boys play some more. It was HOT outside. We had to stay in the water a majority of the time. Gavin was such a big boy playing with everything and going down the slides by himself! Miles had fun crawling in the water.
We grabbed lunch at one of the water park's restaurants so we wouldn't have to get out of our bathing suits. As soon as we finished eating, we went right back to playing in the water!
After a long nap and showers, we got dinner at one of the restaurants inside the Atlantis. It was really cool. It was buffet style, but every section was a different nationality of food. You could choose ANYTHING. It made our dinner very easy and everyone was pleased! Gavin even found gummy bears on the dessert table. Brooks got to get a massage after our dinner, which he was ecstatic about. Too bad they didn't have anyone to do prenatal massages. Oh well.
The Atlantis had an aquarium called the Lost Chambers inside and we had unlimited, free access to it, anytime we wanted. We visited it several times and it was really neat watching ALL the different animals, even at different parts of the day. One time, there were divers cleaning the aquariums, so that fascinated Gavin to see people inside with the sharks. The aquarium had some cool architecture pieces throughout the exhibit and Gavin had to sit on them all. One of Gavin's favorite parts of the aquarium was seeing the jelly fish. He was so intrigued by them.
We had a blast at our hotel and were so thankful that we stayed at the Atlantis and took in the water park, aquarium, and restaurants. The next time we go, which, yes, we want to go back-- we're planning on doing the dolphin cove and the beach area.
So, I'm just putting these pictures in here to give you an idea of what our traveling was like day to day. Okay, so don't judge us, but when we couldn't find lady taxi's, which, sadly, was quite often, we had to let Gavin sit between us buckled in a seat belt, while Brooks always wore Miles strapped to him with the baby carrier. We simply said a prayer every time for the Lord to protect us and HE did!
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