Girls Day

A while back all the girls in our group of friends decided we wanted to start having Girls Nights to get some time with each other without kids and allow our husbands the opportunity to take care of the kiddos for an evening, without us.  Initially, the idea all started because we were basically jealous that for a year and a half, our husbands get together and play basketball every Tuesday, thus leaving us with the kids, solo for an evening and we wanted to return the favor.  Then, we also realized how much of our time together during the days, is focused around kids and we never really have that alone time to  have uninterrupted adult conversations!  So, we officially started our girls nights, last week and it ended up being a girls day.  Two of the girls were out of town on vacations, so three of us, me, Steph, and Laura headed to Bahrain for the day.  We technically weren't without kids, but hey, we left Saudi and were gone for HOURS, so I don't really think it mattered whether kids were with us or not.  

Our morning started out driving to Bahrain and renting a car.  There was a Krispy Kreme donut shop next to the car rental place so we indulged ourselves.  By the time I took this picture, we had already devoured a few of the donuts.  At that moment, we decided to take pics documenting our day in Bahrain to show how much fun we were having.. Yea- we made it to lunch time taking pics and that was it.  Oh well.  

Laura got to hang in the back seat with the babies.   They were very well behaved so she didn't mind!  Very grateful to Steph for being willing to drive us around, even without the GPS that we left back home.

Pretty sure I haven't had a Krispy Kreme donut in months.  It was delicious!

Heidi D-- something about donuts always makes me think of you!!  

Once we got our car and ate breakfast on the road, we stopped off at a local frame shop and dropped off several pieces to get framed.  We then headed to find a home good store.  We knew the vicinity of the store and knew it was near a tire shop.  We found the vicinity and the tire shop and turned.  We quickly found ourselves on the far side of a huge open area that separated us from the home store.  What's a girl to do?  Follow other cars and drive across the huge open area to get to the store!  And, that's just what we did!    

After doing some shopping, we went to eat lunch.    This is one of the buildings we passed. You can't tell in the picture, but in the center of the building are three large propellers that swing and they were actually on that day.

We ate at a Japanese restaurant called Bushido's that some women recommended and it was awesome!  The place was clean, nice, and the food was delicious!  We ordered lots of yummy dishes and even got Steph to try some edamame.  I don't think she was impressed.

 

Look how neat the place was decorated!  I love how the little girls are looking at each other in this pic.

Even outside the restaurant was nice with a pond and beautiful scenery.  It's amazing how just crossing over water brings you to completely different country!

After lunch we hit up a REAL Toys R Us-- filled with real products-- Munchkin, Baby Koala, Fisher Price Brand stuff!  AMAZING!!  I'm pretty sure I even saw something that was Chico brand... I wanted to buy it just because it came from Target.  I found the boys some swim things we had been looking for and a few other random toys, even the game Hungry Hungry Hippos.  I'm telling you, it can be really hard to find things over in Saudi that you'd totally take for granted having in every store you'd go to in the USA.

Next, we went to a local mall and did some SERIOUS shopping.  Okay, so we only went for Marble Slab and Great American Cookie Company, but who cares.  Ice cream and cookies.. what more could you ask for?  We decided after indulging ourselves, we'd head back to our car and start making our way back to the rental car company so we'd have plenty of time to get ourselves situated for our 6pm pick up time.  Before leaving the mall, we ran to Gap and picked up a few things, so we did do some shopping at the mall.

Then, our adventure really began!  Ever since Bahrain had all the protests, lots of areas have been closed off, roads shut down, and police force seem to be all over.  Demonstrations still occur and we have red zones we're not allowed to travel in.  Because of all this, we thought we might have some difficulty getting back to our pick up spot.  And.... we did.  We thought we were being responsible, mature adults by leaving an hour before our pick up time, but that still didn't help us.  We got lost.  We got turned around.  We weren't allowed to drive in certain areas.  It was crazy and hectic.  After an hour and a half of driving and driving and driving AND literally ending right back in the SAME spot we started in, AND being late for our pick up time-- we had to call our CP Chem driver who was patiently waiting for us to come and get us.  Only problem was, he had to take us back to our original pick up spot so we could drop off our rental car, so we weren't even able to head back to Saudi at that point.  We did manage to drop off our car and stopped in a grocery store to look for some needed necessities that we can't find in the Kingdom, and then headed home!  We were extremely grateful for the bags of cookies we bought at GACC since they ended up being our dinner!  

We did have lots of laughs about this and we were all understanding about the issue!  It just made for a fun story to tell our husbands and something that will help keep our first Girls Day Out a memorable one!!  

Last Weekend Off

I can't explain enough how living here has caused us to go through many adjustments.  Some good.  Some not so good.  One of the areas that we've had to deal with and I have struggled with A LOT and don't always seem to come to terms with it is how much Brooks has to work.  For the project he's on and what they are doing, he along with all the other men here work ALL THE TIME.  For months, Brooks never had a weekend off.  Other months, he was given 2 days off.  Sometimes he couldn't come home until very late in the evening and most of the time he leaves the house around 4:30am.  I'll be honest and say that I hate it and sometimes I feel like I'm a single parent.  However, I know that Brooks' hates being away from us just as much and it's not his choosing to not see the kids or me days in a row.  He does make the best of it and when he is home with us.... he's here and ours and does THE BEST JOB being a dad and husband.  

Saying all of that.. when the opportuntiy comes up for Brooks to have two days off in a row, we want to maximize that time with him as much as we can.  So, two weeks ago, he was given his last 2 days off in a row as well as his last weekend off for the next few months (other then his 3 weeks of vacation this summer with us in the USA) so we scheduled a trip to Bahrain, again.  

We had a blast.  Our first day we went to an outdoor water park in Bahrain, called Lost Paradise.  The kids loved it.  We loved it.  There was a huge kiddie play area with big slides and little slides-- slides both Gavin and Miles could play on and enjoy!  We spent time on the lazy river riding floats and rafts and even used the time to help Gavin with his swimming while the water pushed him forward.  It was great!  Brooks and Gavin got to ride a really big slide and I was so shocked that Gavin wasn't scared and just went with it.  We spent most of the day at the water park.. the boys didn't get naps, but were busy playing and having fun it never bothered them at all.   

After the water park, we decided to go eat dinner before heading to our hotel, so we found a local mexican restaurant we heard had delicious food and enjoyed a crazy, fun dinner.  We ordered various dishes that were actually extremely close to tasting like mexican food we'd get in Texas! We LOVED it.  The kids were bouncing off the walls from the long day and not getting naps so we ate and ran!

We got settled into our room at The Gulf Hotel,  bathed the kids, and everyone was out by 9:00pm.

We woke up the next morning and decided to go eat at one of our favorite breakfast places, Ric's.  Can't say enough about the bacon!

We rented a car to help us get around and sadly, not all of our car seats would fit.  Gavin got to ride around like a big boy.

After breakfast, we got back in our bathing suits and spent the morning at our hotels swimming pool, that was complete with a kids play area, slides, and major waterfalls.  Once again, the kids had a ball and amazed us with their endless amounts of energy and never getting tired of swimming or sliding!

The hotel was GORGEOUS!!  Almost breathtaking outside.

After swimming and eating lunch at another favorite restaurant, a small French Cafe called Lilou's.  Outside the cafe, there was a parade of camels put on display each representing something different.  They were massive and decorated, painted with amazing images.  Gavin wanted to walk underneath one to see if he'd poop.  Random.  Haha.  

We spent the rest of our afternoon walking around, shopping at one of the malls.  We tried going to another movie, but couldn't find one that we wanted to the kids to see.  We did realize our double stroller could turn into a triple stroller in dire situations and it was AWESOME!!

Our weekend trip was wonderful and we loved getting to spend uninterrupted time together as a family and enjoying one another and getting to have some fun!!